The Irish standard., 1904-08-06
Spends an Income Said to Amount to
$365.o00 a Year in Support of
Catholic Indian Schools.
She is One Of Three Daughters of the Phil
adelphia Family Noted for its
Charitable Works.

governesses for the different arts ant
languages. Each Of them spoke thre,
or four languages fuently.
| "After they left school they spen
a great deal Of time in travel. Th,
three sisters had crossed the ocean tel
or eleven times before Elizabeth. thu
eldest, married. She became the wife
of Walter George Smith, of Philadel
phia, and died about year afterward
During her brief married life she
founded and endowed the St. Francis
Industrial school at Eddington, Pa,
where over two hundred boys are edu-
| Gated and taught trades free of all
cost.
Elizabeth had always been domes-
tic in her tastes; Louise loved horses
and dogs, and led in all outdoor pas
times; but Kate, who, by the way,
was always known as the pretty one
OF the Drexel sisters even as a child.
devoted most of her time to the poor.
"She seemed to have her vocation
to religious life from childhood. She
always spoke of becoming a nun; but
she also declared that she would never
leave home while her parents were
living. Naturally, she had always
considered it matter of course that
she would join our order, in which
she had been raised. 1t was a book,
Helen Hunt Jackson's "A Century of
Dishonor,' which in a few hours
changed the whole plan of her life's
work.
"That book has for it's subject the
wrongs which the Indians have suf-
fered at the hands of our people and
depicts their present wretched con-
dition. Hardly believing that the
account was not overdrawn, Miss
Katharine Drexel, after reading the
volume, set out at once with her sister
Elizabeth on tour of inspection
among the reservations Of the West.
''She found that the author had not
exaggerated the pitiable condition of
the red men one iota. From that trip
may be dated the conservation of her
life and fortune to the cause for which
she has done so much, though it was
not until after the death Of her par
ents that she actually began her great
| work.
ut was when she was about 20 that
Katharine DreXel took the first step
toward becoming nun. 1t was neces-
sary, of course, that she should found
religious order of her own, there
being none existing which would al
low her to devote herself to the mis-
sion she had resolved to undertake.
Gas she could not become the su-
perior of new order until she had
taken vows in one already existing
she made arrangements to enter the
mother house of the Sisters of Mercy
at Pittsburg and serve her novitiate
there. She entered as a postulant on
May 9th, 1889. Six months later she
received the white veil of novice, and
one of the hardest periods of her life
began.
''The lot Of novice is never an
easy one, and Miss Drexel was SUBJ
jected to all sorts of trials and humil-
iations with the poorest of her sisters,
in order to test her fitness for the
vocation which she had chosen. Per-
severing, she was finally allowed to
take full VOWS and receive the black
veil.
Gone young woman had already
asked permission to join Mother
Katharine in her work and had taken
vows at the same time as she. These
two now went to the old Drexel
homestead at Torresdale, where they
lived while new convent was being
built for them at Cornwells, nearby.
"Such was the beginning of the
order of the Blessed Sacrament, a
community which now numbers some
two or three hundred nuns. In it's
regulations the order follows some
what that Of the Sisters of Mercy. A
novice must undergo five years of pro-
baton before she is allowed to re-