Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/460

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LAZARUS.
LEAVITT.
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and "The Banner of the Jew." In 1887 she published her last original work, a series of prose poems of remarkable beauty. Among her many translations are poems from the mediæval Jewish authors. Judah Halevy, Ibn Gabirol and Moses Ben Ezra. Some of these translations have been incorporated in the rituals of many American Hebrew synagogues. She was a woman of marked poetic talent, and many of her verses are aflame with genius and sublime fervor.


LEADER, Mrs. Olive Moorman, temperance reformer, born in Columbus, Ohio, 2Sth July, 1852. OLIVE MOORMAN LEADER. In her early childhood her parents moved to Iowa, but she returned to her native State to finish her education. As a child her ambition was to become an educator, and all her energies were directed to that end. For thirteen years she was a successful teacher. She became the wife, in 1880, of J. B. Leader, and removed to Seward, Neb. She was identified with school work in Seward, Lincoln and Plattsmouth successively, and, removing to Omaha, she began, in connection with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, active work in the temperance cause. She introduced the systematic visiting of the Douglas county jails. She was one of the first workers among the Chinese, being first State superintendent of that department In 1887, removing to Dakota Territory, she labored indefatigably for its admission as a prohibition State. During her three years' residence in Dakota she was State superintendent of miners' and foreign work in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In 1889 she returned to Nebraska and settled in Chadron, her present home. She has been for two years superintendent of soldiers' work in Nebraska, and has been for twelve years identified with the suffrage cause. She is an adherent of Christian Science and a strong believer in its efficacy, having, as she firmly believes, been personally benefited thereby.


LEAVITT, Mrs. Mary Clement, missionary temperance organizer, born in Boston, Mass. She comes from an old New England family prominent in the early days of the Colonies. She was educated MARY CLEMENT LEAVITT. in Boston and, after completing her studies, conducted a successful private school in that city, continuing the work until her children were grown up. She nad been prominent in temperance work for years, and was elected president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Boston and national organizer of the society. In 1883 she accepted from the president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Miss Willard, a roving commission as a pioneer for the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which was organized in that year. Since then Mrs. Leaviit's work has been without a parallel in the records of labor in foreign missions. She commenced with a canvass of the Pacific-coast States, and, when volunteers were asked for, she was the first one to answer the call to go abroad in the interests of the new organization. The association offered to pay her expenses, and $1,000 had been subscribed to- wards the funds, but she decided not to accept it. She said: "I'm going on God's mission, and He will carry me through." She bought her ocean ticket with her own money, and in 1883 sailed from California for the Sandwich Islands. In Honolulu the Christians and white-ribboners aided her in every way. and after organizing the Sandwich Islands she went on to Australia, where she established the new order firmly. In 1884 the local unions raised $2,613 for her, but she would receive money only in emergencies, and the amount forwarded to her was only $1,670. Leaving Australia, she visited other countries. During the eight years of her remarkable missionary tour she visited the following countries: Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, Japan, China, Siam, Straits Settlements, Singapore and Malay