Chapter III: Part 3

It was quite natural that a woman who had watched ships pass her island home ever since childhood should long to travel. Miss Mitchell was especially eager to meet the great scientists of Europe. At last the happy time came for a European trip. Everywhere she was cordially received, and astronomers not only opened their observatories to her, but welcomed her in their homes.

Shortly after Vassar College was opened, Maria Mitchell was asked to become its professor of astronomy and director of the observatory. Accepting this position meant giving up to a great extent her own studies and the hopes of making more discoveries in the heavens. However, Miss Mitchell was very anxious that women should have a chance for higher education. Therefore, she put her own ambitions aside and threw herself into the work of teaching.

Hundreds who knew her at Vassar will say that she chose wisely. She was honored as a remarkable teacher and loved as a friend and adviser.

Miss Mitchell was a prominent member of many important organizations. Several colleges conferred degrees upon her.

In 1905 Maria Mitchell was elected to the Hall of Fame. This hall, which is situated on the grounds of New York University, was built to commemorate the achievements of distinguished citizens of the United States.

Maria Mitchell lives in the memory of scientists as a great astronomer. She lives in the hearts of her students as one who taught the beauty of thorough and accurate work, and of lives free from pretense and sham.

Alice Freeman Palmer—

The Girl Who Guided College Girls

Mr. Freeman lifted his five-year-old daughter to the platform to speak her piece. Little Alice had been allowed to go comfortably to sleep during the earlier part of the village entertainment. However, as soon as she was on her feet, all traces of drowsiness disappeared. She loved the bit of poetry that she had taught herself. With rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes, she declaimed it so enthusiastically that the whole roomful of people burst into delighted clapping.

Seeing smiling faces all about her, Alice smiled, too, and put her little hands together and clapped as vigorously as anyone. She did not realize that it was she herself who had given the audience pleasure. Because these friends and neighbors were happy, she was happy with them.

When she grew up, Alice Freeman could still forget herself and enter into the moods of others. She seemed to know exactly how the other person felt. That was one of the reasons why, when she became the president of Wellesley College, she was able to help the students make the very best of their lives.

This first public appearance of Alice Elvira Freeman was in the country village of Colesville, New York, where she was born, February 21, 1855. Her father was a young farmer, high-minded and hard working. Her mother was a farmer’s daughter and had been a school teacher. Both parents were very deeply religious.

Mrs. Freeman was so busy cooking and churning and washing that five-year-old Alice helped her all that she could. She washed dishes, gathered eggs from the barn, and looked after the three younger children.

Two years later there was even more need of Alice’s help. Mr. Freeman had decided to become a doctor, and his young wife had bravely undertaken to carry on the farm alone while he was studying. The two little sisters and the brother depended on Alice to fasten their buttons and to amuse them. Thus from a very early age Alice Freeman had to think for others as well as for herself. Such training was of great value to her when she had to care for a large family of Wellesley College girls.

When Alice’s father began to practice medicine in the village of Windsor, New York, Alice loved to drive with him and hold the horse during his visits to patients. She was interested in hearing about his cases and she enjoyed the shady roads and wayside flowers. Throughout her whole life, she rejoiced that she had been a country child.

At ten years of age Alice Freeman became an eager pupil at the Windsor Academy. One of her teachers, who had taken a great interest in her throughout her course, inspired Alice to go to college.

When Alice talked the matter over with her father, he said that he could not afford to send her to college. He felt that, as there was only money enough for one college education in the family, the boy must have it. Alice begged very hard to go. She promised to send her brother through college, and to give to her sisters whatever education they desired. Dr. Freeman at length consented to her entering the University of Michigan. As for her promise, she kept it to the letter.

At the University Alice was confronted with her next big problem. She failed to pass her entrance examinations! The President had already talked with the earnest, intelligent seventeen-year-old girl. He realized that her school, though a good one, had not prepared her for college. Therefore he asked the examiners to allow her to enter on a six weeks’ trial. At the end of that time, there was no doubt of Alice Freeman’s ability to lead her classmates.

This frail girl made up all the studies required for entrance, did excellent work in her classes, and took an active part in the college clubs. She went to church twice on Sunday and attended a midweek service. She taught a Sunday-school class and put new life into the Christian Association. She was never too busy to be friendly, cheerful, and joyous.

Alice Freeman received her Bachelor’s degree after four years of college work. Three years later, after having taught successfully in the middle west, she was asked to become the head of the history department at Wellesley College. In 1881, when she was only twenty-six years old, Miss Freeman was made its president.

As college president Miss Freeman led a very busy life. The college was young and needed to be guided carefully. She worked so lovingly and enthusiastically for it that more students applied than could be admitted. Wealthy people gave money for scholarships, and many new schools were started to prepare students for college.

Miss Freeman was a real mother to the large family of Wellesley College girls. They were free to go to her with all their problems, and they never went in vain. She had a way of seeing the best thing in a girl and of making her feel that she must bring the whole up to this level.

