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

								


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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 content to be as those who serve.
Non ministrari sed ministrare--not to be ministered unto but to
minister--is not alone the motto of those who stand under the Wellesley
banner, but of true women everywhere.
For centuries a woman's own home had not only first claim, but full
claim, on her fostering care. Her interests and sympathies--her mother
love--belonged only to those of her own household. In the days when much
of the labor of providing food and clothing was carried on under each
roof-tree, her service was necessarily circumscribed by the home walls.
Whether she was the lady of a baronial castle, or a hardy peasant who
looked upon her work within doors as a rest from her heavier toil in the
fields, the mother of the family was not only responsible for the care
of her children and the prudent management of her housekeeping, but she
had also entire charge of the manufacture of clothing, from the spinning
of the flax or wool to the fashioning of the woven cloth into suitable
garments.
Changed days have come, however, with changed ways. The development
of science and invention, which has led to industrial progress and
specialization, has radically changed the woman's world of the home.
The industries once carried on there are now more efficiently handled
in large factories and packing-houses. The care of the house itself is
undertaken by specialists in cleaning and repairing.
Many women, whose energies would have been, under former conditions,
inevitably monopolized by home-keeping duties, are to-day giving
their strength and special gifts to social service. They are the true
mothers--not only of their own little brood--but of the community and
the world.
The service of the true woman is always "womanly." She gives something
of the fostering care of the mother, whether it be as nurse, like Clara
Barton; as teacher, like Mary Lyon and Alice Freeman Palmer; or as
social helper, like Jane Addams. So it is that the service of these
"heroines" is that which only women could have given to the world.