Preface [3-4]
It is an old superstition which relegates courage and heroism to what are called the good old days, and a modern ignorance which denies the present age its share of the heroic and chivalrous. Occasions may vary and opportunity take different forms, but there is nothing in the annals of the past which is entirely without parallel in present experience, and the demands upon suffering and endurance are now often more exacting by reason of more protracted insistence. The developments of modern life, which have widened the sphere of woman’s work, have opened up to her new avenues in this and other directions, only to show that those qualities, commonly supposed to be more characteristically male, are equally hers when opportunity offers and occasion calls. Never a day passes without the record of some brave deed appearing in the public press and the wondrous aggregation of the unrecorded baffles all calculation. In this harvest men and women and boys and girls gather fruits and laurels side by side, and even little children are found among the gleaners. [4] The following stories illustrate heroism in the home and the world of duty, most of them being records of actual experience under very diverse circumstances and conditions. It is hoped that they may enhearten in suffering, nerve in action, inspire in enterprise, and beget examples of heroism in the home and the world of duty which may in their turn enhearten, inspire, and beget examples for the generations that follow. […]
A. H. M.

This book is a companion volume to Miles’ A Book of Brave Boys All the World Over [no. 1.2.33].

Preface [3-4]
[3] The widening of the sphere of woman’s work and enterprise, and the freer conditions under which she lives, involve her in larger opportunities of experience and adventure, and a greater need for self-reliance, resourcefulness, and some of those more robust characteristics sometimes regarded as the exclusive qualities of man. In equipment for effort and preparation for endurance, the achievements of the past are the inspiration of the future, and old example is never more reproductive than when it is brought home with realistic vividness to the impressionable and enthusiastic mind of youth. To know what others have done under similar circumstances, has often been a saving factor in the hour of trial, and many a man and woman has been encouraged to “endure hardness,” “and having done all, to stand,” by the remembrance of the heroism shown under like conditions by others who have gone before. Every day brings opportunities of heroism, and finds [4] heroes ready for the trial; and a book of stories of moral and physical courage shown by women and girls, in facing difficulties and dangers of actual experience, and in enduring trial for love and duty, should be an inspiration of far-reaching good. […]

The book presents 33 stories about female heroes, told by a range of authors.

This is a companion volume to Mabie’s Heroes that Every Child Should Know [no. 1.2.32]

