University of Wisconsin Superior - Gitche Gumee Yearbook (Superior, WI)

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making labor honorable; sending Frobisher to penetrate the polar seas, Sir Franci: Drake to circumnavigate the globe; administering justice in the courts with impar tiality; ruling her country “for the people if not by the people”—to this Virgin queen GITCHE perhaps, we may accord the title of the truly great. We agree that as queen, Elizabctl GUMEE is almost incomparable; but as a woman, was she not the personification of artfulncs and maliciousness? and have not her most zealous biographers questioned her right to the title of “Virgin Queen”? Later, we come to Victoria, that pure flower of English history. Marvelous was the colonial development during her reign; for, although this was growth quit independent of constructive statesmanship on her part, yet, in the words of Lore Laurie, “The cause was primarily the personality of Queen Victoria.” She had sounc judgment and a good heart. Though gone, Victoria still lives in the hearts of hci subjects. Her life, while one of utmost beauty, was not characterized, however by any act of supreme self-sacrifice for the good of Great Britain or the world. Where, then, shall we seek for a character whom we may exalt as an ideal: Go to the hills of Lorraine. Pierce the mystic solitude of the Dromremy forests The early morning sunlight seeks to filter thru the dense foliage. Matin bells of distant hidden monasteries ring thru the holy silence. Joan of Arc is at her shrint communing with the saints. A maid of medium stature, with hair hanging in beautiful profusion, and with a face plain but transfigured with an expression which is as the mirror of things divine. She is listening to voices—voices calling her away from the fields, away from the sheep, away from her home, away from her shrine; calling her to plunge into battle, to save her country, to suffer contumely, to meet death at the stake. And what abilities, what preparation, had this simple country maiden of sixteen to win the confidence of courtiers and kings; to arouse her fainting countrymen to new deeds of patriotism; to march against Orleans; to win the memorable victory of Patay, and to rescue France from the bondage of the English? She had neither money nor influence; she lived on the frontiers of civilization; she had never left her native hills; she knew none but simple shepherd folk; she had never been in the saddle nor had in her grasp a sword; she could neither read nor write; but she could spin and sew, and she knew the fabulous stories of the saints. This was the extent of her learning. What did she know of courts, of armies, of war? Nothing. Thus equipped with simplicity and poverty, she went out as commandcr-in-chicf of the first army she had ever seen, and saved an empire! We do not claim that other women have not done great deeds. We agree that the world owes to Godiva, to Deborah, to Florence Nightingale, to Frances Willard, to Jane Addams, to thousands of noble women, the greatest homage. But we do claim that Joan of Arc triumphed over the most terrific odds ever faced by man or woman. Without education, without influence, without experience; distrusted, ridiculed, scorned; facing prophesied death and, what was worse than death, the heartless ingratitude of her own nation,—she accomplished the most remarkable victory ever recorded on the pages of history. Ask Joan whence came her strength to struggle against these odds, and she will tell you that she was divinely sent. To her, if not to us, the voices were a reality. She believed in them and in herself. Some cry out, “Our own hearts teach us that God, the All-Loving One, detests war, and that he would never inspire woman to lead man into the gates of hell. Joan was the victim of hallucination.” Let us concede the point that the Maid of Orleans was a mere dreamer of dreams, PACE FOUR

