The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-23
st. Catherine Of Siena,
Queen Isabella of Spain.
Julia Ward Howe.
Tnon ~ Ara
Florence Nightingale.


Queen Isabella of Spain.
Julia Ward Howe.
Joan of Arc. y
Florence Nightingale
One must be well up on the history Of
the world to appreciate this list at first
glance and to understand at once what
Josephine Preston Peabody means when
she places upon the shoulders of these
five women the burden of responsibility
for the suffragettes, the advocates Of
woman's rights. the woman in business,
and all the other manifestations of
woman's awakening to a wider sphere
OF activity. In each one of these women
Miss Peabody finds some essential force
that has been exerted for the general
advancement Of womankind.
Mrs. Lionel Marks, as she is known in
private life. is far more widely known
as playwright, author. and educator than
as a suffragist. Under her maiden name
of Josephine Preston Peabody she had
written many poems and several plays
before she won the Stratford-on-Avon
prize last summer in a competition open
to all the world. Out of lbs plays sub
mitted, her offering, The Piper, was
chosen for the honor of being produced
at Shakespeare's birthplace during the
Stratford festivals. The play was sue
cessful there, as it has been in this
country. 1t was produced at the New
Theater. New York. and won immediate
recognition by reason of its poetic Ancy.
mystic charm, and beautiful symbolism.
Educated at Radcliffe, Mrs. Marks was
for several years an instructor in his
tory at Wellesley College before her
marriage to Prof. Lionel s. Marks. who
holds the chair of mechanical engineering
at Harvard. She is a member of the
Cambridge Political Equality Association.
and so she regards the feminist move
ment quite as much from the historical
as the unitarian standpoint
Each of the five women l name has
stood for progress as well as for wom-
anly qualities" she says. "Disregarding
chronological order, let US take Isabella
of Spain. whose story is familiar to every
schoolboy. Why did she place faith In
the theory of Columbus when the scien-
lists of the day and the wise or daring
men of the court pronounced him an i'm
practical dreamer? How she pledged her
Jewels to furnish him with funds for his
voyage has been one of the pretty and
therefore easily remembered stories OF
history, but II is more than that, for 1t
is symbolical of what woman has done.
BY her faith in the Genoese navigator
when men distrusted him she made pos
sible the voyage that resulted in the dis
covery of a new world.
Used Her Intuition.
Perhaps 1t would be easiest to explain
Isabella's course by saying that she acted
intuitively. woman's intuition has been
used so long by men as a phrase to cover
instances of her quick and correct judg-
ment that It may be applied to Isabella s
judgment Of Columbus. I know that the
implication is that woman thus arrives
at a conclusion without conscious rea-
soning. Instead, she really bases her
opinion on what might call lightning
remembrance. Thus, we may to a GER
tain degree understand why it was Isa-
bella. and not King Ferdinand. who
rightly gagged the character Of Column
bus.
Although Queen Isabella represented
progress. she was a child OF her age and
held the conventional ideas of her time
as to what constituted the most accepta-
BILE service to her church. In this respect
she was as the average woman, for 1t
has been truly said that women are by
nature conservative. At the some time,
Isabella believed in Columbus when men
doubted him. Her judgment was correct,
whether this was due to woman's intui-
ton or to a belief unsupported by logic.
The very conservatism of woman enters
here, and / think that Isabella was full
Of belief, but not Of credulity.
More than a century before Queen
Isabella helped Columbus there died in
Italy a woman who helped the progress
of womankind and. therefore, of the
whole human race. She was to be known
in history as st. Catherine of Siena A
tremendous personality she combined all
the austerity of habit and sweetness of
yeligious life with a political genius that
was marvellous. Her nature was a curious
mixture of humility and daring, but she
never hesitated to speak her mind in the
service of peace and justice. From her
cell in a convent she wrote her letters of
advice to all classes Of persons, from
peasants to kings. She addressed Popes
humbly but forcibly, when she felt that
they should change their policies.
"St. Catherine was a great figure in the
world of politics of her day-perhaps she
was the greatest, certainly she was the
most interesting. She set herself the task
Of healing the wounds Of her country by
ending its civil wars and factional strug-
giles. When war broke out between Flor
ence and the Holy See she was sent by
the Pope to secure the neutrality of Pisa
to Florence to make their
peace with Pope Gregory XI at Avignon
She urged the Pope to return from Avig-
non to Rome. and she succeeded in bring
ing him back. She sought always for