Introduction [vii-xi]
[vii] The Book of Heroes should never be separated from the Book of Heroines; they are the two parts of that story of courage, service and achievement which is the most interesting and inspiring chapter in the history of human kind in this wonderful world of ours. Whenever and wherever there has appeared a hero, a heroine has almost always worked with or for him; for heroic and noble deeds are rarely done without some kind of cooperation. Now and then, it is true, single acts of daring stand out alone; but, as a rule, the hero gains his end because other men or women stand beside him in times of great peril. William the Silent could not have made his heroic defence of the Low Countries against the armies of Spain if men of heroic temper and women of indomitable courage had not been about him in those terrible years; Washington could not have converted a body of farmers into an organized and disciplined army if he had not been aided by the skill of drill masters like Steuben; nor could Lieutenant Peary make brilliant dashes for the North Pole if other men did not join him in his perilous expeditions. The hero is generally a leader of heroes, as a great general is a leader of soldiers who carry out his plans in hourly jeopardy of limb and life. It is a mistake to think of heroes as rare and exceptional men; the world is full of those who take their lives in [viii] their hands every day and think nothing about it; or, if they think of it at all, think of it, as Mr. Kipling would say, as part of the day’s work. It is almost impossible to open a daily newspaper without coming upon some story of daring by some obscure man or woman. The record of a fire department is usually a continuous register of the brave deeds done by those who receive very small pay for a very dangerous service to their fellows. It is not necessary to go back to the days of chivalry or to open the histories of great wars to find a hero; he lives in every street, works in every profession and never thinks that he is doing anything unusual or impressive. There are many stories of heroic deeds and men, but these are as nothing compared with the unwritten stories of brave and chivalrous people whose lives are full of courage, self-denial and sacrifice, but of whom no public reports are ever made. […] [ix] Boys do not need to be taught to admire the bold rush on the enemies’ position, the brilliant and audacious passage through the narrow channel under the guns of masked batteries, the lonely march into Central Africa, the dash to the North Pole; they do need to be taught the heroism of those who give the hero his sword and then go home to wait for his return; who leave the stockade unarmed and, under a fire of poisoned arrows, run to the springs for water for a thirsting garrison; who quietly stay at their posts and as quietly die without the inspiration of dramatic achievement or of the heartfelt applause of spectators; who bear heavy burdens without a chance to drop or change them; who are heroically patient under blighting disappointments and are loyal to those who are disloyal to them; who bear terrible wrongs in silence, and conceal the cowardice of those they love and cover their retreat with a smiling courage which is the very soul of the pathos of unavailing heroism and undeserved failure. From the days of Esther, Judith and Antigone to those of Florence Nightingale, women have shown every kind of courage that men have shown, faced every kind [x] of peril that men have braved, divided with men the dangers and hardships of heroism but have never had an equal share of recognition and applause. So far as they are concerned this lack of equal public reward bas been of small consequence; the best of them have not only not cared for it, but have shunned it. It is well to remember that the noblest heroes have never sought applause; and that popularity is much more dangerous to heroes than the foes they faced or the savage conditions they mastered in the splendid hour of daring achievement. Many heroes have been betrayed by popularity into vanity and folly and have lost at home the glory they won abroad. Heroic women have not cared for public recognition and do not need it; but it is of immense importance to society that the ideals of heroism should be high and true, and that the soldier and the explorer should not be placed above those whose achievements have been less dramatic, but of a finer quality. The women who have shown heroic courage, heroic patience, heroic purity and heroic devotion outrank the men whose deeds have had their inspiration in physical bravery, who have led splendid charges in full view of the world, who have achieved miracles of material construction in canal or railroad, or the reclaiming of barbarous lands to the uses of civilization. In a true scale of heroic living and doing women must be counted more heroic than men. A writer of varied and brilliant talent and of a generous and gallant spirit was asked at a dinner table, one evening not many years ago, why no women appeared in his stories. He promptly replied that he admired pluck above all other qualities, that he was timid by nature and had won courage at the point of danger, and cared [xi] for it as the most splendid of manly qualities. There happened to be a woman present who bore the name of one of the most daring men of the time, and who knew army life intimately. She made no comment and offered no objection to the implication of the eminent writer’s incautious statement; but presently she began, in a very quiet tone, to describe the incidents of her experience in army posts and on the march, and every body listened intently as she went on narrating story after story of the pluck and indifference to danger of women on the frontier posts and, in some instances, on the march. The eminent writer remained silent, but the moment the woman withdrew from the table he was eager to know who the teller of these stories of heroism was and how she had happened upon such remarkable experiences; and it was noted that a woman appeared in his next novel! The stories in this volume have been collected from many sources in the endeavour to illustrate the wide range of heroism in the lives of brave and noble women, and with the hope that these records of splendid or quiet courage will open the eyes of young readers to the many forms which heroism wears, and furnish a more spiritual scale of heroic qualities.
Hamilton W. Mabie

Preface [7-8]
[7] Bravery and self-sacrifice are natural qualities in men, or so we love to think; but men have no monopoly of heroism. In their capacity for suffering uncomplainingly, and in their power of patient endurance, women are, as a matter of fact, more heroic by nature than men. Naturally sensitive and timid, yet they are strong to endure; and incidents are not wanting of women who in times of extreme peril or severe physical suffering have shown a measure of fortitude to which men similarly circumstanced have not attained. And not only in stoic endurance, but in generous self-sacrifice, women have in numberless instances proved themselves truly heroic. The stories given in this volume provide proof and to spare [sic] of womanly bravery; and they are told with the hope that they may help to impress upon the minds of British girls the real nobility of heroic womanhood. Every girl should remember that she has within herself the possibilities of heroism. If not by the risk of life and limb for others’ sakes in the stress of some sudden emergency, then in the brave dis[8] charge of simple daily duty every girl may be a heroine if she will. It is in the ranks of those heroines of the home who devote their lives bravely and unselfishly to ‘the common round, the daily task’ that the bravest of the world’s women are found. It was while the wife and daughter of Angus Kerr were busy with their ordinary household duties that the call came to them to prove themselves heroines; and it was the same spirit of helpfulness which they brought to bear upon the uninteresting tasks of every day that enabled them to dare the fury of the storm in order to rescue those who appealed to them for aid. So it ever is. Opportunities for heroism lie always in the path of duty; and active service for God and humanity, no matter how lowly that service may be, is the only adequate preparation for those special occasions for supreme devotion and self-sacrifice with which God honours us now and then.

The book was part of the series “Brave Deeds: A Series of Cheap Gift-Books”.

Preface [n. pag.]
In these pages I have tried to show how women, old and young, in many ranks of life, have proved themselves in times of trial to possess as much courage and daring as men. Some of these ‘Brave Women’ died for their Master’s sake, whilst others, in His cause, passed through dire peril and grievous suffering. All of them counted not their lives dear unto them, so long only as they might do their duty. I have designedly omitted many familiar heroines in the hope of winning attention for some whose deeds have been less widely recognised.
H.C.M.

A well-known example in section I is Alice Ayres, who saved three children during a fire in Union Street but died when she jumped out of the window. The end of her story refers to the memorial to everyday heroes in London’s Postman’s Park: [11] “In the Postman’s Park, which adjoins the General Post Office, there is a cloister bearing the inscription, ‘In Commemoration of Heroic Self-Sacrifice.’ Within it are tablets to the memory of heroes of humble life, and one of the most interesting of these is that on which is inscribed: – ‘Alice Ayres, daughter of a bricklayer’s labourer, who by intrepid conduct saved three children from a burning house in Union Street, Borough, at the cost of her own young life. April 24, 1885.’”

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Preface [5-6]
[5] Girls love heroism as much as boys do and probably love it for its own sake, apart from the excitement and glory often attendant upon it, – even more. They are, moreover, as capable of heroism as boys are and though, in the wider world of activity in which they move, boys have more prominent opportunities for the display of the heroic, if all the triumphs of moral heroism were added up, heroism no less real because evinced under mundane conditions and in obscure corners of the world’s workshop or playground, girls would have no reason to be ashamed of the record. The following stories have been written and selected in this belief and in the hope that the homely heroism they set forth, suggest and imply, may encourage the spirit they illustrate in those for whom these volumes are prepared. While keeping the heroic always in view, the Editor has allowed himself sufficient latitude to enable him to preserve that variety in the contents of the volume which is characteristic of all its predecessors and which appeals with so much force to young readers. […]

The book was part of Mundell’s “Heroines Library”.

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From chapter I Introduction [7-10]:
[7] […] The number of the world’s martyrs is legion, and in their ranks may be found the names of some of the greatest leaders of thought the world has known. Coupled with these is a multitude of persons of lesser note, many of them poor and of unknown names, including a vast array of women, who, though weak and delicate, unflinchingly endured the horrors of torture, steadfastly maintained their faith, and willingly suffered at the stake. These eternal examples of devotion in the cause of truth and righteousness are our Heroines of Faith. There are others, too, who rightfully claim kindred with them – those who, though they escaped the stake and scaffold, did, by their constancy in affliction and persecution, martyr their feelings and affections that truth might not be hid.

The book was part of Mundell’s “Heroine’s Library”.

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From chapter I: “A Band of Heroines” [7-19]
[7] In the long list of shining names which occur to us when we hear the phrase “makers of history,” some of the brightest are those of women. But, for the most part, their contribution has been indirect rather than direct, and their influence has been exerted through other and stronger actors on the world’s great stage. Here and there, however, from the earliest times down to our own day, women have stood forth to do public service which others shrank from doing, or for which they alone were specially qualified. The [8] claims of pity, the passion of indignation, the enthusiasm for home and fatherland, each in turn has sufficed to overrule the natural instinct which makes the sex shrink from the horrors of the battlefield, the privations of the siege, or the unknown risks of some desperate enterprise. Hence the examples, infinite in number and variety, of courage, daring, and endurance; hence the instances of ready wit and resourceful ingenuity, which we are all so prompt to admire and wonder at, but which in so many cases have been lost to history for lack of a chronicler. In the following pages the selection made has had in view the motive which prompted the act, quite as much as the heroism and hardihood with which it was accomplished.

The book was part of Mundell’s “Heroine’s Library”.

