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WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS
by
REBECCA DEMING MOORE
Illustrated by Mabel Betsy Hill
Edited by Helen Mildred Owen
F. A. Owen Publishing Company
Dansville, New York
Copyright, 1923
F. A. Owen Publishing Company
Contents
Jane Addams
The Girl Who Became a Neighbor to the Needy
Louisa M. Alcott
Whose Stories of Real Life Are a Delight to Girls and Boys
Susan B. Anthony
Who Worked for Sixty Years to Secure Rights for Women
Clara Barton
The Girl Who Unfurled the First American Red Cross Flag
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach
The Girl Who Made Melodies
Cecilia Beaux
Whose Paint Brush Has Brought Her Fame
Evangeline Booth
The Girl Who Lived the Meaning of Her Name
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Girl Who Loved Stories and Wrote Them
Katharine Bement Davis
The Girl Who Has Helped to Straighten Twisted Lives
Grace Hoadley Dodge
The Girl Who Worked for Working Girls
Alice Cunningham Fletcher
The Girl Who Befriended the Red Man
Louise Homer
Who Believes that Hard Work Is the Secret of Her Success as a Singer
Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
The Girl Who Loved Art More Than Ease
Julia Ward Howe
Whose Battle Hymn Sang Itself into the Hearts of a Nation
Helen Keller
The Deaf and Blind Girl Who Found Light and Happiness Through Knowledge
Maria Mitchell
The Girl Who Studied the Stars
Alice Freeman Palmer
The Girl Who Guided College Girls
Maud Powell
The Girl Whose Violin Spread Afar the Message of Music
Ellen H. Richards
A Scientist Who Helped Home-Makers
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Girl Who Helped to Draft Woman’s Declaration of Independence
Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Girl Whose Story of Slavery Aroused The Whole World
Kate Douglas Wiggin
Who Put the Joy of Living into Her Books
Frances E. Willard
The Girl Who Fought the Dragon, Drink
Ella Flagg Young
Whose Slogan Was “Better Schools for Girls and Boys”
Editor’s Introduction
_When They Were Girls_ contains the stories of a group of American
women, each one of whom occupies a very important place in her
particular field. The stories of these women have been written many
times before. We feel, however, that in this book you possibly may find
that their stories have been written in a little different way. Our
desire has been to bring very closely to the attention of our many
readers some of the outstanding characteristics in the girlhoods of
these women, and to show the relationship between these qualities in
girlhood and the achievements of adult life.
To many people, doubtless to almost everyone, comes the desire to
produce results, to achieve, and to add one’s bit to the welfare of the
world. Sometimes one is apt to become impatient, and to feel that he is
not arriving at his goal. Under such circumstances it is helpful for us
to acquaint ourselves with the life story of someone whom we feel has
reached the goal for which we are striving. We may then learn that
success does not come overnight, but that years of careful, painstaking
work are often spent before the contribution that one has for the world
is completed.
It is so easy to admire someone who has attained success, and to wish
for that same success and recognition oneself. Often, however, we are
not willing to pay the price that he or she paid. To very few people
does success come easily. The small minority to whom it does seem to
come in that way can only remain successful through careful, painstaking
work.
The women whose stories are within this book have not obtained the
praise of the world easily. As girls, some of them were wealthy, some of
them were very poor; but they _all_ had obstacles to overcome. Each one
had her own way to make. No amount of money, nor an especially fine
environment, could ever be the means of making anyone successful.
Success comes not from without, but from within.
It is, of course, desirable to have every opportunity that will help to
develop one’s particular ability. The greater a person’s opportunity to
receive help from all available good sources, the better it is for him.
However, success depends upon oneself. No amount of encouragement, no
effort put forth by loving parents, no amount of money expended for
advantageous purposes, will ever accomplish great things unless the
person himself really desires to achieve.
No matter how small our part in the world may seem, it is possible for
us each to do our work in such a way that it will prove to be a
forerunner of greater things to come. We can take but one step at a
time, and by taking that step as best we know how we shall be led to
something higher. In reading the stories in this book you will see at
once that when these women were girls they had no idea of what they
would ultimately achieve. Nevertheless, they each took the steps that
seemed necessary to their progress, as each step presented itself. This
careful preparation, this conscientious work, has enabled these women to
give to the world their best, and has made it possible for us to profit
not only by their gifts but by their example, as well.
Helen Mildred Owen.
Rochester, New York,
November 28, 1923.
WHEN THEY WERE GIRLS
[Illustration]
Jane Addams—
The Girl Who Became a Neighbor To the Needy
“Why do people live in such horrid little houses so close together,
Father?” asked seven-year-old Jane on a trip to the city.
At home in the village, when she was tired of playing in the big roomy
house, she could run across the green to the stream by her father’s
mill. Here, in the city, instead of wide green slopes and the low hum of
the sawmill were narrow, dirty alleys and the clatter of carts and
street cars.
