Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/517

512 count. In 1869 they settled in Warsaw, where Madame Modjeska played the principal parts in the standard dramas of Shakespeare, Gothe, Schiller and Moliere, as well as in new Polish dramas. They remained in Warsaw until 1876. Her repertory in her native language included two-hundred-eighty-four plays. Failing health and discontent under the Russian censorship induced her to leave the stage, and she and her husband came to the United States in 1876. With the aim of founding a Polish colony, they settled on a ranch near Los Angeles, Cal. In the spring of 1877 she went to San Francisco to study English, and after four months of study she was able to appear as Adrienne Lecouvreur in the California Theater. Her success was instant, and she at once entered upon her remarkably brilliant American career. She has made six tours of the United States and three short tours in Poland, and has played several seasons in London and the English provinces. Her repertory on the American stage includes twenty-live roles. She has literary talent of a fine order, and among her achievements are successful adaptations of " As You Like It" and "Twelfth Night " for the Polish stage. In common with all patriotic Poles, Madame Modjeska burns with indignation over the tyranny exercised by Russia over Poland. Both Madame Modjeska and her husband are naturalized citizens of the United States

MONROE, Mrs. Elizabeth Kortright, wife of James Monroe, fifth President of the United States, born in New York, N. Y., in 1768, and died in Loudoun county, Va., in 1830. She was the daughter of Capt. Lawrence Kortright. of the British Army, who settled in New York City in 1 783. Elizabeth was one of a family of five children, one son and four daughters. She was thoroughly educated and was a belle in the society of the metropolis. She became the wife of lames Monroe in 1789. He was then a Senator. After marriage they settled in Philadelphia, Pa., whither the seat of government had been moved In 1794 he was appointed minister to France, and his wife accompanied him to Paris. He went abroad again in 1803. and while there Mrs. Monroe secured the release of Madame de La Fayette from the prison of La Force, where she was imprisoned under a sentence of death by decapitation. Her life has been left almost completely without mention by the chroniclers of her time. After their return from the first mission to France, Mr. Monroe was made Governor of Virginia, and Mrs. Monroe aided him greatly by her administration of social affairs in the Capital. She accompanied him to England, when he was sent as minister to that country. When he became President, in 1817, Mrs. Monroe took her place as mistress of the White House, and she tilled it with grace, tact and dignity Although she performed carefully all the duties implied in her position, she preferred a quiet home to the splendor of public life. Her health was delicate during the last years she spent in the While House. After President Monroe's retirement they lived on his estate in Loudoun county, Va. The two daughters of the family were married, and the old home, "Oak Hill," was a quiet retreat. Mrs. Monroe died suddenly, in 1830, and her husband died 4th July. 1831.

MONROE. Mrs. Harriet Earhart, lecturer and educator, born in Indiana, Pa., 21st August, 1842. She is the daughter of Rev. David Earhart and Mary W. Earhart, of Atchison, Kans. Her father, a Lutheran minister, went to Kansas as a missionary in 1860. Harriet was a teacher in Kansas when the Civil War broke out, and during that conflict she went to Clinton, Iowa, where she taught until peace was restored. She returned to Kansas and in 1865 was married. Her only daughter died in infancy, and her only son is now living in Colorado. In 1870, thrown upon her own resources, she opened a private school in Atchison, Kans., which grew rapidly into a collegiate institute with over two-hundred students in regular attendance. During her thirteen years in that school she had two-thousand-six-hundred-twenty-one students under her charge. In 1885 her health failed and she was compelled to give up the school. She then went to Washington, D. C, and until 1887 served as correspondent for a number of western journals. Not liking the personal element in journalism, she decided to enter the lecture field. In that line of effort she has succeeded in a remarkable degree. From May, 1888, to May, 1891, she lectured sixty nights in Philadelphia, sixty-nine nights in Pittsburgh, sixteen nights in Washington,

and twenty-five nights in New York and Brooklyn. Her lectures are on religious, artistic, war, temperance, personal, economic and historical topics. They showed a remarkable range of reading and research. Her first book, "Past Thirty," was published in 1878. Her "Art of Conversation" (New York, 1889) found an extraordinary sale. In New Jersey. Delaware and Pennsylvania she has lectured before teachers' institutes. She has visited Europe twice in the preparation of her lectures. Her observations of European school methods have been published in valuable articles. Her permanent home is in Philadelphia, Pa.

MONTGOMERY, Mrs. Carrie Frances Judd, church worker and poet, born in Buffalo, N. Y., 8th April, 1858. Her father, Orvan Kellogg Judd, was a graduate of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., and an exemplary christian. He died in Buffalo in 1890. Her mother's name was Emily Sweetland. There were born of their union