National Council of Women of the United States, an organization composed of
twenty national societies, whose aggregate membership numbers more than half a
million women.
Nor have the educational and philanthropic phases made the entire life of this working woman. Her work has been threefold. Teaching in schools or living a life crowded more or less with women and girls to whom she was teaching some one thing or another that they needed most to know; giving instruction or lecturing in schools and putting her hand to the wheel in charitable societies, there has been another life of work, in which the amount of labor done would have sufficed alone, it would seem, to fill one busy life.
Never fancying herself possessed of any special talent, nevertheless, when the fortune went and troubles came, Mrs. Dickinson turned to account the use of her pen, a facility in the use of which had marked her from a child. After her misfortunes, she began scattering about, at the solicitation of her friends, bits of verse written at one time or another.
Mrs. Dickinson's first book was a gathering up of these little verses, which made a home for themselves in the hearts of many people, and made a way for the author to such fields of journalistic work as would have kept her busy without her other tasks. From that time until this she has been an active writer along all journalistic lines. Never believing in her own talent, always saying that if she had any genius or great ability she would never have needed the spur of necessity, holding steadily to her early resolution never to write anything that should harm or belittle human nature, she pursued the work of reviewer, novelist, poet, biographer, essayist, and educator, never permitting her name to be used if by any means it could be avoided. Thus, enormous amounts of work that have issued from this pen were never recognized as her own. She wrote for the cause which interested her, for the object to be obtained. Her first novel, "Among the Thorns," was an expression of her thought as to the responsibilities of wealth and the best methods for alleviating the woes of the poor. "The Amber Star," printed first in England, and reprinted in America, deals with the problem of waif-life and the question of caring for dependent and orphan children. "One Little Life" is the expression of her thought as to the true significance of The King's Daughters' character and work in the world. Various smaller works have been issued from her pen, one called "Driftwood," including fifteen or twenty of the smaller stories, of which she has given the world more than three hundred, but few of which, however, appeared under her own name. These stories, short or long, reveal unquestionably the true story-teller's gift. The power of characterization, the power of making the individuals live the tale out before one's eyes, the unquestioned plot power, have long ago had their recognition, and opened the way for whatever work in this direction her busy life can do. Her latest novel, "Katherine Gray's Temptation," is said to be the strongest analytical work and the best character-study that has yet appeared from her pen.
CAROLINE HAZARD.
Caroline Hazard, educator, was born at Oakwoods, Peace Dale, Rhode Island, June 10, 1856, daughter of Rowland and Margaret (Rood) Hazard, grand-
