Heroines of Service: Mary Lyon, Alice Freeman Palmer, Clara Barton, Frances Willard, Julia Ward Howe, Anna Shaw, Mary Antin, Alice C. Fletcher, Mary Slessor of Calabar, Madame Curie, Jane AddamsParkman, Mary Rosetta
History
Heroines of Service: Mary Lyon, Alice Freeman Palmer, Clara Barton, Frances Willard, Julia Ward Howe, Anna Shaw, Mary Antin, Alice C. Fletcher, Mary Slessor of Calabar, Madame Curie, Jane Addams
Parkman, Mary Rosetta
Women -- United States -- Biography
Life held, indeed, a full measure of opportunities for service.
Wellesley claimed her as a member of its executive committee, and other
colleges sought her counsel. When Chicago University was founded, she
was induced to serve as its Dean of Women until the opportunities for
girls there were wisely established. She worked energetically raising
funds for Radcliffe and her own Wellesley. Throughout the country her
wisdom as an educational expert was recognized, and her advice sought
in matters of organization and administration. For several years, as a
member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, she worked early
and late to improve the efficiency and influence of the normal schools.
She was a public servant who brought into all her contact with groups
and masses of people the simple directness and intimate charm that
marked her touch with individuals.
"How is it that you are able to do so much more than other people?"
asked a tired, nervous woman, who stopped Mrs. Palmer for a word at the
close of one of her lectures.
"Because," she answered, with the sudden gleam of a smile, "I haven't
any nerves nor any conscience, and my husband says I haven't any
backbone."
It was true that she never worried. She had early learned to live one
day at a time, without "looking before and after." And nobody knew
better than Mrs. Palmer the renewing power of joy. She could romp with
some of her very small friends in the half-hour before an important
meeting; go for a long walk or ride along country lanes when a vexing
problem confronted her; or spend a quiet evening by the fire reading
aloud from one of her favorite poets at the end of a busy day.
For fifteen years Mrs. Palmer lived this life of joyful, untiring
service. Then, at the time of her greatest power and usefulness, she
died. The news came as a personal loss to thousands. Just as Wellesley
had mourned her removal to Cambridge, so a larger world mourned her
earthly passing. But her friends soon found that it was impossible to
grieve or to feel for a moment that she was dead. The echoes of her life
were living echoes in the world of those who knew her.
There are many memorials speaking in different places of her work. In
the chapel at Wellesley, where it seems to gather at every hour a golden
glory of light, is the lovely transparent marble by Daniel Chester
French, eternally bearing witness to the meaning of her influence with
her girls. In the tower at Chicago the chimes "make music, joyfully to
recall," her labors there. But more lasting than marble or bronze is the
living memorial in the hearts and minds "made better by her presence."
For it is, indeed, people that count, and in the richer lives of many
the enkindling spirit of Alice Freeman Palmer still lives.
OUR LADY OF THE RED CROSS: CLARA BARTON
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,--
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me.
"The Vision of Sir Launfal."--LOWELL.
OUR LADY OF THE RED CROSS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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