She is a member of some of the leading musical clubs, and is deeply interested in the musical progress of Boston. Through all of her busy life she has conscientiously kept up her practice, with the result that her voice has lost none of the rich dramatic sweetness of earlier years, and has gained in power and tone color. Her work last season was received with warmest praise.
January 1, 1878, she was married to Mr. William Walker, a New Yorker by birth, at that time established in the printing business in Boston, and now of the well-known firm of Walker, Young & Co., printers.
For a number of years Mr. and Mrs. Walker have passed their summers at Crow Point, Hingham, Mass., and now they have taken up their abode in Hingham for the winter. Domestic in her tastes, Mrs. Walker thoroughly enjoys her home life with its daily round of duties and its quiet pleasures.
MARIE ELIZABETH ZAKRZEWSKA, M.D., was born in Berlin, Prussia, September 6, 1829. On her father's side she was descended from a very old Polish family, which fled from Poland in 1793, when their estates had been confiscated on account of their liberal principles. Her mother's family can be traced back to the eighteenth century. Her great-grandmother, Marie Elizabeth Sauer, was a gypsy queen of the Lombardi tribe. She married a Captain Urban, also a member of that tribe. They had nine children, Marie's grandmother being the fifth in order of birth. Marie was the eldest of a family of five children. The father held a government position, but, having offended his superiors by the expression of revolutionary sentiments, he was similarly retired upon a very small pension, in consequence of which his family was reduced to poverty. In order to provide for their support, Madame Zakrzewska entered the school of midwifery in Berlin, and later practised the profession with great success. During a portion of the time of her mother's hospital training, Marie was permitted to reside with her in the hospital. Here she became a great favorite of one of the physicians. At her request he lent her two books, "The History of Midwifery" and "The History of Surgery." These she read through in six weeks, and, according to her own account, dated from this time her interest in the study of medicine. She was then about eleven years old.
Upon leaving the hospital she returned to school, which she quitted at the age of thirteen and a half, and at once entered upon the usual training of a German girl in housewifery. She soon tired of this, and did not gain credit for good work in her family, although the experience served her in later life by enabling her to become a notable housekeeper.
As her mother's practice increased, she began to assist her in the care of her patients. She found this so much to her taste, that she decided to study the profession. Aft«r various delays, caused by her youth and her father's opposition, she was admitted to the Charite as a special pupil of the director, Dr. Joseph Herman Schmidt, who took the greatest interest in her development, and, seeing her remarkable ability, determined to fit her for the post of chief of the school for mid-wives, a position which had never been held by a woman.
She was graduated with honor, and received the appointment. Unfortunately, Dr. Schmidt died immediately after, and she was left without his aid, in a position which was coveted by many, who were consequently unfriendly to her. Finding it impossible to maintain this position without losing her self-respect, she soon resigned. Her friends were desirous that she should settle in Berlin, but she had meanwhile conceived of a hospital for women, attended by women; and, although she dared not tell any one of so wild a project, she determined not to be satisfied until it was fulfilled. Knowing this to be impossible in Berlin, she turned her thoughts toward America, as a place where she might be free to carry out her intentions without the limitations surrounding her in the Old World. On March 15, 1853, accompanied by one of her sisters, she left Berlin, and after a tem-