When Mr. Addams explained that some people do not have money enough to
choose pleasant places for their homes, Jane declared: “When I grow up,
I shall have a large house, of course, but I shall not have it among
other fine houses, but right in the midst of horrid little houses like
these.”
Now, strangely enough, when she grew up, she did that very thing. She
went to live in a big house situated in the midst of poor Chicago
tenements. Later, this little girl, who was Jane Addams, became known
all over the world as the friend of the poor.
Jane Addams was born at Cedarville, Illinois, September 6, 1860. Little
Jane could not remember her mother, who died when she was a baby, but
she thought that no little girl ever had a father like hers. She was
proud of his imposing figure, and she loved him dearly. Though he was a
very busy man he always had time to answer her questions. She had a
great many to ask, too, for even as a small child she did a good deal of
thinking.
Jane’s father had been a state senator for sixteen years and could tell
her interesting stories about the history of the country. He talked to
her so often about Abraham Lincoln, who had been his friend, that Jane
felt almost as if she herself had known the great-hearted man.
One Sunday Jane appeared before her father dressed for Sunday school in
a beautiful new coat. It was a finer coat than any other little girl in
the village had. For this reason, Mr. Addams suggested that Jane wear
her old coat to save the feelings of the other little girls. Jane
consented to do so, although she was very much disappointed.
As they walked to Sunday school, Jane wondered how the good things of
life could be more evenly divided. Ever since she had first seen the
“horrid little houses” about a year before, her young mind had been busy
with this problem. Jane turned to her father and asked him how it could
be solved. He explained that even though everything cannot be divided
evenly, people should act and dress in such a way that those who are
less fortunate will not be made to feel so. He told her that in school
and church, at least, people should be able to feel that they belong to
one family.
Jane Addams attended the village school, and later, at seventeen years
of age, entered Rockford Seminary, at Rockford, Illinois. Soon after she
was graduated from this school it was declared a college, and she
received the degree of B. A.
She had intended after her graduation to study medicine and to help the
poor, but she was urged to go abroad because she was in poor health.
While in London and elsewhere, she was greatly distressed by the
wretched condition of the poor. Now she was more determined than ever to
go about the work of helping others.
Miss Addams believed that it is better to show people how to help
themselves than to give them gifts of money. “It is hard to help people
one does not know,” she reasoned, “and how can one really know people
without seeing them very often?” True to the decision she had made as a
child, she resolved to live among the poor and be a real neighbor to
them.
With the help of some friends, Miss Addams opened Hull-House, which is
located in a tenement section of Chicago. Here, she established a day
nursery where mothers who had to go out to work could leave their babies
in good care. A kindergarten was organized for the young children in the
neighborhood.
There are clubs for girls and boys, and also for men and women. Classes
in sewing, cooking, and millinery are conducted for the girls. “The
Young Heroes,” a boy’s club, to-day has for its own use a five-story
building equipped with recreation and study rooms. Printing,
photography, and many other trades can be learned there. Hull-House,
originally occupying one building, is now using thirteen buildings, each
fitted for some special service.
For more than thirty years Miss Addams and her fellow-workers have stood
ready to do any neighborly act, from bathing little babies to teaching
and entertaining lonely old women. At Hull-House a cordial welcome
always awaits everyone.
Besides her friendly aid to those who flock to Hull-House, Jane Addams
has been a good neighbor to people whom she has never seen. She helped
to have a law passed in Illinois to prevent children who are under
fourteen years of age from working in factories. Through her efforts
public baths have been provided in Chicago. Remembering the merry games
she played as a child on the river banks near her home, she has made
many a plea for more playgrounds for city girls and boys.
Miss Addams has been a member, often the chairman, of many important
committees that have been organized to plan ways for making the world a
better place in which to live. She has also found time to write books on
this subject.
Jane Addams might have given money to the poor and spent her time in
travel and amusement, but she preferred to give herself. Because she
loves people enough to learn what they really need and works _with_ them
as well as _for_ them, thousands bless her as a true friend and
neighbor.
[Illustration]
Louisa M. Alcott—
Whose Stories of Real Life Are A Delight to Girls and Boys
When Louisa Alcott peeped into her journal on the morning of her tenth
birthday, she found a little note from her mother filled with loving
messages. It read: “I give you the pencil-case I promised, for I have
observed that you are fond of writing, and wish to encourage the habit.”
Louisa’s mother often wrote little messages in her daughter’s journal,
urging her to keep on trying to be good. Very often the notes encouraged
Louisa to go on writing. On both her fourteenth and fifteenth birthdays
her mother’s gift was a pen, with a poem and a loving letter.
As Louisa, at eight years of age, had written a little verse about a
robin, Mrs. Alcott hoped that her daughter would some day be a great
writer. It was a hope that was realized, for Louisa M. Alcott’s books
have become famous, delighting each succeeding generation.
_Little Women_, her first great success, is the story of the Alcott
family. It tells of their jolly times and their hard times at the
Orchard House at Concord, Massachusetts. The lively outspoken “Jo” of
the story, writing in the attic, is Louisa herself; the other “March”
girls are her own dear sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and Abba May. “Marmee,”
of course, is the beloved mother, and Mr. March, the father.
