Now the white snow melts away;
Now the flowers blossom gay.
Come, dear bird, and build your nest
For we love our robin best.
Her mother preserved this poem, and told her if she kept on she might one day be a second Shakespeare. She was fond of telling fairy stories to amuse her sisters and friends, and often turned the old tales into little plays which the children acted in a barn. One of these plays was “Jack and the Bean Stalk.” A squash vine, placed in the barn, was the bean-stalk, and when it was cut down the boy who played Giant, would come tumbling down from the hay-loft. At thirteen she wrote the beautiful poem, “My Kingdom.” After she became a school-teacher she was always helping somebody, taking care of an invalid or the poor, or sewing to help her mother. She continued to write stories. Some of the stories were rejected and the publisher advised her to stick to her school-teaching. Returning from the Civil War, where she had been a valued nurse to the wounded soldiers, she presented, through her father, several short stories to a publisher, who rejected them, with the advice that she write a story for girls. She thought she could not do that, and wrote “Little Women” to prove that she could not, but it is perhaps the best-loved girls’ story ever written. Then she wrote “Little Men,” of which fifty thousand copies were ordered before it was printed. She received one hundred thousand dollars for her books. Her life-desire was now realized in having money enough to make her family comfortable. Her father died in 1888, and she followed him only three days after. Miss Louisa May Alcott, besides being a writer, was also an earnest advocate of woman suffrage and temperance.
5. ROSA BONHEUR, PAINTER
Rosa was born in poverty. Her father, an artist too, was compelled to give drawing lessons, and her mother had to go from house to house teaching music to assist in supporting their four children. Her mother dying when Rosa was twelve years old, and her father marrying again, the gifted girl was sent away to school where she spent most of her time in drawing funny pictures of her teachers. Later her father taught her to copy the old masters in the Louvre. When she was seventeen she determined her life-work—animal painting; but being too poor to buy models, she would take long walks into the country to study and draw living animals, and later on kept a sheep on her roof-garden for a model. At nineteen she sent two pictures to the Fine Arts Exposition, “Goat and Sheep” and “Two Rabbits,” and others soon followed. When her father died she took his place as Director of the School of Design for Girls, and her sister, Juliette, became a teacher in the same school. She studied eighteen months before painting “The Horse Fair,” which famous picture was purchased in England for eight thousand dollars, and later by A. T. Stewart, of New York, and is now in his collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Landseer, the great English artist, said of her “Horse Fair,” “It surpasses me, although it’s a little hard to be beaten by a woman.” When at her work Rosa Bonheur often dressed in male attire with a large, white collar. She was always busy, cheerful, and generous. Her pictures brought her large sums, which she spent not only in providing for her family and old servants, but in generously assisting poor students. She had one of the most beautiful studios in Paris. When Prussia conquered France the Prussian soldiers were ordered not to disturb Rosa Bonheur or her servants. The poor idolized this wonderful woman, for she always loved them. She died at her home May 25, 1899. But through her wonderful works she still helps us to see the beauty of common things and to feel the poetry in what might seem the drudgery of life.
6. JENNY LIND, SINGER
Jenny Lind, the “Swedish nightingale,” fills a place all her own among the world’s great artists of song. Gifted in voice, beautiful in face, lovely in character, a princess among givers, the guardian angel of the poor and unfortunate, she was for many years the idol of all classes of people, adored not simply for her talent, but also as one of the most perfect of women. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden, October 6, 1820. Her father was a good-natured man, who enjoyed song, but he was unable to provide for his family. Her mother was a woman of determination, who helped care for the family by teaching school. When very small Jenny showed a love for the singing of birds, and often when she sang to her pet cat, as it sat with a blue ribbon around its neck in the window, people in the street used to listen and wonder. One day a lady heard the child’s voice, and said, “She is a genius; she must be trained.” At nine she sang before the music-master of the Royal Theater, and he was moved to tears and at once accepted her, and for ten years she was educated in singing and elocution at the expense of the government of Sweden. Jenny began to act and sing in the Royal Theater at ten, and sang and played continuously until she was twenty. From twelve to fifteen she sang in concerts, and the Swedish people became very proud of her. At twenty she was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and was appointed court singer. The progress in her art led her to devote four hours or more daily for almost a year in practising the scales and exercises under a great teacher in Paris. Then she began to travel through Europe, singing before kings, nobles, and distinguished people, and to crowded audiences who hailed her as “the first singer of the world,” and paid enormous prices to hear her. At last she consented to sing in the United States. When she arrived at New York thousands were on the dock eager to catch a glimpse of her. Triumphal arches surmounted by eagles bore the inscription, “Welcome, Jenny Lind. Welcome to America!” At the first concert, where thousands listened enchanted to her in Castle Garden in New York, some persons paid as high as six hundred and fifty dollars for a single ticket. Jenny Lind’s share for this one concert was nearly ten thousand dollars. She immediately sent for the mayor of the city and distributed the whole amount among charitable institutions. Throughout her life she felt that the money she earned was only hers in trust, as well as her voice. She said: “It is a great joy and a gift from God to be allowed to earn so much money and afterward to help one’s fellow men with it. This is the highest joy I wish for in life.” Everywhere she gave benefit concerts for charitable institutions or for individuals in need. In New York alone she gave away forty thousand dollars in charities. When warned against so much liberality, as some unworthy persons would seek aid, she always replied, “Never mind, if I assist ten and one is worthy, I am satisfied.” At thirty-one she married Mr. Otto Goldschmidt, of Hamburg, an accomplished musician, and they secured a beautiful residence in England, where they lived most happily for many years, until her death, November 2, 1887, at the age of sixty-seven. Queen Victoria, who had often heard her sing and who greatly honored her, sent a wreath of beautiful white flowers.