N the fall of 1864, when the Union Army was massing against Richmond, the hospitals in and around Washington were very much overcrowded. Under orders from the Secretary of War, I had charge of the women managers of the "Special Diet Kitchens" connected with the hospitals all along the front lines. It also devolved upon me to select the women for these positions-two for each kitchen. They directed, under the orders of the Ward surgeons, the preparation of the food for the very sick and the severely wounded. In some of these special diet kitchens, more than a thousand patients were supplied with carefully prepared food, in great variety, three times each day. It will readily be seen that competent women were needed to properly manage the work in these important kitchens. They had not only to control a force of from twenty to thirty men, and direct their work, but they had the responsibility of securing the proper preparation of food on time and without confusion. Their official position also required that they should be women of culture and social standing, who would command the respect of the officers and surgeons in charge. It is greatly to the honor of the patriotic women of America, that scores of accomplished women volunteered to perform this difficult and arduous service. Great care was taken in their selection, and none were accepted who were not highly indorsed.

One day there came to headquarters in Washington a young lady from Pawtucket, R. I. She was twenty-two years old, as I afterwards learned, but she was so youthful in appearance that she looked much younger.

"I am Lizzie Billings," she said by way of introduction. "I was ready and waiting, and as soon as I received your letter containing the pass and orders to come, I started."

"Although Miss Billings is young in years, she is mature in character, and represents the highest type of American womanhood. She will command respect anywhere. We commend her to you, as one of our noblest women, one who will be equal in any position, and who will never falter, or fail in the line of duty."

I had therefore expected to meet a woman of commanding presence, whose appearance would indicate experience and inspire confidence that she was equal to any emergency. But she was small and childlike in her appearance, and plain and unconventional in her manners.

Although much disappointed, I received her as graciously as possible; but when she inquired "Where am I to go?" I did not feel safe in assigning her to hospital duty. So I answered:

"You will stay here for the present." My courage, however, almost failed me when she said:

"I brought my little melodeon with me; I thought it might be useful."

And sure enough, when her baggage was brought up, the tiniest melodeon I have ever seen was taken out of its box.

"What shall we do with that dear innocent child from Rhode Island, and her little melodeon?" I said privately to my secretary, a little later. But she could not solve the problem. When the heavy work of the day was over, we joined Miss Billings in the parlor. After some conversation she inquired with childlike simplicity:

"Would you like to have me play and sing?"

We assented, and she at once took her seat at the melodeon. We were charmed and amazed. It seemed as if the curtains of Heaven had been suddenly

drawn apart, and the song of an angel was floating down upon us. The tones of the little instrument were soft and clear, and the voice of the singer was remarkably sweet and sympathetic. Her notes thrilled one there was life in them.

After listening to her for an hour, all Our own weariness and anxiety were gone, and we knew just what to do with Lizzie Billings. There were tens of thousands of burdened souls all about us, and she, with her wonderful gift of song, could lift some drooping spirits, and pour the balm of peace into some wounded, fainting hearts.

The next morning I took her and her little melodeon in my ambulance over to Campbell Hospital, and requested her to sing as she had opportunity. The sick and wounded were quartered in great wooden barracks, eighty feet long. There were two rows of cots, one on each side of the room. That very day she went into one of these long wards. She had never been in a hospital before; and when she entered and saw the long rows of cots, and the pale and earnest faces of the men, all turned towards her, she grew faint and dizzy, and her courage almost failed her. She was powerless to do anything but walk on down the aisle. At last a soldier called feebly to her: "Say, miss, can't you write a letter for me?"

It was a great relief to have the silence broken, and to have something to do. She seated herself beside his cot and asked:

"To whom shall I write?"

"No, she is too poor to come; but she is praying for me.

"Would you like to have me pray for you?"

"Yes, miss, if you will."