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SX TB'RIOF . A TYPE OF TRUE WOMANLY GREATNESS JENNIE HOGAN ROXIMITY distorts vision. Standing at the foot of a great monument, one cannot appreciate its magnificent height. Great men, great events, great epochs, grow as we recede from them; and the rate at which they grow in the estimation of men is in some sort a measure of their greatness. Perhaps we can find in all history no more remarkable example of this truth than that exemplified in the life of the Shepherdess Girl of Lorraine. Though volumes have been written about heroes and hero-worship, brief has been the space allotted to the truly great among women. Until the present century society has been too busy developing man to give woman her due attention. But now, “the woman’s soul is rising.” In this her century, would it not be well for us to consider the world’s heroines and to choose one to be the type of our twentieth century ideal? And her characteristics, what shall they be? First will be chastity, the mother virtue of womankind; then wisdom, tempered with love and truth; and self-restraint, coupled with fortitude. These arc the arch virtues, drawn from Plato’s Republic. History reveals many women noted for either self-sacrifice, purity of character, or for the accomplishment of a noble purpose in face of terrific opposition. But where may we find one in whom are combined all these characteristics? VVe arc dazzled by the beauty of the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter; startled by the magnificence of Esther; and we pause to gaze with enthusiasm at the character of Judith. To Judith, of all Bible characters, apochryphal or authorized, must be accorded the title of great—a woman of beauty so rare that Holofcrnes said, “Who can despise the people of the Hebrews who have such beautiful women?” We see Judith praying for the salvation of her people; see her, impelled by the voice of her Jehovah, penetrating the ranks of the Assyrians and by artifice ingratiating herself; see her then standing before her redeemed people, in her hand the head of the slain Holofcrnes. Heroic self-sacrifice, unbounded fortitude, arc Judith’s titles to the epithet of great. But with true greatness must always be associated truth and chastity. Judith achieved her purpose through deceit and the sacrifice of her virtue. Cleopatra, the magnificent-minded, lived a wicked life; Christina of Sweden for her conscience’ sake resigned a crown, but she scandalized all Europe by her eccentricities; Marie Theresa, “the Mother Queen of Germany,” won all hearts by her beautiful motherhood, but she regretted her duties as empress. Her patriotism was ever over-shadowed by a desire for mere family aggrandizement. The “Virgin Queen” of England, the sagacious, vigilant Elizabeth, detesting war; developing the natural resources of her kingdom; establishing manufactories; PAGE THREE £775' GIT CIIE GUM EE

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r one who imagined herself the savior of her country and acted accordingly. Does not the very concession prove her a more remarkable character? Take away all possibility of divine assistance, and she becomes a still greater hero. Psychologists agree that nothing but Joan’s exalted character made her work possible. “Except ye become as a little child”—that was the secret of her power. Innocent of all evil, filled with a divine trust, her very inexperience became an armor protecting her from fear and from dread. Follow Joan across the battle field, weep with her as she weeps o’er the fallen enemy, go with her into the courts, watch her negotiating with the foe, and you will agree that the Maid of Orleans detested war. Peace, justice, truth, were what she desired; and for these she said, “YVe must work as well as pray.” What a lesson in these words alone, that to realize the ideal we must battle with the real! Yes, Joan the Maiden became Joan the warrior. She abandoned the externals of womanhood and assumed the arduous role of man, performed the duties usually regarded as most antithetical to woman’s nature; and yet research has revealed the astonishing fact that she never once became a creature unsexed or indelicate. Ever was she in the noblest sense a womanly woman. Her life has taught the succeeding generations that a true woman's sphere is wherever she can help mankind—in the workshop, at the desk, in the school, in the hospital, or on the field of battle—and that everywhere she may keep her life clean and holy. Though there may have been forces at work which would have accomplished the redemption of the French without Joan, yet the fact remains that a peasant girl accomplished in less than three years what centuries of princes and kings were unable to do. Who can estimate the silent influence this had upon her fellow countrymen? “The populace saw in her a likeness to the Virgin Mary;” they exalted her, they sainted her, they worshipped her; the men at court, realizing that she personified the power of the people, fearing her influence, damned her. That diabolical trial at Rouen, that black blot upon history, was really a tribute to Joan’s greatness. A weakling, a creature plastic in the hands of the powerful, might have lived to enjoy the fruits of her labor. Joan was too magnificent to live. We may say of her, as was said of Phillips Brooks, “Greater than this life was the leaving of it.” While seeking to condemn her, the judges unconsciously revealed to humanity the immaculate purity of the life of the peasant warrior. Then, as she mounted the funeral pyre—mounted without a friend to comfort her—and as the fire rose in billowy flames, what did her deportment reveal? Frenzy? Soul-torturing anger at her countrymen’s ingratitude? Ah, no! Exalted peace, faith in humanity, faith in God, “purest trust in the universe.” “Ten thousand men wept.” Well might they weep! Her executioner knelt at every shrine praying for pardon. Well might he pray! “We have burned a saint; a white dove is arising from the ashes.” Poor, blind humanity! How often do we stand too near a monumental character to realize its greatness! Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and the fire that consumed her tender flesh has burned deep into the minds of humanity and made the world think long, long thoughts. Joan’s was not a temporal kingdom; but as the centuries have come and gone, and as empires have risen and fallen, and republics have sprung from their ruins, there has been builded for the Martyred Maid a great spiritual kingdom in which she reigns as a true womanly woman, the type of our twentieth century ideal. We see in her a hero who lived for her country but suffered and died for humanity; PACE FIVE