Part 6

But to help others was his sole object in life. At that time there were no schools for the blind in the United States. Through Dr. Howe's influence, men of wealth became interested in this matter and helped him to establish such a school. Going again to Europe, to investigate such schools in foreign lands, he was temporarily turned aside from his project by the condition of Poland, oppressed as it then was by Prussia. In consequence of the assistance he gave this unhappy country, he was arrested, and imprisoned for some time.

All the world knows now of Dr. Howe through his kindness to Laura Bridgman, a child, who at the age of two years, and before she had learned to speak, became blind and deaf through a severe illness. When she was about eight, Dr. Howe took her into his home and taught her to read, write, do needlework, and play the piano. His success with Laura was so great that he, later, gave almost his entire energy to work for feeble-minded children and in this accomplished many wonderful results.

Dr. Howe fell in love with Julia Ward. Two such souls could hardly meet and not love each other. Though he was eighteen years older than she, similar tastes and aims naturally united them.

Their marriage took place when Julia was twenty-four years of age. Soon after the wedding, Dr. and Mrs. Howe made an extensive tour of Europe. For five months they lived in Rome, where their first child was born.

On their return to Boston, Dr. Howe bought a large estate near the Institute for the Blind, of which he was a Director, and in this happy home were born five more children. While a devoted mother, Mrs. Howe still found time to continue her studies, reading the Latin poets and the German philosophers, and all the while writing essays and poems for the magazines.

At the age of thirty-five she published her first volume of poems entitled _Passion Flowers_, and two years later, another called _Words for the Hour_. She also assisted her husband in editing the _Boston Commonwealth_, an anti-slavery newspaper, for in this cause both became leaders, being associated with Garrison, Sumner, Phillips, Higginson, and Theodore Parker.

In 1862, Mrs. Howe published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ her best known poem, _Battle Hymn of the Republic_. This inspiring hymn reached the prisoners in Libby Prison through Chaplain McCabe, who sang it to celebrate a victory of the Union troops. After Chaplain McCabe was released from prison, and while he was lecturing in Washington, he narrated this incident. This attracted the attention of the public, so that the beautiful hymn soon became popular throughout the country. Later, it became the battle cry of the Union army, being sung by the men as they marched into action.

When Colonel T. W. Higginson urged Mrs. Howe to sign a call for a Woman Suffrage Convention to be held in Boston, she not only signed, but attended the Convention, and later became intimately associated with the movement, often making speeches on the subject.

She was a delegate to the Congress for Prison Reform in England, where, besides speaking earnestly against the flogging of prisoners, she also urged arbitration as the means of settling international disputes. In her own country, she organized the Women's Peace Festival, with the object of turning the attention of women to the horrors and needlessness of war. Thus we find this remarkable woman always in the van of progress and generally much ahead of her time.

In 1876, after a brief illness, Dr. Howe died. Mrs. Howe then took her daughter Maud to Europe, where she remained for two years, trying by travel to dull the sharp edge of her affliction. It was at this time that Mrs. Howe took up the study of Greek, in which she became very proficient, and the study of which she kept up until her last illness.

For a long period of years Mrs. Howe lectured and wrote on subjects which concerned the social improvement of mankind.

Almost her last appearance in public was at the reception given to 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.

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.

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."

SUSAN B. ANTHONY

(1820-1906)

"That one who breaks the way with tears, Many shall follow with a song."