Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-11-08
Women's Notes Of lnterest.


Ellis Rowan. whose name is familiar
to readers Of illustrated nature books,
is frail English woman, who began
her career by making illustrations for
seed catalogues and botanies. Her
work was so accurate and SO true to
nature that she soon received commits
sions from publishers to make colored
plates of flowers of various countries,
In this way she became attached to
exploring expeditions. and has visited
every quarter of the globe. Mrs.
Rowan's enormous collection of flower
paintings includes many rare orchids
and other blooms, some of them pre-
viously unknown to the botanical
world. The scientific value of her
paintings is even greater than its arr
tistic worth. The German, Govern
ment offered her $4,000 for her Aus
tralian collection alone. She has had
ten gold medals awarded her work at
as many European exhibitions.
The tomb of Grace Darling has had
as stormy history as the heroine over
whom it was erected. 1t is sixty years
since Grace Darling died, and a hand
some monument was placed to her
memory in the churchyard of Bam-
borough. on the wild Northumbrian
coast. The grave and monument are
plainly to be seen from passing ships.
After few years the effigy, which rep
resented the heroine lying down with
an oar on her arm, looking towards the
island where she achieved fame, be-
gan to decay, and was removed to the
interior OF the church. Not long after
this was done, the roof of the transept
fell in upon it, and a great storm laid
the tomb outside in ruins. For two
years it remained a mass of wreckage,
but is now restored, and a new effigy
placed.
The bookplate accepted for use in the
Claus Spreckles donation to the
University of California in the work of
Mrs. Louise Keller, the wife of the
poet, Charles Fl. Keller. The design
shows a medieval student in cap and
gown, seated among the dusty tones
of a monastery library. The picture
is flanked on either side by symbolic
figures of Mercury and the muses.. The
bookplate will be affixed to all the
books procured out of the fund of SILL
400 offered by Mr.. Spreckles last
spring. The fund is to be largely de-
voted to the purchase of works on his
tory and economics.
Opposition to women doctors in
France is still very great, it is said
She must be Il courageous woman who
finishes the course of study undeterred
by insults and rude treatment from the
men students. Since the first diploma
was granted a woman, less than twenty
years ago. fifty-s seven women have fin
ished the required course. and are
practicing i'm Paris. Two bold official
appointments. and the others have
good patronage. Nearly all are of
Rumanian Or Russian birth.
Miss Henrietta Aiken Kelly, of
Charleston, S. c.. has recently been APP
pointed special agent for the Govern
ment, with an appropriation of $4,000.
to be used in preliminary investiga-
lions in silk worm culture in the
United States. Experiments in this
industry have been made before, and
at one period fortunes were thrown
away in mulberry trees and silk-worm
eggs. Miss Kelly has spent six years
in Italy. and other European countries,
and took a special course of study at
the Sorbonne to fit herself for her posi-
ton. She believes that she under
stands the cause of previous failures,
and knows how to avoid those mis-
takes. Miss Kelly expects soon to is
sue two monographs. on silk culture,
and the culture of the mulberry tree.
| She hopes to found a college of seri-
| culture.