the study of literature and its correct interpretation, and to this end she took some private instruction in the art of expression, in the autumn of 1888 entering the Boston School of Oratory, under iIoses True Brown, principal, and Hamlin Garland, literary instructor. In this school, after completing both the regular course and a post-graduate course, she accepted a position as teacher, and, entering upon her duties in the fall of 1891, continued to teach there until the retirement of Professor Brown owing to ill health. She then became associate principal with Clara Power Edgerly at the Boston College of Oratory, of which Mrs. Edgerly, with whom she had been associated for a number of years, at first as her pupil, was the founder. To this lamented teacher, now deceased, Miss Greely owes much of her inspiration in her own work, Mrs. Etlgerly's foundation of common sense, sincerity, and naturalness in interpretation causing her pupil to leave behind the old stilted elocutionary style.
Miss Greely has also taught in her own line of education at the Posse Gymnasium and at different times in various other institutions. She was among the charter members, in 1892, of the National Association of Elocutionists. Since 1895 she has been a member of its Board of Directors, and in 1901 she was made treasurer of the association, which position she held for two years. In October, 1900, Miss Greely felt justified in opening the Greely School of Elocution and Dramatic Art. This school is in Thespian Hall, 168 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston. It is now in its fourth year, antl its original membership has doubled. The graduates continue their work, some as teachers, others upon the lyceum platform, either as reciters or as members of dramatic companies.
Not running in a single groove, as is the wont in some siinilai- schools, the course in the institution presided over by Miss Greely offers general culture and a liberal education; for the technical work of expression is fast becoming a science. To quote her own words from a chain letter to one of her classes while she was abroad: "In all work and in life no sure advancement comes with little effort. We must each be so sincere in our work and have such faith in it that we cannot fail. Success rests with ourselves. If we love the work and show people that we do, if we make manifest the difference between the true study of the best literature from the master minds and the school-girl elocution; and, above all, if we have enthusiasm in regard to its application to daily life and soul improvement, I am sure we shall never fail to arouse a corresponding interest in our auditors. Do not think that small things are unworthy your attention. Were it possible to spring at once into the greatest things, perhaps one's development would suffer."
That a woman not yet in her prime should have already accomplished so much augurs well for her future career; for her power seems marked by continuous growth, and, best of all, her character keeps pace, and harmonizes with her intellectual attainments. With the author of "David Grieve," she realizes the "poverty and ho])elessness of all self-seeking, the essential wealth, rich and making rich, of all self-spentling."
MARY PHINNEY VON OLNHAUSEN, who rendered distinguished services as an army nurse in two wars of the closing half of the nineteenth century — the Civil War in America and the Franco-Prussian in Europe — and was one of the two American women upon whom the Emperor William conferred the decoration of honor known as the Iron Cross, was a native of ^Massachusetts, her birthplace being the historic town of Lexington. Born February 4, 1817, daughter of Elias and Catherine (Bartlett) Phinney, she was the fifth in a family of
ten children. Her father, Elias Phinney, A.M., (Harv. Coll. 1801), was born in Nova Scotia, whither his parents, Benjamin Phinney and his wife Susanna, had removed from Falmouth, Mass., a few years later coming, as the church reconls testify, to Lexington. He was of the Cape Cod family of Phinney (name sometimes spelled Finney), whose founder, John1 Phiimey, was in Plymouth as early as 1638, and some years later settled in Barnstable. According to "Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families," by Otis and Swift, the line was continued
