IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL AUGUSTUS SAINT G A I ' I) I N S IN MEMOR1AM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL ROBERT W. DE FOREST JOSEPH H. CHOATE WILLIAM R. STEWART FELIX ADLER JAMES O. S. HUNTINGTON JACOB A. RIIS SETH LOW RICHARD WATSON GILDER EDWARD T. DEVINE MAUD NATHAN JOHN B. DEVINS AND MANY OTHERS THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK M C M V I REPRINTED IN PART FROM "CHARITIES AND THE COMMONS' DECEMBER 2, 1905 THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK CONTENTS BAS-RELIEF. AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS Frontispiece BIOGRAPHICAL vn THE MEMORIAL MEETING Addresses by Robert W. de Forest .... 3 Felix Adler 7 Father Huntington . . . .11 William Rhinelander Stewart . . .15 Joseph H. Choate 26 Jacob A. Riis 34 Seth Low 38 OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS 41 Mrs. Lowell's Services to the State. Edward T. Devine 43 Mrs. Lowell and the unemployed Organizing the East Side Relief Work Committee. John Bancroft Devins . . . . 52 Mrs. Lowell and The Consumers' League. Maud Nathan 59 Mrs. Lowell and The New York Charity Or- ganization Society 63 [v] M187139 CONTENTS MEMORIAL VERSE 69 A Woman of Sorrows. Richard Watson Gilder 71 The Service Tree. John Finley . . -73 A City's Saint. Joseph Dana Miller . . 74 In Memoriam. Mary Lowe Dickinson . . 76 FROM MANY SOURCES 77 TYPICAL SELECTIONS FROM MRS. LOWELL'S OFFICIAL REPORTS AND WRITINGS . . 95 PARTIAL LIST OF MRS. LOWELL'S WRITINGS 99 [vi] BIOGRAPHICAL IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL BIOGRAPHICAL T OSEPHINE SHAW was born at West Roxbury, Massachusetts, December 16, 1843. Her father was Francis George Shaw who gave to his J daughter an inheritance of character, some con- ception of which may be gathered from Mr. Choate's address at the memorial meeting. From seven to twelve years of age, with her parents, brother and three sisters, she lived in Europe, attending school at Paris and in a convent at Rome, and gaining a mas- tery of French, Italian and German. After her re- turn she was in school one year in New York and one year in Boston. She was married to Charles Russell Lowell at her father's home on Staten Island, on October 31, 1863. On October 19, 1864, almost exactly one year after their marriage, her husband, while serving under General Sheridan, was killed at the battle of Cedar Creek. Mrs. Lowell's brother, Robert Gould Shaw, organized the first Negro regiment, the Fifty- fourth Massachusetts, and was killed while leading them in the assault on Fort Wagner. A bas-relief, by St. Gaudens, on Boston Common, appropriately commemorates this notable incident of the war, and the same artist's relief portrait of Mrs. Lowell is reproduced as the frontispiece of this volume through the kindness of her daughter. Mrs. Lowell's death occurred at her home in New York City on October 12, 1905. The funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Huntington, of Grace Church, and her [ix] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL mortal remains were interred by the side of her husband in Mount Auburn Cemetery. The addresses at the memorial meeting, held in the United Charities Building, the evening of Novem- ber 13, 1905, together with the accompanying con- tributions, dwell at length, but by no means exhaus- tively, on the more considerable events of her life. Robert W. de Forest was chairman of the meeting, and the speakers included Dr. Felix Adler, leader of the Society for Ethical Culture; the Rev. J. O. S. Huntington, Jacob A. Riis, Joseph H. Choate, former ambassador to England, and Seth Low, former mayor of New York. On motion of Mr. Low, seconded by Richard Watson Gilder, it was decided by unanimous vote of those present that a committee be appointed to establish a memorial to Mrs. Lowell. Various suggestions have been made as to the form of this memorial. In pursuance of the resolution adopted, the fol- lowing committee was appointed : HON. SETH Low, CHAIRMAN THOMAS M. MULRY B. OGDEN CHISOLM, SECRETARY MRS. FREDERICK NATHAN HERBERT ADAMS E. W. ORDWAY PROF. FELIX ADLER JAMES K. PAULDING OTTO T. BANNARD GEORGE FOSTER PEA BODY JOSEPH BARONDESS RIGHT REV. HENRY C. CHARLES C. BURLINGHAM POTTER, D.D. NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, MRS. JOSEPH M. PRICE Miss MARGARET L. CHANLER J. HAMPDEN ROBB R. FULTON CUTTING AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS ROBERT W. DE FOREST MRS. WILLIAM H. SCHIEFFELIN REV. W. T. ELSING JACOB H. SCHIFF R. W. GILDER HON. CARL SCHURZ * EDWARD C. HENDERSON Miss LOUISA L. SCHUYLER REV. J. O. S. HUNTINGTON JAMES SPEYER REV. WM. R. HUNTINGTON, D.D. HON. WM. R. STEWART Miss ANNIE B. JENNINGS J. G. PHELPS STOKES MRS. FREDERIC S. LEE Miss LILLIAN D. WALD HON. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN Miss ELIZABETH S. WILLIAMS * Since deceased. THE MEMORIAL MEETING NOVEMBER 13, 1905 UNITED CHARITIES BUILDING NEW YORK IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL ROBERT W. DE FOREST WE have met to-night in memory of a noble woman a woman whom we all honor for what she did and whom we all love for what she was. I know of no one of the present generation in our city and state who has been a more potent force for social uplift than iosephine Shaw Lowell. I know of no one who as been so beloved and whose memory will be so tenderly cherished by " all sorts and conditions of men." Whatever inequalities there be among those who are assembled here whether of station, or learning or opportunity we are here on an equal plane of friendship for her; man to man, and woman to woman. Mrs. Lowell's activities for her fellow men cover the whole range of humanitarian effort. The Charity Organization Society, of which she was the founder and whose councils she guided for more than twenty-three years, the State Chari- ties Aid Association, of which she became an active member in 1873, the State Board of Charities, of which she was the first woman member, appointed by Governor Tilden in 1876, the Outdoor Recre- ation League, are only a few of the organizations with which she has been connected on the more strictly charitable side. On the more political side IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL of this effort are the Civil Service Reform Associ- ation, the Woman's Municipal League, the Consum- ers' League, the Philippine Progress Association and many others. Among the many movements with which she has been identified, and in which she bore a leading part, are the separation of charities and corrections, state reformatories for women, state custodial care for adult idiots, state asylums for feeble-minded women and girls of child-bearing age, the abolition of police lodgings in New York and the establishment of municipal lodging-houses for men, opposition to institutionalism in the care of dependent children, placing matrons in all police-stations, relief by work during the stress winter of 180,4, industrial conciliation, suppression of the social evil, and almost every phase of the Philippine question. I know of more than forty published books or papers on these and kindred subjects which she has written. But the enumeration of every organization or movement in which she took part usually the leading part and a complete list of everything she ever wrote, would give no adequate measure of the part she has played in social progress during the past forty years. It was hers not merely to do but to inspire others to do. She was pre-eminently a quickening spirit. She breathed the breath of life into others. She was a spur frequently an uncomfortably pricking spur to the laggard. She was a standard-bearer, always an inspiring standard-bearer to those who tried to lead. Mrs. Lowell was every inch a woman. Unlike most woman who have sought to be, or who have [4] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL been, actors in public affairs, she never for one instant yielded a particle of her woman's charm or of her woman's tenderness. With the strength and courage of a man, she never hesitated to strike, and strike hard when duty called to strike, but her woman's gentle touch bound up the wounds and the blow left no sting behind. What must it have been to her hero husband to have the love of such a woman, even for a few short months! Those who have known her in later years have caught some penumbra of that greater light. It would have been a privilege for some of us to have placed ourselves among the poor and lowly, so that we might go to her as they could do, and thus gain for ourselves a brighter ray. In her dealings with others Mrs. Lowell was absolutely sincere. She spoke out all she thought. She held back nothing of the truth as she saw it. No consideration of policy ever weighed with her she would have thought policy inconsistent with truthfulness. Herein was one of the greatest charms of intercourse with her. Herein, perhaps, was her greatest source of strength. How she could be affected by any course of action on her part never entered her mind. She was absolutely unselfish. Those of us who have, perhaps, successfully resisted the temptation of selfishness can claim a merit to which she never attained, for she was incapable of being so tempted. Had Mrs. Lowell lived in mediaeval times she would long since have been canonized as a saint. Had she lived at a still earlier period in our Christ- ian era she would have been among the martyrs. But, living as she did in our times, she suffered IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL more than forty years ago the cruelest martyrdom that could ever befall a wife and sister, and whether because of that martyrdom, or rather, as I think, in spite of it, because she was herself, she has for all these succeeding years emanated that intense sympathy for all human kind, and particularly for all human kind that needs and suffers, which ancient art, for want of better vehicle, has pictured with the halo. [6] IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL FELIX ADLER WE meet together to-night as those who have suffered a common bereavement. I believe that if it had been deemed wise to select the Cooper Institute for this meeting, the Cooper Institute would have been filled to overflowing. The first citizens of the state and the laboring people would there have united in pay- ing homage to the memory of Mrs. Lowell. It seems almost incredible that she has gone from us. But a few months ago she took counsel with us, and was actively interested in all reform move- ments. We had no warning of the peril. Of a sudden she has disappeared from our mortal view, and our coming together here to-night is the first opportunity that many of us have to exchange comments and to jointly express our feelings about what we have lost. I can only say that the city of New York seems to me to be a less noble city to live in, now that I can no longer associate it with the presence of this noble woman. If I may be permitted to say so, I have much the same feeling about her that I had about Mr. Baldwin. The city we live in is not, after all, a city of houses and streets; but the city means for us the women and men who live in it, the ideals that exist in it, the touch of nobility we [7] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL experience in it; and when such a person as Mrs. Lowell goes, the city is so far depreciated for us. And yet it seems to me that the very object of this meeting is that this shall not be the case; and that while she is withdrawn from our earthly walks and sight, we shall continue to sanctify the city by a permanent memorial of her; and above all by having a care that the value of her life shall not be lost for us, by making sure that the memorial, at all events, shall be erected in our individual spirits. I do not think that we meet here to-day to do her honor, she is past receiving honor at our hands; we come here to do something for ourselves, not for her; to see to it that the advantage and profit of that life shall not be lost for us. I think we can do that best and in the simplest way by each of us taking thought, and quietly and with a holy feeling look- ing up to her as if she were present with us at this moment, and fixing in our minds the lineaments of her spiritual self. It seems to me that of the living we have but inadequate portraits. We see them at different times, in different relations, in different aspects; but perhaps we never have the mental quiet and occasion to combine these portraits, to combine them as the artist would, and to fashion a portrait true to the character. It seems to me that the advantage and purpose of a memorial meeting is that we shall add this portrait to our mental picture gallery. Each of us on the platform will endeavor to contribute something to the fashioning of that portrait; and then we shall take it with us and keep it in holy memory and consider it in quiet moments, and think of her as she was to us. I have always had a reverential feeling toward [8] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Mrs. Lowell. It seemed to me that I never ap- proached her without hearing the words, "Take of? the shoes from thy feet, for the ground thou ap- proachest is holy ground." Whether it was the unconscious idealizing influence of that sorrow of which she never spoke, or whether it was some- thing else her charm, her sweet dignity, her simplic- ity, the sense of close human relations with the poorest and humblest human beings, and at the same time a sense of elevation above the strongest and most capable of those who approached her whatever may have been the secret of the influence, it was above all the personality which counted. And if I am to express in a few words what in particular seemed to me the peculiar nature of her life, apart from this indefinable and unanalyzable sense of a lofty personality, so near as to be near the lowliest and so high and strong as to be above the strongest and most competent, I should say it was in her case the effect of the harmony of opposites. She was an idealist of the purest kind. And yet she was always the most practical of realists. The partial list which Mr. de Forest has read to us is evidence of that practical realism, that strong common sense and sagacity which distinguished her in every movement in which she took part. She was a harmonizer of the ideal and the realistic. She was a harmonizer of opposites. She was an intense enthusiast for certain causes. Above all, she dwelt with motherly sympathy with the mother- hood that embraces all mankind, she dwelt upon the sufferings and the miseries of the world. But more than by the sufferings and the miseries of the world was she touched by its wrongs. It was injustice in any form that called out her keenest IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL feeling. It was this that made her for so long a time, with but a few others, the only support of the movement in this country for justice to the Filipino people. And yet, despite her capacity for right- eous indignation, she was never one-sided. I could not say at this moment, truthfully, that she was on the side of the Filipinos, that she took the side of the Filipinos; nor could I say truthfully that she took the side of the laboring people, for the reason that she also felt so genuinely and intensely how cruel the oppressor is to himself. If ever any- one loved the wrongdoer it was Mrs. Lowell when she protested against his wrongdoing. Longfellow has shown us in one of his poems how Florence Nightingale visited the beds of the sick at Scutari, and how they loved her for coming to them, and how they thought of her as the Lady of the Lamp. I think of Mrs. Lowell also as the Lady of the Lamp. Mr. de Forest said that many envied the poor for the ray she cast into their life; may I add that no one had need to be poor to have the blessed touch of that ray. Among many others, I am here to-night to ex- press gratitude for the ray she cast into my life, the ray of a true, spiritual presence, of fine Ameri- can womanhood, and of noble humanity. She was the Lady of the Lamp for many of us. She carried aloft the lamp of hope and of pity and of a beautiful faith in us all, in all humanity. o] IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL FATHER HUNTINGTON IT was my great privilege to know Mrs. Lowell, and I should have been grateful for an oppor- tunity to speak out of the fulness of my own appreciation of her character. But in this instance I speak not only for myself, but for a large number of other persons who cannot otherwise express themselves; persons who I am sure feel a very deep affection and love for Mrs. Lowell, and who would fain find some utterance in this meeting gathered in her honor and praise; and then, too, I take the place of one who would be far better fitted to speak of Mrs. Lowell's place in the industrial world, and above all in the ranks of the wage-working women Mrs. Kelley. Memory goes back at once to what she was to a large boay of young women in this city in the feather workers' strike; and when I speak that word, I speak a word that rings of contention, of oppos- ing interests, and perhaps of violent antagonism; a word that is likely to be felt as a hostile word by some people who are here. And yet I must say, quite frankly, that I have never been able to under- stand how the moral side of a strike perhaps its moral greatness can be so ignored by generous men and women. [ ii 1 IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Consider what it means. However mistaken men or women may be, however foolish their effort, is there not something magnificent in seeing those who have work and are supporting their families, giving up their chance of earning a living, surrendering their positions, and beggaring themselves, in the hope of securing for those who are less fortunate, those who have no employment, or those who are poorly paid more poorly paid than themselves of securing for them fairer treatment and juster pay ? Any student of sociology knows that strikes begin with the best paid workmen; and yet these often know quite well that they will receive no real sup- port from their fellow workers, for whom they strug- gle; that for any hardship they endure they will re- ceive no sympathy from those in whose interests they enter upon what is often a desperate and hope- less endeavor. And yet that has been done in strike after strike. In the beginning of a hard winter, in the face of hard times, men and women have given up the chance of earning money, have struggled on in poverty and hunger because they had a principle at stake. Is there not something commendable something ad- mirable