The book was part of Mundell’s “Heroine’s Library”.
No preface
Epigraph [10]:
WHY come not spirits from the realms of glory
To visit earth, as in the days of old –
The times of ancient writ and ancient story, –
Is heaven more distant, or has earth grown cold?
Yet earth has angels, though their forms are moulded
But of such clay as fashions all below;
Though harps are wanting, and bright pinions folded,
We know them by the love-light on their brow.
I have seen angels by the sick one’s pillow,
Theirs was the soft tone and the soundless tread;
Where smitten heads were drooping like the willow;
They stood “between the living and the dead.”
I have seen angels in the gloomy prison,
In crowded halls, by the lone widow’s heart;
And when they passed, the fallen have uprisen,
The giddy paused, the mourner’s hope had birth.
Chapter I “The Service of Woman” [11-13]
[11] ‘When pain and anguish wring the brow, / A ministering angel thou.’ – It is many years since these words were written by Sir Walter Scott, but they are still true, and daily find a responsive echo in the hearts of millions. It is in times of sickness that a woman’s work and worth are seen to the best advantage. Through dreary days and weary nights of sleepless pain, her patient endurance is tried to the uttermost; and when all other watchers have given way to despondency, her cheerful presence and her hopeful words have won the sufferer back to [12] life or lightened his path through the valley of the shadow of death. To do good and to perform deeds of mercy have ever been regarded as a sphere of work for which woman is especially well qualified, and in the performance of these duties she has proved herself worthy of the brightest praise that we can bestow upon her. There is scarcely any branch of philanthropic work in which she has not been actively engaged. Braving disease and death, she has nursed the sick in wretched homes and in hospital wards; she has visited prisons, that he might bring the victims of poverty and crime back to the paths of virtue; she has ventured into the slums of our large cities to raise the fallen and strengthen the weak; she has carried comfort and consolation beyond the bounds of civilisation to miserable sufferers, and she has been in the best and truest sense the friend of our soldiers and sailors. […] [13] As heroines of mercy we must ever regard all those who, whether as nurses or philanthropists, devote their time and energy to the cause of the suffering, the ignorant, and the poor. All honour to them, and especially to those who have too often crowned their devotion by death at the post of duty.
Contents
I. The Service of Woman 11II. ‘The Woman of the War’ 14
III. Sister Dora 31
IV. The Workhouse Heroine 47
V. Elizabeth Fry, the Prisoners’ Friend 56
VI. The Prison Visitor 69
VII. Among the Waifs and Strays 79
VIII. A Life of Devotion 90
IX. Among the Navvies 99
X. The Sailors’ Friend 110
XI. The Soldier’s Friend 119
XII. The Emigrants’ Friend 129
XIII. A Blind Helper of the Blind 145
XIV. Among the Lepers of Siberia 150