The Souvenir of Western Women/Honor Where Honor Is Due
Honor Where Honor is Due
TO know that The Souvenir owes its very existence to the spirit of generosity and helpfulness can not but add to its interest and heighten its claim upon public attention. Nearly every page attests to the work of some kind hand. Out of the best thought of our best people in this monument to Western Women builded. Each article contributed represents the writer's part in erecting this memorial structure. To these helpers an acknowledgment is due. From their busy lives they have given time and effort to commemorate the work and pioneer experiences of the women of the Pacific Northwest, who have performed no inconsiderable part in the formation of our commonwealth.
It is not necessary here to enumerate these whose contributions make up the book, but there are those to be mentioned who, without considering whether this project, in a cold business sense, were a safe enterprise, gave of their substance, that the plan of a book of this character might be carried on to its completion, and place on record facts about our women, which should not be allowed to sink into oblivion. In this galaxy are Mrs. Phoebe Cranston Breyman, Mrs. Levi White, Mrs. John Poole, Mrs. Robert Lutke, Mrs. Sarah Fisher Henderson, Mrs. Eunice W. Luckey, Miss Alice P. Cornwall, Annice Jeffreys Myers, M. D., Mrs. Harriette Mundt, Prof. J. Burnham and Bishop B. Wistar Morris. May this outflow of human kindness return to enrich the givers with that which is more to be desired than gold.
None of this needed assistance was accepted as a gift, but as a loan to be repaid, and we doubt not that the spirit which prompted this generous aid to our endeavor will continue to animate these givers to other noble deeds of helpfulness, that may make possible the highest achievements of some brave stragglers against the adverse conditions that environ them.
It is to the courtesy of Mr. W. E. Coman, of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, that we owe our beautiful frontispiece. Crater Lake, as he kindly loaned us his fine oil painting by Mrs. Fountain to copy for the halftone plates. Most unfortunately, through the mistake of the engravers, words not belonging there appear on the picture. These will be removed before another edition of the book is published.
Also the editor can not allow this little book to go to press without due acknowledgment to Miss Helen F. Spalding for valuable assistance rendered in compiling and arranging the various sketches from real life—the work of many hands—of which it is composed.
In yonder city, glory-crowned,
Where art will vie with art to keep
The memories of those heroes green,
The flush of conscious pride should leap
To see her fair memorial stand
Among the honored names that be—
Her face toward the sunset, still—
Her finger lifted toward the sea!
— Huffman