St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-22
A Famous English Woman
What She Has Done for
Her Sex.
The Story Of Her Married Life
Reads Like a Modern
Novel.
Her Interest in Labor Re-
forms and Young Girls Con-
tinues undated.
Her Belief In Theosophy and
Her Peculiar Manner Of
Living.

cepting the queen, whom | most desired
to know was Mrs. Besant. l bad lis
tened to one of her able lectures, l had
read many of her Innumerable essays
on the questions of the hour, 1 had
heard so much of her unselfiSh devo
ton to the public good, of her heroic
behavior under many trying clrcum-
stances, of her liberal ideas on govern
ment, religion and social ethics, that ]
lOnged to meet her face to face and talk
with so rare, fearless and independent a
thinker of my own sex, combining as
she does all the virtues and graces of a
trne WomanhOod with the clear reason
ing powers and self-assertion supposed
to belong only to the sterner sex.
Altogether ANNE Besant is the great
est woman in England.
was determined to see and know
her. at last persuaded her to spend a
few days with me in the quiet country
home of my daughter, Mrs. Stanton
Blatch. near London.
Mrs. Besant is so many-sided in her
interests and activities that she is the
busiest woman in Great Britain. She
u,
an active member of the Fabian So
ciety, containing 200 members, who
meet once a week to discuss social ques-
lions; she also takes part in the Social
Democratic Federation, sympathizes in
all the demands of labor, speaking in
the Workingmen'S clubs, and at the
great demonstrations in HYDE park.
She is deeply interested, too. in the
School of Theosophy, attending the
weekly lodge meetings and studying
the occult sciences. She is at present
the resident manager of house where
Nine. Blavatsky and several theosoph-
lists 1eside, and of large home, just
opened, for friendless young girls strug-
CLING to maintain themselves. For a
very trif1ing sum they can there find
food and shelter mid clean and orderly
surroundings in respectable neighbor-
hood.
Besides giving her time to all these
occupations Mrs. Besant is an active
member on the London school board,
pressing many needed reforms in the
educational system of England. She
has been elected several times to this
office, having done invaluable service in
the cause of popular instruction. At
the last election she was strongly
opposed by the church influence and
those aot in favor OF the reforms she
advocates, but her popularity among
the labOring classes gave her 1900
votes, an assured victory at the top of
the poll.
One of the most barbarous features In
English discipline for hayward child
rem, | learn from Mrs. Besant, is found
in what are called the ''truant schools
for boys. To know the fundamental
principle on which they are conducted
enables one to imagine the details of
the sad lives the boys must lead who
are incarcerated within these walls for
three months. The ruling idea is to
keep them always under punishment
and to make their lives as dreary as
possible.
1t is against all such abuses in schools.
charitable institutions, jails, prisons
and the world of work that Mrs. Besant
has raised her voice during the last
twenty years. She is one of those rare
characters, purified and elevated by
every sorrow, whose learning has passed
from her memory to her Judgment, and
made her wiser in all the practical de-
tails of life.
She has made brave struggle with
many adverse winds, and maintained a
lofty self-respect under most severe
trials and prosecutions.
Mrs. Besant was married when very
young to clergyman of the estab-
liShed church, whose violent temper
and bigotry led her to question the re-
ligiouS faith that produced such a char
acter. After much reading, study and
thought she began to doubt the inspira-
ton of the Scriptures. the evidences of
Christianity, the creedS and dogmas of
the church, and in due time refused to
obey church discipline and observe its
ordinances.
At last, like John Ward, preacher, her
husband told her that she must take the
sacrament and conferm to the rules of
the church or leave him forever. She
chose the latter course, only too happy
to throw off the yoke she had found too
grievOuS to be borne.
At first, by decree of the courts, she
cured a legal separation and the Gus
tody of the children, but afterward the
children were claimed by the father on
the ground that as the mothers free re-
ligiOuS principles became more pro-
nounced she was not safe person to
mold the moral character and religious
faith of her children. The court de-
creed that the rights of the father over
the children, if claimed, were absolute,
and they were taken from her. How
ever, when they reached the age to
choose for themselves they returned to
the mother, and are now living happily
together.
We piled her with questions about
the school of theosophy. Mrs. Besant
thinks its ideas are spreading slowly in
England. There are three lodges IN
London-the Leupett lodge, the Lon
don lodge, and the one of which Nine.
Blayatsky is head, comprising 100 men,
bers, aud to which Mrs. Besant belongs.
Mrs. Besant thinks society in England
is so grossly material that the nation
cannot maintain itself much longer
without the cultivation of some spir-
ltual forces. But theoSophistS are not
prOpagandists; they wait for people to
seek them. which will never be done in
large Plumbers. as the few only would
endure the self-denial and hard work
necessary to cultivate clear spiritual
vision.
Without this insight, Mrs. Besant
tells. the study of the occult sciences is
impossible. The proper physical con-
dition is acquired by early rising,
abundant exercise, vegetable and fruit
diet. by confluence, pure and holy liv-
ing and thinking.
Mrs. Desant took only milk, bread,
and fruit while with lis, indulging mod
erately in tea and coffee. But Mme
Blayatsky takes the ordinary diet now,
and smokes constantly, having attained,
we are told, the necessary insight for
the study and teaching of occultism.