Part 4

Presently a chance to prove that she was really a friend of the Indians came to Alice Fletcher. Some greedy white men were trying to get the good land away from the Red Men, giving them poorer land in return. Sometimes the Indians were so enraged with their treatment that they would rise in revolt. The situation kept growing worse and worse. Miss Fletcher realized that it would be no better unless each Indian secured from the government the right to hold a portion of the tribal land for himself.

She set out for Washington to try to persuade Congress that the Indians must hold their land just as the white man holds his. A book which had just appeared, written by Helen Hunt Jackson, called _A Century of Dishonor_, helped a little to make people realize the wrongs done to the Indians. However, the congressmen were much more interested in the affairs of their own people than in the Indians. Miss Fletcher, therefore, had to plead their cause continually until the Indian Land Act was finally passed.

The President asked Miss Fletcher to undertake the difficult task of allotting the tracts of land to the Omaha Indians. He knew that they trusted her and would be content with her judgment. Later she did the same work for other tribes of Indians to the satisfaction of everybody.

The Girl and Boy Scouts and the Campfire Girls have interested Miss Fletcher very much, because she believes that the outdoors can bring health and happiness to girls and boys. She has made a collection of Indian games for these organizations. Also, Miss Fletcher has written books and articles about the Indians. Her writings are a great help to those who are making a special study of the different people of the world.

Alice Cunningham Fletcher gave up luxury and even comfort to learn about the Indians. The work of her mind has been of great value to learned people in their study of races; and the work of her heart will never be forgotten by the simple folk whose wrongs she helped to right.

Louise Homer—

Who Believes That Hard Work Is The Secret of Her Success as a Singer

Louise paid no attention to the calls of the children. What were a few hours’ lost play compared with the treat in store for her! To-night after the regular prayer meeting, a song service was to be held to study hymns. Louise had begged so hard to be allowed to attend that her father had consented, provided that her lessons were thoroughly prepared in the afternoon.

These midweek song services were held at the Minneapolis church of which her father was pastor. There, Louise Beatty sang for the first time outside her own home. Little did this girl realize that her rich, deep voice would later make her famous throughout the world.

Louise Dilworth Beatty was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1872, into a family where playing and singing were as much a part of the daily program as eating or sleeping. Every one of the eight Beatty children loved music. They were always singing in duets, trios, quartets, or choruses.

Gathered around the fire on winter evenings, the family formed an impromptu orchestra. One sister played the piano; a brother, the bones; Mr. Beatty, the flute; and Louise, the future great opera singer, the triangle.

Music had always delighted Louise, in particular. At school, the seven-year-old girl was stirred day after day by the thrilling notes of the music which the teacher played as the pupils marched out for recess.

When Louise was fourteen years old, she made her first appearance in public as a soloist. The church in the little Pennsylvania town where the family was then living was to give the cantata, _Ruth and Naomi_. Mrs. Beatty was rather amused when Louise was asked to take the part of Ruth, for she had never sung alone; but Louise herself was delighted. The rehearsals were a joy.

On the night set for the cantata, just as the singers were assembling, the disturbing news came that the man who was to sing the part of Boaz had missed his train. What was to be done! “I will sing his part too,” offered Louise. She carried the basso-profundo part, in addition to her own, with such success that everyone told her mother that Louise’s voice was wonderful, and that it should be cultivated.

Soon after this Louise began to take singing lessons, but the thought of becoming an opera singer did not occur to her. She kept busy with her high-school work, and later on studied music in Philadelphia. She also sang in a church there.

Then one day Louise Beatty took the most important step in her life. She decided to go to Boston to study music seriously. She felt that she must know more about music itself, if she were to become a real singer. She was advised to study harmony and composition with Sidney Homer, well known as a writer of music. She began her lessons with Mr. Homer, and, in addition, studied singing with William L. Whitney.

In 1895 Louise Beatty and Sidney Homer were married. Mr. Homer believed that his wife’s voice was unusual, and that it was especially suited for opera. He wanted her to go abroad to train herself to be an opera singer. Accordingly, they went to Paris, where Madame Homer studied very hard for two years. She was able to do a tremendous amount of work without injuring her health, because she lived quietly and ate good home food at regular hours.

Then came the reward of the long hours spent in singing with her teachers, in practicing, and in studying languages and dramatics. Madame Homer was ready to sing in opera. In America, she appeared for the first time in San Francisco in the opera _Aida_, and a few weeks later in New York in the same part. She was a success at once.

For many years Louise Homer has delighted American audiences with her beautiful contralto voice. To keep her voice in good condition, and to learn the many parts that she has sung has not been an easy task. Every day during the season she practices and studies. Madame Homer believes that a great name, once made, can only be kept by thorough work.

