HEROINES OF SERVICE
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
BY
MARY R. PARKMAN
Author of "Heroes of Today," etc.
ILLUSTRATED WITH
PHOTOGRAPHS
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1921
Copyright, 1916, 1917, by
The Century Co.
Published September, 1917
Reprinted April, 1918;
Reprinted August, 1918.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
TO
MY MOTHER
AND ALL WHO, LIKE HER, ARE
TRUE MOTHERS, AND SO, TRUE
"HEROINES OF SERVICE."
FOREWORD
From time immemorial women have been contentto be as those who serve. Non ministrarised ministrare—not to be ministered unto butto minister—is not alone the motto of thosewho stand under the Wellesley banner, but oftrue women everywhere.
For centuries a woman's own home had notonly first claim, but full claim, on her fosteringcare. Her interests and sympathies—hermother love—belonged only to those of her ownhousehold. In the days when much of the laborof providing food and clothing was carriedon under each roof-tree, her service was necessarilycircumscribed by the home walls.Whether she was the lady of a baronial castle,or a hardy peasant who looked upon her workwithin doors as a rest from her heavier toil inthe fields, the mother of the family was not onlyresponsible for the care of her children and theviiiprudent management of her housekeeping, butshe had also entire charge of the manufacture ofclothing, from the spinning of the flax or wool tothe fashioning of the woven cloth into suitablegarments.
Changed days have come, however, withchanged ways. The development of scienceand invention, which has led to industrial progressand specialization, has radically changedthe woman's world of the home. The industriesonce carried on there are now more efficientlyhandled in large factories and packing-houses.The care of the house itself is undertakenby specialists in cleaning and repairing.
Many women, whose energies would havebeen, under former conditions, inevitably monopolizedby home-keeping duties, are to-daygiving their strength and special gifts to socialservice. They are the true mothers—notonly of their own little brood—but of the communityand the world.
The service of the true woman is always"womanly." She gives something of the fosteringcare of the mother, whether it be asnurse, like Clara Barton; as teacher, like MaryixLyon and Alice Freeman Palmer; or as socialhelper, like Jane Addams. So it is that theservice of these "heroines" is that wh