The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-05-14


epidemic of 1856 she and her sister (who
stin survives) volunteered to act as nurs-
es in East London, and it was there, in
the Mapping Cholera Hospital, that she
met DR.. Nathaniel Rockford, who had
volunteered from the London Hospital
for the same cause. When the epidemic
was over they married; but instead of
the life of comfort which Mrs. Heck
ford's wealth would have made easy they
devoted themselves to a life OF strenu-
Gus self-sacrifice among the poverty
stricken population they had already
served so well. Obtaining possession of
an empty warehouse at RatcIicross, they
furnished it with ten little beds and put
over the door an inscription East Lon
don Hospital for Children and Dispen-
sary for Women The sign caught the
eye OF Charles Dickens on one Of his
eastern rambles, and he has left on record
the deep impression made upon him by
the couple he met within There they
DWELL he wrote, with every quaIif1ca-
ton to lure them away, with youth and
accomplishments and tastes. and habits
that can have no response in any breast
near them, close begirt by every repulsive
circumstance inseparable from such a
neighborhood. They live in the hospital
itself and their rooms are on the first
floor. Sitting at their dinner table they
could hear the cry Of one of the children
in pain That was the origin of what
Is now one of the most beneicient hos
pitfalls in London. However. before the
present building at Shadwell came into
his. widow, overwhelmed by her loss, left
the work in the hands of a strong com
mittee. and went away with an adopted
daughter 10 Naples. There she lived for
several years, devoting herself not only
to the bringing up OF the child, but TO
the task, nowhere more needed, of miti-
eating the cruelty to animals which she
saw around her. On the marriage of her
adopted daughter to a Neapolitan barris-
ter, Mrs. Rockford went to India, and,
after travelling a good deal in unfre-
quented parts. she settled down for
year or two as medical attendant to the
Begun of Bhopal.
Returning to England about the time
when the Transvaal was first annexed.
she made up her mind to go to farming
in the new colony. The hardships she
underwent trekking up country In the
wet season, sleeping under a wagon on
the ground, and with no company but
TINT of young Englishmen Of the pioneer
ing variety, might have discouraged the
sturdiest of her sex. Mrs. Rockford was
the opposite of sturdy except in spirit
being. as a matter of fact, very slight
and very lame. After some time spent in
an English burgher's family, teaching his
children and learning his business. she
took a farm on her own account, and
worked it entirely with native help and
the strength of her own hands. Her
enterprise was ruined by the Boer rising,
and she, herself. was one of the unfortu-
nate Britons who were besieged in Pre-
toria in 1SSe-S1. After the war she left
her new home. and passed a few years
in England. Returning to her South At
rican farm, she diversified her agricultur-
al operations with long trading expedi-
tons, a lively account of which she
embodied in book called. "A Lady Trad
er in the Transvaal.' Always thinking
of others more than herself she has
succeeded In building up a home for
a family in whom she was interested,
when the second war broke out. She was
by no means persona grata with the
Transvaal authorities. for she was an
outspoken critic Of their corruption. and,
had exposed in the English
press their cruel oppression of the ma
lives in her neighborhood. Long before
hostilities were over her home had been
destroyed. The first part of the war she
spent In the Isolated region about forty
miles from Pretoria; but, as soon as
she heard that the British had occupied
that town, she got a horse and covered
the forty miles in one ride 10 give Lord
Roberts all the in formation she pos
sessed as TO the movements of the enc
my. Her intimate knowledge Of the
Beers she resolved to utilize that dense
was convinced, lay at the root of their
national failure, and would. if continued,
be the cause OF plentiful trouble in the
future. She was the moving spirit in
"Transvaal Educational Union" in
which she has enrolled such women as
she could influence; and she came TO Eng
land about eighteen months ago TO furth-
er a programme which should include not
only self-supporting farm schools for
Boer children, but q scheme of itinerant
lantern lectures on history and geogre-
ply for the instruction OF the adult
all Ger the country She has di-
vested herself, in the interests of others,
Of nearly all her property; she was
plainly in failing health zone of her eyes
had been destroyed and she had nearly
lost the sight of the other; yet last aut-
umn she insisted on going back to the
1Jarsyaal with her lantern and slides in
the hope and faith that if she did not live
to use them some one else would. 1t is
greatly to be hoped that this will be the
ease. In any event her life will remain
an inspiration TO noble, DISTINGUISHED.
End patriotic endeavor; and her country
cannot afford 10 let Il pass into oblivion.
Times.
Farmer Buys lot Fighter
Did you ever drop corn all day by hanI
In a furPow laid OUT by 4 horse driven