in that ? Make what criticism you will upon their ignorance and their methods, there is moral force there that comes out in almost every such struggle. How is it that those whose hearts thrill at the high examples of heroic endeavor of the past, cannot see the beauty of this self-sacrifice in these men and these women of their own times ? Mrs. Lowell did see this, and she acted accord- ingly. She was as quick as any one to see the futil- ity of many of the efforts of working people and the [ 12] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL ignorance that exists among them; but she saw deeper than that, and felt intense sympathy with that which was noble and 'true in the hard struggle. So she came forward in this strike of the feather workers as naturally and simply as she took her part in other efforts and movements. She did not offer patronage; that word is inconsistent with our memory of her. She did not come playing the part of Lady Bountiful, that half-pathetic, half-romantic figure. She came in her own natural way. She did not attempt to lay aside the advantages of the po- sition that belonged to her; she did not try to trans- port herself into their conditions; there was nothing unreal or unnatural in her or her work. She came to the work with her clear intellect and her generous heart; and how she did put strength into those who were working under almost desperate odds; how she lifted up the cause; how she saw the amusing and the humorous side of affairs; how she would point it out, while feeling at the same time the pathos and the tragedy; and how, with the buoyancy of her life, she carried all along with her! Later on I remember meeting her during the gar- ment cutters' strike, that strike where all parties wanted the result aimed at, and where the sem- blance of battle was kept up only in order to bring advantage to all concerned. I remember how dur- ing those times she told me of meeting a boy on Sun- day with a big bundle of garments over his shoulders, and asking him, "Is your father going to strike?" And his reply, "Yep, Pop's going to strike so the bosses can give us better wages." It was her own personality, her going from place to place and hold- ing the men steady when their children were crying with hunger, that carried the strike through, to the [ 13] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL immense relief of manufacturer, sweater and sweated alike. And in the different phases of her activity of one form or another in connection with the industrial situation, she never arrayed herself on one side as against the other. It was most characteristic in this strike of the garment cutters that every one of the three parties to it came to her, expecting her to sympathize with them, as she did. She saw the situation from every point of view, and was able to weld into one those various elements which brought success. That is all I can say. It will suggest something of what her presence meant, of hope, light and joy. I never met her but I had a better hope for the Re- public. I felt this was a better world because of having her sympathy, because of her friendship, and because of what she was. IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL WILLIAM RHINELANDER STEWART YOU have asked me to say a few words respect- ing Mrs. Lowell's work as a commissioner of the State Board of Charities, and I gladly comply with your request. Mrs. Lowell was appointed to membership on the board by Governor Tilden in 1876, and was the board's first woman commissioner. When she took her seat on June 8th of that year, the board of eleven members was presided over by John V. L. Pruyn of Albany, then also chancellor of the University. With him in welcoming the new commissioner were Theodore Roosevelt, father of our president, and Henry L. Hoguet, of New York city, A. A. Low of Brooklyn, Martin B. Anderson of Rochester, and William P. Letchworth of Buffalo, of whom only the venerable Mr. Letchworth now survives. What a pleasure it must have been to Mrs. Lowell to work in such company! Mrs. Lowell was soon assigned to her full share of service and forthwith took a leading position in the board. All of Mrs. Lowell's work was extremely practical and aimed at securing im- mediate results. She at once began a series of inspections to inform herself of the condition and needs of the state insti- tutions to which her committee assignments sent her, and of the public charities of New York city. IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Early in 1877, Mrs. Lowell was appointed a mem- ber of a special committee of three to inquire into the affairs of the New York Juvenile Guardian So- ciety, a private charity of New York city, in the management of which abuses were found to exist. The committee inspected the buildings of the so- ciety and subsequently subpoenaed its officers and others to appear and give testimony. Some at- tended and were examined. The officers thereupon objected to the examination, denied the right of the committee to subpoena witnesses, demanded that specific charges be made, and claimed the right of appearing by counsel and cross-examining witnesses. The committee over-ruled these objections, contin- ued the investigation, and reported the testimony and the facts to the board on March 7, 1877. The society then brought an action against the committee in the court of common pleas, requesting the court by injunction to restrain the committee from pub- lishing their report, and from holding any investiga- tion of the affairs of the society, unless it could appear by counsel and cross-examine. The matter came up before Charles P. Daly, chief justice, June 15, 1877. Francis C. Barlow, brother-in-law of Mrs. Lowell, and doubtless brought into the case by her influence, appeared for the com- mittee. Chief Justice Daly delivered an elaborate opinion, fully sustaining the position of the com- mittee. Mrs. Lowell's personal efforts no doubt con- tributed largely to this important result. In the fall of 1877, she joined with commissioners Roosevelt and Donnelly in a strong report to Mayor Smith Ely calling his attention to the need of the public charities of this city for larger appropriations and better management, and this was followed by [ 16] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL a similar appeal to the Board of Estimate and Ap- portionment. In December, 1877, Mrs. Lowell joined with Mr. Roosevelt in calling the attention of the mayor and Board of Estimate and Apportionment to the over- crowded conditions of the asylums for the insane, then subject to the visitation and inspection of the board, and in recommending the establishment of a new asylum for the chronic insane and the en- actment of a law to authorize the city to acquire land outside the city limits for a new insane asylum. The movement thus begun was persevered in by Mrs. Lowell and others with successive mayors ana boards, until, under the presidency of Mr. Letch- worth, who, although residing near Buffalo, had given his earnest and intelligent support, the Board of Estimate and apportionment of 1883 inserted an item of $25,000 for the purchase of a farm for the chronic insane. Thus was established what is now the Central Islip State Hospital, at Central Islip, Long Island, which on the 8th of this month reported a census of 3,5 52 inmates. The inspections which Mrs. Lowell made shortly after she became a commissioner of the State Board of Charities, of the city and county institutions where, among other public dependents, many young women, either feeble-minded or delinquents, were received and cared for, convinced her of the need of more specialized care and better supervision than they were then receiving in those institutions. After consideration of the problem, she began a cam- paign for the removal from these institutions of all such women. The board through a special com- mittee, of which Mrs. Lowell was chairman, labored to secure from the legislature an appropriation for IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL the establishment of a custodial asylum for the feeble-minded women of this class. At a meeting of the board, held on June 13, 1878, Mrs. Lowell sub- mitted a report which stated that the efforts to se- cure an appropriation from the legislature for this had been successful, and that an appropriation of $18,000 had been made. With this appropriation, which was placed at the disposal of the board of managers of the institution, then known as the State Idiot Asylum at Syracuse, the society for the custodial care of feeble-minded women was opened at Newark, in Wayne County, and the work begun. Mrs. Lowell continued her active interest in state supervision for the care of women of this class, and after several years of work had the satisfaction of aiding in the passage of Chapter 281 of the Laws of 1885, which incorporated as a separate state insti- tution "The Asylum established by the State Board of Charities at Newark, Wayne County, for Feeble- minded Women/' By this initiative of Mrs. Lowell, there was begun what is now the great State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women, at Newark, which performs a most useful and important work for its unfor- tunate inmates and for the people of this state. It now has an inmate population of nearly six hun- dred, and should in the relatively near future give protection to at least a thousand feeble-minded women. When Mrs. Lowell became a member of the board there was no reformatory for women in the state. Unfortunate or vicious young women were found in large numbers in the county poorhouses, county jails and penitentiaries. The conditions in these [ 18] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL institutions were not such as to provide these young women with the training and discipline necessary to their reformation. Mrs. Lowell, continuing her ef- forts, presented the following resolution at a meeting of the board held in March, 1881, which was unani- mously adopted: Resolved, That the State Board of Charities recommend that the legislature establish an institution for the custody and discipline of vagrant and disorderly women under the charge of officers of their own sex. Thereupon, under Mrs. Lowell's active and persistent leadership, began the movement which led to the establishment in 1881 of the House of Refuge for Women at Hudson, now the New York State Training School for Girls. The usefulness of this institution was soon demonstrated, and later Mrs. Lowell although not then a member of the State Board was active in the support of measures and legislation which afterwards led to the establish- ment by the state of the Western House of Refuge for Women at Albion, and the New York State Re- formatory for Women at Bedford. Of the board of managers of this latter institution, Mrs. Lowell was for several years an active member. We have thus seen that to Mrs. Lowell, more than to anyone else, is due the establishment of the state custodial asylum for feeble-minded women and of the reformatories for women in this state. These are her enduring monuments. In 1 88^ charges were made to the state board alleging irregularities and mismanagement of the New York Infant Asylum, then, as now, an im- portant institution for the care of children in this city, receiving large sums of public money. The [ 19] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL charges were brought by Theodore Roosevelt, now President of the United States, and Theodore Kane Gibbs, managers of the institution, after unsuccessful attempts on their part to bring about in their board the reforms they thought necessary. The state board thereupon appointed a special committee, under my chairmanship, of which Mrs. Lowell and General John J. Milhau, since dead, were the other members. This was my first ser- vice on an important special committee with Mrs. Lowell. The committee held sixteen sessions and examined many witnesses, among them Theodore Roosevelt, who earnestly advocated the reforms he had urged in his own board. This investigation, in view of the importance of the institution and the nature of the controversy in the board, which comprised many prominent cit- izens, excited public interest and was the subject of much newspaper comment. Mrs. Lowell was a member of the committee and was helpful in fram- ing the unanimous report. This was adopted by the board and later led to all the reforms sought. The committee found, among other things, that the funds of the institution had been deposited for many years with a dry-goods firm of this city, of which the then treasurer of the institution was the leading partner; an objectionable, but not at that time an illegal practice. Following the adoption of the report by the board, and at its request, a bill was introduced in the legislature, which was en- acted as Chapter 415, Laws of 1884. This provided that all charitable institutions in the state, supported in whole or in part by public money, shall keep all funds paid them in the name of the institution on deposit in a trust company or national or state bank, [20] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL and that the managers of the institutions shall des- ignate by resolution such depository. It is exceedingly interesting, in the light of the history of this country for the last twenty-two years, to read the concluding paragraph of the committee's report : "Your committee is of the opinion that Messrs. Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Kane Gibbs, in calling the attention of the State Board of Chari- ties to the mismanagement of the New York Infant Asylum, have performed a public duty." Among the many encomiums which our presi- dent has received since he began his public career, not the least is the approval thus given by Mrs. Lowell. She was quick to appreciate his cour- ageous action as a minority manager in calling the attention of the state board to acts of the majority of his board, after he had made unavailing attempts to secure reforms which he thought the welfare of the inmates and of the public required. In 1886, Mrs. Lowell presented to the board a very useful and comprehensive Report on the Insti- tutions for the Care of Destitute Children of the City of New York. The report opened with a history of the legislation afTecting children, included care- fully prepared statistical tables of the twenty-nine children's institutions then carrying on their work, and gave notes of her inspections of each of these, of seven county branches and of two other insti- tutions not tabulated, in all, thirty-eight insti- tutions. This report, which contains many suggest- ions of great value, is an example of Mrs. Lowell's industry and the thorough manner in which she did all her work. Her most important recommendation was for the creation of a new department for the [21 ] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL care of dependent children in the city of New York, to be administered by the commissioner for depend- ent children of the city of New York, to whom all authority concerning the care, custody and dispo- sition of the dependent, pauper and vagrant child- ren of the city of New York was to be given. Mrs. Lowell gave strong reasons for this proposed change in the law, and it still receives the serious considera- tion of those interested in this field of philanthropy. Reference has been made to a few only of the many special services of Mrs. Lowell as a member of the state board. She was one of the most active, useful and influential commissioners we have had in the forty years' history of the board, and she represented the women of the state at its council as no other woman could. The reports of the board contain many valuable papers from her pen if brought together they would make a large volume. From Brooklyn to Buffalo she was known and recognized as a unique and invaluable philanthro- pist. At the expiration in 1889 of her term of eight years, she was not reappomted by the then governor, who had no standard by which to measure the value of such public services as hers. Her self- respect would not allow her to remain a member of the board as a hold-over, and after waiting a reason- able time for a commission to continue her work which never came she withdrew finally from the board. The records show that her last attendance at a meeting was December 12, 1889. Her services had thus covered a period of thirteen and a half years. In 1892, Governor Flower reappointed Mrs. Lowell to the state board, and her former colleagues strongly urged her to resume her work as a com- [22] IN MEMORIAM: JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL missioner. But, in the interim of three years, she had taken up and become deeply interested in work for social betterment in this city and could not be persuaded to lay it down. Had she been reappointed in 1889, there is reason to believe that Mrs. Lowell would have continued a member of the board to the end. Such is the brief review of Mrs. Lowell's im- portant work as a commissioner of the State Board of Charities. Time will not permit me to dwell, as I would wish, upon her personal character and her methods of work. My acquaintance with Mrs. Lowell was begun by the receipt of this letter from her, written on the day Governor Cornell commissioned me to the state board: STATE OF NEW YORK. THE STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES. 120 East Thirtieth Street, May 31, 1882. DEAR SIR : I see that the governor has nominated you as a member of our board, and I hope the nomination will be con- firmed. I shall be very glad to give you any information in my power in regard to the duties of the office, and meanwhile I enclose the constitution, etc., of the Charity Organization Society, of which you are an ex officio member, and in which I hope you may take an interest. Truly yours, JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL. (Mrs. C. R. Lowell.) My recollection is that through this letter was received the first intimation of my appointment. This illustrates her alertness, courtesy, and the attention she invariably gave to her public duties. [23] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL ^immediately called upon Mrs. Lowell, and thus began an acquaintance which ripened into a friend- ship which continued without interruption until the end of her life. In looking over Mrs. Lowell's letters I found one, written in 1883, which is so in- dicative of the clear and logical workings of her mind that I desire to read a part of it also: MY DEAR MR. STEWART : Will you allow me, as an older member of the board than yourself, to make one or two sug- gestions in regard to