Louisa May Alcott was born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, November 29,
1832, but most of her girlhood was spent in Boston and Concord,
Massachusetts. It was a happy life that she led even though the food was
plain and her clothes were generally “made over.” There was never enough
money to go around in the Alcott family, but there was no lack of love,
kindness, good conversation, and good reading.
Louisa and her sisters received their education chiefly from their
father, a man of rare intellect. Mr. Alcott was devoted to his children
and he took great pleasure in teaching them. In addition to these daily
lessons there often were long, hard tasks of sewing and ironing, but
there was plenty of time for play, too.
What fun they had! In the old barn at Concord with their playmates, the
children of Ralph Waldo Emerson and of Nathaniel Hawthorne, they acted
out their favorite fairy tales and also _The Pilgrim’s Progress_. Their
giant tumbled off the loft when Jack cut down the bean stalk, and there
was a real pumpkin for Cinderella’s coach.
Their mother’s birthday was always a great event. When that day arrived
Louisa would say to herself as soon as she awoke, “It’s Mother’s
birthday: I must be very good.” After breakfast the children always gave
their mother her presents. One year Louisa’s gift was a cross made of
moss with a bit of poetry attached. That day there were no lessons, and
everybody was very jolly and happy.
Two great joys of Louisa’s life were books and the outdoors. She enjoyed
a quiet corner with a good book. She also loved to run in the woods in
the early morning before the dew was off the grass. She liked to feel
the velvety moss under her feet and to look up into the green branches
overhead. Once, when she was a child, she paused in her running and
stood still listening to the rustle of the pines.
“It seemed as if I _felt_ God,” she wrote in her journal, “and I prayed
in my heart that I might keep that happy sense of nearness all my life.”
Louisa had a quick temper and found difficulty in managing it. At
fourteen years of age she wrote a poem about her struggles entitled, “My
Little Kingdom.” It began:
“A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell.
And very hard I find the task
Of governing it well;
For passion tempts and troubles me,
A wayward will misleads,
And selfishness its shadow casts
On all my words and deeds.”
She kept on trying, however, and never let her little kingdom control
her.
As Louisa Alcott grew older she began to realize very keenly all the
cares that burdened the dear “Marmee” because of their lack of money.
None of Mr. Alcott’s ventures in teaching or lecturing had added much to
the family treasury.
Louisa was determined to help and she willingly did any kind of work
that would enable her to earn a little money for her dear ones.
Sometimes she taught school, sometimes she helped a relative with the
housework, and sometimes she took care of an invalid child. Often she
did fine needlework.
While her hands were busy with her daily tasks, her brain was active
planning stories. She wrote them late at night, and soon publishers
began to accept them and pay her small sums of money. For her first
story, written when she was sixteen years old, she was paid five
dollars.
Writing was a joy to Louisa Alcott and sewing a tiresome task. However,
she continued her sewing because at first the needle paid better than
the pen. It was a pleasure to her to earn enough money to buy a new
shawl for “Marmee,” a crimson ribbon for May’s bonnet, or a new carpet
for the whole family. Cheerfully she wore her old bonnet and her shabby
shoes.
During her spare moments, the young author continued to write happily in
her attic. To her delight the mail often brought her the news that her
stories had been accepted. This greatly encouraged her.
Then came the Civil War. Louisa realized that no matter how greatly she
desired to write, her first duty was to her country. Therefore, she went
to the Union Hotel Hospital at Georgetown, D. C., as a nurse. The
letters that she wrote home telling of her experiences were later
published as a book called _Hospital Sketches_.
By this time Miss Alcott’s work had become so well known that she was
asked to write a book for girls. She began to write _Little Women_ to
prove to the publisher that she could not write for girls. What she did
prove everybody knows. Young people and their elders as well, not only
in this country but also abroad, were soon laughing and crying over the
doings of the “March” girls. Miss Alcott had become famous.
_Little Men_ and other books followed rapidly and proved so popular that
Miss Alcott received many thousands of dollars from her writings. She
was happy because now she could fulfill her dream of giving her dear
mother some of the comforts that she had never had. It was but small
return, she felt, for all the help and encouragement that her mother had
given her.
Miss Alcott’s books have lived because they show people as they really
are. They tell, too, how jolly and happy life can be if people think
less about money and more about living unselfishly and enjoying the
outdoors and the simple and beautiful things of life. Louisa M. Alcott
could not help writing in this way, for it was the way in which she
herself lived.
[Illustration]
Susan B. Anthony—
Who Worked for Sixty Years to Secure Rights for Women
Young Susan vigorously attacked, with her broom, the cobweb in the
corner of the schoolroom ceiling. It was a stubborn cobweb and Susan had
to step upon the teacher’s desk to reach it. No girl trained by so good
a housekeeper as Susan’s mother could be happy in the same room with a
cobweb.