While Madame Homer has never slighted any part of the work of her profession, neither has she neglected the work of home-making. She has always found time to be an intelligent and affectionate mother to her children and to preside over a real home. Remembering her own happy childhood, she has been determined that her children should have as much love and care and good training as her own mother gave her.

Louise, the eldest daughter, has a good mezzo voice and has sung in recitals, sometimes with her mother. Sidney, the second child, has also inherited musical ability.

Madame Homer and her husband have always been intensely interested in each other’s work. The wife loves to sing the songs her husband composes, and he in turn takes delight in dedicating them to her. Louise Homer possessed a remarkable voice, but her own painstaking and constant work has brought it to perfection.

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer—

The Girl Who Loved Art More Than Ease

Bats, birds, toads, snakes, and beetles filled the room. Some were stuffed and mounted, and the others were either dissected or preserved in alcohol. This room was neither a museum nor a boy’s den. It was owned by a little girl known as “Happy Hatty,” and she, herself, had collected and prepared every one of its strange ornaments.

At the time that Harriet Hosmer was young, dissecting animals was not considered a proper amusement for a girl. The neighbors thought that Harriet would have been much better employed in sewing a fine seam.

Harriet’s father, an eminent physician, had his own ideas about bringing up his little girl. Dr. Hosmer wanted her to live in the fresh air and sunshine so that she would be strong and healthy. The more Harriet ranged the woods in search of specimens, the better her father was pleased.

Dr. Hosmer gave his little girl a boat, so that she could row on the Charles River, which flowed past her home. He had a Venetian gondola made for her, too, with velvet cushions and a silver prow. In fact, he thought that no gift was too rich for his little girl, so long as it would keep her in the open air.

Harriet enjoyed out-of-door life. She grew tall and strong. Her muscles became firm from much rowing. She could walk miles without being tired, and was a fearless rider. Thus, unknowingly, did this little girl, who later became a distinguished sculptor, lay a strong foundation for her life work.

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, on October 9, 1830. Even as a child she liked to play with clay and mold it into shapes. In one corner of the garden there was a clay-pit. Here the little girl used to go, when she grew tired of books, to fashion dogs and horses from the wet clay.

Harriet went to school in Watertown, and later attended a private school at Lenox, Massachusetts. After three years at Lenox, Harriet returned home. She then began to study drawing and modeling in Boston. Often she walked both to and from her lessons, a distance of fourteen miles. By this time, Harriet Hosmer realized that nothing made her happier than to turn formless bits of clay into beautiful objects. She felt that she would like to go still further in her work; she wanted to see some of her ideas take shape in marble.

Harriet knew that a sculptor cannot fashion life-like figures of people or animals without understanding the position and shape of the bony frame under the flesh. The decorations of her museum-like room, all those specimens that she had dissected or mounted as a child, had given her a fair start in the study of anatomy. She also studied this subject with her father. However, she realized that, if she were to be a real sculptor, she must know more about anatomy. She consequently looked about for a school where she might study.

The Boston Medical School would not accept this eager young student because she was a girl, but Harriet Hosmer was not a person to be daunted by one refusal. She was finally admitted to the St. Louis Medical College where she had a very thorough course in anatomy. After she had completed this course, she returned home and began to work seriously in a studio which her father had fitted up for her in his garden.

A beautiful girl representing Hesper, the evening star, was the subject that Harriet Hosmer chose for her first original statue. From a solid block of marble she had a workman knock off the corners. As he was not accustomed to working for sculptors she did not allow him to go within several inches of the part that she was to cut. All the rest of this difficult work she did with her own small hands.

For eight or ten hours a day she chipped away at the block with chisel and a leaden mallet weighing four pounds and a half. Muscles made strong and flexible by much rowing and other exercises enabled her to keep up this hard work day after day. The block of marble was finally turned into the head of a lovely maiden, her hair entwined with poppies and a star on her forehead.

Beautiful as was this head of Hesper, Harriet Hosmer felt that she must study more. She was very desirous of entering the studio of John Gibson, a noted English sculptor who was then residing in Rome. Now Mr. Gibson, hearing that Miss Hosmer was young and rich, feared that she might be easily discouraged before real difficulties. However, as soon as he saw the daguerreotypes of her “Hesper,” the great sculptor said to her father, “Whatever I can teach her, she shall learn.”

At the very beginning of her work with Mr. Gibson, Harriet Hosmer showed him that she was not the sort of girl who gives up easily. The iron rod in a clay copy of the Venus de Milo which she had modeled in order that her teacher might have an idea of her work snapped, and the figure fell to pieces. However, without stopping to complain, she started at once to make another model.

Harriet Hosmer continued to work steadily with John Gibson. Then one day a message came from her father stating that he had lost his fortune and could no longer send her money. Miss Hosmer sold her fine saddle horse, and took an inexpensive room for herself. Now she was actually to work for her living.

