The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-02-24

ledge, the great publisher Of cheap books in
England, as to the continued demand for
Mrs. Heman's poetry. In the last generation
the pure and melodlous muse of this lady
had great reputation; her American editor
been the custom to speak of her popularity
was Professor Andrews Norton, father of the
present Professor Charles Eliot Norton, and
one Of the most cultivated critics of his day;
and il appears from the late memoirs of Gar
rison that strong and heroic mind. Yet it has
as thing of the past. Now comes Mr..
RoutEdge and gives the figures as to his sales
OF the different poets in the year ending
June II, 1885. First comes Longfellow, with
the extraordinary sale of 5000 copies; then
We drop TO Scott, with $40; Shakespeare,
200; Byron, $3.50; Moore, 2,276; Burns
$3.50. To these succeeds Mrs. Heman's with
sale of 1900 copies, Milton falling short of
her by fifty, and no one else showing more
than half that demand. Hood had $50 pur-
chasers, Cowper 500, and all others Tess;
Shelly had 500, and Keats but 40. OF course
this is hardly even an approximate estimate
OF the comparative popularity of these
poets, since much would depend, for in
stance, on the multiplicity or value OF rival
editions; but it proves in general way that
Mrs. Hemans holds her own, in point of
readers, fifty years after her death. What
other form of influence for man CT woman
equals this?
Yet there may be other modes of action.
That of Florence Nightingale, for instance,
modestly indicating woman's foresight
against the dizziness and red tape of whole
War Department; and returning from the
most superb career of public service that
ever woman had, with ruined health, but
with such universal love and reverence from
the Crimean army that a statue would have
been erected to her by penny subscription
had she not refused it. That of Clara Barton,
or Dorothea DIX, or Mary Llvermore, or Jean
Lander, or Mother Bickerdyke, in our own
civil war. That of many worker in the
Associated Charities of our large cities; or of
those special organizations which were al
most always carried on. thirty years ago, I'M
der the official leadership and treasurership
of men, but which have been steadily falling
more and more, during that period, into the
hands of women. That of many a woman Of
society, so called, who recognizes in society"
itself a sphere Tor conscientious duty--S0
that the tone of a whole town or city may
sometimes be said to be kept up or let down
according as the leading society woman" is
a person of character or a doll. That of many
woman in some log cabin on the frontier,
whose society" consists in dozen children
of her own and perhaps two or three more
taken in from charity; the woman who
nameless and noteless, maintains that aver
age quality among our American people that
can always be relied upon to send from OBJ
security Lincoln or Grant in time of inn
minent need. Beyond all these, perhaps in
total influence ranks the great army of wo-
men teachers, spreading their unseen and
daily labors through every school district
from. Cape Cod to the Golden Gate; smooth
ing the waste places, equalizing all our civil
iZation, doing the most for the poorest; and
again, in the upper regions of education, ris-
ing into the work of such missionaries of the
highest training as Mary Lyon in the past,
or Alice Freeman in the present. Compared
with these, how petty seem the little strug-
giles for position and etiquette.