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From chapter I The Heroism of Travel [9-11]
In all ages and in every country travelers have been regarded with unusual interest by their own people. To visit a strange land, to face unknown dangers, and to undergo privations voluntary to satisfy a desire for travel, has always been regarded as a species of heroism worthy of praise and admiration. The majority of the early travellers in foreign countries, the pioneers of commerce and civilisation in various parts of the globe, were in almost every instance men. For though the early settlers were accompanied by the female members of their families, the work of exploration was regarded as essentially [10] the business of a man, and until recent times there have been few instances on record of long journeys being undertaken by women except in the performance of some family duty. This was due, no doubt, to the fact that the explorer and traveller had not only to face the dangers and difficulties incidental to undeveloped countries, where the means of communication and conveyance were of the rudest description, and the climate more or less unhealthy, but he might also have to encounter the hostility of barbarous natives and be compelled to fight his way through their country. Nor do we question the power of endurance or the courage of women when we say that they are not physically fitted to engage in such hazardous work as that performed by many of the pioneer explorers. It is probably owing to the recognition of this fact by themselves that even in more modern times women travellers have journeyed in civilised or semi-civilised countries, where even if they had to endure hardships their womanhood would be respected. This limitation has lessened their opportunities for adventure, and saved them from many of the perils which form the most attractive feature of the stories told by such men as Sir John Franklin, H. M. Stanley, and the like. Only within the last half-century have women engaged in travel on a large scale for its own sake, and no doubt it is because of this fact that the biographer of Madame Ida Pfeiffer describes that lady [11] as “one of the most remarkable women of modern times.” Nor is this praise undeserved when we consider the journeys she made without escort or protection of any kind. Since then, however, quite a number of women have dared to follow in her footsteps, and have ventured into some of the least known countries of the world. Foremost among such women travellers are Miss Bird (Mrs. Bishop) and Miss Gordon Cumming. The story of their wanderings in foreign lands fills many volumes, and both ladies stand to-day in the front rank of modern travellers. In the following pages we have brought together some of the incidents of travel recorded by these and other notable women. There is no attempt at a continuous narrative of any one traveller’s experiences, and in choosing the incidents regard has been had to introducing the reader to a variety of countries.

The book was part of Mundell’s “Heroine’s Library”.

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From chapter I [9-15]:
[10] The pages of missionary history literally sparkle with romance, and there is none so brilliant as that which tells of woman’s work. Yet it is only within comparatively recent times that woman has had justice done to her work in the mission-field. She was at one time simply ‘a missionary’s wife.’ She shared his labours, his dangers and privations, and bore burdens of which he knew not the weight; but her part in his success was not recognised. […] [11] It has been argued that woman has no rightful place in the mission-field and that her persistence in such arduous work entails a needless loss of life. This theory is, however, without the support of facts, and those who advance it show gross ignorance of the subject.

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.

The book was part of Mundell’s “Heroine’s Library”.

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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.

Preface [n. pag.]
In the annals of bravery there are few records of heroic girls, yet from time to time, brave little women perform deeds of heroism which are unknown and remain unrecognised. This collection of stories, each one of which is founded on fact, has been gathered from various sources. […] Courage and self-sacrifice are more likely to be fostered in the characters of girls by means of stories from real life, in which heroism plays a prominent part, than by sentimental fiction relating to commonplace events. Boys are stimulated in their efforts by records of thrilling adventures, and it would be satisfactory if similar circumstances awakened the latent heroism of our little women.

The stories describe girls’ behaviour in perilous situations (fire, storms, war, shipwreck etc.). Some of the stories are set in America and Russia.

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Preface [v-vi]
In bringing together some traits of female heroism, the aim has been to show the fortitude and devotion of which women are capable, rather in a feminine and domestic aspect than a brilliant one, and to exhibit acts of courage and presence of mind in characters distinguished by their conscientious fulfilment of the quiet, unobtrusive duties of every-day life. Love of adventure, constitutional indifference to danger, and a consciousness of superior powers, have led women to the successful performance of many high and daring exploits; but it has been wished to prove that such constitutional peculiarities are not required to make a heroine; while the natural emotions of timidity and fear need be no hindrances to the development of true heroism. It only needs that the mind, trained and disciplined to obey the will, shall have force to overcome the weakness of the body; that, clear to see its duty, the heart shall be prompt, at any sacrifice, to perform it. Not that there shall be no natural fear or shrinking, but that the occasion shall be felt great enough to overcome them. Every one who accustoms herself, in small as well as great things, to do at once, and in a cheerful spirit, what is to be done – who takes upon herself the duties that fall to her lot – who uses no vain delays – who does the thing she fears, and thus learns to know the joy and the strength that every such effort brings with it [vi] – is educating herself to be a heroine. It may be that the even tenor of her life will never call out her full powers; but, should the moment of action ever come, noble impulses will be hers, and she will have strength to obey them. Her heart and hand will be equal to the emergency that claims her aid. […] While called upon to act, she had thought only of what was to be done, and she had been granted strength to do it: when all is scene to look back upon, her woman’s nature will assert itself – her heart will sink at the thought only of what it passed through unmoved – and while others praise her courage, she will think of it only to thank – if she thinks of her own daring, it will be to thank the Supporting Hand which had so wonderfully strengthened her weakness. It is hoped that the general tendency of the following pages will be to show the importance and happy results of such a temper of mind.