Lizzie Billings took one of his thin, cold hands in her own, and knelt there beside his cot, and offered up one of those tender prayers that come from the heart and go straight to Heaven. When she arose, every man who was able to be about the ward was standing around the cot, and many were wiping away the tears they could not restrain.

"Would you like to have me sing something?" she questioned.

"Oh, do!" they all entreated; and she sang one of those sweet religious songs that she could sing so well. Of course they were delighted, and urged her to come again.

"I have a melodeon," she said as she left them, "and if the surgeon will allow, I will come to-morrow and have that brought in."

The next day the little melodeon was brought in, and Miss Billings sang for them. The surgeon in charge was SO delighted with her singing and its effects, that he gave orders that she should be allowed to go freely into all the wards to sing.

From that time on, she devoted her whole time to singing, going from ward to ward, till all the thousands in that great hospital had been soothed and cheered again and again by the sweet melody of her voice.

The effect of her singing was so uplifting, that I extended her field, and had an ambulance detailed for her use, that she might visit other hospitals. From that time on she had her regular circuit, going day after day from hospital to hospital, to cheer the suffering and sorrowing ones. Men who had been strong in battle, to do and to dare, but now lay helpless and sorely wounded, with heart and flesh ready to fail, were made to forget their agony for a time, and to mount up on the wings of hope, leaving despair and death below them. Mothers and wives, who watched hopelessly by their dying ones, were helped to lift up their eyes to "the hills from whence cometh our help." That thousands were saved from despair

In no other position could she have done so great and wonderful a work.

She has changed her name since then, and is now a minister's wife; but her voice still holds, with its sweet sympathetic cadence, the listening hundreds as of old, when she was known as "the sweet singer of the hospitals."

JUST as the question "Where are Vinland and Norumbega?" was discussed in our pages a month ago, there came to our table, in the form of a pamphlet so small that it can be read in half an hour, the clearest and most judicial essay upon "The discovery of America by the Northmen" which it has been our fortune to read. This pamphlet is the reprint of a discourse delivered before the New Hampshire Historical Society, a year ago, by Rev. Edmund F. Slafter. The various historical works, usually relating to subjects more or less obscure, which have been written or edited by Mr. Slafter in the past, have all given witness to his singular care and thoroughness as a scholar, to his sound judgment, and his literary skill; and these qualities are conspicuous in the present very timely essay.

Mr. Slafter gives a brief outline of the four or five expeditions from Iceland to "Vineland" at the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries, all of which any well-defined narrative remains, beginning with the voyage of Bjarni about the year 985, followed by that of Leif about 1000. The evidence on which the stories rest are the two sagas transferred, with other old Icelandic parchments, to Stockholm and Copenhagen, between 1650 and 1715. The earliest of these two sagas is supposed to have been written by Hank Erlendsson, who died in 1334, three centuries after the time of Leif and Thorvald; but these sagas were probably copied from older ones. The narrative of the voyages had been for long an oral tradition, subject to the vicissitudes of the oral tradition in all old times. It was a hundred and fifty years after the alleged discovery of this continent before the practice began of committing Icelandic sagas to writing. Mr. Slafter well points out, therefore, the folly of treating these old descriptions as we would treat a coast survey or admiralty report, in which lines and distances are determined by accurate instruments and recorded scientifically. Their references to places are of about the same exactness as their terms for the divisions of the day, such as "the time when the herdsmen took their breakfast.' Mr. Slafter believes that the narrations of the sagas are to be accepted in their general outlines and prominent features, but only so. He thinks that the first country that the explorers dis

But

covered after leaving Greenland answers in its general features to Newfoundland, the second to Nova Scotia, and the third to New England. when we go beyond this he holds, and we think justly, that there is no certainty whatever, the descriptions being all general and indefinite and identifying nothing.

