1891.] 1°^ 



thing very different. But you, sir, how shall it be with you in that day ? 

 Will y<>u go to sheepsor goats?" There was uoanswer to this question, and 

 she hurried away to carry out her vision of the night without the aid of 

 the clergyman. "I walked to every comfortable house that I could reach 

 on foot," she said, "and besought them to give me whatever they could 

 spare in food or money." Her eloquence brought a generous response. 

 Then she weut through the wretched streets, and invited three hundred 

 to come to her house the next day. She bought materials, and herself 

 prepared large kettles of nourishing broth, and bought huge loaves of 

 bread. Then she lodged and fed them through the day on her own prem- 

 ises. Many lives were saved by this timely aid, but this was but one part 

 of Mrs. Seller's midnight planning. As soon as the poor lives were enough 

 restored for work she induced them to learn some little handicraft by 

 which to help themselves. She herself understood all the beautiful 

 methods of embroidery and exquisite darning and crocheting, and to 

 these she added braiding of hats and baskets and mats, that she might 

 teach them. The hands so awkward and unskillful at first, soon became 

 expert under her instruction, and even very little children in the end did 

 exquisite work. And now she had a real manufactory of salable 

 articles. Then she sent to many rich persons at a greater distance to 

 come and see. "I was a very handsome woman then" she said with 

 naive simplicity, "and I thought to myself, I will now make my beauty of 

 some use. So I did send to all my courtiers [she meant admirers] to come 

 and see me, and I made it very agreeable for them, and they did buy all 

 my poor people's work, and that did give me much money, to take in and 

 feed and teach more starving people, and then many young ladies of fine 

 families came to me and said, ' Mrs. Seiler, we will learn all your arts, 

 and then we will come and help you to teach the poor people ;' and they 

 did. And so the circle of blessing was extended."* 



I cannot close this little history of one brief period of Mrs. Seder's life 

 without telling you that her methods in this time of her country's needs 

 were so successful and far reaching that the Swiss government and after- 

 wards the Swedish and Danish governments sent emissaries to see them ; 

 and so convinced were they of their goodness and practicability that they 

 copied them in their own administration. 



Her versatility and energy and physical strength were at this time very 

 great, and her resources unfailing. During the whole period of the 

 famine she had to plan carefully and keep the strictest account of expenses 

 and also arrange new plans to replenish an ever-lessening treasury. So, 

 while teaching the handicrafts, she set about discovering the fine natural 

 voices which she knew must exist among the poor peasants who tlocked 

 daily to her estate. Having found fifty or more capable of it, she devoted 



* Mrs. Seller's daughter writes me : " When I was in Germany, I made it a point to ask 

 my mother's brother and sister as well as old friends about her youth, ami all agreed 

 that she was not only the handsomest girl in Wurtzburg, and called ' The Rose of 

 Wurtzburg,' but was also beloved by all who knew her." 



