Grand Old Women of the World Briefly Sketched
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MRS. JEFFERSON DAVIS.
(Copyright, 19o2, by John R. Welsh.)
tin 1 .1 1 . .. U J 4 ,-. np.nn,l
I I Old Men," and, comparatively
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Old Women." It is given small
chance to forget that nearly a
hundred men, far advanced in years, are
still active in politics and statecraft, in
commerce and finance, in art, science and
letters. It does not often stop to realize
that a goodly number of the so-called
weaker sex are laboring with their brothers
for its betterment. The death of Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, taking away one of the most
notable of these women, calls attention to
those that are left. When they are counted
and their deeds recalled, it makes a tale
worth telling.
Trained according to the lights of the
earlier years of the last century these
"Grand Old Women" are not employed In
the pursuits of business, but they figure in
the politics of the time, influentially
though indirectly. They are playing a largo
part in philanthropy, and certain of them
stand forward prominently In art and liter
ature. The oldest of this little company is An
gela Georgiana, First Baroness Burdette
Coutts. In another year she will be 90, and
perhaps she is the only woman of promi
nence living today who, as she sat in West
minster Abbey and saw the crown placed
on the head of Edward VII, could remember
the coronation of tho king's mother.
The baroness, raised to the peerage In
1871, was honored by Queen Victoria not
because of the unusual part which she
played as a partner of the great banking
house of Coutts & Co., but because of her
position as a pioneer of practical imperial
ism. It was she who endowed the bishop
rics of Adelaide, Australia, at Cape Town
and in the far west of British Columbia.
She has given to the poor more money
than any other woman in the world. At
one time she sent $1,250,000 to the destitute
poor of Irelaad. Every Christmas 300,000
people are fed at her expense. It Is esti
mated that her annual gifts to various
charities amount to not less than $2,000,000.
Her home at West Hill, London, has be
come the Mecca for all the charitable work
ers In the United Kingdom, and It Is sel
dom that one leaves her doors without hav
ing received substantial assistance from
MARY A. LIVERMORTC
MADAM JANAISCIIKK.
tho genial old lady whose interest in the
world's affairs is still keen.
Susan B. Anthony, who was born in Mas
sachusetts In 1820, has stood forward promi
nently in the woman's suffrage movement,
having experienced in her own case the
commercial inequality between the sexes
when, in her earlier years, she was teach
ing school for $15 a month, while a man In
the other school of the village was receiv
ing $15. From that day she has been a
worker for woman's rights, though her in
terest in that rause did not prevent her
laboring with I'hillips and Garrison for nine
years against slavery, nor has It weakened
in latter times her efforts in the cause of
temperance.
Tho old Bay slate claims as daughters
two other American women known all over
the world for their work in charity. Mary
A. Livermore was born in Boston eigh.
two years ago, ten years before the birth
of Clara Barton, who was to work with rer
in so many of her enterprises.
Mr3. Livermore, beginning life as a
school teacher, first became known to tho
world through her labors with the Sani
tary commission in the dark days of the
civil war. She identified herself also with
the temperance and anti-slavery move
ments, worked hard to further the cause of
women's clubs, is the author of half a
dozen volumes, has edited several papers,
and has lectured not only in America, but
in England and Scotland.
Clara Barton, who also began life as a
teacher, is identified as is no other woman
in the world with the work of caring for
the sick and woundid. In 1865 she was
voted $15,000 by special act of congress
for what she did on tho battlefields in the
south. In 1870, during the conflict be
tween France and Germany, she was pres
ent on the fields of battle to alleviate suf
fering. Her work in Cuba won for her the
title of "The Adopted Daughter," from the
latest republic to take its seat at the coun
cil of nations.
The disasters that have come In years of
peace have known her presence also. In
1884, at the time of the great floods of the
Mississippi and Ohio rivers, Red Cross
workers, with their president at their head,
distributed supplies throughout the devas
tated districts. Five years later, when
Johnstown was overwhelmed iu a moment,
Clara Barton was there. She was confined
to her bed at the time of the Galveston
flood in HMM), but insisted upon directing
as well as she could by telegraph the move
ments of her assistants.
England's Clara Barton is Florence Night
ingale, or Florence Shore, as her name is
entered on the baptisimal register of the
little English church in Florence, Italy,
where she was born in 1820 and troni which
town she took her name. She, too, has
been a leader iu Rtd Cross work ever since
the foundation of that organization, having
learned well her lesson years before when
she labored with two or three other Eng
lish women in the fearfully crowded huspi.
tals of the Crimea. How well they did
their work was shown in the official reports
that went back to London to tell that the?
death rate had been cut down from 42.7
to 2 per cent.
In those days no woman in all England
was better known or loved than the "Angel
of the Crimea." Even today Miss Night
ingale, living quietly iu a retired house in
West Loudon, is far from forgotten, for
the $250,000 voted her by the English gov
ernment was not expended for her own
comfort, but went to the building of Si.
Thomas' hospital and tho Nightingale
School for Nurses, two of the best kuown
charities in the English capital.