After six years of this devoted service to Wellesley College, Alice Freeman was married to George Herbert Palmer, then Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. Happy years followed for them. Mrs. Palmer was as successful a home-maker as she had been a college president. She was a delightful hostess to the many interesting guests that were welcomed at their home.

Mrs. Palmer still found plenty of work to do for others. She was a trustee of Wellesley College, a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, and the president of the International Institute for Girls in Spain. She always could find time for any cause which was to make the world wiser and better.

From all over the country Mrs. Palmer’s advice was sought on whatever had to do with education. Many colleges and universities conferred degrees upon her. In 1920 her name was greatly honored by being selected for the Hall of Fame.

Alice Freeman Palmer, college president and great educator, never lost the child Alice’s gift of sympathy. She cared very deeply what people did with their lives. That was why she could inspire them to be of real service.

Maud Powell—

The Girl Whose Violin Spread Afar The Message of Music

The sweet strains of one of Mozart’s violin sonatas filled the room. One of the players was a bright-eyed little girl. The other, it was easy to guess from the proud and tender look that she gave her little companion, was the child’s mother. Both mother and daughter loved these hours together with their violins.

Music meant much to this mother. She enjoyed composing as well as playing. She was very happy to know that music gave pleasure to her little daughter also. The hope was in this mother’s heart that some day little Maud would be a great musician. It was a hope that was realized, for, in later years, Maud Powell became known as the foremost American violinist.

Maud Powell was born in Peru, Illinois, August 22, 1868. When she was two years old, the family moved to Aurora, Illinois, where, for several years, her father was head of the public schools. From the time that little Maud was a baby she loved music. When she was only four years old, she was taught to play simple pieces on the piano.

At an early age she showed such fondness for the violin that Mr. and Mrs. Powell decided to have her study in Chicago with Mr. William Lewis. Twice every week little Maud had to travel on the train, forty miles each way, to take her lessons. She had to go alone, too, because money could not be spared to pay the fare of a companion. The little musician enjoyed these lessons very much. After she grew up she did not forget this teacher, and often said that he had given her a splendid foundation for her work.

Before she was ten years old, the little violinist played in public as a soloist with the Chicago Ladies Vocal Quartet. By the time that she was twelve years old, it was quite evident that Maud Powell had real talent for the violin. Then, her parents decided that their little girl must be given the best possible musical education. They fully realized that this would be very expensive, and would necessitate a long absence from home.

One day Maud said good-by to her dear father and all her young friends, and sailed away to Germany with her mother to study music. Mr. Powell missed his little girl and her mother very much, but he was proud when he received letters telling of his daughter’s success. The good news helped him to work harder so as to be able to send them the necessary money.

After studying at Leipzig, the little American girl passed a brilliant examination, and was chosen to play at a public concert. Later, Mrs. Powell was anxious to have her daughter study with a distinguished French teacher, Charles Dancla, at the Paris Conservatory. Maud learned that there were only a few new pupils to be admitted and that she would be one of eighty applicants. The examinations were made especially severe for foreigners, but Maud Powell was the first to be admitted.

This Frenchman delighted in teaching the eager young American girl. He took great pains with her, and was always just and fair. After having had but three lessons on a selection on which a class of eighty-four was to be examined, Maud Powell passed above everyone else. One of the pupils had been studying this selection for six months. It was not only Maud Powell’s greater talent but also her general knowledge of music that made it possible for her to grasp new work readily.

The lonely father at home was cheered by messages of his young daughter’s success and popularity in London, where she was playing in drawing-rooms and at concerts. Joachim, a distinguished German violinist, was so impressed by Maud Powell’s playing that he wanted her to join his class in Berlin. He said that she was more than a mere talented child; that she would, with training, make a great artist. She passed the examinations for his class, without the usual six months’ preparation, and worked hard with him for a year.

Then came the longed-for return to America and the reuniting of the family. Maud Powell was eager to show her father that his sacrifices had not been in vain. Many people thought that the violin was an instrument for a man only. Nevertheless, at the age of seventeen, this young girl made her debut as a violin soloist at a concert of the New York Philharmonic Society, conducted by Theodore Thomas. From that time on the fame of Maud Powell’s violin grew. It was heard throughout the United States and in many foreign lands.

Miss Powell did not play merely for a livelihood or for fame. Music had meant so much to her that she felt that she must bring it into the lives of others. She was especially eager to give the inspiration of her music to people who had few opportunities of hearing great artists. That was why she gave recitals in hundreds of small towns, and was always glad to play for schools and colleges.

Miss Powell never slighted her programs even though she was playing in the smallest place. She gave her best, thinking that some one in her audience might not have another opportunity to hear good music.

In fact, Miss Powell never gave anything but her best at any concert. She would memorize a long selection perfectly even if she knew it were to be played only once. She took great pains to have her programs varied, and delighted in introducing American compositions to her audiences.

In 1904 Miss Powell married H. Godfrey Turner. He assisted her greatly by attending to the business arrangements for her concerts.

Great praise and appreciation came to Maud Powell for the marvelous music that she brought forth from her violin. However, the road from gifted childhood to finished artist was a long, hard one. She pushed aside every obstacle by her tireless work. The long hours of practicing and the years of homelessness and loneliness were endured for the sake of her beloved music. Maud Powell will always be remembered, not only because she played the violin remarkably, but because she carried the message of music to out-of-the-way parts of the world.

Ellen H. Richards—

A Scientist Who Helped Home-Makers

“A half pound of saleratus, please,” demanded a customer. “I never can cook with soda.” “Give me baking soda,” another woman insisted. “I cannot use saleratus.”

The bright-eyed young girl behind the counter of the country store supplied them both from the same package, rather amused that they should not know that baking soda and saleratus are as alike as two peas in a pod.

“I should like to know more about the nature of the things that I am selling,” thought Ellen Swallow. Little did she dream that her future years were to be spent in making life easier and happier for women by enabling them to learn about these very things.

On December 3, 1842, Ellen Henrietta Swallow was born near the village of Dunstable, Massachusetts. She was an out-of-door girl and loved to follow her father and uncles about the farm. She drove the cows to pasture, rode horseback, and often pitched hay. She made a little flower garden too, and tended it carefully.

Little Ellen was also quick and skillful at indoor tasks. Her mother, who had a deft hand at any kind of housework, taught her to sew and cook. Ellen’s doll’s bed had sheets and pillowcases daintily hemstitched by her own hand. At the country fair, one year, two prizes fell to thirteen-year-old Ellen Swallow, one for a beautifully embroidered handkerchief and another for the best loaf of bread.

Ellen’s mother and father were well educated, and had been teachers. They taught Ellen at home until she was ready for the academy.

Mr. Swallow gave up farming and opened a country store in the village of Westford, Massachusetts, so that Ellen could attend the academy there. Ellen enjoyed her studies and mastered them thoroughly. She was such a fine Latin student that later she was able to earn money for her college expenses by teaching that subject.

Ellen Swallow was as active and energetic out of school as in school. She was a capable little business woman. She waited on customers in her father’s store and kept his accounts. She even made trips to Boston to buy goods for the store. This early training was very helpful when in later years she had to handle large sums of money for many philanthropic and educational purposes.

At home Ellen was often the housekeeper for weeks at a time, during her frail mother’s illnesses. She not only cooked and washed, but she cleaned house, papered rooms, and laid carpets, as well. What she learned of managing a house in her school-girl days was a very valuable addition to what science taught her later about good home-making. Ellen Swallow was very quick and capable. In addition to her school, home, and store duties, she had time for reading and for working in her precious flower garden.

After her academy days Ellen Swallow’s hours were filled by teaching a country school, helping in the store and at home, and caring for sick friends and neighbors; but she was not satisfied. She felt a great longing to learn and to do more.

There was no college in New England at that time which admitted women. Ellen Swallow therefore decided to enter Vassar College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, which had only recently been founded.

College days were very happy ones for this active-minded young woman. She wrote home to her mother glowing accounts of her new life and told her all about her school work and the books that she was reading. Science was her favorite study. One of her teachers was Maria Mitchell, who took a great interest in the young girl.

After graduating from Vassar College, Ellen Swallow was eager to go on with the study of chemistry that she had begun there. After some difficulty she gained admittance to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as its first woman student. In fact, she was the first woman to enter any strictly scientific school in the United States. One of the teachers thought that this young woman looked rather frail to be taking such difficult work. The President answered, “Did you notice her eyes? They are steadfast and they are courageous. She will not fail.”

Not only did she _not_ fail in her studies, but she also supported herself. She did tutoring, took charge of an office for a friend, and temporarily ran the boarding house where she lived.

It was feared about this time that the water near many towns and cities in Massachusetts was becoming unfit for drinking. The newly organized State Board of Health decided to have samples of the water examined to see whether it contained impurities.

Miss Swallow had proved herself to be so accurate and dependable that the chemist chosen to analyze the water handed over most of the work to her. Often she had to work far into the night when many samples came in at a time. She analyzed forty thousand samples of water. This careful work meant the prevention of much disease. For ten years she was assistant chemist for the State Board of Health, and then chemist for ten years.

When Ellen Swallow was married to Professor Robert Hallowell Richards, head of the department of mining engineering in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she did not give up her public work. Yet she maintained a real home in which she carried out her ideas about building and furnishing, cleanliness and fresh air, and labor-saving devices. Many guests were welcomed to this busy woman’s home and all found it a place of restfulness and peace.

Mrs. Richards’ great desire was that girls should have the same opportunity to receive a scientific training as had boys. Largely through her efforts a Woman’s Laboratory was opened in connection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This Laboratory was established for the purpose of giving scientific training to women.

Mrs. Richards gave generously to the Laboratory, teaching without salary, and contributing to its support as well. Soon after women were admitted to the Institute on the same footing as men, Mrs. Richards was made Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry in the Institute, a position which she held for the rest of her life.

Mrs. Richards might have spent her time in scientific research. However, she preferred instead to put her knowledge of science to practical use. She tested wall papers and fabrics to see if they contained arsenic, and staple groceries to detect impurities. She studied oils to discover how the danger from explosives could be lessened.

Mrs. Richards wrote many helpful books about home-making. She organized a society of people interested in promoting right living in the home, the school, and the community. The name of this organization is American Home Economics Association. Because of her influence home economics is now taught in schools throughout the land.

To Ellen H. Richards, sanitary chemist, the facts of science were never just facts, but the means of making people healthier and happier.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton—

The Girl Who Helped to Draft Woman’s Declaration of Independence

“What a pity it is she’s a girl!”

Four-year-old Elizabeth heard this remark over and over again from the visitors who had come to see her baby sister. She thought that she ought to feel sorry for the baby, too. When she was a little older, Elizabeth Cady realized what a pity it was that girls and women could not have the same privileges and advantages as had boys and men.

Elizabeth Cady was born at Johnstown, New York, November 12, 1815. When this little girl grew up, she called the first Woman’s Rights Convention and worked all her life to gain more privileges for women. As a child she felt the disadvantages of being a girl in the early days of the 1800’s.

When her only brother, a fine promising college graduate, died, eleven-year-old Elizabeth realized that her father loved his son far more than all of his five daughters. Longing to comfort him Elizabeth climbed on his knee.

“Oh, my daughter, would that you were a boy!” was all that he could say.

From that moment Elizabeth resolved to equal boys. To be learned and courageous she decided was the way to accomplish her purpose. Before breakfast the next morning she went to her dear friend and pastor and asked him to teach her Greek. She insisted on beginning that very minute. To prove herself courageous she learned to drive a horse, and to leap a fence and ditch on horseback.

Within a short time she began to study Greek, Latin, and mathematics with a class of boys at the village academy. She did so well that she won the second prize, a Greek testament. Joyfully Elizabeth rushed home expecting to hear her father say, “Now, you are equal to a boy.” However, his kisses and praise failed to take away the sting of his remark, “Ah, you should have been a boy!” Elizabeth’s father was a distinguished lawyer and judge. His office adjoined the house, and there his little daughter spent much of her time talking with his students and listening to his clients.

Often his clients were widows who wept and complained that the property which they had brought into the family had been willed to their sons. Elizabeth could not understand why her father, who was wise and kind, could not help these poor women. Then Judge Cady would take down from the shelves a big volume and show her the law.

The students, seeing how interested she was in the laws about women, amused themselves by reading to her the most unfair laws that they could find. They often teased her, too, in order to hear her bright remarks.

Little Elizabeth was so distressed by the unfairness of the law in regard to women that she made up her mind to cut them all out of her father’s law books. She refrained from doing this upon learning that it would not help the situation.

Much to her disgust Elizabeth Cady could not go to college, as did her boy classmates, for at that time girls were not admitted. However, she entered the Willard Seminary for girls in Troy, New York, where she studied for some time. Later she went on with her studies at home, never losing her interest in laws for women.

In her twenty-fifth year Elizabeth Cady married Henry B. Stanton, a lecturer on antislavery, who later became a lawyer. After several happy years in Johnstown and Boston, the young couple settled in Seneca Falls, New York. By this time the champion of woman’s rights began to know by experience something of a woman’s home problems. She had a big house to manage with very little help, and her lively girls and boys needed constant care.

In her round of everyday duties, however, Mrs. Stanton did not forget the wrongs to women. She, together with Lucretia Mott and some others, called a big meeting, the first Woman’s Rights Convention, at Seneca Falls in 1848, to talk over this question.

At this meeting Mrs. Stanton and her coworkers presented a Declaration of Sentiments based upon the Declaration of Independence. They also presented eleven resolutions, one of which demanded the vote for women. Mrs. Stanton was entirely responsible for this resolution and placed great emphasis upon it. She believed that through the ballot for women all other rights for women could be secured.

The newspapers made a great deal of fun of all the reforms discussed at the convention, particularly the proposal that women should vote. In those days most people were quite ready to admit that a woman could manage her home capably and be bright and entertaining in company. However, they thought it very unwomanly that she should dream of helping to make laws to secure better schools or cleaner streets.

Mrs. Stanton was surprised and distressed to have her very serious purpose treated so lightly, but ridicule did not prevent her from upholding woman’s rights whenever she had an opportunity.

Three years after this she met Susan B. Anthony, the woman who was to be her lifelong friend and fellow-worker. Except for their lectures in the cause of temperance and antislavery, Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony gave their whole lives to gaining more freedom for their fellow-women.

The two friends were very different in characteristics, but they were of one mind on the question of woman’s rights. Miss Anthony had not at first thought it necessary for women to have the vote, but she was soon won over to her friend’s opinion. Year after year these two earnest workers endeavored to arouse the country to do something for women. Never a jealous thought as to which one should have the glory for anything accomplished marred this fifty years of friendship.

Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony lectured in big cities and all sorts of little out-of-the way places. Together with their friend Mrs. Gage, they wrote a very complete history of what had been done to gain the vote for women.

Of Mrs. Stanton’s children, a daughter, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, has followed directly in her mother’s footsteps as a public speaker for the cause of women. She has also written several books about woman’s place in the work of the world. Theodore Stanton, one of the sons, also writes in behalf of women.

Throughout a long lifetime Elizabeth Cady Stanton courageously and steadfastly pleaded the cause of women. She lived to see them enjoying better property rights and educational privileges, and in four states helping to make the laws. Eighteen years after her death the Nineteenth Amendment gave the vote to women throughout the United States.

Harriet Beecher Stowe—

The Girl Whose Story of Slavery Aroused the Whole World

It was the night of the annual exhibition of the Litchfield Academy. Twelve-year-old Harriet Beecher waited eagerly for a certain part of the program. Presently she heard read before all the learned people assembled the familiar words of her own composition, one of the three chosen for this great occasion.

As Harriet listened to the sentences that she had composed with so much care, she watched the face of her father who sat on the platform. It brightened. She knew that he was interested.

At the close of the entertainment she heard him ask, “Who wrote that composition?”

Her teacher replied, “Your daughter, sir.”

It was the proudest moment of Harriet’s life. When this little academy student became a woman she wrote a book which set the whole world to thinking of the evil of slavery. It was _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_.

Harriet Beecher was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, June 14, 1811. Her father had only a country parson’s meagre salary to provide for the wants of eleven children. What a father he was—grave and serious enough in the pulpit, but full of fun and enthusiasm at home. It was mere play for Harriet and the boys to pile wood, when their father superintended.

Harriet was very rich in sisters and brothers. She loved them all dearly, especially the merry, energetic big sister, Catherine, and the chubby little boy two years younger than she, Henry Ward Beecher, who grew up to be a famous minister.

Little Harriet had only a sweet memory of her mother who had died when she was a small child. Wherever she went, she was told of her mother’s beautiful life. It made her very happy to know that she had a mother whom everyone loved.

There were no expensive toys in the Beecher family, but Harriet was well content without them. She played with her glass-eyed wooden doll and a set of cups and saucers made by her own hands out of codfish bones. In the woodpile she found treasures in the moss and lichens on the logs. From them she fashioned little pictures using the moss for green fields, sprigs of spruce for the trees, and bits of glass for lakes and rivers.

Some of Harriet’s happiest hours were spent curled up in a corner of her father’s study, surrounded by her favorite books. It was a peaceful, restful place, she thought. She liked to glance up at her dear father as he was writing or thinking over his sermons. She enjoyed looking at the friendly faces of the books on the shelves. Very few of them, however, were books that she could understand.

One day while rummaging in a barrel of old sermons in the attic, Harriet came upon a copy of the _Arabian Nights_. How she and her brothers pored over its pages! Another precious treasure discovered in a barrel was Shakespeare’s play, _The Tempest_.

Harriet’s delight in stories was satisfied in another way. Every fall it was the custom to make enough apple sauce to last for the winter. It took a whole barrelful for the big Beecher family. All the little fingers were pressed into service to peel or quarter apples. Mr. Beecher would then ask who could tell the best story. As the apples bubbled and hissed in the big brass kettle, story after story went around. Mr. Beecher, himself, recited scenes from Sir Walter Scott’s novels, which were then new.

In the unheated, barnlike meetinghouse where Mr. Beecher preached, Harriet also spent many happy hours, although she was cold and cramped from sitting through the long sermons. Usually she did not understand her father’s big words, but one day he spoke so earnestly and simply about God’s love that Harriet never forgot it.

When Harriet grew up, she married Calvin Ellis Stowe. He was a professor in the Lane Theological Seminary, in Cincinnati, Ohio, of which her father had become the president.

In Ohio, adjacent to the slave state of Kentucky, everybody was thinking and talking about slavery. The Fugitive Slave Law, whereby runaway slaves must be returned to their masters, was causing heated discussions. Mrs. Stowe and her husband believed this to be a very unjust law and they helped a colored girl, the “Eliza” of _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_, to escape from her pursuers. Mrs. Stowe opened a school for colored children in her house, and raised money to buy the freedom of a slave boy.

Ever since the days of her school compositions Mrs. Stowe had enjoyed writing, and some of her stories had found their way into the papers. When Professor Stowe went to Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, to teach, his wife tried to do a little writing to add to his small salary. However, the work of looking after a large house and her family of small children left her little time for writing stories. Sometimes with her paper on the corner of the kitchen table and her ink on the teakettle, she managed to write a story, superintend the making of pastry, and watch the baby at the same time.

One day Mrs. Stowe received a letter from a relative urging her to write something that would stir the country against the evil of slavery. She earnestly declared that she would.

Soon thereafter the plot for her story, _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_, flashed across her mind. She wrote a chapter as quickly as possible and sent it to the _National Era_, an antislavery paper. Chapter after chapter followed, written rapidly as the scenes of the story presented themselves to her. When it was completed it was published as a book. In a few days ten thousand copies were sold; in a year, three hundred thousand copies.

Mrs. Stowe wrote many other books, though none of them attained the prominence of _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_. This book is considered to have been one of the most influential and widely read novels in literature.

From distinguished people all over the world came letters of congratulation to Mrs. Stowe. What she had written just because she felt that she must, with no thought of money or fame, brought her both. Harriet Beecher Stowe was further honored by being elected to the Hall of Fame in 1910.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s gift of expression, which she had been cultivating for many years under all sorts of difficulties, made it possible for her to draw a picture of slavery that aroused the whole world.

Kate Douglas Wiggin—

Who Put the Joy of Living Into Her Books

Although Katie Smith loved all the books on the black walnut bookshelves, the ones that she took down most often were some fat volumes by Charles Dickens. So much did she enjoy these stories that she named her yellow dog “Pip” after a character in one of them; and across her sled in big scarlet letters were painted the words “The Artful Dodger.”

One day Katie’s mother read in the paper that Mr. Charles Dickens had come to America. When Katie heard that he was going to give a reading from his books in Portland, Maine, only sixteen miles away, she was very much excited. How she longed to see and hear the wonderful man who had created so many delightful characters!

Katie and her mother had planned to go to Charlestown, Massachusetts, for a visit, stopping overnight in Portland. Now Katie’s mother decided that they would leave home so as to be in Portland on the night of the reading. But alas! a grown-up cousin, instead of little Katie, was taken to hear Mr. Dickens.

Katie bore her disappointment as best she could, and the next day after the reading she received her reward. Who should be riding on the very same train with Katie and her mother, but the great Charles Dickens himself! While Katie’s mother was talking with an acquaintance, the little girl slipped into the empty seat beside her favorite author.

“Where did you come from?” inquired Mr. Dickens in a surprised tone of voice.

“I came from Hollis, Maine,” stammered Katie Smith.

Presently the little girl and the famous author were chatting away like old friends. Mr. Dickens chuckled when he heard about the naming of Katie’s dog and her sled, and his eyes grew moist when she spoke of the characters that made her cry.

This nine-year-old admirer of Dickens had not the slightest idea that one day she would be an author herself. Years later, however, when she was known as Kate Douglas Wiggin, she wrote a delightful story about another little State-of-Maine girl, entitled _Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm_. She also wrote many other enjoyable books.

Kate Douglas Smith was not a State-of-Maine girl by birth. She was born in Philadelphia, September 28, 1859. When she was six years old her family moved to the village of Hollis, Maine.

Little Katie Smith loved the world in which she lived and especially her own little corner of it on the banks of the Saco River. What fun she had with her little sister Nora and her playmate Annie. Nora is better known to us as Nora Archibald Smith, the author of many charming stories for children. These little girls gathered velvety pussy willows, hunted for arbutus in the early spring, and picked wild strawberries and raspberries in the summer.

How amusing Katie found the froggery, a nice quiet pool where lived her favorite frogs! She knew them all by name and twice a week she arranged them very gently in a row on a strip of board for a singing lesson. In the winter she enjoyed coasting and snowballing. She also liked to be in the house where she could play with her orphanage of paper dolls and read her beloved books.

To little Katie Smith, work was almost as amusing as play. It was fun, she thought, to cut up rhubarb for sauce, to make milk toast for supper, to water the plants, to iron the handkerchiefs, and to go for the milk. Just to be alive, to run along the river bank, to help about the house, was enough for this joyous child. No dreams of authorship had come to her, though she was filling her mind with the pictures which she was later to give to the world in her books.

Katie Smith was taught at home and also attended a district school. Later she went to a boarding school in Maine, after which she attended Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from which she was graduated.

When Kate Smith was seventeen years old she followed her family to Santa Barbara, California, where they had gone several years before. As there was very little money in the family treasury, the elder daughter of the house felt that she must begin to help at once. A girl’s story which she had written merely to amuse herself she decided to send to a magazine editor. What was Kate’s delight to receive in payment for the story a check for one hundred and fifty dollars, which came just in time to pay some taxes!

The proud young author, however, did not think of writing for a living. She decided that she did not yet know enough to write. She realized that she must live a little longer and learn more. In the meantime she decided to find some useful work to do. Years later, after she had become a successful author, she said that this decision was the most sensible act of her life.

Kate Smith soon found the work that she sought. Kindergartens were still very new in America. Miss Smith studied the system and organized a free kindergarten in San Francisco, the first one to be established west of the Rockies. This young woman was very successful in bringing happiness into the lives of the little children who flocked to her kindergarten.

It was for the purpose of raising money for kindergartens that the young teacher wrote two stories, _The Story of Patsy_, and _The Birds’ Christmas Carol_. She had them printed and sold at twenty-five cents a copy. Miss Smith thought that the only reason they sold well was because so many friends were anxious to help the good cause of free kindergartens. Little did she realize that these books would later bring her fame.

In 1880 Kate Douglas Smith married Samuel Bradley Wiggin, who was a California lawyer. It was not until several years later that Mrs. Wiggin thought of sending a paper-covered copy of _The Birds’ Christmas Carol_ to a publisher. This charming story of the Ruggles family was accepted at once and more stories requested. From that time on Mrs. Wiggin devoted herself to writing.

Girls and boys of to-day all over the world love her Rebecca, Carol, Patsy, and Timothy just as the little girl of Hollis, Maine, loved the children in Dickens’ stories. Kate Douglas Wiggin wrote often for children because she loved them and never forgot what it is like to be a child. She has also written many very entertaining books for older people.

“Rebecca” is not, as some people have thought, small Katie Smith herself. However, the district school where Rebecca wrote her famous composition was the one that the author attended.

In Kate Douglas Wiggin’s books are many pictures of the life that she lived as a child. She put herself into her books, but not as a character. In her stories you will find something of her own quick wit, her cheerfulness, her satisfaction in doing and helping, and her joy of living.

Frances E. Willard—

The Girl Who Fought The Dragon, Drink

Frances called her brother Oliver’s attention to the new law that she had written the previous night for “Fort City.” It read: “We will have no saloons or billiard halls, and then we will not need any jails.”

This little girl’s favorite game was to plan a play city, a place where everyone could live happily. She took a special delight in making laws for the health and pleasure of the citizens of her city.

Planning the city was only play, but in this game as well as in all others Frances Willard showed her remarkable ability as an organizer. Little did she realize that years later this ability would make her a valuable leader of the Temperance Cause.

Frances Elizabeth Willard was born at Churchville, New York, September 28, 1839. When she was but a tiny child, her parents moved to Oberlin, Ohio, in order that they might study at the university. After a few years of happy student life, Mr. Willard was obliged to give up his books and his dream of becoming a minister for a life outdoors in the West.

What an adventure the journey was for the three little Willards! There were no fine Pullman trains in which they could travel, for there were no railroads in that section of the country in those days. Three clumsy prairie schooners carried them to their new home. Frances and her little sister Mary rode in the third, perched comfortably enough among the cushions on the top of their father’s old-fashioned desk. For three weeks they traveled over the prairies, stopping only to cook their meals, gypsy-fashion, and to rest on Sundays.

“Forest Home” was the name given to the pretty rustic cottage that Mr. Willard built among the oaks and hickory groves, by the banks of the Rock River, near Janesville, Wisconsin. It was a delightful place in which to spend a happy childhood. To be sure, the Willards’ only callers at first were the chipmunks and birds, but there were no dull days. Every minute was filled. Frances did her share of the household tasks and far more than her share in planning the family games.

Although the lively Frances was the leader in all the fun, there was one sport in which she was not allowed to join. This was horseback riding. Confiding to her brother that she _must_ ride something, she tried the cow. Her father laughed when he saw her on her clumsy steed, and allowed her to have a horse after that. This simple way of disposing of difficulties served her well all her life.

Active and full of fun as Frances Willard was, she liked to be quiet and thoughtful too. A black oak in the garden bore the sign:

The Eagle’s Nest—Beware!

High up in the leafy branches Frances would sit for hours, making up bits of verse or editing the “Fort City” newspaper.

On Sunday afternoons the children would wander with their mother in the orchard while she talked to them about the beauty that God had created. They realized that God was very near.

Frances was quite young when she first heard from her parents of the unhappiness that drink brings. With the other children she signed a pledge written in the big family Bible, and ending:

“So here we pledge perpetual hate
To all that can intoxicate.”

For some years Mrs. Willard took charge of the children’s lessons, but later a young woman from the East came to teach them and some of their little neighbors. No child was ever more hungry for knowledge than little Frances Willard. She often declared that she wanted to learn everything.

There came a day when Frances was very happy and excited. A little schoolhouse had been built in the woods about a mile away. It was so small and brown and plain that she called it “a sort of big ground-nut,” but it was a real schoolhouse, with a Yale graduate for a teacher.

Later on Frances and Mary went away to college. They attended Milwaukee Female College, and then Northwestern Female College at Evanston, Illinois, from which they were graduated. At these two schools energetic, high-spirited Frances was a leader, both in and out of the classroom.

Frances Willard was the same earnest, hungry-minded, determined girl when she became a teacher that she had been as a student. She began to teach in her own “brown-nut” schoolhouse during her first college vacation. After her graduation from college she spent a number of years in the teaching profession. During this time she was at the head of several important schools. She concluded her teaching career as Dean of the Woman’s College in Northwestern University.

About this time many people were becoming alarmed at the amount of drunkenness throughout the United States. They were distressed by the misery caused by drink. In the small towns in the Middle West, women often marched through the streets singing, praying, and begging saloon keepers to give up their business.

In Chicago a band of women, marching to the City Council to ask to have the Sunday closing law enforced, were rudely treated by the mob. Frances Willard had never forgotten the pledge that she had signed in the family Bible. The insults to these women aroused her fighting spirit. She felt that she must help.

One day the mail brought her two letters. One letter offered her the principalship of a prominent school in New York City, which would pay her a large salary. The other letter asked her to become president of the Chicago branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Because of the meager funds of this organization no salary was offered her. Although she had no means besides her earnings, Miss Willard chose the latter position. Later, discovering that she had no private income, this organization provided a sufficient salary for her.

Frances Willard felt sure that she should devote her life to the cause of Temperance. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union needed a leader badly, so with all the energy with which she had planned her play city, Miss Willard developed this organization.

From that time on, Frances Willard gave her whole life to the Cause. She pleaded eloquently for Temperance in every large city in the United States and in many small ones. She became the president of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and later of the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which was organized through her efforts.

In the National Capitol there is a hall where each state may place the statue of two of its most beloved leaders. Illinois erected there the first statue to a woman—a marble figure of Frances E. Willard. In the year 1910 Frances E. Willard’s name was selected for the Hall of Fame.

To-day, we have that for which Miss Willard dreamed and worked: a nation in which the sale of intoxicating drinks is prohibited by law. The passing of this milestone on the road to Temperance has greatly benefited the world. To Frances E. Willard, who contributed so much to the success of this movement, humanity is indebted.

Ella Flagg Young—

Whose Slogan Was “Better Schools for Girls and Boys”

“What does that mean, Ella?” The boy lifted his eyes from his weeding as he put the question to his sister. Ella, seated on a chair between the garden rows, rested her open book on her knees a moment and sat thinking. Then, choosing her words carefully, she explained what she had just read aloud.

“Oh, I see now,” the boy exclaimed. “Go on.”

Ella resumed the reading.

Ella Flagg was in poor health as a little girl, so her mother chose gardening as the best means of keeping her outdoors. Ella found that while her fingers were busy pulling weeds, down one long row and up another, her active little mind was eager to be busy too.

She and her brother decided to combine reading and gardening. The plan worked well for these two children, as it relieved the weeding hours of monotony. Ella then made the discovery that whatever she tried to explain she must first understand very clearly herself. It was in this way that Ella Flagg Young, who became a famous educator, did her first teaching.

For the first thirteen years of her life Ella Flagg lived in Buffalo, New York, where she was born January 15, 1845. On account of ill health she was not allowed to go to school with her sister and brother. Her mother and father believed that there would be plenty of time for regular lessons when her body had grown stronger.

She was eight or nine years of age before she learned to read and then she taught herself. One morning Ella’s mother was reading in a newspaper an account of a fire. Ella was so much interested that she took the paper and tried to read the article. She remembered the exact beginning, but she did not know any of the other words. With some help, however, she was finally able to read the entire article.

Even though this little girl did not have regular lessons, there was much to be learned in a home such as hers. Mrs. Flagg was an energetic, capable woman. She was skillful in managing household affairs and much in demand among her friends and neighbors, when there was sickness or trouble in their homes.

From her mother, Ella learned how to settle household problems for herself. Because of this training she was able always to look squarely in the face the big problems that confronted her, when she was at the head of the Chicago school system.

Little Ella could learn a great deal, too, merely from hearing her mother and father talk, for they were thoughtful, intelligent people. Mr. Flagg had had to leave school when he was only ten years old to be apprenticed to the sheet-metal trade. However, by reading and study he had educated himself.

Sometimes Ella used to go to her father’s shop and sit for hours watching him at work at his forge. She asked questions about all the processes that he followed so that she really understood what he was doing. From these pleasant hours in the shop came her love of handwork and her interest in having it taught in the public schools.

When Ella began to go to school her father took a great interest in the way in which she studied. He had always done his own thinking and he did not want his daughter to depend on other people for hers.

Once Ella discussed with her father a drawing in her textbook of an hydraulic press that she was studying. She realized that he was displeased with what she said so she immediately decided to study the drawing more thoroughly. Soon she discovered that an important part had been left out. In the examination on the press the next day the papers of all the other students, who had blindly followed the book, were marked zero, while Ella’s received a perfect mark.

Ella Flagg graduated from a Chicago high school and also from the Chicago Normal School. This ambitious girl began to teach when she was seventeen years of age. She first taught in a primary grade for six weeks and then in a higher grade where some of the pupils were larger and older than she. In a year she was made head assistant of the school and in two years principal of the practice school, where she helped to train the normal-school students.

Ella Flagg married William Young in 1868. However, she did not give up her work. She climbed steadily up the ladder of the teaching profession. Even though she had become very successful she felt that she needed more education. Consequently she studied at the University of Chicago from which she received the degree of Ph. D.

Mrs. Young became assistant superintendent of the Chicago schools, then professor of education in the University of Chicago. Later she was made principal of the Chicago Normal School, and finally superintendent of schools in Chicago.