St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-11

speak at Unity church. this city, on
Wednesday evening, Dec. IA. Her sub
feet is The Evolution of Man from
the Animal to the Divine" On the 10th
she lectures in Minneapolis on death
and After?"
Mrs. Besant is forty three years of
age. and early in life married Kew.
Besant. brother of the novelist. Her
maiden name was Wood. Her brother
is Sir Henry Wood. secretary OF the
Society of Arts of London, who was III
this country this year on business with
the worlds fair. Her grandfather was
really the efficient cause for the birth
upon English soil of the queen OF Eng
land; be paid the debts of the notorious
Duke Of Kent, the queens father, thus
permitting the return Of that noble and
his wife to England in time to have the
birth of the future ruler occur III Britain
instead of in Germany. The late LORD
Hathaway, lord chancellor OF England,
was her cousin.
In appearance Annie Besant reveals
HE enthusiast that she is. She Is OF
rood height and graceful. Her HAIR is
growing gray and she wears it pushed
shows the marks of thought and mental
struggles. the lines that come from see
ing the poverty and misery OF others
and trying to relieve them.
Her early life led directly to the fair
and-square stand she took, first against
the religion of the churches she knew,
and second against those who
charged her with Inconsistency when
she became thro5ophist. She pointed
out that while never a church
woman she had always been religious
holding that true religion is in deed
and in aspiration and not in belief.
Brought up in the English church and
married to a Clergyman, she soon drew
natural comparison between the pure
and indebted religion taught by Jesus,
and the different thing called Christian
ity laugh. to her and practlced by her
friends. Then a terrible illness came
to her second child, and in her mind
grew up the feeling that God had been
torturi3g the baby; then resentment
followed. This agony OF mind brought
OH a severe illness, and when she re-
covered she began to examine one by
Dnea~the doglmaS of the church, all OF
which, one by one, she gave up as I'M
lenable. These convictions kept her
away from communion, and this was
followed by separation from her nus
band. Subsequently she obtained a
legal separation from him on the ground
If cruelty. Then struggle began; she
had to help her mother; her children
were taken away from her Oh the Eng
ISL plea that mother who did not hold
to the religion of her husband could
not have the children. But it
Is notable that as soon as the
legal discretion of the children
permitted, they of their own accord
came to her, and both of them, son and
daughter, now married, could be seen
any day in London, last year, visiting
ana living with their mother.
Her labors in the cause of those who
we're oppressed in mind and body were
endless. She worked for the SeculariStS
led by Bradlaugh. The work done by
him SO altered the English constitution
that not long ago Parsee entered par
lament by affirming with uplifted hand
instead of having to swear on the Eli
glISh Bible.
Unpopular causes claimed Annie
Besant. She was called a socialist, but
she was never a bad one, for she never
she was III the famous Trafalgar square
procession. at its head in the front rank.
saw the soldiers charging down upon
her and bravely stood her ground, for
she said, 1--WE had right to be there,
and had not been forbidden before
hand" But this was all for redress
under law 1t was the same as the
petitions of rights by the Englishmen
Of older centuries. He speeches and
books and letters and pamphlets in the
cause of labor and of free thought were
endless and marvellous. Day and night
she spoke in the open air or in small
stuffy rooms or in large halls. This led
Mt last to her being elected on the Lon
don school board. Then, hearing the
appeal of the poor match girls employed
in London, she led them into an Organi-
cation, through which their woes were
spread before England, the employers
compelled to ameiorate their unhappy
condition, and led to the passage of laws
and ordinances for the benefit of all
such toilerS who need the assistance
that government can give.
1t used to be the fashion in England
TO ignore the existence of Mrs. Besant.
but this is no longer the case. The Re-
view of Reviews published long sketch
of her, which Mr.. Stead said: II hope
now that the ice has been broken and
the great slow-minded public has wax
ened up at last to the fact that Annie
Besant is one of the most remark
able women of our time, she
will republish her biography with
an additional chapter describing the lat
ter stage of her Pilgrims progress. An
authentic narrative of the soul Journey
ings of an intensely religious soul from
EvangelicaliSm to PuseyIsm, and thence
through Broad-Church Theism to the
flat negations of an Athelstic Material
ism, out of which she has emerged by
the way of Spiritualism into the realm
of TheOsophy, is one for which we may
search in vainin contemporary religious
biography" The whole article is en-
thuSiaStic in her praise, and is indica-
ton OF the revulsion Of feeling toward
her in what are called the upper circles.
The poor have always loved
her, for she has been their
friend and has helped not only
the general mass but over and over
again individuals. One of her latest
works was to take 5000 which had
been given to Nine. Blavatsky for
theOsophical work and by her placed
in Mrs. Besant'S hands, and with 1t to
open club III the. east end of London
for the poor girls there. 1t was estab-
nshed under the auspices of the theo-
sophical society, and is managed by an
other member. The club aims to
stretch ont a friendly hand to the
factory girls of the locality, who are toe
Dften friendleSS. 1t is missionary
work uncoanected with dogmas, but
The results already justify the attempt.
An English paper, the West Wits