The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-23
WHO WE'RE WORLDS
\ FIVE GREAT WOMEN
Josephine Preston Peabody Gives Her Views on
the Subject and Tells Why She
Makes Each Choice.

peace, and once she nearly lost her life
in a riot at Florence, where she had gone
as ambassador of the Pope.
These are only few of the more IA
miliar incidents of her political career.
but they indicate the confidence that was
placed in her ability by the princes of
both church and state. At the same
time she led life of absolute saintli-
ness and proved centuries before our day.
that a woman can be great politician
without becoming contaminated. Also
she brought into the corrupt and treach-
erous political world of her age a potent
influence for peace. Surgery needs the
cleanest OF hands and in St. Catherine
of Siena We see that a woman can play
leading part in politics and remain
even sanity.
The Maid of Orleans.
What Joan of Arc did for France is
known by every one, and name her as
one of the five greatest women, because
in her to the fullest extent We find a
genius of the spirit. She epitomized the
faith and unselfshness of woman, and
she became an inspiration not only to
France but to all the world. She re-
mains unique in history. such a simple
little figure, so pathetic and so brave.
Whether one does or does not accept as
miraculous the voices that commanded
her to save France, there is no doubt that
to her they were very real. and that they
aroused in her a deep feeling of the dire
need in which her country stood.
Joan. the peasant girl, represented the
special necessity of her age She pos
sessed the religious conviction and the
sense of duty that are common to all
women, and that were most strongly de-
yeloped in her.
Just as Joan worked for progress in
the fifteenth century, so Florence Night
ingale was rich in courage and in that
sense of duty which admits of no OBJ
stacles. But instead of leading armies
into war, as did the French peasant girl,
Miss Nightingale followed armies, and, as
a pioneer woman army nurse, cared for
the sick and wounded. AS representative
for the greatest figure for progress In
the Victorian era, I think she Is to be
chosen rather than Queen Victoria.
Miss Nightingales death last August
recalled to the world the debt we owed
her, for she was ninety years old, and
the humane, scientific, and practical
methods of army nursing have now be-
come so commonplace that II was diff
cult for many persons to believe that the
one woman who had produced all this
was only just dead. At the time of her
an in England, and nobody can doubt it.
When she astonished her friends by TAX
ing up the study of nursing, there were
no trained nurses in England, as We I'M
derstand the title to-day. When she went
to the Crimea- she found the nursing
system of the hospitals unthinkably in
adequate
The good work that she did, the hor-
rors that she faced unfiinchingly, and the
No hot he fcrlo IN rhA Gr-N
encounters with the stupidity and brutal
ity of red-taped officials have all been
recounted. They were the outward and
manifest expressions of a spirit that COM
bined intellect, courage, and endurance.
AS woman who has shown what woman
can do for humanity and progress. hers
is an example of sympathy coupled with
magnificent organizing ability.
Julia Ward Howe.
mo list of the worlds five greatest
women could be complete without Julia
Ward Howe. whose recent death has
proved by the tributes paid to her men,
Dry just how large a place she filled in
the world. A review of her long and al
ways active life shows that there was
no good cause which did not command
her support. When she is mentioned SIM
ply as the author of THE Battle Hymn
of the Republic it is an inadequate way
Of expressing all she did and all she
was. For example, she was a suffra gist
and had taken a lifelong interest in
suffragism, but 1t was not fad with her,
and was only one of the causes for
which she gave so much of her rich abil-
fly
Mrs. Howe might we'll be taken not
only as one Of the worlds five greatest
women, but as the ideal example of the
all-around modern woman. In her balance
and her catholicity of interests she will
always remain a valuable model, because
she proved that a woman can engage in
all the activities of intellectual life and
at the same time retain her home life I'M
impaired. She refuted in her own life
the assertion that suffrage will destroy
home ideals.
ITO express Mrs. Howe's distinguish
ing characteristic, I should say it was
of intellect She was ever ready
with service for those who needed ii,
and her grace, activity. and fearlessness
Of spirit were inexhaustible. Her atti-
tude toward suffrage was characteristic,
for she was a suffragist not merely be-
cause she wanted to vote. but because she
believed the ballot to be a necessary tool
for the advancement of women.
"Of the five women 1 have named, it
seems to me that Mrs. Howe embodies
most convincingly what the woman OF
tomorrow will be-