“Deborah will be pleased to have the room clean,” thought Susan.
However, Deborah, her Quaker teacher, was not pleased. Susan’s heavy
shoes had broken the desk hinges, and the girl who had tried to do well
was severely scolded.
It was often very much like this in Susan B. Anthony’s later life. When
she tried her hardest to brush away the cobwebs that kept the world from
seeing that women did not have the same rights as men, she was jeered
and scorned. Nevertheless, she kept on wielding her broom, the broom she
used being her clever tongue. This little Quaker girl grew up to be an
interesting and eloquent lecturer, who never lost an opportunity to
speak a good word for her fellow-women.
Susan Brownell Anthony was born February 15, 1820, in Adams,
Massachusetts, in the midst of the Berkshire Hills. She was the second
of eight children. Every night, as a little girl, she used to watch the
sun go down behind “Old Greylock.” She came to love the great mountain,
and all her life she liked to think of its rugged strength.
Mrs. Anthony was a very busy woman. In addition to caring for her lively
little children she also cooked and washed for a number of factory
hands. However, she found time to read good books and to be interested
in all her children’s doings. Susan’s father was a Quaker, a man much
liked and respected.
At an early age little Susan learned to be a good cook and housekeeper,
like her mother. Once, when Mrs. Anthony was ill, twelve-year-old Susan
with the help of her two sisters, ten and fourteen years of age, did all
the household tasks, including packing the lunch boxes for the factory
hands. Susan was so anxious that everything should be done exactly right
that she and her sisters carried samples of the food to their mother for
her approval.
At three years of age Susan, who was very bright and quick, learned her
letters and also some words, while on a visit at her grandmother’s. When
she was a little older she attended a district school, and then a
private school conducted in the Anthony home. Later, she joined her
sister at a boarding school near Philadelphia, where she studied for a
year.
Susan began to teach in a district school when she was seventeen years
old. She was boarded in turn at the homes of her pupils, being paid in
addition only one dollar and a half a week. Susan was a very successful
teacher, and often she grew indignant to see that men who did not do
their work so well as she received four times as much pay. Equal pay for
equal work was one of the rights that she began to demand for her
fellow-women from that time on.
When Susan’s father failed in business, she saw his creditors take all
of her mother’s personal things. Susan was enraged with the injustice of
it and declared that there should be a law to make a wife’s belongings
her own.
In 1851 Miss Anthony made a trip to Seneca Falls, New York, to urge the
admission of girls to the People’s College then being founded. There she
met Miss Lucy Stone and had an opportunity to become well acquainted
with her and also with Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whom she had met a
few months before.
Mrs. Stanton and Miss Stone believed that women should have a share in
making the laws of the land, and Miss Anthony soon became their most
ardent co-worker. Twenty-five years later, Miss Anthony drafted the
federal suffrage amendment. However, it was forty-five years from the
time that the amendment was drafted until it became a part of our
Constitution.
Susan B. Anthony was one of the greatest friends that women have ever
had. When she was born there were only three things that a girl who
wanted to earn her living could do: be a millhand, a servant, or a
teacher. Before the close of Miss Anthony’s life, a girl might fit
herself to be a doctor, a lawyer, a business woman, or, in fact, almost
anything that she chose.
When Miss Anthony was a young girl, the doors of nearly all colleges
were closed to women. The girl who dared to ask for as much education as
was given to her brother was considered a great oddity. However, Miss
Anthony lived to see girls admitted to college quite as a matter of
course.
Susan B. Anthony found a world where a married woman could not do what
she liked with the property that she owned. Neither could she do as she
wished with the money that she had earned or received as a gift. She
could not even take charge of her own children if anyone objected. Miss
Anthony left a world where women’s rights in all these matters were
considered and where in four states women could help to make the laws.
The Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the vote, came later.
Miss Anthony devoted all of her time to public speaking. She traveled
from coast to coast, always making the most of every opportunity to
speak in behalf of the various reforms to which she devoted over sixty
years of her life. Sometimes she pleaded for the freedom of the slaves,
sometimes for temperance, but _always_ for her favorite cause—rights
for women.
Susan B. Anthony kept on pleading for women, no matter how much people
laughed at her. Gradually, the world began to see some reason in what
she said. To-day, all women who cast their vote, control their property,
and send their daughters to college, can thank the determined Quaker
girl who had such a large share in giving women their rights.
[Illustration]
Clara Barton—
The Girl Who Unfurled The First American Red Cross Flag.
The Barton family was made very happy on the Christmas of 1821 with the
gift of a baby girl. The four older sisters and brothers gave the baby a
royal welcome, though they little thought that this gift was also to be
a Christmas present to the whole world. This baby was Clara Barton,
called in Civil War times the “Angel of the Battlefield” and known by
all nations as the founder of the American Red Cross Society.
Baby Clara grew up to be the pet of the family, although no coddling was
allowed on the Barton farm in Oxford, Massachusetts. Each member of the
family wanted to teach her something, and Clara was equally eager to
learn.