In the nine hundred years between Leif's time and ours, great changes have undoubtedly taken place at the mouth of all the New England rivers; sands have been drifting, new islands and new inlets have been formed, and old ones have ceased to exist. "But even if we suppose that no changes have taken place in this long lapse of time," says Mr. Slafter, "there are, doubtless, between Long Island Sound and the eastern limit of Nova Scotia, a great number of rivers with all the characteristics of that described by the sagas. Precisely the same characteristics belong to the Taunton, the Charles, the Merrimack, the Piscataqua, the Kennebec, the Saint Croix, and the St. John. All these rivers have one or more islands at their mouth, and there are abundant places near by where a ship might be stranded at low tide, and in each of these rivers there are expansions or bays from which they flow into the ocean. And there are, probably, twenty other less important rivers on our coast, where the same conditions may likewise be found. What saga

cious student of history, or what learned geographer, has the audacity to say that he is able to tell us near which of these rivers the Northmen constructed their habitations, or made their temporary abode?"

With the old mill at Newport, the inscription on the Dighton rock, "the skeleton in armor," and other alleged monuments or remains of the Northmen in New England, Mr. Slafter deals summarily. Had old Governor Arnold, who in his will called the old Newport mill " 'my stone built windmill," felt that there was any mystery about its origin, he could hardly have failed to say something about it. Roger Williams was himself an antiquary, and deeply interested in everything pertaining to our aboriginal history. "Had any building of arched mason-work, with some pretensions to architecture, existed at the time when he first took up his abode in Rhode Island, and before any English settlements had been made

there, he could not have failed," Mr. Slafter believes, to "mention it; a phenomenon so singular, unexpected, and mysterious must have attracted his attention. His silence on the subject renders it morally certain that no such structure could have been there at the time."

We confess, for our own part, that we never dare build much upon the argument from "silence." We once learned a distinct lesson on this point in connection with Roger Williams himself (see New England Magazine, October, 1889, p. 166). Still we agree with Mr. Slafter in believing it utterly improbable that, had the settlers of Rhode Island found this old structure already standing, evidently descending from dim antiquity, it would have occasioned no remark that has come down to us on the part of any of them.

Mr. Slafter preaches an excellent little sermon in the last pages of his pamphlet upon the duty of historians to stick to facts and keep the imagination in its proper province, saying things that have application to much besides speculations about Vinland and Norumbega. His summing up as to the Northmen is as follows: "We

cannot doubt that the Northmen made four or five voyages to the coast of America in the last part of the tenth and the first part of the eleventh centuries; that they returned to Greenland with cargoes of grapes and timber; that their abode on our shores was temporary; that they were mostly occupied in explorations, and made no preparations for establishing any permanent colony; except their temporary dwellings, they erected no structures whatever, either of wood or of stone.

The place of their first landing, the location of their dwellings, the parts of the country which they explored, are so indefinitely described that they are utterly beyond the power of identification."

We think that this matter must be left just where Mr. Slafter leaves it. It would certainly be gratifying, as he recognizes, to believe that the Northmen reared spacious buildings and fortresses by some of our New England bays or rivers, to know where Leif landed and where Thorvald was buried. But for this we need evidence that is not yet before the court; and meantime it is not profitable to draw on our imagination for our facts.

WE think that no one can read Mr. Slafter's pamphlet and not feel that the erection of a monument on the banks of Charles River to mark the site of the ancient Norumbega is at least premature. Rev. William C. Winslow's pamphlet on "The Pilgrim Fathers in Holland,” a paper first read, a few weeks ago, before the New England Historical Genealogical Society, is not so convincing in its opposition to the proposed monument at Delftshaven. But in truth Dr. Winslow is not opposed to a monument at Delftshaven or at Leyden. He says:

"To commemorate the wholesome lesson [of confederation as exemplified in Holland] to the world and to our forefathers in particular, the toleration of the Pilgrims in the Netherlands denied them in England, and the noble lives of the Pilgrims in Holland, tablet and monument may fittingly perform a grateful office in Leyden and Delfts

haven.'