the investigation you are about to under- take, or rather in regard to the general question of investi- gations of private charities ? I think it quite important that we should always adopt, and keep to, the position that no society has a right to demand an investigation, and that we never undertake one for the purpose of clearing a society that has been attacked. That is their own office. We undertake investigations when we consider them necessary to protect helpless persons from injury or the public from fraud. This is what we have always asserted, and we even went so far as to refuse to investigate (except in a very superficial manner) charges made against so important an institution as the Juvenile Asylum, on the ground that we could not spend the time and the money of the state on an inquiry which was not necessary to prevent injury to the inmates or the public. Of course, the trustees were indignant, but we maintained our position. You will see that if we were to place ourselves at the call of any society that was attacked, we might spend all our time in defending the good name of one or another. It seems to me very desirable to explain this to the persons composing the Medical Aid Society, showing them that it was because the charge of fraud was serious, and not because they demanded it, that the board appointed a committee to make the inquiry. In my opinion few practicing lawyers could have written so wise, clear and concise a letter. Among Mrs. Lowell's characteristics which im- [24] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL pressed me most strongly were her promptness, constant cheerfulness, dauntless courage, and tire- less industry in her work. She was always sincere and direct, and no one could doubt for a moment the position she took on any subject. These quali- ties and her total absence of self-consciousness account in large measure for the wonderful success of her work. The world will miss Mrs. Lowell, for good men and good women are needed on every hand to carry on its work. This state will miss her. This city will miss her; but we who knew her best will miss her most of all. [25] IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL JOSEPH H. CHOATE IF you should ask me to sum up in one word the life and character of Mrs. Lowell, I should call it "Consecration." Other wo- men who have done and suffered much less than she did, have been canonized; but she was consecrated to a glorious and tender memory, consecrated to duty, consecrated to charity in its largest and noblest sense the effort to do all in her power for the relief and help of her fellow men and women. I fully concur in every word of praise and eulogy that has been pronounced upon Mrs. Lowell. Her wonderful traits, her force of character, her nobility and courage and hope and love of justice, have been portrayed; and those who have shared in her labors have told you by what noble acts she illustrated these great virtues. So it would hardly be in my power to add anything to what has been so justly said of her. And yet there is one thought that has occurred to me, and that is that for a full apprecia- tion of her wonderful character, to realize how deep- seated her patriotism was, how ineradicable her love of justice, how absolute her devotion to the interests of her fellow men and women, it is worth while to trace for a moment the growth of this [26] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL splendid character, and the influences that operated to develop her whole-souled and generous humanity. I think it is very largely to her father and her hus- band that we should look for a certain inspiration that guided her subsequent steps. You know that very often our own dead exercise a much more potent and effective influence upon our lives and conduct than any living associates. Time cannot loosen their hold upon our hearts and minds. In one sense they never have come back; they never do come back; but in another, and a very actual sense, they are always coming back to us; especially in hours of stress and peril they are always with us, and we gain more support from them sometimes than from any living companions. We often hear their voices with absolute distinctness. You put your ear to the telephone and you hear the voice of a loved friend in Boston, or Chicago, or St. Louis, with perfect distinctness the quality, the tone, and the expression. You can tell by the sound, in addition to the words they speak, whether they are joyful or sorrowful, whether they are well or ill. And so through the long-distance telephone of time we hear the voices of our departed with equal dis- tinctness. They startle us with their familiar reality. In dreams, if they are dreams, we see their actual forms, just as they moved before us in life, and in moments of peril, and sorrow, and danger, we are conscious sometimes of their attendant footsteps, and really feel the support of their loving arms. When you come to know more of Mrs. Lowell's early days you learn the wonderful advantages which crowned her life, and how trial and suffering made her what she was. I have said that she [27] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL derived much from her noble father. He was a man among ten thousand. Born to wealth, he treated his wealth very largely as a trust for the use and benefit of suffering mankind. To every good cause he lent his sympathy, his advocacy and his material support; and yet he always exercised a wise and sound discretion. He was always de- termined to inquire for himself, and to act upon the result of his own judgment, no matter what other people thought or public opinion declared. I have been so much impressed with the identity of the qualities that marked his life with those which actuated the life and conduct of his daughter that I should like to read to you one or two sentences from what was said of him more than twenty-three years ago, when he was laid to rest; and I leave you to judge whether this is a case of the transmission of personal qualities or for it is sometimes denied that they can be transmitted whether she derived by family discipline, and example, and constant contact in childhood, youth and womanhood, the qualities which he himself exhibited. Now, this was said of him: His was not merely the courage of his convictions, which is common enough, but the courage of coming to conclu- sions of his own without regard to either private or public opinion. One might sometimes be almost impatient with him, as he did not seem to be open to conviction. In one sense he was not ; but it was because he was so singularly faithful to the obligation of coming to a judgment of his own, and then adhering to it. Again: All good causes, the help of the poor and criminal and the enslaved had always his sympathy and support ; but under- neath them all he was seeking for the great remedy which [28] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL would strike at the root of all the evils and suffering which the world inherits from generation to generation. The lesson of his life was a profound reverence for human nature ; a profound belief in man's high destiny ; and a profound de- votion to what he accepted as his duty. And Mr. Curtis, who knew him almost better than any other man, himself an apostle of light and humanity, said this of him and you will see the same striking characteristics in his daughter: The strength and simplicity and sweetness of his nature, the lofty sense of justice, the tranquil and complete devo- tion to duty, the large and human sympathy which was not lost in vague philanthropic feeling, but was mindful of every detail of relief ; the sound and steady judgment, the noble independence of thought and perfect courage of conviction, the perfect union of sympathy and understanding, and a character which seemed to be without a flaw and to belong to what we call the ideal man. It is true that every word of that can be said with equal truth and force of Mrs. Lowell; and it does give a just and adequate and perfect state- ment of her character as well as of her father's. So much for the influence which the father must have exercised to the latest day of her life. Do you not suppose, that though dead he yet spoke to her? And then of her equally noble husband, who added if anything could be added to that paternal record a fiery and undying patriotism which he perhaps communicated to her. I knew him long before his marriage. I doubt if there is another man in this meeting who knew him so early and so well. He came to Harvard College when I was a student there, and [29] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL we remained there together for four years. He was not only one of the noblest-hearted, but one of the most brilliant-minded young men whom it was ever my pleasure or the pleasure of anybody else to meet. He was a natural leader of men. His intellect was of remarkable quickness and power. He seemed to acquire by a mere glance at a page the whole contents of it; and what appeared to require hours of the average boy to master, he could easily make his own. As I said, he was a natural leader of men. He was first among all his fellows, first in scholarship, first in character, and first in their activities, mental and physical; and when graduated from the university no young man went forth with greater promise. It was some years before he met Mrs. Lowell. He gave himself up to actual business and work. He, too, had a wonderful sympathy with working people and labored steadily for their benefit, and wished to enter upon a life where he could be at one with them. Then came a sad failure of health, when for two or three years he was practically disabled; but fortunately for himself, for his country, and for us, when the great war broke out it found him well again and ready; and he gave himself to the service of his country. He was one of the most trusted lieutenants of our great General Sheri- dan; he lost his life in serving under him. His gallant exploits, his rapid development of military knowledge and skill and zeal amazed everybody. It was amidst the flames of war that they made each other's acquaintance and married, and after a few short months he gave, as he had expected that he might at any moment be called upon to give, his life for his country. With such an inheritance from the father, and an [30] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL alliance with such a man, can anybody doubt that the inspiration she so derived from them set her in motion at least on the great and splendid career of which you have all heard so much to-night, and that it sustained her heart and courage through it all? My personal knowledge and association with Mrs. Lowell was in connection with the State Chari- ties Aid Association, where, until she became a member of the State Board of Charities, she did constant work. I remember one instance where her work made a great advance in public recognition. I was asking Mr. de Forest last week to send me material to refresh my recollection of events connected with Mrs. Lowell, and he said: "Why you made a speech about her yourself thirty years ago, at the meeting at the Masonic Temple." At that meeting the venerable Charles O'Conor, leader of the American Bar, who had just recovered from what was for many weeks regarded as a fatal illness, presided. Governor Tilden was there, and another whose name has been mentioned here to-night. There were many brave workers for charity in those days, as there have been since; but as many of them are here to-night, you will not expect me to mention them. But there was one present at that meeting with whom it was pleasant to associate brave, persistent, charitable, a lover of his kind I mean Theodore Roosevelt. Not the man whom we delight to honor, and many of us adore, to-day, but his noble father; and it is pleasant to think of him and to recall his spotless life, his wonderful virtues, and to remember that he was worthy to be the father of such a son. He was at that meeting; he was a member of the State Board of Charities, and [31 1 IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Mrs. Lowell had just made an exhaustive report, which was presented to the meeting, on a subject which at that time was very important, namely, "the sturdy beggar;" the tramp, a subject which has vexed charitable souls from the days of Queen Elizabeth to now. She had, with the thoroughness characteristic of her, gone into the subject and dis- played the entire natural history of tramps. She found that many districts in the state of New York, in the name of the overseers of the poor, were practi- cally keeping hotels for the entertainment of tramps, all the way from New York to Buffalo. She entered with minuteness of detail and proof into the facts of that gross and crying evil, and showed how it might be eradicated; Governor Tilden and Mr. Roosevelt drove home together from that meeting. As I have understood, the Governor had been so much impressed with her report that he said to Mr. Roosevelt that he thought a woman should be appointed on the State Board of Charities, and the result was that Mrs. Lowell, almost the first woman in the state or country to be placed on such a board, was appointed a member straightway. Mr. Stewart has told you what wonderful work she did. While there she organized the Charity Organization Society. If she had done nothing else in the course of her remarkable career, that alone would entitle her to a monument to be erected at the hands of the people of the state of New York. I hope this memorial meeting, expressive of our admiration of this most valuable woman, will not end in empty breath. It seems to me, as Professor Adler has intimated, that there should be some per- manent memorial of this woman who has done so much for us. [32] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL What form it should take I do not say. I do not think it should be the work of the Charity Organi- zation Society alone, as that is only a small part of the work, only a small part of the great good which has been justly attributed to her. I think it should be something which would reflect the ad- miration of the people of New York; or at least of those who are interested in charities; and when you have gathered them in, the rest may go. Whether there shall be a tablet at the entrance to this building, which she sanctified by her work, which shall record her achievements, or whether it shall take some other and larger form, it seems to me that it should be taken into very serious consider- ation by your body. [33 1 IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL JACOB A. RI IS PERHAPS one excellent way of making future generations remember Mrs. Lowell would be to call one of the small parks now coming into existence all over the city after her. There is a distinct need of attaching the influence of such a name to one of the parks on the East Side. I have been trying to think back to the time when I first knew Mrs. Lowell, but I cannot remember. I came in course of time to pay almost daily visits to her house. In those days she lived in East Thirtieth Street, quite near to the ferry which brought me over to New York when I came in from Long Island, and I fell into the habit, especially when anything troubled me, of ringing her doorbell when I passed the house. She was never "out," always ready to sit down and listen to and give advice and opinion. It was then I learned what a patient, sweet, wise and lovable woman she was. Mr. Stewart spoke of her courage. Yes, she was courageous. I think the only thing in the world she was afraid of we were not was of not following her own conviction and conscience to the end. You have spoken about her cheerfulness. She was cheerful and hopeful because she believed in God, and could wait. That was often the friendly contention between us. She could wait. I was [34] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL young then, and impetuous, impatient. She be- lieved in her fellow man and could wait, because she saw the image of God in him, and was sure that, given the chance, it would work out. She was patient because life and her faith had taught her wisdom; and she had that God-given sense of humor that gets us over so many rough spots. I recall an occasion when we had gone to Mayor Grant to see him about the police station-houses. We had nagged and nagged the mayor until he was tired of it, and when we told him for the fiftieth time, I suppose, that in Boston they had municipal lodging-houses, he cried out in impatience: "Boston, Boston! I am sick of the name of Boston." I suppose he did not know what "Boston" meant to her; I turned to her in some apprehension to see how she took it, but she was leaning back in her chair and laughing heartily. Speaking of her patience, I remember another occasion when we had gone to Albany to argue for something that we had up before an assembly com- mittee. I was speaking. I was filled up with arguments which she had given me on the way up, and not those which I had thought out for myself, and was trying to keep my mind on them, when one of the assemblymen interrupted me: "Professor," he said, "You people come here year after year arguing for these things; let me ask you, what do you get for it ?" For the moment I was nonplussed. "What do you mean?" I asked. "I mean," he said, "this," holding out one hand, "What do you get, do you understand ?" I could have throttled the man. He was the only one I ever knew to distrust or question Mrs. Lowell's motives. But when I glanced at her, I saw her sitting with [35] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL that patient, far-away look in her face. Those things meant nothing to her. She was there in a cause. It was God's cause and it was bound to prevail. The rest didn't matter. We did not always agree. I was glad to hear Mr. Stewart refer to her early work with Mr. Roose- velt. Later on they differed sometimes. It was impossible that two such wholesouled, emphatic characters, when thrown much together, should always agree. They disagreed; and then we dis- agreed. I remember her exclaiming once at the end of one of those discussions: "You won't have that young man touched on any account." And I : "No; certainly not by you; you are much too good; you are too like one another." But those things passed away. Long before she died she knew what Theodore Roosevelt stood for in the nation's life. I think I was the last of you all to see her. She sent for me to come out to Green- wich, where she was, a very few weeks before she died and I came quickly. I found her greatly aged and worn, and so tired. She sat by me and held