Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/518

Rh eight children, of whom Mrs. Montgomery is the fourth. Mrs. Judd is a woman of ability. Notwithstanding the many cares of so large a family, papers and periodicals have received poems from her pen.

Her daughter Carrie possesses rare qualities, some of which are inherited. Her early life was characterized by prayer and faith. At fourteen she was confirmed in the Episcopal Church by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Coxe, of Buffalo. Her literary taste was apparent when very young. Her mother taught her to count the meter as she stood a tiny child at her knee. Her first paid efforts were made at fifteen, when she wrote for Demorest's Young America." The Buffalo "Courier" next published her poems. She was very frail and small at that time, and has never weighed a hundred until recently. At eighteen she had written enough for a small volume of poems, which was published soon after under the title "Lilies from the Vale of Thought." About that time, while attending the normal school, she was injured by a fall and her health began to decline. In a few months she was a helpless invalid. Consumption and spinal disease, with numerous other ills, had their grip upon her, and for two years she was unable to turn herself. She rallied at last, and was suddenly healed as by a miracle. A full account of her sickness and restoration may be found in a book which she has since published, called "The Prayer of Faith." That little book has had a circulation of about forty-thousand. It has been published in America, England, Sweden, Holland, France, Germany and Switzerland, the translation being solicited and made without effort on her part. Her first work after she was restored to health was gospel temperance work in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which she is a member. Ever since her healing, in 1878, she has labored in christian work. She has written books and many tracts. She publishes a journal called "Triumphs of Faith," which has reached its twelfth volume and is sent to foreign countries. She is often called to visit the sick and pray with them, and many have been healed in answer to her prayers. She has established a "Faith Rest," a home where sick and weary ones may stay a brief time for christian counsel, free of charge. It is sustained by voluntary contributions in answer to prayer. Two years ago she became the wife of George Simpson Montgomery, of San Francisco, Cal., a worthy man of christian character, who had also been divinely healed. He is a man of wealth and has consecrated all to the Lord. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery hearing, as they believe, a special call from God, joined the Salvation Army on Thanksgiving Day in 1891. Not entering as officers, they will remain in their home in Beulah, near Oakland, Cal. They have one daughter, Faith Judd Montgomery.

MOODY, Mrs. Helen Watterson, journalist, was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her maiden name was Watterson. She was one of the four young women who competed with men in the University of Wooster, where she was graduated with high honors in 1883.

Her newspaper work was begun as soon as she left college, in the offices of the Cleveland "Leader" and "Sun." At the end of two years she was invited to return to her alma mater as assistant professor of rhetoric and English, and she accepted the position, remaining until she was called, in 1889, to the staff of the New York "Evening Sun." From that time until she left the "Sun," on the occasion of her marriage, in 1891, her identity was merged in that of the "Woman About Town," a title created for her, under which she wrote, in a semi-editorial manner, a column every day. The subjects of her paragraphs were usually taken from current happenings. She always touched the higher chords of human feeling without setting herself up to be a moralist, and among all her paragraphs there was never a sentence to be