He believes some site near Robinson's house in

Leyden to be the spot, before all others in Holland, where should stand the chief monument to the Pilgrims; "at Delftshaven let some simpler remembrance, in stone and bronze, mark the place of the final departure." What awakens Dr. Winslow's opposition and gives birth to this pamphlet is the statement of the ground or purpose of the proposed monument made by the Congregational Club of Boston, in voting its approval of the project. That statement was as follows:

"Remembering the hospitality of the free republic of Holland, so generously bestowed upon the Pilgrims, who, after twelve years' residence in Amsterdam and Leyden, sailed from Delftshaven on a voyage which was completed at Plymouth Rock, it is fitting that we should unite in grateful recognition of Dutch hospitality, and at Delftshaven raise some durable token of our appreciation of both hosts and guests-calling upon all Americans who honor alike the principles and the founders of the two republics to join in the enterprise."

Dr. Winslow's trouble is with the expression of gratitude to the Dutch for their "generous hospitality," and his pamphlet is an effort to prove that there was no such hospitality. But all this comes simply to a matter of defining what hospitality is, and what its signal features are under varying circumstances. Dr. Winslow, in the course of his argument, submits a "parallel illustration":

"A band of Russian refugees settle in New England in 1891. Early next century they remove to some distant land, where, two or three centuries later, they become a strong nation. They honestly lived, honorably earned their bread in New England. Moreover, they had a shelter, as a body, from Russian persecution. They saw in New Eng land the blessings of freedom and education and a free gospel, and they applied the example in building up themselves into a nation. Now, in the year 2162, some of their number propose to erect in New England a monument, stating as the preamble to their resolution: Whereas, Remembering the hospitality of the free republic of the United States, so generously bestowed upon our ancestors, who, after twelve years' residence in New England, sailed from Boston,' etc. But others among them, revering equally the memory of their fathers, ask for evidence of any special favors shown the fathers by the great American republic, such as other refugees from over the ocean did not freely receive. They ask if their ancestors did not earn their livelihood, and then their right, under its laws, to live in a land often described by its writers as an asylum for the oppressed?'

But suppose the American republic, in the year 1891, to be the only place where these same Russian republicans could find refuge and protection. Staying at home they would be driven into the Siberian mines; flying to Austria or Turkey, they would fare worse; only in America could they find toleration and safety. The power of almost the whole world, be it remembered, is, meantime, bearing against America to make it impossible for her to remain a free port for such as these, and all her resources are taxed to the utmost to maintain her principles and her life. She does not, it may be, "lavish hospitality" upon these exiles, or "do them special favors" above those done this other band of exiles from Hungary,- has tihs been claimed with reference to the Pilgrims in Holland? - but she does secure them, in terrible extremity, an opportunity to live with "freedom and in good content"; she assures them, as she does the Hungarians also, that their coming is "agreeable and welcome"; the Boston bakers give them not beans and bread, indeed, without money and without price, but credit in exceptional measure; the Boston folk generally strive

"to get their custom and to employ them above others in their work," recognizing and applauding their honor and diligence; their leading teacher, invited repeatedly to lecture at Harvard, gains as great respect there as that accorded Dr. Peabody and Professor Everett, when he dies being followed to his burial by a great body of our scholars and officials; the little company altogether, when finally departing for Vancouver, to better themselves, receive special mention, "commendable testimony," from Mayor Mathews and .he board of aldermen, for their superior behavior during their stay in the city, in contrast with the behavior of those "Walloons," for instance; and in Vancouver they realize what an immense schooling they have had in their twelve years in New England, in all that goes to make a strong and broad social organization. We maintain that it would not be extravagant or out of order for the great nation growing up in two centuries from the little company thus kept together and kept safe in New England for a dozen years to speak of New England's "generous hospitality," even though no New England millionnaire made the company one gift during its tarrying. We think it was proper, as we do not doubt it was most sincere, for Governor Bradford, writing to the New Netherland authorities in 1627, to acknowledge the Pilgrims "tied in a strict obligation unto your country and state, for the good entertainment and liberty which we had." We think it would be right for us, the children, to acknowledge this good entertainment and liberty given by Holland to our fathers, in enduring brass and granite. We think it would not be honorable to acknowledge less, on monument or in our hearts. Whether the Pilgrim monument shall stand at Delftshaven or Leyden is a minor question, on both sides of which there is certainly something to be said. Dr. Winslow, as we have said, does not in the least oppose the general scheme of a memorial; he heartily favors it. But we think his pamphlet, learned and careful, as is all of Dr. Winslow's work, needs supplementing and correcting thoughts.