my hand, and I think she knew eternity was just beyond. She spoke of Roosevelt; and she sent her last message to him. It was a message of love and cheer. When I gave it to him he said: "She had a sweet, unworldly character; and never man or woman ever strove for loftier ideals." Un- worldly, yes, in a sense, and yet of how direct and great a meaning to the world she helped to make sweeter and better. It was the last, except a word to myself, which I cannot help giving you here. I think it belongs. Perhaps it has a message for each of you. As we sat by the fire, she spoke of my wife and kept my hand in hers, and smoothed [36] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL it again and again, and she nodded with the gentle smile that hovered on her lips all that evening, and repeated, "Yes, yes; I know. But think of my waiting for my husband forty-one long years, forty- one years." And it seemed to me as if she looked clear over in the beyond where he was waiting, so soon to receive her. Friends, however, much we want her back, I think there is not one here who would not rather let him keep her. [371 IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL SETH LOW 1 REMEMBER to have heard Colonel Higginson, of Boston, speak of Mrs. Lowell's husband as one of a group of young men whom he had known at Harvard, "who threw away their lives like a flower" for our country. I have seldom heard a phrase that moved me more. It seems to present the picture of a group of gallant young men, full of the hope and the enthusiasm and the fancy of youth, each asking no greater privilege than to lay them all at the feet of his country, as a lover gives a bud to the lady of his love. It was not given to Mrs. Lowell to throw away her life like a flower; but for forty-one long years, to use her own words, her character grew in this com- munity; she had always an inspiring and unlifting influence and shed abroad a delightful fragrance as she moved along our streets. The last letters I ex- changed with her related to a visit which I made last spring in Charleston, to the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial School of that city. Colonel Shaw, as you know, was Mrs. Lowell's brother, and he fell at the head of a negro regiment in the attack on Battery Wagner, one of the defenses of the city. See what a memorial the city of Charleston has erected for Mrs. Lowell's brother. The Robert [38] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Gould Shaw Memorial School for negro children is a part of the public school system of Charleston, S. C. Over the desk of the principal is the picture .of Colonel Shaw, draped with the American flag. At the further end of the room is a photograph of the Shaw memorial monument erected on Boston Common. The little negroes stood up in their places, as the children stand every morning in our schools here, and saluted the flag, and swore fealty to it, to the country it represents, and to all that it stands for to humanity. I like to tell that story about our fellow citizens of Charleston, as it seems to me an evidence of mag- nanimity on their part as great as any that history records. It shows how much they wished to do honor to the inherent manhood in the man who died attacking their defenses. Shall we, for whom Mrs. Lowell lived her whole life, be less appreciative than pur fellow citizens of Charleston ? I like Mr. Choate's suggestion for a permanent memorial to her; and I hope that this meeting will ask that a committee be appointed by the chairman to arrange for a suitable memorial to Mrs. Lowell at the hands of the people of this great city. I suppose that Mrs. Lowell may have felt that her name stood for something among the poor people of this city. I do not know whether she could realize how much it meant, not to them only, but to all of her fellow citizens. Professor Adler spoke of her as the Lady of the Lamp. She was, indeed, the Lady of the Lamp; and she went before us always carrying that shining light. She does not need any memorial at our hands; but for our own sakes we want to prove and establish before the world that we not only saw in her the light of her character, but that [39] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL from the flame of her spirit we also have lit a light in our own breasts. * Mr. Low's motion that a committee be appointed to "carry into effect some memorial of Mrs. Lowell not merely in memory of her but to carry on her example into the future," was seconded by Richard Watson Gilder, and thereupon carried. In closing the meeting, Mr. de Forest said: "And now this meeting comes to a close, with one word : We, of the Charity Organization Society, on whose initiative this meeting was held, have perhaps seemed to hold ourselves unduly in the background. We feel that Mrs. Lowell, in a peculiar sense, be- longed to us; or perhaps I should say that we be- longed to her. She was, as Mr. Choate said, the founder of the Charity Organization Society. She was much more than that. She was its guiding spirit. Since the first day of its existence she has watched over it. There was hardly a meeting she did not attend. There is hardly a committee on which she has not served. There is no office in the society that she could not have had if she had been willing to take it. While her services in this build- ing, in its executive councils, and on the executive committee, of which she was a member, almost from the start, were of the highest value and of the greatest importance, she never gave more time or thought to service of seemingly larger scope than she did to the more humble district committee work on the East Side, where she daily came face to face and heart to heart with every poor person who sought her counsel." [40] OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL MRS. LOWELL'S SERVICES TO THE STATE EDWARD T. DEVINE A FULL account of Mrs. Lowell's public jService would begin with the story of her labors on behalf of the soldiers at the front, and would follow through forty full years of uninter- rupted labor in charity, in politics, in reform, and in public education. All these years were crowded with varied and successful achievements and with labors on behalf of other movements which, because times were not ripe for them, were not crowned with success. Here it is possible to detach only certain threads of the history relating especially to her service to the state and its charitable institutions. The Richmond county committee of the State Charities Aid Association was organized on Staten Island on January 27, 1873. Mrs. Lowell was one of its thirty members, and took an active part in its work. From 1875 to 1877 she was successively a member, secretary, and chairman of the standing committee on adult able-bodied paupers, which was one of the four standing committees of the State Charities Aid Association at its headquarters in New York city. While chairman of this committee, Mrs. Lowell prepared, in February, 1876, an exceedingly [431 IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL able special report on "methods, expenses, extent, and results of poor law administration and relief in the several towns in the county of Westchester, during the ten years 1864 to 1873, inclusive." This report was presented at the annual meeting of the State Charities Aid Association, held in Masonic Temple, February 24, 1876, at which meeting Samuel J. Tilden, then governor, was present. The other speakers were Charles O'Conor and Joseph H. Choate. Mrs. Lowell's report made such an im- pression upon Governor Tilden that when, within a few months, the opportunity was presented, he appointed her a member of the State Board of Charities. Mrs. Lowell was the first woman to be- come a member of the state board. At that time women were very rarely appointed on state boards of any kind, and in the year of her appointment there appears to have been no woman in the board of managers of any New York state charitable institution or hospital for the insane. It has since become an almost universal custom to appoint one or more women as members of such boards and to this very desirable change her own efficient service very largely contributed. After her appointment as a member of the State Board of Charities, Mrs. Lowell ceased to be an active worker in the State Charities Aid Association, devoting her energies instead to her official work for the state. Mrs. Lowell's first recorded action as a member of the State Board of Charities was the introduction of a resolution, doubtless of a routine character, designating certain persons to act as visitors to poorhouses and other institutions in the county of Queens. Thirteen years later, on her last appear- ance as a member of the board, she presented [44] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL notes of her visits to certain orphan asylums in the city of New York, and requested that these be appended to her report previously submitted. The board then accepted Mrs. Lowell's full report on this subject and ordered it to be transmitted to the legislature with the annual report of the board. The two subjects which thus marked the beginning and the end of her services in that body, volun- teer personal service and the better care of depend- ent children, were the two deepest and most abiding interests of her public life. On December 5, 1876, she presented the draft of a proposed bill to provide for the custody and reform- atory treatment of vagrants and disorderly persons, and on the following day she secured the appoint- ment of visitors to the poorhouses and other insti- tutions of New York county. The proposal for more effective treatment of va- grancy is indicative of a determination which had already expressed itself at the meeting of the State Charities Aid Association, which found repeated expression in the State Board of Charities, in the Charity Organization Society, in the conference of charities, and in all her writings on the subject of poor relief. Even more indicative of her personal quality and originality is a resolution adopted by the board upon her motion of June 14, 1877, requesting each member of the board to make an annual report at the December meeting on such subjects as he may consider of interest to the board. In the following September she presented a report from a committee appointed to consider and propose an amendment to an assembly bill for the custody and reformatory treatment of vagrants. [45) IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL On December 4, 1877, Mrs. Lowell submitted a report on correspondence with local visiting com- mittees of the several counties, and suggested that the State Charities Aid Association should hereafter have the appointment of these committees, subject to the approval of the commissioner of the district. At the same meeting she called attention to the desirability of requiring counties exempt from the operations of the Willard Asylum act to live up to the rules and regulations which won the condition of their exemption, failing which the exemption should be revoked. On January 3, 1878, Mrs. Lowell presented a paper in which she had collected from the report of the secretary of the board referred to in a later paragraph as printed in the board's tenth annual report, facts in regard to the vagrant, feeble-mind- ed and idiotic inmates of the almshouses of the state. On March 14, 1878, Mrs. Lowell reported in regard to the establishment of a custodial asylum for idiots. At the same meeting she presented a report from the committee on vagrancy, embodying a recommendation to the legislature that workhouses should be established for the detention and employ- ment of vagrant, disorderly, and idle persons, and for able-bodied vagrants, except non-residents (who are to be provided for by an amendment to the State Pauper law), and that the commitment of able- bodied persons of these several classes to poorhouses, jails, or other places of idle detention should be prohibited. On April 3, 1878, she offered a resolution request- ing the president to present at a later meeting a statement of facts and a plan for meeting the diffi- [46] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL culties in the disposition and care of dependent children. On June 13, 1878, Mrs. Lowell reported that the recommendation to the legislature for an appropri- ation for a custodial asylum for adult idiots, based upon her own previous reports already cited, had been successful, and that an appropriation of $18,000 had been made for this purpose. This appropria- tion was placed at the disposal of the board of mana- gers of the institution then known as the State Idiot Asylum at Syracuse, and a special asylum was opened by them for feeble-minded women at Newark in Wayne county. This asylum seven years later was incorporated as a separate state institution for the custodial care of feeble-minded women. On March 10, 1880, Mrs. Lowell introduced a reso- lution recommending "the establishment of a re- formatory for women where they can be employed at remunerative work and be under the direction and care of their own sex." An amendment was offered at a later meeting by another member pro- viding that " the establishment of the same be guarded with such provisions as shall protect the state from abuse in the expenditure of the public funds/' Whereupon Mrs. Lowell withdrew her prev- ious resolution, which she had in the meantime amended by substituting "houses of correction" for "reformatory," and inserting "so far as practicable," before "at remunerative work;" but on March 9, 1 88 1, Mrs. Lowell returned to the subject by offering the following resolutions which were adopted: WHEREAS, In the inquiry made by the State Board of Charities into the cause of the increase of pauperism, it was conclusively proved that vice, pauperism, idiocy and insanity are to a great degree hereditary ; and [47] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL WHEREAS, The present organization of the poorhouses of the state renders it impossible that vicious and pauper women, who become the mothers of vicious and pauper children, should be trained and disciplined in those institutions ; and WHEREAS, Under a systematic course of instruction, a certain number of such women might be reclaimed and the state saved from great future expense; therefore Resolved, That the State Board of Charities recommend that the legislature establish an institution for the custody and discipline of vagrant and disorderly women, under the charge of officers of their own sex. In accordance with this recommendation the House of Refuge for Women at Hudson was estab- lished in the same year. This institution has since been transformed into the New York Training School for Girls; but in line with the original purpose of the reformatory at Hudson and largely through Mrs. Lowell's personal efforts, although not as a member of the state board, there have since been created two similar institutions, the Western House of Refuge for Women at Albion, and the New York State Reformatory for Women at Bedford. Mrs. Lowell was an active member of the board of managers of the Bedford reformatory in its initial stages. On October n, 1881, Mrs. Lowell presented a report on outdoor relief societies in the city of New York, of which she was requested to furnish a copy for the annual report of the board, and on the motion of another member the following preamble and reso- lution proposed by Mrs. Lowell in her report were adopted by the board: WHEREAS, There are in the city of New York a large num- ber of independent societies engaged in teaching and relieving the poor of the city in their own homes; and WHEREAS, There is at present no system of co-operation [48] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL by which these societies can receive definite mutual inform- ation in regard to the work of each other; and WHEREAS, Without some such system, it is impossible that much of their efforts should not be wasted, and even do harm by encouraging pauperism and imposture; therefore Resolved, That the commissioners of New York city are appointed a committee to take such steps as they deem wise, to inaugurate a system of mutual help and co-operation between such societies. Mrs. Lowell was designated by the board to act as chairman of this committee, and the Charity Organ- ization was the result. In 1883 Mrs. Lowell made an official report to the state board on the work of the society. On March 16, 1882, Mrs. Lowell and Dr. Stephen Smith presented a report on the condition of the asylums for the insane in New York county, embodying three alternative plans for improving the asylums. The third, which was recommended by the committee, was that the state board should prepare a bill providing that New York county, to- gether with the three other counties which still re- tained their acute insane, should be required as were the other counties of the state, to place their acute in- sane in state hospitals. On February 13, 1884, Mrs. Lowell was requested, after presenting a report on further state custodial accommodation for adult idiots, to prepare a me- morial to the legislature on behalf of the board on the necessity for further provision for the custodial care and sequestration of idiotic and feeble-minded girls and women; for their protection and the protection of the state from hereditary increase of that class of dependents on public charity. In connection with this subject, Mrs. Lowell [49] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL introduced a resolution, which was adopted, that the assistant secretary be empowered to employ extra clerical help, if necessary, to make up from the United States Census returns three separate lists of idiot children, of men and of women under forty-five years of age. On December 16 and 17, 1885, Mrs. Lowell pre- sented a report on orphan asylum societies of the city of New York. On December 10, 1886, and at previous meetings from time to time, Mrs. Lowell made reports on the public charities of New York city. The following is a typical paragraph of the plain speech in these reports : Almost the only encouraging fact about the foregoing short record of the events which have taken place in the char- itable institutions during the past year, is that the causes of the evils are patent, and, therefore, improvements can be made as soon as public opinion really demands a reform. On July 13, 1887, Mrs. Lowell reported on the workhouse of New York city. A later report on the same subject was presented to the board on Decem- ber 13, 1888, and printed in the twenty-second an- nual report of the board for 1888. The character- istic opening paragraphs of this report are as follows : It is incredible that such an institution as the workhouse of New York City should be allowed to exist in a civilized community, and there are no words strong enough to paint its conditions, or to describe the injury and disgrace which it is to the city. In saying this I do not wish to be supposed to reflect upon the officer in charge; he feels more deeply than anyone less intimately acquainted with them, the horrors of the situa- tion, and there are among his subordinates those who labor [50] IN MEMORIAM: JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL faithfully and sacrifice themselves in vain efforts to accom- plish some good. The responsibility rests first with the system, by which in the Department of Public Charities and Correction the care of 14,000 men, women and children, criminals, sick, insane, idiots, prostitutes, infants and tramps is placed upon three men, who cannot have either the time or the knowledge to discharge the manifold, distinct duties demanded of them; and second, with the commissioners, who accept responsi- bilities without protest, without any attempt to change the system, and, apparently, without any real sense of the appall- ing moral demands that confront them. On July n, 1889, Mrs. Lowell made an adverse report in relation to the proposed organization of an aslyum for orphans, half-orphans and destitute Italian children, concluding with the suggestion that when foreign children are supported in this country by public funds they should be brought up as Amer- icans and not as foreigners. At the same meeting, Mrs. Lowell presented an- other report in relation to dependent children in New York city, and in the following December she closed her services in the state board with a supple- ment to this report. I 5' J IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL MRS LOWELL AND THE UNEMPLOYED ORGANIZING THE EAST SIDE RELIEF WORK COM- MITTEE JOHN BANCROFT DEVINS, D. D. JUST now when Christendom is rejoicing over the fact that thirty Christian bodies, repre- senting eighteen million communicants, have held a conference in New York city attended by more than five hundred delegates, it is pleasant to recall a form of co-operative work which existed a dozen years ago for a winter, and out of which grew a permanent organization which is acknowledged to be the direct ancestor of the great meeting just held in Carnegie Hall.