having frequently used her talents in this
direction for the benefit of her college and
other philanthropic objects. She is a strong,
terse writer, with an interesting style, as is
often shown by class lectures and papers
read before literary and other organizations.
She has been a zealous student and a constant
and .successful teacher of the Bible. This
inspired volume has given her much of the
wonderful faith, hope, and love she has in
and for humanity. She is well informed on
the affairs of state and the science of business
relations. In the sick-room she has shown
herself unusually skilful as a nurse. Fortunate
are they who have her name upon their list
of friends. Fearless and faithful, she will
be to them loyal and true, cheerful and kind.
Soon after leaving Cornell College, Miss Cooke went to England for the purpose of studying Christian work as carried on by Mildmay in North London. This great mission was the first attempt on a large scale to carry on reformatory work in the slums of a great city by workers living among the crowded population. During the winter of 1872, when Miss Cooke was making some research in history at University College, London, her attention was attracted to this work, which, by its unusual methods and by the high rank of those engaged in it, excited great interest in the city. Indirectly it yas the outgrowth of the plague which made such havoc in the congested section of East London during the years 1865-66. It was impossible to care for the dying or to bury the dead, for sometimes whole families were taken sick in one house. At this crisis Mr. and Mrs. Pennefather, with a band of women from the upper class of society, offered to assist the clergyman at Bethnal Green in that centre of the plague. These women, six in number, began their labor of love by opening an old warehouse as a home for themselves and as a centre of distribution of such help as they could give. They pre- pared suitable food, gathered such things as they might need — drugs, disinfectants, clean linen, and so forth — and began their visits to the homes. With nutritious food, comforts of every kind, and words of love they cheered the sick, comforted the dying, read the Bible, and made the rooms they visited clean and tidy. They went to the city magistrate, and pleaded for better sanitary conditions. When the i)lague under their vigorous measures began to abate, they did not cease their work. They established a permanent home in the dark section, the worst in London. It was really the first "settlement" in any slum, though not so called. They began industrial work and established educational classes, Eng- land at this time (1867) having no system of free public schools. Their night school was soon crowded with men of all ages and conditions. They gathered the street boys into bright, warm rooms, and organized them into clubs.
One lady belonging to the cultured class went into the "thieves' quarters," working and teaching there for years. Through her loving faithfulness hundreds were rescued from lives of shame, aiul became upright citizens. One whom Miss Cooke knew became a lay preacher, whose effective work rescued many. Men's clubs were opened, mothers' meetings held, coffee rooms establisheil; and lodging- houses, clean and well kept, took the place of the "dens" that had been "dens of thieves." The gospel service was held in the waiting- room. 'Trained nurses visited in the homes, ministering to their inmates; and Christian doctors gave their services. A marvellous change was wrought in a few years. The number of workers was constantly increased, and twenty-four stations were established in the worst parts of London, managed by the Mildmay workers. When Miss Cooke went there in 1890, these women were ministering to one hundred thousand of London's poor. They had several well-equipped hospitals, four medical missions, convalescent, women's, and orphans' asylums.
In such a practical school of methods Miss Cooke took her three years' course, in 1892 having charge of the night study classes. Work- ing in every department, she learned lessons that are now bearing fruit. In the spring of 1893 she accepted an invitation to enter the Hull Street settlement, Boston, which had been started the preceding January by students of Boston University, among them the Rev. Rollin H. Walker and the Rev. Edgar Helms
