The book was part of Mundell’s “Heroine’s Library”.
Prefatory Note [5]
The purpose of this book is to present some of the more noteworthy deeds of heroism performed by women and girls in the ordinary course of everyday life – on the impulse of the moment. There are also incidents in which the heroine has deliberately faced danger or endured suffering, knowing well the cost; but under both of these conditions self-sacrifice has been the moving power, and this we call heroism. […].
Chapter I includes general ruminations on “Heroines” [11-14]:
[11] When we speak of heroism, we think of men who have performed deeds requiring prodigious strength, or that daring and bravery which are commonly associated with manly qualities. And yet, when we read some of the stories which have sent a thrill through the hearts of mankind, we find that the doer of [12] the golden deed is physically no better endowed than others; and, in many instances, is a woman or a child. Indeed, there is scarcely any form of bravery which has been shown by men that is not also seen in the deeds of women. The debt which humanity owes to heroic women can never be expressed in words or summed up in figures. Our language is too feeble and our figures are too cold to set forth all that we mean, when we say of a woman or a girl, whose deeds win our respect, our admiration, and our love, ‘She is a heroine.’ Our words may refer to a life of devotion or self-sacrifice, or to but one striking incident in an otherwise uneventful life. In either case our meaning is the same, and in thought we picture one who, forgetting self, has, in the ordinary course of her everyday existence, performed some heroic action, or who, at the call of duty, or pity, or of love, has nobly sacrificed her own comforts or even surrendered her life for the sake of others. […] [13] Not in the world of romance, or in the crush of public life, or in the clear, cold air of science; but in the narrow lane, in the routine of common daily life, that seems to be hedged in from all interest – there are heroines to be found. The simple round of household duties, fulfilled within the narrow limits which circumscribe the lives of most women, seldom present opportunities for the performance of those supreme acts of daring or of suffering which from time to time call forth the wonder and admiration of the world; but even there, in humble homes, we know that thousands of patient, tender-hearted mothers, wives, and daughters are daily living lives above the ordinary level – lives which contain the essence of true heroism, self-sacrifice; and prove to those whose eyes are not holden, that the age of chivalry is not dead. When, however, the opportunity does occur, as the stories in the following pages amply testify, we find how much a gentle woman or a modest girl can do or suffer. In times of peril and disaster, [14] amid fire or flood, in war, pestilence, and famine, women have proved themselves equal to the most trying circumstances, and have triumphantly vindicated their right to a place among the world’s heroes.
The stories presented are, for example, about brave mothers or the teacher Hannah Rosbotham, who protected her pupils during a storm, or “modern Grace Darlings” (chapter IV, 44): “There is probably no deed in the annals of everyday heroism, which, while exciting the greatest admiration at the time of its performance, also rendered historic the name and fame of the heroine, as that of Grace Darling, daughter of the keeper of the Longstone Lighthouse. When that deed of daring thrilled the country nearly sixty years ago, it seemed to come as a revelation to the inhabitants of ‘our sea-girt isle’, the home of hardy seamen, that a woman should possess the courage which she exhibited. Since then, however, there have been so many instances of like character, that while we do not attempt to repress our admiration when women and [45] girls perform deeds which would do credit to the bravest and strongest men, we are no longer filled with wonder or surprise.”
The final poem by Josephine Pollard is about a girl who saves lives during a fire.
Contents
I. Heroines 11II. Brave Mothers 15
III. The Heroine of the Peak 23
IV. The Heroine of the ‘Iona’ 31
V. In Storm and Flood 39
VI. Modern Grace Darlings 44
VII. A Westmoreland Heroine 52
VIII. A Sheffield Alice Ayres 60
IX. Three Northumberland Heroines 64
X. The Gamekeeper’s Daughter 72
XI. An Englishwoman and Pirates 78
XII. The Brave Old Woman of Husum 86
XIII. A Heroic Mother and Her Daughter 91
XIV. The Women of Mumbles Head 96
XV. More Brave Girls 104
XVI. The Heroine of the ‘Quetta’ 109
XVII. A Devoted Daughter 115
XVIII. A Brave Fisher Girl 128
XIX. How Kate Won Her Medal 138
XX. The Old Woman’s Danger Signal 144
XXI. The Heroine of Manipur 149
A Heroine After All [poem by Josephine Pollard] 156