* In the fall of 1893, when unusual distress pre- vailed throughout the country and naturally reached its most acute form in this city, steps were taken by Mrs. Lowell to relieve the suffering that was all too apparent, and to do this without injuring those to whom relief must be given if life was to be saved. It was an abnormal condition which confronted the charitable societies; no treasury could meet the de- mand upon it, and if direct relief were possible, Mrs. Lowell and her friends believed that it would not be wise to give it. Committees were formed by this public-spirited * Inter-church Conference on Federation, held in Carnegie Hall, Nov- ember 15 to 21, 1905, [52] IN MEMQRIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL woman some to raise funds and another to dis- pense the money secured by the citizens' committees. As the pastor of Hope Chapel in East Fourth street, near Avenue D, it was an honor to be invited to join a dozen other residents of that part of the city, and a few people from up-town, in forming the East Side Relief Work Committee. Headquarters were estab- lished in the College Settlement in Rivington Street, then under Dr. Jane E. Robbins, and a busy place No. 95 became for five months. Our committee, headed by Mrs. Lowell, was composed of workers from settlements, charity organization districts, churches and other agencies, including Roman Catholic and Hebrew. And now we are assembled in the parlors of the settlement to outline forms of work, for direct relief is prohibited from the beginning. "Anyone who has ideas on the subject, speak first," says the chair- man with a cheery smile, but with the air of one who wishes to help her fellows in distress without injuring others who are living on the border line between dependence and independence. "Let us help the city clean the streets on the East Side/' suggested a member. "But will we be al- lowed to do this ?" questions another. "And if we are, may not those who are employed as street sweepers be laid off ?" asks the chairman. "In that case we shall not relieve, but simply trans- fer the suffering." A committee was appointed to ascertain what the street cleaning commissioner would allow, and what steps he would take in reference to his own employes. The answer was entirely satisfactory. Our men could be employed upon assigned streets, and not a city man would be laid off; the mileage required to [53] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL be kept clean was so great that the force could be doubled without trouble. Brooms and hoes and shovels were purchased, foremen engaged to see that the men did their work and did it well, and sixteen sweepers were set at work. The foremen were necessary, Mrs. Lowell said, for it was not wise to set a low standard of work. The men employed should be made to feel that they were to give a fair equivalent for the money that they received. The question of hours and wages was discussed at some length. It was not deemed wise to pay the regular wages of street sweepers lest men should leave less remunerative employment, nor was it deemed just to exact a full day's work when a partial day's wages were paid. A dollar a day and seven hours work were finally de- cided upon as equitable. One sweeping station after another was opened, one of them in the basement of Hope Chapel, until 887 men were at work at a given time; 3,292 men in all were engaged. The streets of the East Side had not been so clean before in a decade; Colonel Waring had not been appointed then. It may be of interest to add that when he was appointed street cleaning commissioner by Mayor Strong, he adopted the block method employed by our committee, rather than the gang method in force before that time, and his "white angel" costume was added in order that the foremen might the more easily dis- cover whether the man assigned to a given series of blocks was at work upon them. But when all the men who could sweep were at work, and the cry of the hungry and the starving came to the ears of our chairman, she said: "What more can be done ?" This time the making of [54] IN MEMQRIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL clothing was suggested, but how to carry out the suggestion and what to do with the clothing after it was made was the problem. To sell the garments or to give them away would lessen by so much the demand for those turned out by the regular garment makers, and this might lead to the discharge of some of them; this would never do. About this time news of a cyclone off the shores of South Caro- lina was printed in the paper; rooms in an idle fac- tory were hired, cloth purchased, a few trained employes secured and an emergency garment factory was running under the auspices of our committee. Still the applicants came with their terrible tales of suffering, which were investigated and found to be all too true. "Give this man work," wrote a physician, "if you would keep his wife and children alive; one child has already died from starvation." Other appeals scarcely less terrible lay on the chairman's heart like lead. "Let us send out work to the women and girls who cannot go to the factory," she said; and the young people's prayer-meeting room and a pastor's study were added to those needed for the enlarged work. But what more can be done for the men ? "Let us clean and whitewash the tenement cellars," said Miss Edith Kendall, a member of the committee. "The health commissioner will not let you do it. If he did, the owners and the tenants will not allow you in their houses," suggested a doubter, not the chairman. An appropriation of twenty-five dollars for the coming week was granted for the use of the sanitation committee, provided permission was se- cured for starting the work. Not only was Charles G. Wilson, the president of the health board, willing [55] IN MEMQRIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL that the experiment should be tried, but he also heartily commended the movement. When within a month 491 men were under direct control of this sub-committee and the weekly pay-roll was $3,000, the provisional appropriation of twenty-five dollars furnished a good deal of amusement. The figures for this department were: 700 houses, comprising 3,000 rooms, 800 halls, 500 cellars, 250 shops, stables, lofts whitewashed; 2,500 halls and 2,200 rooms cleaned and scrubbed; and 3,485 barrels of refuse taken from tenement cellars; 1,153 men employed. In April, 1894, the stress of the winter being over, it was decided to close up the work and this was done gradually. During the five months 4,541 men and 466 women had been aided, and this without a penny of direct relief being given, although $117,- 091.72 had been expended by the committee. Dur- ing those trying months Mrs. Lowell gave her entire time to the work of the committee. No mem- ber of it was more indefatigable, though all did their best. And when perplexities arose, as they did several times, and strained nerves were almost snapping, like a benediction the gentle voice of our chairman would fall upon our ears, and with some- thing like confusion of face on the part of the over- tired members, the trying situation would soon be relieved. When the work of the winter was completed, our committee, at the suggestion of the chairman, took an extraordinary step. While recognizing that it had been the one thing to do at the time, we adopted a resolution condemning in the main the kind of work which we had found to be effectiye, lest other communities or other committees in this city might think they had unusual conditions also, and [56] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL cite our experience as a precedent for establishing a similar work. In this self-abnegation, no less than in her magnificent labor during the winter, Mrs. Lowell showed her power as a leader. Another form of philanthropic activity in which the writer had the pleasure of co-operating with Mrs. Lowell was in organizing and conducting the con- ference of charities, which held its meetings for several years in the library of the Charity Organi- zation Society. Here important topics were dis- cussed in an able manner by experts, and advance steps taken on several subjects. One thing on which Mrs. Lowell's heart was set was a farm colony for misdemeanants. Again and again this matter was up, and bills prepared, but the legislature would not enact them. " While recognizing the need of such a place for men now sent to the workhouse, only to come out worse than they enter it, the men in Albany would not start it. Sometime this seed- sowing will be a harvest. Mrs. Lowell's relations to the recent Federation Conference can be traced through the Federation of East Side Workers, organized a month after the relief committee was disbanded. It was started in Hope Chapel and contained in its membership many of the members of the committee. Its object was to study the conditions among the city of a quarter of a million of people living south of Fourteenth Street, and east of Broadway, and seek to improve them. Its membership consisted of pastors, priests and rabbis, of churches and synagogues, one mem- ber from these religious bodies, and officers and members of philanthropic agencies laboring in the district. Mrs. Lowell was suggested as president, but she named the writer for that office. The suc- [57] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL cess of this federation, in which President Roosevelt, Colonel Waring, Jacob A. Riis, Bishop Potter and other lovers of their kind were deeply interested, led to the formation of the New York City Federa- tion of Churches and Christian Organizations; later came the state federation and then the national federation, which called the Carnegie Hall meeting, held in November. If Mrs. Lowell had not formed the East Side Relief Work Committee, the Federa- tion of East Side Workers might not have been organized, certainly not at that time. If but why speculate ? She did her work thoroughly, con- scientiously, caring only that the poor were relieved, without being pauperized. Apparently indifferent to the censure which the work in which she was engaged might bring, she was not oblivious to the many tokens of kindness which she received. In a private meeting when attention was called to her unselfish devotion to a certain line of activity, she said, with refreshing candor: "I shouldn't like to hear those kind words, but I do." Would that more even had been spoken when she could have enjoyed them, for she deserved them all. [58] IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL MRS. LOWELL AND THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE MAUD NATHAN MRS. LOWELL was one of the founders of the Consumers' League and was its first president. The movement was the out- come of some inquiries made by the Work- ing Women's Society into the conditions under which women and children worked in the dry-goods stores of New York City. The pitiable tales of over- worked young girls, who received wretched pay, and who were on duty excessively long hours without any form of legal protection, had led some of the most advanced working women to form this society for the purpose of ameliorating their own conditions of labor. But it was found that organization among wage-earners could do little, as this particular class of workers is, as a rule, too young and too unskilled to make the formation of trade unions practicable. It was felt that much of the responsibility for bad conditions of labor should be placed on the spenders of money, and that their co-operation should be enlisted. A public mass meeting was therefore held in May, 1 890, at which a resolution was passed recommending, in Mrs. Lowell's words, that "a committee be ap- [59] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL pointed to assist the Working Women's Society in making a list which shall keep shoppers informed of such shops as deal justly by their employes, and so keep public opinion and public action to bear in favor of just employers, and also in favor of such employers as desire to be just, but are prevented by the stress of competition from following their sense of duty." This was the beginning of the Consumers' League. The following fall, Mrs. Lowell, with a small band of workers, entered heart and soul into the work of investigating the conditions of employment in the largest retail stores of the city, after sending out several thousand letters asking merchants to allow their stores to be visited. The conditions and regu- lations of a few leading firms were taken as the basis of the league's standard of a fair house, as to hours, wages and physical conditions. These mer- chants were known to conduct their business fairly, having just conditions for all their employes, so that it was not too much to ask that all competing firms should maintain the same standard. Eight names were placed on the first White List, which was printed in the newspapers and widely distributed through the community. In the be- ginning the investigators often met with difficulties. A member of the committee would report that a firm did not wish to be placed on the White List. Mrs. Lowell would then say: " We can't help that, we are sorry they don't approve of us, but if they have good conditions we shall place them on the White List. We will get information from the girls themselves, and if the firms are just they must get on the White List." Once when Mrs. Lowell was investigating a store, [60] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL she found that the cash girls were paid $1,50 a week. She asked a member of the firm whether he did not think the wages very low. He answered that it was "a question of economics. If we can get girls to come at that price, why should we pay more ? Plenty are willing to come for that price." Mrs. Lowell said, "Do you think that is a fair wage to pay for a week's work ? One dollar and fifty cents will hardly pay for their shoe leather." He replied: " Well, I tell you, if I see that the children are very ragged or poor, I give them a pair of shoes." Then she said: "Would it not be better for their self- respect to pay them fair wages and let them buy their own shoes?" The answer was: "We never confuse our charity and our business." To which Mrs. Lowell replied: "It seems to me that you are confusing them in a very peculiar way; I think it would be a great deal better for you to pay a fair wage." Mrs. Lowell gave important testimony before the Rhinehart Commission, in 1896, on the great need of enforcing a law to provide seats for women who work in stores. She was influential in having the Mercantile Inspection Act (proposed by the com- mission) made into a law, and was keenly interested in the appointment of efficient mercantile inspectors to enforce the new law. Referring to the civil ser- vice examinations for these officers, Mrs. Lowell said: "What I should have suggested, had I written, was such an examination as would have assured a high order of general intelligence, so as to be sure of getting educated women, perhaps doctors, who would be respected by shopkeepers. In all civil service examinations that is what I think we most need, a high standard as to intelligence and charac- [61 ] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL ter, so as to get a new kind of person into our public offices. We are ready now to take the people who are below the average, and we ought to insist on their being above it." What impressed me most in Mrs. Lowell's char- acter was her unflinching sense of duty, and her won- derful zeal. Her work was always done because she felt it was right, not at all with any idea of merit in itself. She was free from all idea of self-aggran- dizement and gave herself up to any work she under- took with unstinted energy. In September, 1896, returning from Europe, immediately on her arrival she wrote me: "And now we must get to work. Can you go with me next week on Tuesday, Thurs- day, and Friday mornings ?" Such was her zeal in any cause in which she was enlisted; for she did everything she thought right to be done, no matter at what sacrifice of money, time or strength. Mrs. Lowell endeared herself to all her friends by her charm of manner, her sweet