the representatives of twenty-seven nations by the Hudson-Fulton
Celebration Commission at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City.
Mrs. Howe read an original poem written for the occasion. While she
read, the entire audience stood respectfully, and as she sat down,
all joined in singing the _Battle Hymn of the Republic_. Her really
last appearance in public was but two weeks before her death, at
the inauguration of the second president of Smith College, at which
function she was given the degree of LL. D.
Mrs. Howe died October 18, 1910, at her country place in Portsmouth.
She will long be remembered for her work in the anti-slavery cause and
for the advancement of woman, for her literary merits, and for her
beautiful domestic life.
[Illustration: QUEEN VICTORIA
_From an old engraving_]
QUEEN VICTORIA
(1819-1901)
"Her court was pure; her life serene;
God gave her peace; her land reposed;
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife and Queen."
—_Alfred Tennyson_
On May 24, 1819, a little girl was born in Kensington Palace, London,
who received the name of Victoria. Her father, Edward, the Duke of
Kent, was the fourth son of King George III.
At the time of Victoria's birth it seemed unlikely that she would ever
become queen. Between her and the crown stood three uncles and her
father. But when, in January, 1820, within a few days of each other her
father and the King died, it began to be seen that Victoria would in
all probability become the future ruler of England. In consequence, her
education was conducted with the greatest care. Her mother, the Duchess
of Kent, devoted herself to the child and made every effort to develop
in her all that was good and noble.
Victoria lived a quiet and natural life in the open air, having for
instructor a tutor who was a clergyman of the Church of England. When
lessons were over, the little Princess used to go out into Kensington
Gardens, where she rode a donkey gaily decked with blue ribbons. Here
she also walked, and would kiss her hand to the children who sometimes
gathered about and looked through the railing to see a real Princess.
Victoria was very fond of dolls. She had one hundred and thirty-two,
which she kept in a house of their own. She herself made their
clothes, and the neatness of her needlework surprised all who saw it.
The Princess grew up a merry, affectionate, simple-hearted child,
thoughtful for the comfort of others, and extremely truthful.
Victoria's baptismal name was Alexandra Victoria. She preferred to be
called by the latter name, but to the English people "Victoria" had a
foreign sound and was not very popular. It remained for the Queen to
make it illustrious and beloved.
By the death of George IV in 1830, William, Duke of Clarence, came to
the throne. As he had no children who might succeed to the throne,
Victoria became the direct heir. King William was a good-natured,
undignified sort of man, often ridiculous in his public actions. He
encouraged Victoria to take part in public ceremonies, and if there was
a hall to be dedicated, or a bridge to be opened, or a statue unveiled,
the little Princess was called upon quite often to act for the King at
the ceremony.
William reigned only nine years, expiring one morning in June, 1837, at
Saint James's Palace in London.
When a king or queen dies, it is the custom for persons of high rank to
go immediately and salute the new king or queen.
As soon as William, therefore, had drawn his last breath, the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain went straight to
Kensington Palace to notify Victoria that she had succeeded to the
throne. It was five o'clock in the morning, and as she had just arisen
from bed, she received them in her dressing-robe. Her first words
to the Archbishop were, "I beg your Grace to pray for me." There
is a pretty picture of this scene in the Tate Gallery in London,
representing the two old men on their knees before a young girl of
eighteen years, kissing her hands.
And so, at the age of eighteen, Victoria became Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland and the Empire beyond the seas. Though not beautiful, the
young Queen was self-possessed, modest and dignified. Every one bore
testimony to the dignity and grace of her actions at this time.
Victoria selected as her Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, to whom she was
much attached, and who was her trusted adviser for many years. Just
eight days after the first anniversary of her accession to the throne,
Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey, sitting in the chair where
so many English monarchs have received their crowns. The coronation
was of great splendor. The sun shone brightly as the procession left
Buckingham Palace and her Majesty was greeted all along the route with
enthusiastic cheers.
When the Queen entered the Abbey, "with eight ladies all in white
floating about her like a silvery cloud, she paused as if for breath
and clasped her hands." When she knelt to receive the crown, with the
sun shining on her fair young head, the beauty and solemnity of the
scene impressed every one. The Duchess of Kent, Victoria's mother, was
affected to tears. The ceremonies in the Abbey lasted five hours and
the Queen looked pale and weary as she drove to the Palace wearing her
crown.
Carlyle, who was among the spectators, said: "Poor little Queen! She
is at an age when a girl can hardly be trusted to choose a bonnet for
herself. Yet a task is laid upon her from which an archangel might
shrink."
Many important matters had to be decided by the young Queen, and
sometimes serious troubles grew out of her inexperience. However, being
sensible and wise beyond her years, her decisions were for the most
part just, and with time she became more and more tactful and better
able to cope with the difficulties of governing so great a nation.
A matter of great interest to the public was Victoria's marriage. There
were many princes willing and anxious to marry the young Queen of
England, but Victoria had a mind and will of her own. She remembered
with interest her handsome cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
who had visited England two years before, while she was still a
Princess.
The Duchess of Kent had been fond of this nephew, whose tastes were
refined and whose habits were good. Victoria herself remembered him
with affection.
Another visit was arranged by King Leopold, and this time Victoria's
interest grew into love. One day she summoned the Prince to her room
and offered him her hand in marriage. It must have been a trying thing
for her to do, but of course a mere Prince could not propose to the
Queen of England. Prince Albert was overjoyed, for he loved Victoria.
The Queen announced her engagement to Parliament, and on February 10,
1840, she was married in the Chapel Royal of Saint James's Palace. She
wore a white satin gown trimmed with orange blossoms and a veil of
Honiton lace costing one thousand pounds, which had been ordered to
encourage the lace-makers of Devonshire. Guns were fired, bells rung,
and flags waved, when the ceremony was completed.
After the wedding breakfast at Buckingham Palace, Victoria and Albert
drove to Windsor Castle, past twenty-two miles of spectators, who
shouted and cheered the youthful pair. There was great rejoicing, and
dinners were given to thousands of poor people throughout the Kingdom.
After three days spent at Windsor, the Queen and the Prince Consort, as
Albert was called, returned to London and began their busy life for the
state.
Victoria found a wise adviser in her young husband. He was about her
own age, and like her, had a sincere desire always to do the right
thing. For a while he was not liked in England, owing to his foreign
birth, but before long he gained the affections of that exacting
people. The married life of Victoria and Albert was one of unusual
happiness and beauty, lasting for twenty years,—until 1861. The
Prince, in dying, left a family of nine children. The eldest became the
Empress of Germany, and the second was the late King Edward.
The death of the Prince Consort made a great change in the life of the
Queen. She became very reserved in her widowhood, and her withdrawal
from public life lasted a long time, to the displeasure of the English
people. She wore mourning for many years, and was averse to presiding
over ceremonious Court functions.
Although impetuous and wilful, Victoria was yet quite willing to be
advised by older and wiser persons, and the great men of England very
soon learned to respect her character and give heed to her wishes. As
a Queen, she really reigned; which means that she was the true head
and controller of public affairs. Naturally, she could not do it all
herself, but she had the fortunate gift of knowing how to choose her
helpers. No reign of any English monarch can be reckoned so great as
that of Victoria. It was full of great events, which would require
several volumes to recite.
In 1849 she paid a visit to Ireland. In 1851 the first great World's
Exposition was held in London. In 1853 there was a war with Russia, and
in 1857 the Indian Mutiny occurred. Years later, in 1876, Victoria was
formally proclaimed Empress of India. This was accomplished by means of
the clever management of Lord Beaconsfield, her Prime Minister, who was
a Jew named Disraeli, and a very great statesman.
She encouraged artists and literary men. She made Alfred Tennyson
the Poet Laureate of England. Some of his most beautiful lines were
addressed to her and the Prince Consort.
The Duke of Wellington, victor at Waterloo, where Napoleon was
defeated, was her trusted friend and adviser.
England, in Victoria's reign, made great strides in wealth, art,
science, and population. Great men clustered around this wonderful
little woman and helped make her rule a glorious one. In 1887, when she
had been queen for fifty years, England gave herself a great jubilee
which was attended by all the great princes and representatives of
kings in the world.
Queen Victoria was fond of music, was an excellent singer, and spoke
many languages. When in London she lived at Buckingham Palace, going
at times to Windsor Castle, and occasionally to Balmoral Castle in
Scotland, where she would throw off the cares of state and live simply
as an English gentlewoman. She had another pleasant home on the Isle of
Wight, called Osborne House, where she had her last illness.
Victoria died on January 22, 1901, in her eighty-second year. Her reign
was the longest in English history, being nearly sixty-four years.
It was exceeded in Europe only by Louis XIV of France, who reigned
seventy-one years.
The English people mourned Victoria sincerely and deeply. She had added
greatly to the extent and glory of her country. She had been a great
and wise ruler. She had commanded the respect of every one at home and
abroad, and while she did not talk much, her life proved that a woman
can rule as well and wisely as a man. Her private life, as mother,
wife, and sovereign, has been a noble example.
At her own request, Queen Victoria's funeral was a military one, her
body being placed in the mausoleum built for Prince Albert at Frogmore.
[Illustration: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE]
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
(1820-1910)
"Theirs is a heroism and patriotism no less grand than that of the
bravest soldier they ever nursed back to life and health."
—_Charles R. Skinner_
Florence Nightingale, one of the most illustrious personages of Queen
Victoria's reign, was born in Florence, Italy, of English parents.
Since they were visiting that city at the time, they named their little
daughter after the city of her birth. A sister, also born in Italy, was
named Parthenope after her birthplace.
The Nightingales were well-to-do people. They owned a beautiful country
seat in Derbyshire, which was for many years the residence of Florence
and her parents. Florence's love for animals and flowers was second
only to her love of humanity. Very early she formed the idea of a
vocation which should be lofty and altruistic.
Her acquaintance with Elizabeth Fry did much to develop this idea. Mrs.
Fry, already famous as the first woman who made the welfare of women
in prison her care, was a preacher of the Quaker sect.
Having decided upon her course, Miss Nightingale began to learn in the
hospitals the medical nurse's duties; and, hearing of a German training
school for nurses at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, she went thither and
enrolled herself as a "deaconess."
Kaiserswerth had been started in a very small way by Pastor Fleidner.
It was a Protestant school, which combined religious teaching with
charitable work among the poor and outcast. The Pastor himself was
poor, but his devotion to his work attracted many helpers who gave him
money to carry it on.
Florence here became interested also in prison reform, which led her to
open a small home for women after they should come out of prison. The
few years she spent here brought her face to face with much suffering
and want, and taught her how to find and help unfortunate people.
From Kaiserswerth she went to Paris and entered a Catholic Convent
to study the methods of the Sisters. While there she learned to
respect and admire so greatly the love and devotion of the nuns, that
afterwards, in the Crimean War, she called upon them to assist her.
In England once more, Miss Nightingale settled down to a quiet life,
devoting herself to the care of the sick and the poor about her.
Living near the Nightingales, were Sidney Herbert and his wife.
Herbert, who afterwards became Lord Herbert of Lea, was made Secretary
of War in the English Government. The post was no sinecure, for almost
immediately after his appointment, war broke out between Russia on one
side and England, France, and Turkey on the other.
The scene of the fighting was on the border where Turkey and Russia
join. Near this border is the Crimea, a peninsula, whose principal city
is Sebastopol. To capture this city was the object of the fighting in
that part of the country, from which fact the whole war is known as the
Crimean War.
England had lived in peace since 1815, a period of forty years, and
had to some degree lost the practical knowledge of how to conduct
a military campaign. The result was a great waste of time, men and
stores, through the inexperience of both officers and soldiers.
Disaster followed disaster, each treading upon the other's heels.
Finally William Howard Russell, the War Correspondent of the London
Times, wrote a strong letter home to England in which he spoke of
the suffering of the wounded, saying: "For all I can see, the men die
without the least effort to save them."
Food and clothing were lost, or delayed in transport; the surgeons
were without lint or bandages or other of the commonest supplies for
hospital work. Russell finally asked a question that made a great stir
in England:
"Are there no devoted women among us, able and willing to go forth to
minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the East? Are none of
the daughters of England at this extreme hour of need ready for such a
work of mercy?"
Florence Nightingale heard this clarion cry and immediately wrote to
Secretary Herbert offering her services. Her letter crossed one from
him offering her the place of Chief Nurse.
It is doubtful if any choice of a person to do a great work has ever
been so fortunate and successful as this one. Florence Nightingale,
by her studies and her work in Germany and at home, was already well
prepared for nursing. Now it was seen that she was an able organizer as
well.
All this came as a great surprise to the world, for Miss Nightingale
had never been written or talked about very much. Now, however, every
one asked who she was.
She gathered together thirty-eight nurses, ten of whom were Roman
Catholic Sisters of Mercy, and they all left England on October 21,
1854.
On landing in France, the fish-women of Boulogne cared for their trunks
and luggage with their own hands and saw the Englishwomen safely on
the train for Paris, where they made a short stay at the Convent which
Florence had visited years before. Then they set forth for Marseilles,
where they took steamer for Scutari, in Turkey. Every one helped them
and no one would take pay for their service.
There was no little fun made in Europe over the nurses, but ridicule
changed to admiration when the first news of their work began to
reach home. Miss Nightingale paid no attention either to the shallow
fault-finding, or to praise, but went straight ahead to do the work she
found in Scutari. And great need there was of her help!
It might be well here to quote a description of Florence Nightingale:
You cannot hear her say a few sentences, no, not even look at
her without feeling that she is an extraordinary being. Simple,
intellectual, sweet, full of love and benevolence, she is a
fascinating and perfect woman. She is tall and pale. Her face is
exceedingly lovely, but better than all is the soul's glory that
shines through every feature. Nothing can be sweeter than her smile.
It is like a sunny day in summer.
It would be difficult and painful to describe the conditions she found
existing in the hospital at Scutari. The doctors were so few and so
overworked, and the wounded men were so numerous, that many died who
might have been saved. Hospital supplies were there, but could not be
found. Perhaps never in civilized times was there so much unnecessary
suffering.
Miss Nightingale and her staff of nurses could do very little
compared to the great need, but they took up the work bravely. Here
Miss Nightingale's ability as a manager and director was shown. She
soon came to be ranked with the Generals in ability and power. All
opposition to her as a woman began to fade away as her blessed work
among the sick and dying soldiers began to be appreciated.
Soon all England was alive to the great work, and more nurses, and
large gifts of supplies and money began to be hurried to the Crimea.
Florence Nightingale spent nearly two years in the Crimea. Once she
fell dangerously ill with a fever, but the care she had given to
others was returned in the form of all manner of attentions to her. She
never quite recovered from the effects of that terrible Crimean fever.
When the war was over, she went back to England so quietly that hardly
anyone outside her home knew of her return. When it became known, she
was overwhelmed by all sorts of people trying to do her honor. Most of
them she refused to see. Queen Victoria invited her to come to Balmoral
Castle and this honor she could not refuse, for the request of a Queen
is a command. The Queen decorated her with a beautiful jewel, treating
her simply in the spirit of one woman recognizing another who deserved
recognition.
Florence Nightingale lived to be ninety years old, thus spending fifty
years in England after the Crimean war.
She devoted all her life to benevolent works: building new hospitals,
writing books on the care of the sick, and inspiring many young women
to give their lives to the service of humanity. She never married.
At her death it was proposed to bury her in Westminster Abbey, that
great final home of England's illustrious sons and daughters, but
the honor was declined by her friends, and she sleeps sweetly in the
village church-yard near her old country home in Hampshire.
Our own Longfellow wrote these fine lines about Florence Nightingale,
referring to her habit of going about the hospitals at night with a
lamp in her hand:
"On England's annals through the long
Hereafter of her speech and song,
A light its ray shall cast
From the portals of the past.
"A lady with a lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land;
A noble type of good
Heroic womanhood."
[Illustration: SUSAN B. ANTHONY]
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
(1820-1906)
"That one who breaks the way with tears,
Many shall follow with a song."
Among those who believed that in certain lines woman can do as valuable
work as man, was Susan B. Anthony. During her long, busy life of
eighty-six years, she protested against the injustice done to woman on
the part of Society.
It has been truly said that woman's place is in the home, and true it
is that most women prefer home life; yet does not every one know that,
in numerous instances, women are compelled to earn their own living,
and often in addition to support their brothers and sisters, fathers
and mothers?
"Why, then," thought Miss Anthony, "should laws be such as to prevent
women from having the same opportunities as men in the business world?"
This line of thought was early forced upon her.
Born on the fifteenth of February, 1820, in South Adams, Massachusetts,
of Quaker ancestry, she received a liberal education from her father.
Mr. Anthony being a well-to-do merchant, it was not supposed that his
daughters would ever be obliged to support themselves, but he believed
that girls as well as boys should be fitted to do so, if the necessity
arose.
The wisdom of Mr. Anthony's course early became apparent, for when
Susan was seventeen years of age, he failed in business, and his
daughters were able to assist him to retrieve his fortunes.
Susan began to teach in a Quaker family, receiving the sum of one
dollar a week and board. Later she taught in the Public Schools of
Rochester, to which place the family had removed. Here she received a
salary of eight dollars a month for the same work for which men were
paid twenty-five and thirty dollars.
It was this injustice which first led her to speak in public. At a
meeting of the New York State Teachers' Association, she petitioned the
Superintendent for equal pay with men, but notwithstanding the fact
that her work was admitted to be entirely satisfactory, her petition
was refused on the ground that she was a woman.
Miss Anthony worked for years trying to bring the wages of women
workers up to those of men, and although she did not succeed in
accomplishing her desire, still by her efforts the general standing of
women was greatly improved.
She continued to teach until 1852, but all the while she was taking
a keen interest in every reform movement. The more she studied and
pondered over the condition of women, the stronger grew her conviction
that they would never receive proper pay or recognition, never be able
to do the work God intended them to do in the world, unless they should
be given equal political rights with man.
Miss Anthony did not at first advocate full suffrage for women; at that
period it appeared a thing quite impossible for them to obtain. Wisely
she worked for what she believed was within the range of possibility to
secure. She was much interested in the temperance movement, and spoke
frequently in public for that cause. It happened one day that the Sons
of Temperance invited the Daughters of Temperance to their Convention
at Albany. The Daughters accepted the invitation and attended, but the
Sons would not allow them to speak,—which so angered Miss Anthony and
some other women that they left the hall and held a meeting of their
own outside. Out of this episode grew the Women's New York State
Temperance Society, founded in 1852, and afterward developing into the
Women's Christian Temperance Union.
By this time Miss Anthony was well known as a lecturer. But when she
actually called a Convention of Women at Albany to urge the public to
recognize the wrongs, and demand the rights of her sex, considerable
comment followed. In the sixth decade of the Nineteenth Century women
had not become so active in public affairs that one of them could call
a Convention and the general public take no notice.
The right to vote on educational questions was at length granted women
in New York State, and the credit for this is due to Susan B. Anthony
and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Miss Anthony's friendship with Mrs. Stanton started her in new fields
of action. Mrs. Stanton's husband was a lawyer and journalist, who had
been a student in Lane Theological Seminary. A noted abolitionist, he
went as delegate to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London.
Mrs. Stanton accompanied him, meeting there Lucretia Mott, who was the
sole woman delegate. These two women called the first Woman's Rights
Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. Though Miss Anthony did not attend
this meeting, she later became a complete convert, being already headed
in the direction of woman's political and social emancipation.