In the presence of more than a hundred suitors, Penelope was daily engaged in weaving while waiting the return of her Ulysses. The celebrated Lucretia was not too proud to spin in the presence of her attendants. In the days of Homer princesses did themselves the honor to dip the water from the springs, and with their own hands to wash the linen of the household. Augustus, the world sovereign, wore with pride the clothes made by his wife and sister. The sisters of Alexander the Great made the clothes worn by their distinguished brother. To the request of her son to make Mt. Vernon her home during her declining years Mary, the mother of Washington, replied: “My wants are few in this world, and I feel perfectly competent to take care of myself.” Queen Victoria became world-beloved because she rendered personal service to her children, and to the children in families less fortunate than her own. Hypatia, the philosopher and teacher at Alexandria, refused the advances of all would-be lovers that she might give instruction to her pupils. Elizabeth accepted maidenhood rather than motherhood that she might exclusively serve her subjects; Maria Theresa reproached herself for the time she spent in sleep, as so much robbed of her people; Clara Barton, with but a few hours of sleep daily, served not her people but strangers. Wherever locating, Clara Barton was the directing spirit of a swarm of workers where were permitted no drones, and among whom she was the queen. She adopted as her rule of conduct, “hard work and low fare,” sacrificed health without complaint, risked life without hope of reward. Nations are the rising and falling tides of humanity; women, the fixed beacon lights along the wave-borne highway of human progress. Fabiola, the Roman Matron of the fourth century, who established the first hospital and herself cared for human wrecks, set a precedent existent through all succeeding centuries. All honor to Queen Isabella, the first to appoint military surgeons and to originate what was known as the “Queen’s Hospital” for the sick and wounded. As a nurse in her home, in the plagues of her country and the wars of the fourteenth century, Catherine Benincasa rose to the exalted position of Saint Catherine, patron saint of Italy. As a nurse among the poor, sewing, cooking, keeping the house clean indoors, and working with her brothers in the harvest field—before she saw the vision of St. Michael—prepared Joan of Arc to become the deliverer of France from Britain in the fifteenth century, and in consequence the Maid of Orleans became a patron saint of that period.