simplicity, her high principles, her code of pure ethics. Every one who came in contact with her was the better for having known her. Every organization and social group working for justice, for righteousness, for the uplift of humanity, will mourn her loss. [62] IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL MRS. LOWELL AND THE NEW YORK CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY IN the account of Mrs. Lowell's services to the state, published on an earlier page, refer- ence is .made to her official action as a commissioner of the State Board of Charities in bringing about the establishment of the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York. She was chairman of the committee appointed to carry into effect the resolution adopted by the board, and a member of the governing body from the beginning of the society's work until her death. So long as she remained in the State Board of Charities she was an ex officio member of the central council by the terms of the society's constitution. Upon her retirement from the state board she became an elective member and was regularly re-elected thereafter to each expiration of her three-year term. She served as a member of the executive com- mittee for twenty years, and as chairman of the committee on district work for fifteen. She was a member at various times of the committee on co- operation, the committee on provident habits, the committee on woodyard, and the committee on philanthropic education. She was chairman of the committee on dependent children during the four years of the active work of that committee. She [63] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL was a member of the central district committee for three years until 1894, and thereafter, until her death, the most active and faithful member of the district committee on the lower East Side, which is known as Corlears district committee. That Mrs. Lowell expected active work from those who were associated with her was promptly shown in one of the earliest meetings of the committee on district work, held on February 12, 1883, when it was decided to assign to each member of the com- mittee one district office to visit twice a week. Her desire that the society should not itself become an ordinary relief agency is shown by the adoption of a resolution on April 29, 1886, by the committee on district work, Mrs. Lowell in the chair: That the several district committes be reminded that it is opposed to the principles to which the Charity Organization Society holds, to allow the agents of the society or any mem- ber of the district committees in their official capacity to disburse money or gifts of any kind to any applicant. If such disbursement seem to be necessary in any urgent case, it is hoped that the committee will arrange to secure the relief through some charitable institution or third party who is not known as connected with our society. Mrs. Lowell was in active sympathy with the increased attention given by the society in recent years to educational and constructive work. She was the first member of the council to endorse the suggestion that the Charity Organization Society should initiate the housing movement which led to the passage of the tenement-house law of 1900. She was an enthusiastic worker for small parks and play-grounds, and was a leader in the movement which led to the abolition of the vicious police- [64] IN MEMORIAM .-JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL station lodging-houses, and the establishment of the municipal lodging-house, under the manage- ment of the Department of Public Charities. She was a member from the beginning of the committee in charge of the Summer School of Philanthropy, out of which the professional training school for social workers has grown, and long before the sum- mer school was established it was her custom to hold meetings of district agents and of assistant agents as a means of giving training to the inex- perienced, and counsel and encouragement to those who had been longer at work. She was ever ready to insist upon frank criticism of corrupt, ignorant, or inefficient public officials, and equally ready to give hearty praise to those who were doing well, regardless of their political affiliations. The minutes of the central council and of the executive committee of the society record on almost every page actions which she proposed or actively advocated; but to suppose that she was always with the majority, or that the measures which she proposed were always adopted, would be to miss the main service which such as Mrs. Lowell always render in the movements with which they are identi- fied. She was extraordinarily practical and suc- cessful for an idealist, but she was so much of an idealist, nevertheless, that to others her plans sometimes seemed visionary and impractical. A long and instructive story might be told of the measures for which Mrs. Lowell worked before the legislature, in municipal departments, or in the public press, but which have not yet been achieved. As illustrations, it is sufficient to name her plan for [65] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL a department of children, the proposal for a farm colony for vagrants, and the inspiring suggestion that instead of our present prisons, police force, courts and prosecuting officials, there should be created a great public department on the reduction of crime, of which the police and judicial activities now in existence should be subordinate bureaus. It may be that later generations will accomplish some of these things for which Mrs. Lowell was not able in her lifetime to secure a sufficient number of friends with faith equal to her own. On the day after the announcement of Mrs. Low- ell's death, CHARITIES published on one of the cover pages the following editorial paragraphs: A foremost citizen, a pure patriot, a good neighbor to the poor and to all men, has gone to rest in the death of Joseph- ine Shaw Lowell or as she preferred always, in loyal de- votion, to have others write her name Mrs. Charles Russell Lowell, though the husband of her youth was killed at Cedar Creek, as was her brother Robert Gould Shaw, at the head of his Negro regiment at Fort Wagner. With two such sacri- fices to treasure in her memory, Mrs. Lowell earned the right, which for forty years she has exercised with high courage and indomitable energy, to serve her country with an eye single to its highest interest. She has championed unpopular causes when she believed they were right. She has known nothing of mere expediency, but she worked nevertheless with rare wisdom and with remarkable success. No friend was too intimate for her to rebuke when there was occasion, no interest too important for her to imperil by frank criticism if it were linked with injustice. A certain wholesome uneasiness was never absent from her fellow workers lest Mrs. Lowell should put her finger upon some indefensible method, some failure to remain stead- [66] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL fastly true to the nobler ends, which more complaisant com- rades would be inclined to overlook as necessary evils or incidental lapses. And yet the reproof was always so free from malice, so clearly the expression of deeper spiritual in- sight and so charitable withal, that the uneasiness at last gave way to relief and renewed appreciation of the immeasurable value of Mrs. Lowell's presence. This is not the time to attempt a catalogue of Mrs. Lowell's actual achievements. Her monument is built in the consti- tution and statutes of New York and other states, in charitable and reformatory institutions which except for her would not have been established, in the successful fight for the merit system in the public service, in an impress on the labor move- ment, on the social settlements, on the new ideals of inde- pendence in municipal affairs. There are few who read these paragraphs who will not have besides the general sense of loss in the death of such a leader in social reform, some feeling of personal grief, some distinct reason for appreciating that the loss to the community and to all its good causes is very great. We of CHARITIES and of the New York Charity Organi- zation Society have indeed the right to share in an expression of personal bereavement. Mrs. Lowell was the founder of the Charity Organization Society and for the twenty-three years, since as a commissioner of the State Board of Charities she called the society into existence, she has been its most faith- ful, untiring and efficient member. She, more than any other person although it has never been, and she and other associ- ates were always determined that it should never be, a one- man society has been its guiding spirit. She has served continuously on its central council and its executive committee and has also worked always on the more humble routine of its district work. Only a few days before her death she had written to the president expressing regret that she could not attend committee meetings during the winter and a desire to be allowed to remain in the central council. We mourn the loss of one whose place cannot be filled, whose services will never be forgotten, whose work will remain. MEMORIAL VERSE MEMORIAL VERSE A WOMAN OF SORROWS JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL IT was but yesterday she walked these streets, Making them holier. How many years With all her widowed love immeasurably She ministered unto the abused and stricken, And all the oppressed and suffering of mankind, Herself forgetting, but never those in need; Her whole, sweet soul lost in her loving work, Pondering the endless problem of the poor. In ceaseless labor, swift, unhurriedly, She sped upon her tireless ministries, Climbing the stairs of poverty and wrong, Endeavoring the help that shall not hurt; Seeking to build in every human heart A temple of justice that no brother's burden Should heavier prove through human selfishness. In memory I see that brooding face That now seemed dreaming of the heroic past When those most dear to her laid loyal lives On the high altar of freedom; and again That thinking, inward-lighted countenance Drooped, saddened by the pain of humankind, Though resolute to help where help might be, And with undying faith illuminate. She was our woman of sorrows, whose pure heart Was pierced by many woes. And yet long since [71 ] MEMORIAL VERSE Her soul of sympathy entered the peace And calm eternal of the eternal mind; Inheritor of noble lives, she held Even to the end, a spirit of cheerfulness, And knowledge keen of the deep joy of being By pain all unsubdued. Sister and saint, Who to life's darkened passage-ways brought light; Who taught the dignity of human service; Who made the city noble by her life; And sanctified the very stones her feet Pressed in their sacred "journeys. Most high God! This city of mammon, this wide, seething pit Of avarice and lust, hath known thy saints, And yet shall know. For faith than sin is mightier, And t>y this faith we live, that in thy time, In thine own time, the good shall crush the ill; The brute within the human shall die down; And love and justice reign, where hate prevents, That love which in pure hearts reveals thine own And lights the world to righteousness and truth. RICHARD WATSON GILDER. From CHARITIES AND THE COMMONS, January 3, 1906. [72] MEMORIAL VERSE T THE SERVICE-TREE (To JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL) HERE'S an old Icelandic rune, Chanted to a mournful tune, Of the service-tree, that grows O'er the sepulchres of those Who for others' sins have died, Others' hatred, greed, or pride, Living monuments that stand, Planted of no human hand. So from her fresh-flowered grave Her's who all her being gave Other lives to beautify, Other ways to purify There shall spring a spirit-tree, In her loving memory, Till its top shall reach the skies, Telling of her sacrifice. JOHN FINLEY. From the CENTURY MAGAZINE, MAY, 1906. t73l MEMORIAL VERSE A CITY'S SAINT JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL A WOMAN lived and now a woman dies;" /\ If that were all, this line were much too /Y long; But with her went from out our social skies A light, and voice like a remembered song. Some saints have lived who on the ensanguined field Walked with the balm of healing in their hands; And not until the eye of God is sealed Fadeth the glory where some woman stands, Shedding strange radiance from her tender eyes; Now in the town, and now in court or camp Some woman with her deed of sacrifice, Lighting the world like an eternal lamp. And she to whom War's tragedy of pain Had brought its tears whose husband, brother, friend Passed in the cannonading to the slain Walked with her lonely sorrow to the end. But in that sorrow's self-forgetfulness She wrought whose splendid task is done too soon; Because she lived, the evil days are less Bridging these civic nights to highest noon. [74] MEMORIAL VERSE And mid the populous town, its walls that rise, Its massive structures wrought of myriad hands, This story of a woman's sacrifice Shines like a beacon where the city stands. This shall outlive its mortar and its stone, This shall be told where cities rise and fall; A woman working in its way alone With loving hands built bastions round its wall. JOSEPH DANA MILLER From THE OUTLOOK, January, 1906. (75 1 MEMORIAL VERSE JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL IN MEMORIAM AS now and then a star breaks through the gloom, With glow so strong, so tender, and serene, Dispelling, one by one the brooding clouds Till midnight shades melts in the glow of morn So, now and then a soul serene and strong Shines downward through the clouds of human pain, And through the dark of human need and wrong, Till, 'neath its patient toil and radiant calm Evil shrinks back abashed, and good is crowned. A star like this is for no land or clime; Each cloud alike its radiance must share, And when its light is lost, the whole earth mourns. A soul like hers to the wide world belongs, Its light, though sometimes hid awhile or quenched, Flames ever at the heart of human woes; And, kept alive by those who knew and loved, Becomes consuming fire to every wrong That holds humanity in suffering's thrall. Shine on, O Star! in life's oft-clouded heaven! Burn on, O Soul of flame! in life's sore needs. Pierce e'en our sadness! Let thy light be given To those who glad would follow where it leads, Who fain would change their love and grief to deeds. MARY LOWE DICKINSON. From the NEW YORK EVENING POST, April 14, 1906. [76] FROM MANY SOURCES IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL FROM MANY SOURCES MRS. LOWELL'S death and the memorial meeting which followed it were the occasion of many expressions of loss and appreciation, and there were other meetings on other occasions called for other pur- poses, which from the nature of the case seemed to call forth spontaneous tributes. The New York State Conference of Charities and Correction adopted formal resolutions on her death, and at a meeting of the New York Association of Neighborhood Workers, one after another of those who were present got up and told simply of how in the early years of their work a woman had found them out and come to them with help and suggestions and kindness "perhaps only to offer to run errands" or to aid in times of strain and trouble. Extracts from some of these communications may be published here, showing as they do the depth of Mrs. Lowell's relationships and the breadth of her interests. "She was a rare woman and has helped us all," wrote John M. Glenn, from Baltimore, a former president of the National Conference of Charities and Correction. A telegram came from David Blaustein, head of the Educational Alliance, which spoke of her as "an inspiration to workers in the cause of humanity." There was a letter from [79] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Henry Rice, for thirty years president of the United Hebrew Charities, who paid a tribute of esteem to "a genuine pioneer in the cause of organized charity, whose heart and hand ever worked in unison for the improvement of the human race/' Dr. A. F. Schauffler, of the New York City Mission and Tract Society, estimated that "this great city is distinctly poorer by reason of her death. Her influence was always on the right side, wholesome, brave and true." E. R. L. Gould, president of the City and Subur- ban Homes Company, wrote that in all his acquain- tance he had "known few, either among men or women, who thought more rationally and whose services were more unselfishly and devotedly ten- dered to humanity than were hers." George B. Robinson, of the New York Catholic Protectory, held that "none of the distinguished people to speak could say too much in honor of her character and service." In a letter from R. Fulton Cutting, president of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, was this paragraph : I do not think I have ever known a more true and dis- interested friend of humanity than Mrs. Lowell, nor one of more winning personality. It was the greatest pleasure to work with her, and I shall ever treasure the memory of my own experience in this connection. She was regarded as holding radical views upon some subjects, but the kind of radicalism she entertained is one which we can all adopt with great profit. It was of the heart and of the spirit of Jesus. On behalf of the Society for Italian Immigrants, the executive committee placed on record a tribute of appreciation for the service rendered by Mrs. [80] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Lowell in connection with its organization, develop- ment and achievement, The names of Eliot Nor- ton, W. F. Brush and Henry Gregory, as this com- mittee, were signed to the following: She was one of the first members of the society, and re- mained until her death one of the council of associates. Her broad sympathy with the Italian immigrant, her practical sagacity as to the work that could wisely be undertaken in his behalf, and her high-minded helpfulness to all with whom she was associated, will remain a pleasant and inspiring memory to those who were with her in this work. The Rev. Robert L. Paddock, rector of the Church of the Holy Apostles, wrote as follows: When the Committee for the Advancement of Public Morality was being organized, some five or six years ago, Mrs. Lowell was one of the most trusted advisers, and her sense of shame at what was being permitted in this great city did much to inspire the other members to renewed efforts for the saving of the poor girls in what was known as the "Red Light District." Her quiet confidence, her gentle- ness, the reserve