Miss Hosmer became an important figure in the art and literary circles in Rome. She numbered among her friends the Brownings, Hawthorne, the Thackerays, and many other interesting people.

In the years that followed, many a beautiful statue emerged from unshaped marble through the transforming touch of Harriet Hosmer’s hands. Her statue “Puck” shows a merry little elf, sitting cross-legged on a toadstool, his left hand resting upon a lizard, his right, clasping a beetle. Some of her other important statues are “Œnone,” “Beatrice Cenci,” “Sleeping Faun,” and a statue of Thomas H. Benton. “Zenobia in Chains,” which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the most famous of all. This is a colossal statue, representing the beautiful Queen of Palmyra taken prisoner by the Roman Emperor Aurelian.

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer so loved to watch beauty grow under her fingers that she was willing to give up the care-free, easy life that she might have had as the child of a rich man. Because she developed her talent through hard, serious work, she won for herself a high place among the sculptors of America.

Julia Ward Howe—

Whose Battle Hymn Sang Itself Into the Hearts of a Nation

In the days when New York was not the big city that it is now, there was a fashionable section called the Bowling Green. The people who lived there often used to see a great yellow coach roll by. Within, three little girls sat stiffly against the bright blue cushions. These children were dressed in blue coats and yellow satin bonnets to match the chariot and its lining. They were the three little Ward children, one of them, Julia, to be known later throughout the land as Julia Ward Howe. She is the author of the famous patriotic hymn which you sing so often at school, the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Julia Ward, the eldest of the three little girls, was born in New York City, May 27, 1819. Although her father was a rich man and loved his children very dearly, they did not have many of the pleasures which most children to-day enjoy as a matter of course.

The Ward girls had very little chance to romp and play outdoors and get acquainted with the birds and flowers. To be sure, they went to Newport, Rhode Island, in the summer, but poor little Julia had to wear a thick green worsted veil to protect her delicate skin. It was not until she had children of her own that she realized how much she had missed in her youth. She was glad that her children could live close to Nature.

Julia was, however, a happy child in spite of her rather sober life. She was alone much of the time, for her lively brothers were away at school and the two younger sisters played by themselves; but she was never lonely. She read a great deal: Shakespeare, Byron, and as much other poetry as she could find. She enjoyed her music and other lessons.

Julia was particularly fond of study. At first she had lessons at home, but at the age of nine she was sent to a private school nearby. Here this little girl studied a difficult book, Paley’s _Moral Philosophy_, with girls of sixteen and eighteen years of age.

Once, at this time, she heard a class reciting an Italian lesson. The musical sound of the language delighted her, and she listened whenever she had the chance. She secured a grammar, and studied it by herself. Then, one day, she handed the surprised teacher a letter, written correctly in Italian, asking permission to join the class.

Julia loved to make up poetry, and when she was in her thirteenth year, she copied a number of her poems into a brown blank book as a present for her father. One of them was a poem written about her mother, whom she had lost when she was only six years old. Still another was in French; and in the four stanzas there was only one mistake.

The study of languages was always a delight to her. She spoke and wrote French and German very well. Later in life she studied Spanish, and at the age of fifty she did not feel that she was too old to begin the study of Greek.

At twenty-four years of age Julia Ward married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. He was a noble-hearted man whom everyone knew as the first person to teach language to a blind deaf mute, namely, Laura Bridgman.

A happy, busy time began for these two people, who believed that life should be lived for others. Dr. Howe was engaged with his work for the blind and for the freeing of the slaves. Mrs. Howe went on with her studies, and wrote poems, plays, and essays. She helped her husband with his antislavery work, and together they edited a newspaper called the _Commonwealth_.

Yet no matter how crowded these days were, there was always a time in the afternoon that was set aside for the children. The mother played and sang to the little folks, and there were merry romps, as the father, wrapped in a big fur coat, played bear and growled fiercely. Both mother and father often read aloud to their children.

When the Civil War broke out, Julia Ward Howe longed to help her country and soon a special way came. One day, she was driving back into Washington with friends, after having witnessed a review of some troops. Their carriage was delayed by the returning soldiers. To pass away the time, Mrs. Howe and her companions began to sing war songs. Among them, they sang,

“John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave.”

“Why do you not write some good words for that stirring tune?” someone asked Mrs. Howe.

“I have often wished to do so!” she answered.

The next morning Mrs. Howe awoke before dawn, and found the words of a song shaping themselves in her mind. As soon as the poem was complete, she rose and, in the early morning light, wrote it down on a sheet of paper. This poem was the famous “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which soon sang itself into the hearts of the nation.