Dr. Winslow thinks he finds implications that certain of the "afflictions" suffered by the Pilgrims in Holland resulted from the dislike or jealousy of their Independency or Congregationalism by the Dutch churches. We cannot see any evidence of this, whereas there is much evidence of general harmony between Robinson and the Leyden religious people. We feel it a duty, to express dissent from the word quoted from Dr. Dexter, repeated by Dr. Walker, that the Dutch government was kept from showing more express kindness toward our fathers by "a craven fear of offending the English government." Surely, if any special gingerliness or anxiety on this point can be shown, is a not quite sufficient and clear explanation obvious in the imperative necessity of the little republic to keep on good terms with England, the only powerful Protestant nation to which it could look for sympathy and help amidst its great dangers? Dr. Winslow, it should be said, does not express his own approval of Dr. Dexter's word; but we could wish he had expressed his disapproval, and given reasons for it. Every controversy, such as that which has arisen over the proposed Delftshaven monument,

will do good, if it directs attention anew to the great historical epoch which our fathers touched during their exile in Holland. Whatever else such study may reveal as to the government of the little republic at that time, it surely will not reveal that "craven fear" was one of its distinguishing characteristics.

THE National Bureau of Education at Washington has issued a special bulletin giving an account of the educational features of previous World's Fairs, as offering helpful suggestions with reference to the educational exhibit proposed for the coming Exposition at Chicago. At the expositions in London in 1851 and 1854, at that in New York in 1853, and that at Paris in 1855, there were no special educational exhibits. This feature was first given place at the London Exposition of 1862, and was made more prominent at Paris in 1867, when the United States first appeared with an exhibit in this field, and at Vienna in 1873. Our own exhibit at Philadelphia in 1876 was extensive, but not well organized; the foreign exhibits were for the most part disappointing, the most important of them being the Russian exhibit, especially the collections from the technical schools of St. Petersburg and Moscow, which gave distinct impulse to the manual training movement in this country. Our own exhibit at Paris in 1878 was our best foreign exhibit. The French exhibit itself at that time was extensive, as it was also in 1889, the most prominent feature in the latter year being the attention given to the higher education of women.

Such bulletins as this from the Bureau of Education—and the present is not the first of its bulletins relating to the Columbian Exposition — are an earnest of the comprehensive plans which are already being made for the educational side of things at Chicago. It is certain that there will be no such lack of central organization in this department as proved so detrimental at Philadelphia; and it is certain that the extent of the educational exhibit will be very great, far greater than at any previous exposition. This is something to be glad of. Such educational exhibits, whether on the large scale meditated at Chicago or much more modest, are, when arranged for a definite purpose upon intelligent principles, of great use. We have spoken of the impulse given to the manual training movement in this country by the Russian exhibit at Philadelphia in 1876. The exhibits recently made at the English High School in Boston, in connection with the Manual Training Conference, filling a score of rooms, and drawing hundreds of people, were more forcible in the lessons which they taught to most than even the words of General Walker and President Eliot and Professor Adler. And a most valuable and well-conceived exhibition was the Geographical Exhibition held a month ago at the Brooklyn Institute. For a year the Department of Geography of the Institute had been engaged in collecting from all countries specimens of maps, textbooks, and all appliances used for geographical education; and the best works of all the leading European publishing houses were in the exhibition. There were upward of two hundred atlases,