Mrs. Barton taught her daughter to be level headed. Nothing could have
been worth more to the girl who was to be the first woman to carry
organized aid to the wounded on an American battlefield. Mrs. Barton
also taught Clara to sew, to cook, and to be an excellent housekeeper.
Clara was particularly grateful for this knowledge and had countless
opportunities to use it. Once a dying soldier whispered his wish for a
custard pie, crinkly around the edge, to remind him of home. With what
materials she could get together, Miss Barton made the pie and scalloped
the edge with her finger, just as her mother had taught her to do in the
farm kitchen.
It was Big Brother David who taught the little sister many things that
were to make her a very practical “Angel of the Battlefield.” At five
years of age, thanks to his training, she rode wild horses like a young
Mexican. This skill in managing any horse meant the saving of countless
lives when she had to gallop all night in a trooper’s saddle to reach
the wounded men. David taught her, also, to drive a nail straight, to
tie a knot that would hold, and to think and act quickly.
From her father Clara heard thrilling tales of his fighting in the
Revolutionary War under “Mad Anthony” Wayne. These stories doubtless
made a deep impression on the youthful listener. Little did she realize
that in the years to come she, too, would play an important part on many
battlefields.
Clara Barton attended a boarding school for a short time. However, she
received her education chiefly at home, being taught by her brother and
then by a tutor. Later she had an opportunity for more advanced study at
a near-by school.
The little farm girl was busy and happy from morning until night, for
she loved to do things. She went for the cows, helped with the milking
and churning, and had a hand in planting the potatoes. When the house
was being painted, she begged to help with that, too, and she learned
how to mix the paint as well as to put it on. Once she went into her
brother’s factory and learned how to weave cloth.
Her first experience as a nurse came at the age of eleven when Big
Brother David was injured by a fall. For two years this cheerful,
patient little nurse scarcely left his bedside.
When she was only fifteen years old, Clara Barton began to teach school.
She taught well, too, for she understood girls and boys. It seemed as if
she had found the work that she best liked to do. However, after
eighteen years of teaching, her health necessitated her giving up this
profession. Clara Barton did not know how to be idle, so she went to
Washington and secured a position in the Patent Office.
When the Civil War broke out many wounded soldiers were brought to
Washington. Clara Barton helped to care for these boys, some of whom
were her former pupils from Massachusetts. She also sent out appeals for
money and supplies.
As Miss Barton saw the wounded taken from the transports, she was
extremely sorry for them because they did not have proper care. She felt
that she must go to nurse the soldiers who were close to the
battlefields. This was entirely against army regulations, but Miss
Barton was very persistent. She was finally allowed to take her store of
bandages and other supplies to the front, where they were most needed.
People used to ask Miss Barton if she had not always been brave. The
woman who walked coolly through Fredericksburg when every street was a
firing line answered, telling of her childhood: “I was a shrinking
little bundle of fears—fears of thunder, fears of strange faces, fears
of my strange self.” It was when the shy girl forgot herself in working
for others that she forgot her fears.
Bravery and willingness to help others, however, would have been of
little use to Clara Barton had she not been level headed. The ability to
see what should be done next and to do it quickly and well were of equal
value. It seemed as if Clara Barton worked magic, but her magic was only
a mixture of common sense and a great pity for the suffering.
Once at Antietam, when there seemed to be nothing to feed to the wounded
men, she noticed that the medicine had been packed in fine meal. Quickly
she borrowed several big kettles from the farm where they were
quartered, and she soon was serving the men with steaming gruel.
At another time, at nightfall, one of the doctors complained about the
mismanagement that left him with a thousand wounded men to care for and
only an inch of candle for a light. Miss Barton had fortunately brought
along several boxes of lanterns, which she gave him. Her remarkable
forethought meant the saving of many a life that night.
After the Civil War Clara Barton did not give up her work of mercy. For
four years she helped to trace missing soldiers.
While in Europe, during the Franco-Prussian War, she saw the wonderful
work that the Red Cross societies abroad were doing. She was deeply
impressed with the value of such an organization and immediately decided
that, upon her return to the United States, she would do all that she
could to interest her country in the Red Cross.
Miss Barton worked for years to persuade the United States to found an
American Red Cross Society. “We shall never have another war,” people
objected. However, Miss Barton pointed out that in time of great floods,
fires, earthquakes, and other disasters lives could be saved by
organized aid. At last she was successful, for in 1882 the American Red
Cross Society came into being. Clara Barton was its president for many
years.
The Red Cross banner was first unfurled for service in this country at
Miss Barton’s home at Dansville, New York, where she established a local
chapter to aid the forest-fire sufferers in Michigan. Ever since that
time the Red Cross has continued to give its efficient aid wherever
needed. It had an exceptional opportunity during the World War to prove
its worth. Our country has cause for deep gratitude to Clara Barton.
Clara Barton risked her life on sixteen battlefields of the Civil War to
care for the wounded. She founded the organization that has brought
relief to thousands of people in war and disaster. She did great deeds,
but they were possible only because she had learned to do the little
things of life well.
