The times., 1898-08-11
MRS. SIDNEY WEBB.
Herbert Spencer Considers Her the
AbIest Woman Alive.


Reatrica Potter, the wife of the social
ist Sidney Webb, was the seventh ana
Youngest daughter of wealthy Lanca-
shire manufacturer. Her mother was an
intimate friend of Herbert Spencer, who
is said TO have consulted her on phiio-
sophical subjects. writer in the chi
cago Record says that "of all the seven
daughters. Beatrice was the most remark
able. She pursued her studies under the
direction and with the assistance OF Her
bert Spencer, who has always declared
hers TO be the most remarkable female
mind he ever encountered. She was the
talest of the seven, and when she, was
introduced to London society was said to
be one of the most beautiful women of
her generation. Such a girl who pos
sessed beside an ample fortune of her
own, was not likely to want for admirers.
and the most brilliant men of England
were glad to be her friends. One day.
without warning. she disappeared from
the bathrooms and drawing rooms of May
Fair, and was not to be discovered by
any of her whilom companions. Some
thing had directed her attention 10 the
and putting on the costume of one, she
went into a sweat shop and shared their
existence, with the secret purpose of
studying its hardships. Two months later
she reappeared with a mass of facts and
statistics which she had collected her
self and which she embodied in an ar
ticle in one of the reviews that stirred
all England was made the subject of de-
bate in Parliament and resulted in
the appointment of q commission which
investigated and reformed the sweat
shops. From that day Beatrice Potter
returned no more to the world. Her sis
ters had all married men of position, but
she scorned their happy, busy, domestic
lives, and was to be found only among the
manual laborers. sharing the curious de-
lusIcn of other socialists that the only
labor worth consideration is such as may
be performed with the hands. Her stud
les led her all over the continent of
Europe.
Occasionally she would reappear for a
brief space and gather about her for an
afternoon her early friends. but her real
companions had ceased to be the men
who were making and ruling the English
empire, and creating it's science, literature
and art. Her friends were those who
called on her in their shirt sleeves and
smoked clay pipes in her drawing room.
Five years ago she astonished even those
who knew her best by marrying Sidney
Webb, the socialist. They set up a modest
home in the east end of London all her
fortune. beauty and talent being finally
and irrevocably devoted to the cause of
manual labor.
Two years ago the fruits of her studies
appeared in the form of a monumental
work ON the subject of labor and wages
In it no theories were advanced, no doc
trines promulgated. 1t contained simply
the mass of facts out of which doctrines
and theories might be built This year
another great work. bearing her own as
well as her husbands name, has sp-
peared. In 1t she elaborates the conciu-
sions she has drawn from her facts, and
while prefounder students of the social
question by no means accept her theories
1t is universally admitted that no more
mastery and scientific presentation OF
the question has been made of recent
years. and that this beautiful young
woman, who deserted the London ball
rooms less than a decade ago. has pro-
duced a work which will be text book
and a mine of reference for all students
of modern sociology"