REAL AND IDEAL.
At times, sweet visions float across my mind,
And glimpses of the unknown bright and fair,
Where all the objects seem so well defined—
Tasteful in color, and in beauty rare,
That I must pause and think if they be real,
Or only what the poets call ideal.I well remember when a little child,
I had these same strange, wand'ring fancies;
And I was told my thoughts were running wild,
That I must not indulge in such romances.
Wasting in idle dreams the precious hours,
Building air castles and gazing from the towers.E'en then I seemed to see familiar friends,
Pertaining to a dim, uncertain past;
And to my recollection faintly clings,
A sense of something which the shadows cast,
That showed me what my future life would be,
A prophecy, as 'twere, of destiny.There was an intuition in my heart,
An innate consciousness of right and wrong,
That bade me choose a wiser, better part,
Which, in rough places helped to make me strong:
And though my path was oft bereft of beauty,
Still urged me on to fulfill ev'ry duty.O, happy childhood, bright with faith and hope;
Enchantment dwells within thy rosy bowers,
And rainbow tints gild all within thy scope;
And youth sits lightly on a bed of flowers,
His cup of happiness just brimming o'er,
Unconscious of what life has yet in store.What glowing aspirations fill the mind—
Of noble work designed for man to do!
What purity of purpose here we find—
What longing for the beautiful and true;
Ere know we of the toil, and grief and woe;
Or dream that men and women suffer so.Though all along life's toilsome, weary way,
We meet with disappointments hard to bear;
Yet strength is given equal to our day,
And joy is of'nest mixed with pain or care;
But let us not grow weary in well-doing,
Still persevere, the upward path pursuing.Thus ever struggle on, 'mid doubts and fears;
While changing scenes before our gaze unfold,
Till, through the vista of long weary years,
We see Heaven's sunshine thro' its gates of gold;
And feel assured it is an answering token,
Aye! though our earthly idols have been broken.Tho' those we've cherished most have been untrue,
And fond and faithful ones have gone before,
Still let us keep the promises in view,
Of those who're pleading on "the other shore,"
Whose tender messages are with us yet,
The words of love, we never can forget.And while we muse and ponder, shadows fall,
And a sweet spirit whispers, "Peace, be still;"
What of the past—'tis now beyond recall:
The future, we with usefulness may fill.
Yet sometime we shall find in regions real
Those dreams fulfilled we only term ideal.
MRS. ROMANIA B. PRATT, M. D.
Romania Bunnell Pratt, daughter of Luther B. and Esther Mendenhall Bunnell, was born August 8, 1839, in Washington, Wayne County, Indiana. In her seventh year she went with her parents to Nauvoo, and had the privilege of visiting the Temple, and went with the Church to Winter Quarters. She says: "While there I well remember being present when the martial band was marching round and the call was made for the Mormon Battallion for Mexico. Although too young to appreciate the severe ordeal our devoted and persecuted people were subject to, I can never forget the feeling of grief which oppressed my little heart, as one after one the brave-hearted men fell into the ranks." From Winter Quarters her parents moved to Ohio where her whole time was spent in attending school, the last year and a half at the Crawfordsville Female Seminary. In 1855, her mother then being a widow, with her family of two girls and two boys and their worldly effects, again joined the Saints at Atchison, now Omaha, where she was first baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, on the last of May, 1855, just before commencing their journey with ox teams across the plains to Salt Lake City, where they arrived September 3d of the same year. The summer journey of these months was a series of changing panoramic scenes as enchanting to the free, careless heart of a child, as it was arduous to those of maturer years. Their arrival in the city of the Saints was during the grasshopper famine, when flour was twenty-five dollars per hundred weight, sugar forty cents per pound and everything in proportion, and although they had left plenty behind them, in the hands of guardians who refused to allow them any money, (the children all being minors) to come away among the Mormons, saying; "They will rob you of it all as soon as you get there." In consequence of this prejudice they arrived in Salt Lake City penniless and at a time when they with thousands of others had to learn the sweetness of the coarsest kind of bread. Romania taught day school and gave music lessons on the piano at intervals until she entered the medical profession. This lady was married to Parley P. Pratt, son of the Apostle, Parley P. Pratt, by President Brigham Young, and has had seven children; Parley P. Pratt, Luther B., Louis L., Corinne T., Mark C., Irwin E. and Roy B. Pratt. Her second son died in infancy, and her lovely daughter died when twenty months old.
