Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/115

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THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT
107

prisoners, but enough has been done through the efforts of a good woman to constitute a revolution in the management of prisoners.

But this was not all Mrs Fry accomplished, for her country's good. Convict-ships came in for a share of her sympathetic attention. The earliest institutions for the training of nurses were founded by her. She did more than any other individual to create the public opinion against hanging for offences against property; for it is well known that up to the beginning of the nineteenth century, to steal five shillings' worth of goods was an offence which was punishable by death. She was a pioneer of old-age pensions for worn-out servants. She was ever interested in the advancement of education, and provided lonely coastguardsmen with books.

Nobody was too insignificant, and nothing was too small for her that had for its object the improvement of a human being. The number of her activities would soon have daunted a woman of spiritual gifts fewer and less fine than her own. She spent herself freely and gave of her best. Nor did her deep interest in humanity at large cause her to forget the little circle at home of which she was the centre and the sun. She gave twelve children to her country and was a devoted mother to them all. The secret of it all lay in the depth and strength of her religious