[Illustration]
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach—
The Girl Who Made Melodies
“See, the conquering hero comes” rang out in the studio, clear and true
as a bell. The photographer thrust his head out from under the big black
hood of the camera and stared in amazement at the tiny sitter. The
two-year-old child was singing the very air that he had been practicing
for the first peace jubilee, and she was singing it absolutely
correctly. Others were eventually to be astonished at the musical
ability of this little girl, who grew up to be America’s foremost woman
composer.
Amy Marcy Cheney was born in the little town of Henniker, New Hampshire,
September 5, 1867. From the time that she was a year old, her talent
amazed even her musical mother. She learned dozens of airs and sang
them, keeping the pitch perfectly. She would listen delightedly for
hours to violin music.
At the age of four Amy was finally allowed to play on the piano. Often
when her aunt was seated at the instrument, little Amy would stand on a
hassock and play with her, making up an accompaniment as she went along.
Just as other little girls plan how to arrange their playhouses or how
to make new dresses for their dolls, this little girl used to think out
tunes. Once, when she was visiting at a house where there was no piano,
she composed a little piece of music. She remembered it and three months
later was able to play it correctly on the piano at home. She had
composed three other little pieces before she was seven years old.
Long before Amy knew the names of musical notes, she knew their meaning
and could read them. It amused her to transpose from one key to another,
and she never found it difficult.
When she was six years old Amy thought that she should have regular
music lessons, so she begged her mother, who was an excellent pianist,
to teach her. You may be sure that little Amy Cheney never had to be
urged to practice. At seven years of age she played several times in
public. Before long she was playing difficult music from Chopin, Bach,
and other composers.
When Amy was eight years old her family moved to Boston. The prominent
musicians of this city before whom she played agreed that she was ready
to go to Europe to study music. However, Mr. and Mrs. Cheney did not
want their little girl to be trained only in music. They knew that she
would be happier and healthier if she were to go to school with children
of her own age. They also realized that she should have plenty of time
to romp and play outdoors with other children.
Amy was therefore sent to a private school, conducted by Mr. W. L.
Whittemore, where she rapidly mastered the regular studies. She was
greatly helped in her piano work by her good ear and accurate memory.
She was able to play a whole Beethoven sonata without notes after she
had heard one of her fellow-pupils practice it.
While Amy was quite young her quick ear and good memory gave her an
opportunity to be of real service to the world. Professor Sill, a
scientist who made birds his special study, asked her to record the
songs of the California larks.
Out into the fields they went together and waited, motionless, for the
birds to appear. Then just as soon as one of the little feathered
creatures trilled out his melody, Amy wrote it down in notes. The song
thus caught was kept for all time. She continued this practice of
recording songs so that she finally had a volume filled with bird
melodies.
Amy Cheney studied under Ernst Perabo, Carl Baerman, and Junius W. Hill.
She also studied many musical subjects independently. She did not always
want to be helped over the problems that confronted her, preferring to
work them out alone. Translating books on music and memorizing and
rewriting difficult music were some of the hard tasks that this earnest,
thorough young student set for herself.
At sixteen years of age this young pianist made her first professional
appearance before the public at a recital in Boston, and was greatly
praised. The next year she played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and
with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. During that year a beautiful song
which she had composed, entitled _With Violets_, was published. It was
considered by musical critics to be faultless in form.
The following year Amy Cheney became the wife of Dr. H. H. A. Beach, of
Boston. She did not, however, give up her musical career. In fact, all
of her most important pieces of music were written after her marriage.
Mrs. Beach has composed music for the orchestra, piano, and violin, and
has also written cantatas and many songs. One of her most famous and
successful pieces of music is her _Jubilate_ cantata, written for the
dedication of the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition,
held in Chicago in 1893. At this Exposition Maud Powell, the famous
violinist, and Mrs. Beach played one of Mrs. Beach’s compositions
written for the violin and piano.
The music for a poem called _Dark Is the Night_ is thought by many
people to be her best song. Other favorites are: _Across the World_,
_Scottish Cradle Song_, and _Fairy Lullaby_. Mrs. Beach’s songs are
always enjoyed by those who appreciate the best music.
Success did not spoil the young girl whose marked musical ability had
attracted attention ever since her babyhood. Not content with what had
come easily to her, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach kept on working to develop
her talent. Her love of music and enthusiasm for it were not alone
responsible for placing her foremost among the women composers of
America. It was her desire for knowledge, leading her to studiously
apply herself to her work, that enabled her to create music which has
brought pleasure to thousands of people.
[Illustration]
Cecilia Beaux—
Whose Paint Brush Has Brought Her Fame
Cecilia’s gray eyes grew thoughtful as she considered the drawing that
she was copying. She held it at arm’s length, scrutinizing it
critically.
“Ah, this is much more fun than practicing scales,” she reflected.
