Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/482

Rh element in her nature, over whims, prejudices and ordinary human passions.

The past two years have also proven to be a sort of Indian Summer for the spiritual element in her nature. The old-time ideals which she had learned to love as a girl sitting at her father's feet, the old-time belief in the efficacy of spiritual powers and the reality of spiritual values have again been quickened into life. The long stretch of years during which she was largely engrossed in family affairs and the heavy labors involved in the management of the material interests of herself and her children, was brought to a close when she assumed her present position of moral and intellectual leadership among American women. As a widow and a mother, she did not hesitate to focus all her energies and abilities upon the financial duties and responsibilities which she felt demanded her first attention, but when these affairs having been satisfactorily and successfully attended to, new intellectual and spiritual responsibilities were thrust upon her, the latent moral fires and spiritual enthusiasms of her girlhood burst into sudden flame—the idealistic element in her nature again asserted itself. To her own surprise, as much as that of her friends and family, she threw into her new work not only the practical skill, and trained energy, which had been developed during her long business career, but as well the old moral fervor and the old spiritual outlook, that had been handed down to her as a rich spiritual inheritance from her distinguished father.

In spite of the fact that she has manifested an extraordinary ability as a presiding officer, showing not only a remarkable mastery of parliamentary law, but an even more remarkable mastery of all the complicated and tempestuous situations that have arisen during the various discussions of the nineteenth and twentieth Congresses; and in spite of the fact that her unusual business and executive ability have enabled her