topics, many of her lectures being profusely illustrated with stereopticon slides. Among the clubs ;ui(l colleges, more than ohe hundred in number, before which she has spoken, a few may bo mentioned, merely to show the eccentricity of her comet-like wanderings: the New England Women's Club and Appalachian, of Boston; Century Club, San Francisco; Woman's Club, St. Johnsbury, Vt.; Kosmos Club, Wakefield, Mass.; New Century Club, Philadelphia; Woman's Club, Waterbury, Conn. ; Rhode Island Woman's Club, Providence; Contemporary Club, Trenton, N.J.; the Fortnightly, Bath, Me.; Vassar College; Amherst College; Adelbert College (Cleveland, Ohio) ; and Bryn Mawr. Mrs. Todd does not care for the kind of activity involved in holding official positions of any kind, and never accepts one without genuine protest. She has served as one of the Massachusetts Committee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, for three years as a director in the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs, and in other places of responsibility in connection with club work. She is now Regent of the Mary Mattoon Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and President of the Amherst Historical Society.
OLIVE E. DANA has won an enviable reputation as story-teller, essayist, and poet. Her first published article appeared in 1877. "Under Friendly Eaves" is a volume of short stories, revealing the natural and wholesome atmosphere and at the same time the romantic and heroic spirit which pervade the true New England life. This book, as one reviewer has fitly said, "brings the reader into pleasant places and among honest 'kintra' folk of the sterling kind such as may be found in the rural districts with which Mrs. Stowe first began to make us familiar." Through Miss Dana's character sketches the reader is introduced
to genuine country and village people; and, if the crabbed, miserly old man and the melancholy and morbid woman occasionally appear, they are portrayed as exceptions, not as types. The influence of her stories, imbued as they
are with the spirit of cheery helpfulness, is enmobling and uplifting. Many of her stories are for children and young people. In addition to her rare gifts as a story-teller. Miss Dana possesses the poet's instinct and power of interpretation. Her published verses, among them being such poems as "The Summons," "Explanation," "For Light," "Shakespeare's Day," and "It Always Comes," which disclose a deep spiritual insight into nature and humanity, have been widely copied. Miss Dana has also contributed to the Journal of Education, and other similar publications, articles which, with her critical and literary essays and her able and discriminating V)ook reviews, disclose a scholarly and cultured mind, originality of thought, and the keen instinct of the critic.
In her literary work, as well as in her personal character, Miss Dana shows her rich New England heritage. There have been numerous instances in the history of our country which prove that literary ability is the product. not alone of individual talent, but also of family inheritance; and, in view of this unquestioned fact. Miss Dana comes rightfully by her mental strength and versatility of talent. She is a direct descendant of Richard Dana, whose name appears upon the records of Cambridge, Mass., in 1640, and who was the founder of a family which has contributed in a marked degree to the social, literary, and political advancement of our country. Patriots, soldiers, preachers, edi- tors, authors, scientists, college presidents and professors, are all found in the annals of the family bearing the old and honored name of Dana.
The immigrant Dana was of English birth; but it is believed that there was a strain of French blood in his family, and this may have given to the Danas something of the vivacity and brilliancy which is noted in the work of many authors who have French as well as English blood in their veins. It is certain that, with all those stanch and heroic qualities which have made the Danas eminent for generations, the members of this family have also inherited an intellectual brilliancy which has made them a recognized power in our civic and literary history. It is therefore but a