Mrs. Howe’s writings have been numerous. In addition to her books of poetry she also wrote much in behalf of social reforms. She lectured far and wide, and loved to talk to school children. Because she wanted women to learn how to help themselves, she founded, or helped to found, many clubs and organizations for them. She wanted them to have the vote too.

Mrs. Howe’s children have followed in their mother’s footsteps and written books themselves. One of her daughters, Laura E. Richards, has written delightful stories for children. Her book, _Two Noble Lives_, tells very beautifully the life stories of her remarkable mother and father. Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Howe Hall are also the authors of many books. The son, Henry Marion Howe, has written books on scientific subjects.

Our country honors Julia Ward Howe as the author of one of its greatest songs, which will ever continue to stir our patriotism. Because as a girl she made the best use of her talents, she was enabled to fill a long life with great service.

Helen Keller—

The Deaf and Blind Girl Who Found Light and Happiness Through Knowledge

In a beautiful southern garden where birds sang gaily and roses, honeysuckle, and jessamine shed their fragrance, little Helen lay face downward on the ground. She hid her hot cheeks in the cool leaves and grass. The tears flowed fast. Why, why would no one understand what she wanted? Sometimes it seemed as if she could not bear the world of darkness and silence in which she lived. This little girl could not talk like other children. Neither could she see the yellow rose petals, nor hear the songs of the birds.

On June 27, 1880, Helen Keller was born in the little Alabama town of Tuscumbia. For nineteen months she was just like any other happy, healthy baby girl. Then a severe illness took away her sight and hearing, and, because she was unable to hear her baby words, she soon forgot how to talk.

One day when Helen was nearly seven years old, a new doll was put into her arms. Then, in her hand a lady made the letters _d-o-l-l_ in the deaf alphabet. Helen did not know that things had names, but she was amused with this new game and imitated the letters for her mother. Helen’s new friend and teacher was Miss Anne Sullivan. She had come from the Perkins Institution for the Blind, in Boston, to teach this little girl.

When the finger game had been going on for a month, Miss Sullivan spelled the word, _w-a-t-e-r_, into Helen’s hand, letting her feel the water from the pump. A light broke over Helen’s face. For the first time she understood that everything had a name. She touched the pump and the trellis, and asked for their names. In a few hours she had learned thirty new words. That night Helen went to bed very happy, looking forward, for the first time in her life, to another day.

A new, joyous life now began for this little girl whose mind had been in the dark. She soon realized that every word that she would learn would provide her with a new and pleasant thought. Miss Sullivan gave Helen slips of cardboard on which words were printed in raised letters. She never tired of playing the game of arranging these words in sentences.

Down by the river Helen built dams of pebbles and dug lakes and bays and was taught how the world is made. In the woods her teacher put a violet or dogwood blossom in her hand and explained about growing things. She learned to know the crickets and katydids by holding them in her hand. Helen played all these games, not realizing that she was learning lessons.

When Helen was eight years old, Miss Sullivan took her to Boston to the Perkins Institution for the Blind. The child was delighted to find there little girls and boys who could talk to her in the language of the hand. She enjoyed, too, the books in the library printed in raised type, and began to read in earnest. It was at this time that she climbed Bunker Hill Monument, counting every step. She had another lesson in history at Plymouth Rock.

It was difficult, of course, for Helen to talk with people who did not know the deaf alphabet. Miss Sullivan had to spell out the conversation into her hand. When Helen heard of a deaf girl who had been taught to speak, she was determined to learn too.

It was the hardest task that she had undertaken, for she could not hear the sound of her own voice nor see the lips of others. She would feel the position of her teacher’s tongue and lips when making a sound, and then imitate the motions. Constant practice and the great desire to achieve always spurred her efforts. It was slow, tedious work, but Helen persevered.

She _did_ succeed in learning to speak. It was a very happy day when Helen actually spoke to her parents and to her little sister Mildred.

At ten years of age Helen had put her whole heart and will into learning to speak. Six years later, after having studied lip-reading, French and German, and other difficult subjects, she determined to undertake what seemed like another impossibility. She made up her mind to go to college!

Many of the books that she needed were not printed in raised type. She could not hear lectures nor take notes. Such were a few of the difficulties that this young girl had to face. Nevertheless, Helen was not to be discouraged. She entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies and bravely began her preparation for Radcliffe College.

Miss Sullivan went to Helen’s classes with her and spelled into her hand all that the teachers said. Helen wrote her compositions on the typewriter. She used it, too, in answering successfully the examination questions.

Helen was urged to take special work at college, but she preferred to follow the regular course. Once more this blind and deaf girl conquered all the difficulties, and in 1904 was graduated from Radcliffe College. She had completed the same course as had the young women at Radcliffe College and the young men at Harvard University who could see and hear.