of power which you were conscious could be released at the opportune moment, made her one of the greatest influences for good this community has ever known. From Thomas M. Mulry, president of the Parti- cular Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, came the following: Mrs. Lowell was, to my mind, one of the most earnest and intelligent and fearless workers in the cause of charity. There were times when we disagreed on methods, but there was never a time that I did not have the greatest respect and esteem for her. Her great work in the Charity Organization Society where she did so much to further the spirit of co- operation should never be forgotten by its members. She [8, ] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL was preeminently the most untiring, unselfish and self-sacri- ficing person with whom I have had the privilege to be asso- ciated in that organization, and her life's work should be an inspiration to others to follow in her footsteps. My rela- tions with her date back many years, they were at all times pleasant, and our differences of opinion never interfered with our friendship. I had many opportunities for knowing the sterling character of Mrs. Lowell, and her quiet deeds of charity among the poor. Her purse was always open to help the needy, and I have on different occasions acted as her almoner in dealing out money to deserving families in order that the home might not be broken up. From Miss Perkins, now of Concord, Mass., formerly associated with Mrs. Lowell in the Working Women's Society: She always seemed to embody the spirit Matthew Arnold describes in the beautiful poem "Rugby Chapel," dedicated to his father's memory. Let us quicken our souls with the vision of her "radiant vigor," of her "thirst, " Ardent, unquenchable Not with the crowd to be spent in an eddy of pur- poseless dust. To us thou wast cheerful and helpful and firm." Mrs. Lowell had truly a great heart, aflame with the desire to loose the bondman and bid the soul go free. Her deepest conviction, it seems to me, and the secret of her sweet, generous wholesome life, was of the value of the human soul and of its inalienable rights to everything that can keep its upward and onward march. She valued no material gain, no material possession, except as containing in itself added possibilities for noble life and unreckoning devoted service, both to the individual and to the community. She was built on the great lines that show us the possi- bilities in human nature, that give us hope in work for the world. The very sight of her benignant, loving face, as she sat on the platform in a dimly lighted room, up flights of [82] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL stairs, among the handful of women who consulted about the necessities of working women, stirred up all to a better way of doing things, to a finer devotion and determination to keep out the note of injustice or bitterness. Her greatest value to us was her own intrinsic beauty of character that could take up the judging and redressing of abuses, or the correcting mistaken views with an absence of selfhood that kept her own spirit clean and gave a nobility to her work which was our example and strong help. In any emergency, early or late, she stood ready to give counsel, cheer and money to help, each with equal simplicity. She had, truly, the golden touch while giving freely of herself, she drew from us our best. Some of the beautiful and permanent things we of the Working Women's Society hope we accomplished, might have come later, or in other ways, but never could there have been more of a high devotion and even exaltation, than our work received from our close association with this dear friend of us all. It was natural, perhaps, that some of the most personal expressions of loss were from those who had worked with Mrs. Lowell in connection with the Charity Organization Society. Mrs. William B. Rice, whose friendship began in war times, and who was associated with her on the central council of that society and in the State Charities Aid Asso- ciation wrote: I have known many women, worked with many in charities. I know of no one so absolutely disinterested, self-forgetful, earnest, single-hearted, as she. She seemed never to be even touched by the ordinary ambitions of men and women; and as for her ability what are we all to do without her strength and wisdom ? Charles D. Kellogg, the first secretary of the New York Charity Organization Society, wrote as follows: [83] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Mrs. Lowell has been for so many years esteemed by us for her sterling qualities of head and heart, and has contributed so pre-eminently to the building up of the society to its present high position in the confidence of the public, that her loss seems well-nigh irreparable. My association with her, in its preparatory work, antedates, by some months, the inaugu- ration of the society. Therefore I clearly recall not only her wonderful far-sightedness and executive ability, but I have many tender memories of her unselfish devotion to duty, her practical sagacity, her loving regard for the highest and truest welfare of the depressed and oppressed alike, and the tire- less and self-forgetful spirit which animated the varied activ- ities of the beneficient life to which she had devoted herself from her young womanhood. Samuel Macauley Jackson, a fellow member of the central council of the Charity Organization Society, wrote in these words: Her face here was a sad one. At least it always seemed so to me. She was never able to forget the crushing sorrow of her young womanhood. But we who could not enter into that sorrow, only wondered at its intensity and its duration, recognizing that it had sanctified her life. She was by her sor- row able to serve as she would not have been had she been the joyful wife and the mother of many children. She never knew poverty; she was a patrician in birth and training and property. She had access to the really best society, and had made herself a prominent place among the volunteer host in the army of philanthropists. But she did know the heart- ache, the loneliness, the unsatisfied gaze into the sky, the sickening sense of desertion which are harder than poverty to bear. The unfortunate, the fallen, the tempted, the poor, would have felt that between her in her high social station, her culture, her refinement, and themselves, there was no common experience, were it not for her widowhood. This experience of sorrow, though the sorrows differed, they had in common. It was God's way to fit her for years of loyal, loving, able service to the submerged and the incompe- IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL tent and the misdirected, to bring her first to shed tears over her dead. He weaned her from earth that He might open to her willing feet a path of divine service in imitation of Jesus Christ who bore the cross before He wore the crown. Perhaps equal significance belongs to the ex- pressions of opinion from those who worked as members of the staff. Mrs. Elizabeth V. H. Man- sell, now superintendent of the State Training School for Girls, at Trenton, N. J., and long inves- tigating agent of the New York Charity Organi- zation Society, wrote: No one can say more than we who worked shoulder to shoulder with her, knew of Mrs. Lowell's devotion to the poor, or, for that matter, her devotion to every cause that was for the betterment of mankind. She has said that she wished she had sixty lives that she might give them all to the cause. She gave her money and above all she gave herself, that the world might be better than she found it. The concrete charity work which Mrs. Lowell contributed in what is one of the largest and poor- est congested districts of New York, was spoken of in these terms by Miss Alice M. Decker, district agent of the Corlears district: I wish I were able to write you all the happiness, the benefit and the improvement, which this district, as a whole, owes to Mrs. Lowell. I think she seldom, if ever, came to the district office without stopping on her way to give a word of encourage- ment or reproof to either a city employe, a child on its way to school, or to do anything which she thought would be beneficial by interposition. If she found a street well cleaned and the street sweeper doing his work well, his number was taken by her, and a word of approval sent to his superintendent. If he were not doing his duty, or seemed to be wasting the time which belonged to others, he was spoken to kindly, but his action was not overlooked. At the meetings of the district IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL committee the same idea was carried out to the minutest detail. If there seemed to be carelessness or inefficiency shown in the records before they reached the district office, it was immediately noticed. To me, personally, she was always the kindest and truest of friends. She frequently corrected me, but always in such a manner that her correction was preferable to another's commendation. Her judgment in considering the treatment for the families under our care was thoroughly wise and sound, unless the person in destitution should happen to call at the office while she was there. Then her sympathy and love always outweighed her judgment. If she came to the office when there was a little party of the neighborhood people she was most intensely interested, and always wished to give them immediate relief. She was always ready to encourage and help those who came to her for advice and counsel. She was extremely careful in her oversight of the work being done by the agent and the assistants in the office, and her approval when given did more to encourage good effort than anything else could have done. Her influence was felt throughout the entire committee, and by all those who were fortunate enough to occasionally attend the weekly meetings. This is only a little of what I would like to say, but I hope her influence still may help someone else, as it has me. At one of the sessions of the New York State Con- ference of Charities and Correction, held in New York, November 16, 1905, Miss Louisa Lee Schuy- ler, in seconding a resolution on Mrs. Lowell's death, spoke of finding herself traveling back in thought over many years to the time when, in 1872, Mrs. Lowell first took part in public charitable work. Of this she said: It was as a member of the Richmond County visiting com- mittee of the State Charities Aid Association, her duty being to visit the poorhouse not far from her home on Staten Island, that she at once made her influence felt in behalf of these poor [ 86 ] IN MEMORIAM .-JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL people. And there her wonderful power of sympathy showed itself, a sympathy in the lives of those people as individuals which comprised their past, their present, and their future. Mrs. Lowell at once asked what, in their lives, had brought those men and women there, and, when they told her, she felt that she could help them better for this knowledge, could help others too, often saving them from pauperism by a help- ful hand extended at a critical moment. And this she did then and throughout her life. A few years later, in 1876, Mrs. Lowell, as member of the central body of the association, made one of the first of those very able reports with which, in later years, we have all become familiar. It was upon vagrancy and outdoor relief, and was read at a meeting of the association at which Governor Tilden was present. He at once recognized its ability and deter- mined, if possible, to secure the services of Mrs. Lowell for the state. He wished to appoint her a commissioner of the State Board of Charities. At that time, in this state, no woman had ever been appointed a member of an official state board, and the very proposition was a new departure. I remem- ber how Theodore Roosevelt, then a member of the State Board of Charities, came to me from Governor Tilden to talk it over. (I am speaking of the father of our president, my contemporary and personal friend.) I had known Mrs. Lowell from her girlhood; he was not yet acquainted with her. Well we talked it over, with the result that I was to ask Mrs. Lowell if she would accept, and, should she consent, Mr. Roose- velt was to see the leading state senators to ask if the nomi- nation of a woman to such a position would be confirmed. I remember so well my interview with Mrs. Lowell the argu- ments I turned over in my mind on the Staten Island ferry- boat to induce her to look upon the proposition, the sweet smile and friendly greeting of the young widow in simple black dress. I stated the object of my visit, and was proceeding to argue why it was so important that she should consider it, when she said very quietly; "If the governor and the senate wish to appoint me, I will gladly serve." " Do you wish to think it over ?" I asked. "No," she said, " I know what the work of the board is. I shall try to do it." And this was the IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL beginning of her very able service of over thirteen years as commissioner of the New York State Board of Charities. I need not add that her nomination was confirmed unanimously by the senate, nor that she and Mr. Roosevelt served together most efficiently on the board, as colleagues and friends, until his death. In speaking of a possible memorial, Miss Schuy- ler said: Possiby a small city park, as a playground for the children of one of the congested districts of our city, to be named after Mrs. Lowell, might be considered; and within it a fountain, symbolical, in its clear leaping waters, of purity and sweetness and light, of aspiration and continuity of purpose. It is thus I think of our friend a woman one cannot de- scribe, a woman to be loved and reverenced. Her influence for good has left an impression upon our city and state which no other woman has ever approached. In Boston the Symphony Concert of October 27, 1905, was in memory of Mrs. Lowell. In relation to this memorial, Mr. Higginson,* a lifelong friend of Mrs. Lowell, said in a letter to a friend: "What can we add to her memory? The concert here was an expression of our feeling. "It lay within my power to make a programme of a concert in our regular season. Therefore, I chose Schubert's far-reaching Unfinished Symphony, and Beethoven's Heroic Symphony as fitted for her the lovely and loving side and the heroic side of her life the best one can say in music for any one and I chose these because of our deep sympa- thy with her work, and great admiration for it and * Mr. Higginson is the founder of the symphony concerts, and Colonel Lowell was one of the friends whom he commemorated in his gift of the "Soldiers' Field" to Harvard College. [88] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL for her, the dear friend, and the wife of a dear friend, who had given his strength and life for his country's freedom from an inherited sin. "He was enrolled as a great public servant in time of need, and she is enrolled equally as the same. "She has blessed many, many poor and rich people, and has proved her full belief in the service of God and man/' The following minute written, it is understood by Mrs. William H. SchiefTelin, was adopted Nov- ember 7, 1905, by the Women's Auxiliary of the New York Civil Service Reform Association: In the death of Mrs. Lowell the Women's Auxiliary to the Civil Service Reform Association has lost its most loyal and distinguished member. In 1894 Mr. Schurz requested Mrs. Lowell to organize the auxiliary. This she undertook, but declined to be the presi- dent, modestly protesting that people were tired of seeing her name. She promised, however, to do the work, and this promise she bravely kept, coming with faithful regularity to all the meetings, disregarding the weather or her own fatigue, until last winter, when finally her health gave way. To these meetings Mrs. Lowell brought ideas and suggestions, which she presented with ever fresh enthusiasm, impressing upon her listeners the belief that to give much of one's time to the extension of the merit system was one of the chief duties in life. In studying the story of Mrs. Lowell's life from the time when her young husband and brother were killed in the Civil War when she consecrated her life to the cause of humanity we are thrilled at the revelation of the purity and nobil- ity of her character. Mrs. Lowell's absolute abnegation of self, her unique unworldiness, her tender sympathy for the neglected and suffering, her passionate desire to help those IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL longing and struggling for liberty and independence, her burning indignation against all that was unworthy and untrue, her patriotism and civic pride, her cheerfulness, helpfulness, and especially her humility, show a nature of surpassing purity and strength, a pattern not to women alone, but to all Ameri- cans. We who have been associated with Mrs. Lowell know that her place cannot be filled; for we have lost the inspiration of our leader and our dear friend. We sorrow for her, but we can also pray that our Father who has called her may awaken in our hearts the high desire to be more like her, and to follow her beautiful example. Resolutions were adopted also by the Women's Auxiliary to the Civil Service Reform Association of Massachusetts, on October 24, 1905. The New York Evening Post for November 14, 1905, published the following editorial: New York has seen few more noteworthy and fitting cele- brations of civic virtue and service than last night's meeting in honor of Josephine Shaw Lowell. For forty years she consecrated herself to the needs of every class in this commu- nity. Even those who deemed themselves familiar with Mrs. Lowell's achievements were astounded, as speaker after speaker rehearsed not merely her self-sacrifice, but the actual results of her work. In her own person she refuted the idea that women cannot be as practical as men, when given offices of responsibility; and her success as a state commissioner of charities and in private associations opened wide a door to useful public service for hundreds of her sex. Hence it is but natural that the meeting last night should have demanded a memorial, not so much to glorify her, who put aside all the temptations of high social position and of ample means, as to commemorate her example to coming generations particu- larly those born to wealth and position. Mr. Riis's suggestion [90] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL that one of the small city parks be named after Mrs. Lowell is admirable, but the memorial need