Another of the world's grand old women
living in retirement in London is Marie
Eugenie, Countess de Monti jo and ex-empress
of tho French. The love of Louis
Napoleon for the beautiful daughter of a
Spanish grandee, abetted by the astute
ness of the girl's mother, as well as by her
own wit and discretion, lifted her to a
throne that had been intended for a daugh
ter of royalty.
During the winter she passes much of
her time near Nice, from where she may
cruise at will In the Mediterranean in her
yacht. Then she goes to Paris, the sceno
of her greatest triumphs and saddest hu
millations, to consult her physician before
returning to England.
At present she is said to be at work
upon her memoirs, which are not to bo
published until after her death and which
are to present not a mere collection of idle
gossip and personal anecdotes, but a seri
ous history of t lie third Napoleon's reign,
written by the only person who could write
such a book from intimate knowledge.
In America are living three "grand old
women" who may look back upon days of
brilliancy and power from retirement al
most complete.
Mrs. "Ilettie" Dundrldge, the niece oT
JCachary Taylor, who iu IM'.i, a mere girl or
24 years, was mistress ut the While House,
is living iu Winchester, Vu. it is given to
few women to bo married at Hi and within
eighteen months to be both widow and
orphan. It is given to jet fewer to retain
when the 87th birthday is so near such
splendid health as is tiiat of the mistress
of this center of old-time southern hospi
tality. Mrs. Jefferson Davis does not enjoy this
bb'ssing of continued health. She has
never quite recovered from her serious
illness of last summer, nor has she ever
been her old nclf since tho death of her
daughter, Varina, "the daughter of the
confederacy" some years ago. She passes
her time at tho cottage of her friend, Mrs.
Joseph l'ulitzer, at Bar HarLor or at 0110
of the quiet New York hotels.
Ou the western edge of the continent at
Los Angeles there is living a gracious,
charming old woman of 78, Mrs. John C.
Fremont. She, too, is au invalid, with a
mind undimmed by tho passing of tho years
and an unfaltering devotion of her famous
husband. When Jcssio lienton, the daugh
ter of the great senator of Missouri, run
away from Washington to marry tho young
lieutenant who wus to write his name in
history as "the pathfinder" she was known
to all the country for her brilliancy and
beauty. For years after her popularity
was phenomenal. Daughters and dolls una
dogs without number were named after
her, yet today the white-haired, pale-faced
old woman living alone with so brave a
spirit in her rose-covered little house is
practically forgotten by the nation which
received from her husband tho gift of a
Btate. For herself she does not seem to.
care, but she is keenly Jealous of the fame
of her husband. "Fat blinders die, but the
paths remain upon," she suvs.
It is only a short step from those who
have actually ruled on the world's stagf
to those who rule on the mimic stage be-
IIAKONKSS 1URDETT -COl'TTS.
youd the foollighls. In their ranks stand
iluee women famous both for their con
summate skill iu their ait and for the long
years through which they have served It.
Madame Fraucesi n Janausi lick at 72, and
Adelaide Kii-lorl at S2 are no longer on the
stage, though Mis. Gilbert, horn iu 1821
iu Lancashire, Kngland, still c harms her
audiences and wins their love.
The last years of Janauschek and Historl
have been strangely different. Tho one has
livid through all her triumphs to know
what it is to tie forgotten and in want; the
other, celebrating her 80th birthday iu tho
greatest theater in Koine, found herself
surrounded by court officials and the fa
mous men and women of all Europe. Both
have played Judith, Lady Macbeth, l'hedr.i
and Deborah; both have given long lives
to Hie profession which they have graced,
yet Janauschek is neglected and Historl
Is courted.
Mrs. Gilbert made her first appearance
en the stage when u girl of 23 as a dancer
In one of the smaller theaters iu rural
England. The same yeur she married an
other dancer, whose name she had made
famous, and three years later they came
to America. Almost from the first she was
given the leudlng "old woman" characters,
and almost from the first her place lu
the hearts of those who saw her was su
cure. To many there Is no pleasanter sight
on the American stage than tho quick turns
of the head, tho bright eyes, Hushed cheeks
and merry little laugh of this lovable old
lady. When, a few weeks ago she entered
tho stage on her eighty-first birthday, tho
ovation sho received showed tho esteem
in which she Is held.
In the realms of literature are two named
to bo mentioned Amelia E. Barr
and Julia Ward Howe. The last named is
distinctly the "Grand Old Woman of Amer
ican Letters." For so many years she has
been closely identified with tho literary life
of Boston t hut few know that she Is a
New Yorker born (lSl'J). Before she was
12 years old sho had begun her willing.
She published essays at 17, but creditable
as all her work has been, her fame rests
upon her "Battle Hymn of the Republic,"
written Jn 18til, under tho Inspiration of
tho swinging refrain of "John Brown's
Body," and the sight of a review of troops
iu Washington.
Women Who Are Interested in the Practical Study of Domestic Science and. Household Kconomics
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OFFICERS OF THE HOME QUEENS' CIRCLE.
GROl'B OF THE MEMBERS OF THE IK ME Ql' KENS' CIRCLE-I'hoto by a Staff Artist.