When the family examined these drawings, they said, “Cecilia would never
be a success at music, but she draws very well.”
This little girl was Cecilia Beaux, whose portraits have won many
medals. She was born in Philadelphia in 1863. Her father came from
Provence, France, where the people have ever been famed for their
enjoyment of beauty. Her mother was of New England descent and had
inherited from her ancestors the ability to do things and to do them
conscientiously and well.
From each parent the little girl received a golden gift: from her
father, his joy in the beautiful; from her mother, the love of doing
things. Her good use of these two gifts has made Cecilia Beaux a famous
artist.
Cecilia was taught at home until she was twelve years old. Then she
attended a private school for a short time. Because of the skill that
she had shown in copying drawings her aunt and uncle, with whom she
spent a great deal of time, proposed a training in art for her.
This young girl had a few lessons in drawing from a Philadelphia artist,
Mrs. Thomas Janvier. She also had an opportunity to have her work in
painting criticized by Mr. William Sartain. Her gray eyes shone with
happiness as she applied her colors and listened eagerly to every word
from this distinguished teacher. Cecilia Beaux was practically
self-taught. These few lessons constituted her only instruction in art
until she went abroad some years later.
Instead of sitting and dreaming of the great pictures that she might
paint some day, Cecilia Beaux looked for an opportunity to use her brush
or pencil to aid her financially. A scientific society needed some one
upon whom they could depend to make accurate drawings of fossils. This
kind of work necessitated very careful attention to detail. The drawings
were to be made into plates to illustrate scientific books. They would
have been useless if they had not been exactly correct.
Some young artists, eager to do what they would call big things, would
have been impatient with such slow, tedious work. Cecilia Beaux did not
despise it. She did it to the very best of her ability, just because she
believed in doing things well. Little did she dream that this training
in careful and exact drawing was to be of great help to her when she
began to paint portraits.
Another way in which she earned money was by giving lessons in painting
and drawing. She also found that she could increase her income by
painting portraits on china plates, taking her subjects from
photographs. She did these very well, too, being careful to make correct
likenesses.
Then Cecilia Beaux began to make crayon portraits from photographs.
These attracted attention and she soon received many orders for
portraits.
One success followed another, but although Cecilia Beaux received much
praise for her work, she was not content with what she had accomplished.
She felt that she needed still more training and that to have it she
must go to Paris.
Accordingly, Miss Beaux went to Europe and began to broaden her talent
by studying with several great French masters. One of them, Robert
Fleury, used to summon her before the class to praise her work publicly.
So modest was this American girl that she thought he could not be in
earnest. Her fellow-students, also, used to discuss her excellent work.
The many friends that she made in Paris begged her to stay in that
beautiful city and paint there, but she was too thoroughly American to
spend her life in a foreign land. So, after a few years, she returned to
her own country.
A great many of Miss Beaux’s best-known pictures are of women and
children, but she has painted men with great success, too. In fact, she
was chosen to paint portraits of Clemenceau, Admiral Beatty, and other
great war leaders. Her portraits of women and children are really little
pictures of everyday home life. She has caught the children as they have
paused in their play for a moment.
“Ernesta,” one of Miss Beaux’s well-known portraits, hangs in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Among her other important
paintings are “The Last Days of Infancy,” “The Dancing Lesson,” “Sita
and Sarita,” and “The New England Woman.”
Cecilia Beaux has won medals and prizes at many exhibitions of art.
People are glad to pay large sums of money for her pictures, and it is
considered an honor to be painted by her. She has steadily achieved
success because she has never scorned nor slighted small tasks. She has
done them conscientiously and well, making them a preparation for
greater things to come.
[Illustration]
Evangeline Booth—
The Girl Who Lived The Meaning of Her Name
Many a passerby on the crowded London street paused to glance at the
earnest, thoughtful face of a slender, golden-haired flower girl and to
buy a nosegay from her basket. When her stock was sold this girl, as
fair and fragile as one of her own flowers, picked her way through the
throng. She presently disappeared into one of the dirty alleyways, where
only the poorest of Londoners lived.
Children ran to meet her and rough men touched their caps as she passed.
The sick woman whose wretched room she entered fell asleep peacefully
after receiving a bowl of soup from her hands and a cheery word.
For weeks this sweet-faced young girl, who sold flowers or worked at
making matches, had been winning the hearts of the poor, discouraged
people of this district. She tended their babies and prayed with the
lonely old women. These people felt that they had found a friend who was
sorry for them and who was always ready to give them aid. They called
her the “White Angel.”
One day she told these people that she was a Salvation Army lassie. The
Army was hated in this district because it was trying to close the
saloons; only a few months earlier its preachers had been stoned in the
streets. The “White Angel,” herself, had been warned by the police that
it would be dangerous for her to speak in this part of London. Yet so
beloved and respected had she become that she felt perfectly safe.
Because of her good work, the people in this poverty-stricken and wicked
district were soon attending the meetings of the Army.