not stop there. Still other ways in connection with charitable work suggest themselves among them the strengthening of the Charity Organization Society for commemorating one who uncomplainingly gave to her country first husband, next brother, and then herself. At the eleventh annual meeting of the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, the following resolution was adopted upon motion of Mrs. Edward A. Greeley, general federation secretary: When Time turns his hour-glass suddenly and surely with reluctance, for a noble woman whose sands of life were golden in their value to other lives, it is wise that before the last glistening grains fade upon our sight we pause to mark their passing. As the wise, untiring chairman for civil service reform in the New York State Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. Charles Russell Lowell, nee Josephine Shaw, of Boston, was devoted to her voluntary task with her committee, and almost the last strokes of her busy pen were in behalf of her federa- tion work. The report just read represents not only the interest and activity for the year; it embodies the conscien- tious energy of her whole faithful, heroic life. Born into an illustrious family, connected in Boston, where her brother, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, is honored by a monument on the historic Common at Beacon Hill, married to General Charles R. Lowell, who also distinguished himself in our Civil War, Mrs. Lowell bravely resigned the claims and attractions of her social life to consecrate herself to the assist- ance of others beyond the home circle. She was the organizer and moving spirit of the great Sani- tary Fair, held in New York in the fierce strain on hearts and homes during the battle time of 1863. When peace reigned once more, she turned to develop, with the same patient, characteristic attention as though still ani- mated with the enthusiasm of martial service, the equal need [9' ] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL for our Charity Organization Society. Yet, again, when a leading clergyman appealed for some woman in the dignified seclusion of her private life to come forth and bravely lead in a crusade for the city's moral welfare, Mrs. Lowell stepped unhesitatingly to the forefront and gave freely of her time, means, and counsel. Her last work was in the broad ideal which goes beyond our municipal boundary, and seeks to educate our entire country by a widespread civil service reform. The social element of women's clubs had never attracted Mrs. Lowell, but, when her clear perception saw the collective force of so many thousand women, she promptly allied herself with them, and became of right a leader among women. She aimed for the highest good of her country and humanity. Her name is a glory to both. The Boston Evening Transcript published the following account of the memorial concert for Mrs. Lowell : It was an exceptional concert that the Symphony Orchestra gave yesterday afternoon in Symphony Hall, and with two numbers of its programme the reviewer in the ordinary prac- tice of his calling has little, under the circumstances, to do. The concert began with Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. It included Beethoven's Heroic Symphony. It ended with Beethoven's Dvorak's concerto for violincello, in which Mr. Warnke, the new principal 'cellist of the band, made his first appearance apart from it. The concerto and the new virtuoso are the reviewer's concern, and we shall write of them at length on Monday. The two symphonies were not played, as they usually are, as so much absolute music for our pleasure. They were played at Mr. Higginson's request to recall and to honor the memory of Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, who died in New York not many weeks ago. Behind, but still bright, were the memories of the two families whose name she bore, and, brightest of all, those of both houses who gave their lives in Civil War. Our finest piece of sculpture bears daily witness [92] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL to one of them. Yesterday it fell to another art, in the par- ticular name of sister or of wife, to honor them all. There was the art of music at its fullest and finest in the concert. Who shall write new praise now of the two sympho- nies ? But neither they nor the art that they incarnate were serving their usual purpose. Yesterday it was for the" Eroica" symphony in all its glorified voices, to recall with the trans- figuring power of beautiful sound a noble life lived well, a life that ran rich and full and that gave lavishly of its rich- ness and fullness. It was for that same power of sound to recall a little of the stress and suffering in which some of that life was lived as it gave to the state those that it held dearest. It was most of all for it to publish a solemn grief and to exalt an illustrious memory. Such mourning and such proclama- tions were for it and for Beethoven. More intimate and more lyric were the passion and beauty of Schubert's frag- ment. Here was the passionate longing that is music's peculiar voice, and passionate regret, and side by side with them the lyric beauty that soothes and softens. The " Eroica" symphony had been a stately mourning. The unfinished symphony was as the voice of personal griefs. Beethoven's music proclamed a life well fought and an exalted memory. In Schubert's played the light of the ideal for which that life was lived, and the light that will suffuse the memory of it for them that cherish it. In Schubert were the human cry and the human solace. A woman's memory asked his music. Beethoven's was for her, and both her houses, and all her heroes. H. F. P. The Independent for October 20, 1905, published the following: In the death of Josephine Shaw Lowell last week the Uni- ted States loses one of its noblest and greatest women. For forty years there has been nobody in New York whose chari- table and social reform effort has resulted in greater and more lasting achievement than hers. Her monument is built in the Charity Organization Society, which she founded twenty- [93] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL three years ago, in the constitutions and statutes of New York, in the successful fight for civil service reform, in her impress on the labor movement, on the college settlements, and in fact on every good endeavor for civic reform. Her beloved young husband, Charles Russell Lowell, was killed in the Civil War at Cedar Creek her patriot brother, Robert Gould Shaw, perished at Fort Wagner, at the head of his Negro regiment, and was buried with them. No wonder, with the example of two such sacrifices to treasure in her memory, Mrs. Lowell became what she was. Her work will remain. On April 12, 1906, the Women's Municipal League of New York, held a meeting in memory of Mrs. Lowell, its founder. Miss Chanler, president of the League, was in the chair and made the opening address. Miss Schuyler spoke of Mrs. Lowell's work for the State Charities Aid Association; Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows, the Prison Association of New York; Miss Kate Bond, the Charity Organization Society; Miss Grace H. Dodge, the peace movement; Miss Lillian D. Wald, the East Side Relief Work Committee; Dr. Jane E. Robbins,the Settle- ments; Mrs. William H. Schieffelin, the Women's Auxiliary of the New York Civil Service Reform Association; and Mrs. Frederick Nathan, the Consumers' League. [94] IN MEMORIAM JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL A FEW TYPICAL SELECTIONS FROM MRS. LOWELL'S OFFICIAL REPORTS AND WRITINGS I OBJECT to the term "dependent classes," unless in speak- ing of the insane. That such a class, not included among the insane, does exist among us is a fact; in more than one county of this great rich state, there are families, as you know, who for five generations have been more or less de- pendent on their fellow citizens, and such families do consti- tute a class; but yet I protest against the use of this phrase in a way to suggest that the existence of such a class should be recognized except to be abolished. That there will always be persons who must be helped, individuals who must depend on public relief or on private charity for maintenance, is true, but it is a disgrace to any community to have a dependent class, and the fact of its existence is a proof that the community has done its duty neither to those who compose it nor to those who maintain it. From Out-Door Relief (A paper read at the State Convention of Superintendents of the Poor, held at Lockport, N. Y., August, 1890.) To the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction: GENTLEMEN You are doubtless as painfully aware as it is possible for any one to be of the incompetency and of the graver moral deficiencies of many of the subordinates who have been appointed to fill places in the charitable institutions under [95] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL your charge. The more thoroughly we become acquainted with the management of these institutions, the more firmly are we convinced that under the present system of making appoint- ments, an efficient and proper administration of them is impossible. So long as political pressure is allowed to have weight with you in the choice of employe's, so long will the charitable institutions of the city be badly managed. Copy of letter to the Commissioners of Public Chari- ties and Correction, New York City, April 24, 1877, included in communication to Smith Ely, Mayor, in regard to the official charities of the City. March 5, 1879. To ibe Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction: GENTLEMEN The more I see of the attendants in the Luna- tic Asylum on Blackwell's Island, the more am I impressed by their sad deficiency in judgment and inadequate acquaintance with their profession. I do not mean that they are generally careless or unfaithful. I see no particular sign of that in the short visits I am able to make at the asylum, but I do feel most painfully that they lack discretion and that even many of those who have experience are not competent to fulfil the duties of their office. Yesterday one nurse assured me repeatedly, in the presence of a patient, that the latter was not crazy, but that she had a fearful temper; that she wished to kill people, and that she could escape from any restraint put on her. Such statements, of course, serve simply to incite the patient to violence. She naturally has a pride in being unmanageable and wishes to keep up the character given to her. I do not complain of the nurse, for I do not think it is her fault; she has never been taught. I only mention the fact as typical and to show what I mean. Letter included in Mrs. Lowell's report upon the Conditions and Needs of the Insane of New York City, to the State Board of Charities, January, 1881. [96] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL Such expenditure is not extravagance in money, but I believe there is great extravagance in the management of the Department of Public Charities and Correction, because the whole tendency of the system under which it it governed, is, as I have said, to encourage the increase of pauperism, in- sanity and crime. The most remarkable feature of this system, is the want of any large aim in the conduct of the institutions. Many facilities exist in this city for adopting preventive and reforma- tory systems, but the only ambition in the department seems to be to receive all who come, to take care of them as well as may be at the lowest possible rate, and to prevent any serious scandals; but to check the swelling tide of pauperism, to reform the prisoners, to teach the idle habits of industry, to cure the insane, are not the objects set before themselves or their subordinates, by the Commissioners of Public Charities and Correction. The mere fact of giving to subordinate officials the assurance that good conduct should be rewarded by permanence of posi- tion, and a gradually increasing rate of salary, and the establish- ment of training schools for the attendants at the insane asylums, would go far to raise the character of the institutions by raising that of the officials. Report on the Public Charities of New York City, to the State Board of Charities, January, 1882. My object in compiling this book is to present an account of some of the methods by which industrial peace has been sought and attained in many large industries, both in Europe and in this country, and to hold up to the gratitude and respect of their fellow employers and fellow workmen the achievements of the men who have by these methods already brought a bless- ing to thousands, and broken a path which all may now follow. Actuated by the highest sense of justice and love of right, they have been so happy as to be able to put their princi- ples into practice and to watch the successful results of their [97] IN MEMORIAM : JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL efforts, and they have from time to time published some account of what they have done. It is from their own writings that I have collected the materials I have used. I offer them my own most earnest gratitude. JOSEPHINE SHAW LOWELL. March 5, 1893. Dedication of Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation. No great political reform wrought in America represents the triumph of public opinion as docs this. Its extension must depend on the same force, and there are branches of high importance, in both state and nation, to which it does not yet apply. We should help by every means within our power, and particularly through education, to create a public opinion so much stronger that the principle will be estab- lished in every place in v/hich it does not now prevail. Report as chairman of committee on civil service re- form, nth annual meeting of the New York State Federation of Labor, October 3o-November 3, 1905. This report represents the last public work of the chairman, whose death occurred two weeks before it was submitted. PARTIAL LIST OF MRS. LOWELL'S WRITINGS * REPORT ON NEW YORK JUVENILE GUARDIAN SOCIETY as a member of S. B. of C, the other members of the committee being Theodore Roosevelt and Henry L. Hoguet. 1878. COMMUNICATION TO HON. SMITH ELY, MAYOR, IN REGARD TO THE OFFICIAL CHARITIES OF THE CITY, the other members of the committee being Theodore Roosevelt and Edward C. Donnelly. 1878. COMMUNICATION TO BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND APPORTION- MENT IN REGARD TO APPROPRIATION DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC CHARITIES, the other member of the committee being Theo- dore Roosevelt. 1878. REPORT AS COMMISSIONER ON PUBLIC CHARITIES OF NEW YORK CITY with Edward C. Donnelly. 1879. ONE MEANS OF PREVENTING PAUPERISM. (Plea for a State Reformatory for Women.) N. C. C. C. 1879. REPORT ON PUBLIC CHARITIES OF NEW YORK to S. B. of C. 1879 and 1880. REFORMATORIES FOR WOMEN. 1880. INSTITUTIONS FOR DEAF AND DUMB. Report to S. B. of C. 1882. CONDITIONS AND NEEDS OF THE INSANE OF NEW YORK CITY. Report to S. B. of C. 1882. BETTER SYSTEM OF CHARITIES AND CORRECTION FOR CITIES. N. C. C C. 1881. OUTDOOR RELIEF. Report to S. B. of C. 1882. * Abbreviations S. B. of C. State Board of Charities ; N. C. C. C. Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and Corrections ; C. O. S. Charity Organization Society. [99] PARTIAL LIST OF MRS. LOWELL'S WRITINGS REPORT ON IDIOTS to S. B. of C, the other member of the committee being J. C. Devereux. 1883, REPORTS ON DEAF AND DUMB to S. B. of C, the other mem- ber of the committee being J. C. Devereux. 1883, 1884. INSANE AND LUNATIC ASYLUMS OF NEW YORK CITY. Re- port toS. B. of C. 1883. REPORT ON ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF CHARITY ORGAN- IZATION SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 1884. PUBLIC RELIEF AND PRIVATE CHARITY. Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1884. OUTDOOR RELIEF. Report to S. B. of C., the other member of the committee being Ripley Ropes. 1884. INSTITUTIONS FOR THE CARE of DESTITUTE CHILDREN. Report to S. B. of C. 1886. REPORT ON REFORMATORIES to S. B. of C. Other members of the committee being William R. Stewart and Robert McCarthy. 1887. PUBLIC CHARITIES OF NEW YORK CITY. Report to S. B. of C. 1887. ADAPTABILITY OF CHARITY ORGANIZATION TO SMALL COM- MUNITIES. N. C. C. C. 1887. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS Report to S. B. of C. 1888. REPORT ON WORKHOUSE TO S. B. OF C. 1888. REPORT ON RANDALL'S ISLAND SCHOOLS FOR DEFECTIVE CHILDREN TO S. B. OF C. 1888. OUTDOOR RELIEF. Report to S. B. of C. 1890. INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION. Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. POVERTY AND ITS RELIEF. Methods possible in the City of New York. N. C. C. C. 1895. LABOR ORGANIZATION AS AFFECTED BY LAW. First number of Charities Review, November, 1891. PARTIAL LIST OF MRS. LOWELL'S WRITINGS THE DARKEST ENGLAND SOCIAL SCHEME. Brief review of the first year's work. Charities Review, March, 1892. INDUSTRIAL PEACE. Charities Review, January, 1893. CHAPTER OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY; an account of two coal mines in Belgium. Charities Review, May, 1893. "FELIX QUI CAUSUM RERUM COGNOVIT;" further review of the Darkest England scheme. Charities Review, June ,1893. FIVE MONTHS WORK FOR THE UNEMPLOYED IN NEW YORK CITY. Charities Review, May, 1894. THE COAL STRIKE of 1894. Charities Review, November, 1894. POVERTY AND ITS RELIEF. Methods possible in the City of New York. N. C. C. C. 1895. CHARITY PROBLEMS. Charities Review, January, 1896. THE TRUE AIM OF CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETIES. Forum, June, 1896. CONSUMERS LEAGUES. An article published by the Christ- ian Social Union, Boston. 1898. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. N. C. C. C. 1898. EVILS OF INVESTIGATION AND RELIEF. C. O. S. 1898. OUTDOOR RELIEF IN COAL. Committee of the Charity Organization Society, the other members being Prof. Rich- mond Mayo-Smith and F. W. Holls. Annual report of C. O. S. 1899. LETTER ON EMERGENCY RELIEF FUNDS, signed also by Miss Wald and Miss Williams. Charities, February 25, 1899. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON DISTRICT WORK. C. O. S. Mrs. Lowell, chairman. 1899. ENGLAND OF 1777 AMERICA OF 1904 A comparison of conditions in jails. Charities, April 9, 1904. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. New York State Federation of Women's Clubs. Mrs. Lowell chair- man. 1905. Federation Bulletin. January, 1906. [101] -In memo ri an : Josephine HV28 iSK- Shaw Lowell M187139 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY