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MRS. PHILIP SNOWDEN.
Most certainly this is an era of advanced
women. Australia is not behind any coun-
try in the world in the nutter of owning
women who are capable, intelligent, self
reliable, and advanced enough to handle
the many intricate, vexatious, economic,
political, and social questions -affecting the
people as a whole. However, as there anust
always be a genius, even in the class that
is not spelt mediocrity, but far above,
England claims Mrs. Philip Snowden as
the tuost eloquent Englishwoman now liv-
ing. She is only 27 years of age, but
already is a . most remarkable personality.
Ñot since Frances Williard, we are told,'
has there been an Englishwoman with such
a gift of oratory.
Her visit to America produced a pro-
found impression there. According to
"Harper's "Weekly." "the first impression
you get when you see Mrs. Snowden is
bne of beauty and grace. But aside from
that, you cannot be in her presence ( for
two minutes without realising that sha is
a personage. You feel her quiet strength,
her reserve force, as palpable facts, and
from /tho Very first you are influenced by
the charm of her sincerity. True sincerity
is the most potent factor known to man-
kind in securing attention and deference,
and that is the chief characteristic of Mrs.
Snowden aside from all her eloquence. A
mass of fair, wavy hair surrounds her
face at once placid' and gentle and lumin-
ous. To an unusual degree she is possess-
ed of that personal magnetism that im-
mediately enlists sympathy, and no one, in
her case, can feel any incompatibility in a
handsome woman defending and urging
great causes."
She was born at Harrogate, the daughter
of a well-to-do builder, and received a
substantial middle-class education^ After
leaving school she went to Liverpool
Training College with a view to becoming
a schoolmistress;. Here she was thrown
into a new atmosphere which eompletely
altered the current of her life.
It was the time of the Boer War, and
Dr. Aked, an able Baptist preacher, was
at this time making himself conspicuous
for his attacks on the Government. Nat-
urally he brought on himself a storm of
unpopularity. Mrs. Snowden, then Miss
Annakin, made her entry into public life
bv taking up cudgels on his behalf both
in the press and on the platform. Soon
she became idpntified with the Labour
Party. One of her very first movements
was in the nature of house-cleaning the
very bodies she was championimr. She led
a crusade against the heavy drinking of
those days in Labour and Socialist clubs..
In 1905 she married Mr. Philip Snowden.'
and the present strength of the Labour
Party is in no small measure due to their
united efforts.
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