The girl who dared to go into the very worst part of London to live the
life of its poor people that she might better know how to help them was
Evangeline Booth. In later years she became the Commander-in-chief of
the Salvation Army in the United States.
Evangeline Booth’s father, William Booth, had been apprenticed as a boy
to a pawnbroker. He was so touched by the poverty and wickedness around
him that he put his whole soul into helping others to lead better lives.
The Mission, that he established in London after many struggles, became
in time the Salvation Army. For years, William Booth, General of the
Army, toiled against odds of every kind.
The thinking world now has respect and admiration for the splendid work
that the Salvation Army carries on. In those days, however, the street
preachers of the Army were as likely to be showered with stones and
bricks as to be sneered and ridiculed. The rougher people disliked the
Army because it was fighting drink and wickedness. Other people could
not see that the drum and tambourine and simple prayers might help to
turn a man’s heart to God as readily as could organ music and learned
sermons.
It was into the home of the founder of this once despised organization,
at Hackney, a suburb of London, that a seventh child, Evangeline Booth,
was born, December 1865. There was a loving welcome for the little girl,
though she had come into a home where both mother and father believed
that their family must be second to the work that they were doing for
the world.
Little Evangeline and her sisters heard so much of their father’s work
that even their favorite game was playing prayer meeting with their
battered dolls. She and the others had very few toys, because their
parents thought that the money should be spent for the poor.
It was a very busy home in which Eva, as her father preferred to call
her, grew up. The bell was always ringing. Messengers were coming and
going. In one room her father’s deep voice might be heard planning his
work. In another room her mother was busy writing for the Cause. The
younger children murmured their lessons in a third room, and in a
fourth, one of the older girls practiced on the piano.
The General would often stop in the midst of his work for little chats
with his children. He would take Eva, for whom he always had a specially
deep love and tenderness, upon his knee and ask her about her puppies or
kittens. Once when Eva felt very sad over the death of her pet dog, her
father took her to the city and spent the whole day telling her stories
and comforting her.
At an early age Eva learned that she should pick up her books and toys
for, above everything else except sin, her father hated disorder.
Orderliness was a useful habit to be acquired by one who was later to
have charge of the affairs of a great organization.
Though Eva’s mother was often too busy to spend much time with her, she
heard her daughter’s prayers and urged her to study so that she could
help the weak, the poor, the ignorant, and the wicked. Mrs. Booth often
reminded Eva to carry out in her life the meaning of her beautiful name,
Evangeline, “bringing glad tidings.”
Evangeline Booth began her work of “bringing glad tidings” when she was
very young. She had inherited her father’s gift of eloquence as well as
his fearlessness and love of work. At fifteen years of age she spoke
very beautifully at a meeting near London. When she was seventeen years
old she was made an officer in the Army and began the work in the slums
which won her the title of “White Angel.”
After ably filling various positions in the Salvation Army in Great
Britain, Evangeline Booth was made Commander of the Army in Canada. At
the time of the Gold Rush in 1898, she sent Salvation Army workers to
the Klondike. In 1904 she was made Commander-in-chief of the Salvation
Army in the United States. Besides her duties as Commander she has
composed words and music for the Army’s songs and has written articles
for the Army publications and other magazines.
In addition to its religious work the Salvation Army maintains homes,
hospitals, clinics, and day nurseries; it finds employment for men and
women out of work; and it sends mothers and children on summer outings.
Every Christmas and Thanksgiving pennies dropped into the big red
Salvation Army kettles provide dinners for thousands of the poor. In a
single year the Army in the United States made 175,698 children happy
with Christmas toys.
During the World War the pies and doughnuts served by the Salvation Army
lassies cheered thousands of lonely soldiers, and many a mother has the
Salvation Army to thank for her boy’s last message.
Evangeline Booth was for almost twenty years Commander-in-chief of this
great organization in the United States. She believes, as her father did
before her, that the first step in influencing a man to lead a better
life is to make him feel that you really care whether he sinks or swims.
Her courageous, selfless life shows that she _does_ care.
[Illustration]
Frances Hodgson Burnett—
The Girl Who Loved Stories And Wrote Them
From under the sitting-room table came strange whispers, but Mrs.
Hodgson was not at all surprised. Beneath the long overhanging cover she
could see a chubby, curly-headed little girl seated on the floor talking
in low earnest tones to her wax doll, braced against the table leg.
Frances, the little girl under the table, would have described the scene
very differently. What she saw was not an ordinary center table, but an
Indian wigwam; not a speechless doll, but a squaw to whom she, as the
chief, was telling tales of the war-trail and the happy hunting grounds.
“Frances is pretending again,” said Mrs. Hodgson to herself as she went
out of the room, a bit puzzled at this little daughter’s way of playing.
The chubby little girl and her doll had many an adventure together. They
took mad gallops on coal-black steeds that seemed to ordinary eyes
nothing but the arms of the nursery sofa. As survivors from a sinking
ship they drifted on a raft that Frances’ two sisters would have called
the green arm chair. These experiences seemed very real to this little
girl.