Page:Women of distinction.djvu/44

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.

every helping band, the God-speed of every Christian heart. It is a work of time, a labor of patience, to become an effective school-teacher, and it should be a work of love in which they who engage should not abate heart or hope until it is done. And after all, it is one of woman's most sacred rights to have the privilege of forming the symmetry and rightly adjusting the mental balance of an immortal mind."

Mrs. Harper was in full accord with everything that tended towards the freedom of the slaves from a bondage of both soul and body. She was a real missionary, a Christian missionary, in all her works.

For about one year and a half she lectured and traveled through Eastern States, creating a sensation wherever she spoke. The Portland Daily Press, in speaking of a lecture which she had delivered upon the invitation of the Mayor of the town, said: "She spoke for nearly an hour and a half, her subject being 'The Mission of the War, and the Demands of the Colored Race in the Work of Reconstruction,' and we have seldom seen an audience more attentive, better pleased, or more enthusiastic. Mrs. Harper has a splendid articulation, uses chaste, pure language, has a pleasant voice and allows no one to tire of hearing her. We shall attempt no abstract of her address; none that we could make would do her justice. It was one of which any lecturer might feel proud, and her reception by a Portland audience was all that could be desired. We have seen no praises of her that were overdrawn. We have heard Miss Dickinson, and do not hesitate to award the palm to her darker colored sister."