Margaret McMillan. By Albert Mansbridge. (J. III. Dent. Gs.) IF
we compare the shun children of 1890 with those of to-day.. the latter seem by comparison dean, healthy, happy, well taught and well mannered. A great deal of this change for the better is due to Margaret McMillan. She never ceased- working and talking And agitating till she got it into the un- willing heads of well-off people that hungry children and sickly children and children tired out by half a day's manual' labour cannot learn out of books. She cajoled the poor and browbeat the rich into acknowledging that food, cleanliness and play are alike necessities and that teeth, throats, ears- and eyes are delicate bits of machinery needing expert in- spection 'at regular intervals.
The marvellous extent of the accomplishment to her credit Mr. Albert Mansbridge details to its very simply and well, but his real interest is in the character of his heroine rather than in her work,- and he certainly contrives to fill the reader with a like curiosity. To give a definite outline to her personality is quite impOssible, for she made a different impression upon everyone she tact, but all alike seem to have been immensely struck by her from the Queen to the motherS of the slum
children. •
The photograph reproduced at the beginning of the books. shows us a significant but noticeably plain woman of middle age, yet all her friends were struck by her beauty. "A strange, beautiful, gifted woman, great but odd," says Mr. Robert Blatehford. " She could be as young as she liked and as lovely. • as she liked when she liked" writes another adMirer. A Highlander, born in New York, returning in childhood to Inverness, coining of devout Catholic and strict Presbyterian stocks, a gifted musician, actress and public speaker, she changed at will to 'suit the age, sex, position or convictions of those she was ivith. To go back to Mr. Blatchford's descrip- tion " I stood in awe of that strange woman. She was a good deal of a poet and still more of an angel—a 'humorous, satirical angel ; even freakish at times, and her. virginal strange air' bade my wisdom fear." When we read that she was "a blend of Joan of Are and Florenie' Nightingale tern pored by the humOur of Miss Ansten "'We feel that. the critic has lost his head to the lady,- hitt it is indeed an Unusual' philanthropist who can turn heads like this t. '
Mr. Bernard Shaw, we kficar,-ciiii"
Here is his cool judgement of Margaret : " Not only one of the best WORM' of her time and in her orbit but also one of the most cantankerous, and she owed a great deal of her effectiveness to the latter useful quality." Mr. Shaw brings us down to earth again. But we are still a little in love, thanks to Dr. Albert. Mansbridge's clever little book.
Previous page
