Page:Tributes to Helen Bell, Woman's Progress, April 1895.djvu/5

198 The secluded student was to become a leader; habits of life would undergo a radical change; contemplation would yield to action; receiving to dispensing; the retiring maiden would be well known to admiring thousands of men and women as President and Secretary of two of the largest organizations in Philadelphia whose duties would engross during many years her time and energies.

But when from that home the gentle Moravian mother passed away; when the intelligent father, of Friendly descent, who had turned to his children for solace, was also called to the life beyond; the parentless home seemed desolate. At the sundering of these ties there came as never before to Helen Bell a consciousness of personal responsibility. The days of mourning were days of meditation on the uses of life. The enjoyment of a literary life could not satisfy the social cravings of her nature. The loving services given to her parents were ended. She would give freely her services to many now unknown to her, who were hungering for human companionship and sympathy.

The days of leisure had been well employed—the time of preparation wisely ordered. Now, the world was all before her, where and what to choose. Helen Bell was undergoing a transformation, and anxiously this transformation seemed to correspond to the material change in her outer surroundings. Her childhood, her play days, her memories of father and mother were closely associated with the beautiful street also undergoing transformation.

One by one the shade trees decayed and died; the graceful vines were torn down; the flowers perished; the grass plots were neglected; the genial society disappeared as family after family moved away, till at length homes gave way to business, the rolling of pleasure carriages to the din of drays and express wagons.

During this process of transformation, several important social movements had their origin in Girard street.

"Doe the nexte thinge." That next thing met her face to face at her very door.

First came the New Century Club and fixed its headquarters at 1112 Girard street. In 1881 a committee of that club inaugurated a system of supplementary education, known as "The Committee on Evening Classes," for the instruction of girls who were engaged during the day in industrial occupations. Pupils flocked to 1112, for whom volunteer teachers were needed; one who would give instruction in the German language. Into this labor of love Helen Bell entered and taught the History of German Literature, until a fatal illness removed the accomplished teacher.

Besides those seeking instruction in evening classes, the chairman of the committee, the devoted Mrs. Eliza S. Turner, suggested that many girls might find benefit in meeting together for conference, for recreation, for social enjoyment, for mutual improvement, and also for the encouragement of the less thoughtful and less experienced, who needed the counsel and sympathy of wiser and stronger sisters.