Through a love of literary pursuit and surrounding circumstances her attention was turned to the medical profession which she entered in 1873 and graduated in the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia in March, 1877. After graduating she remained in Philadelphia and took special courses on the eye and ear at Wills' Hospital and a dispensary on Chestnut Street, conducted by Dr. George Strawbridge. Leaving Philadelphia she spent a few weeks visiting Hydropathic institutions to learn something of the mode of administration and especially of water treatment.
Immediately on her arrival home she by request commenced giving lectures to ladies and agitated the question of a hospital for women and children, and by counsel on account of great demand of obstetrical aid needed in the numerous settlements, soon instituted a school of midwifery, and has taught two classes a year since, except when absent for special study in the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary where she spent eight months in 1881-2.
In 1874, when Eliza R. S. Smith organized the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association of the Twelfth Ward, Mrs. Pratt was appointed President, which position she held though absent a portion of the time, until professional work compelled her resignation. She now holds the office of Treasurer of the Salt Lake Stake organization of the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association, and is also one of the Board of Executors and medical attendant of the Deseret Hospital, organized 1882, beside having a busy practice. Luther B. Bunnell, her father, was the inventor of a repeating fire arm, and at a critical period in the persecutions of the Saints, donated to them five hundred dollars in arms and ammunition. Tracing her family record a few years back, we find in her mother's line the names of Bayard Taylor and Benjamin West among her relatives. About the year 1837, a small pamphlet was published in Philadelphia giving the genealogy of her family, tracing them back to a Russian nobleman. Captain Mendenhall was the grandson of Benjamin, brother to John Mendenhall, the Puritan emigrant. Colonel Richard Thomas, brother to her great grandmother, was a member of Congress from Chester County, Pa., for many years. Of medical members, Dr. Pratt's family certainly has had a goodly number, and of these we select—Dr. Mendenhall, of Richmond, Indiana, her mother's cousin, Dr. Marmaduke Mendenhall, of North Carolina, her cousin, Dr. Paris Mendenhall, her brother, Dr. James R. Mendenhall, of Richmond, Indiana, her cousin, Nereus Mendenhall, professor in New Garden Quaker College, also George D. and William Mendenhall, physicians. Beside these, many others of note occur, too many for less than a special volume. Her eldest son, Parley P. Pratt, also entered the New York School of Pharmacy, from which he expects to graduate in the spring of 1885.
Dr. Pratt is in appearance the very embodiment of health and happiness, her blooming cheeks, abundant loose ringlets without a line of gray, her dark eyes inspiring the dispirited with cheerfulness and hope, the cordial clasp of hand, a hand gentle, but somehow suggestive of the nerve, firmness, self-possession and power the true healer holds, the intuition one receives of her sympathy and benevolence, if needed; all these are conveyed as upon an open page by the very presence of Dr. Pratt. Also, that other influence is felt that she too leans upon a higher power than human skill, the same Giver of life and health as the tenderest child looks up to.
Dr. Romania B. Pratt was the first "Mormon" woman graduate. Following her return as graduate, next came Dr. Ellis R. Shipp, 1878, Mattie Paul Hughes, M. D., 1883, Elvira S. Barney, M. D., 1883, and Margaret C. Shipp, M. D., 1883. Drs. R. B. Pratt, Ellis R. Shipp and Elvira S. Barney are connected with the Deseret Hospital, founded in 1882.
THE LADY DOCTOR.
For her, from darkened rooms
What blessings softly rise,
Who brings relief to pain and fear
And soothes the watcher's cries.On her, the skies look down
As fearless, swift she goes
Through lonely paths, past rude alarms,
And oft through blinding snows.'Tis hers, to see the smile
The new blest mother gives;
And hers to hear their answering joy—
"Hush all thy fears, he lives."The record of her works
In volumes ne'er is known,
'Tis written as on marble carved
In grateful hearts alone.