BLACKWELL FAMILY ELIZABETH BLACKWELL FROM SCHMAHL, SEANNE E.[*Schmall*] [?] Paris November 30th 1895 Dear Dr Blackwell, As usual, communion with you has a most encouraging elevating effect upon me. I have read your book & it has been a treat indeed. The quiet fun & bright sense of humour are delightful The the pathos & the pity of the loss of your perfect sight brought tears into my eyes as I read. It is a beautiful book! My niece Mrs. Stanford, writes me "Dear Auntie, have you read Dr Blackwell's book?" "Ned (her husband)" brought it "home the other evening, & I "am reading it now for the "second time". "It is a most"fascinating book!" She is right, it is a fascinating book, & you, Dear friend, have done again a noble deed in giving this story of your early days & pioneer work to the world. Scientific work & the story of medicine are now to easy to the rising generation, that some people are in danger of forgetting at the price of what courage fortitude & perseverance they were gained. If the young people would only put a tithe of the moral qualities into their work that you put into yours when you set out on the lonely way which was to become thoughts to you a beaten path, how glorious women's work would soon become & how helpful to poor humanity! But I feel convinced that the present phase is transitory & woman cannot long remain pointless. Cruelty & immorality are foreign to the maternal nature & therefore can only be accidental impressions of the effects of environment. When the time comes when women will no longer reflect "as in a looking-glass”, the teachings of men: but, will themselves be teachers & leaders; then & not till then, will it be possible to pronounce an equitable judgement on women’s science my husband begs you to receive his homages [ussechey?] & I am, always, with very kind regard to Miss Barry, your affectionate & grateful friend. Jeanne E. Schmade[*1891*] 1 [?] [?] [?] Paris Dear Dr Blackwell It is a long time since I wrote to you, & I feel quite guilty after all your kindness to me & your many marks of affectionate interest. I have been, as usual, busy with all sorts of things. A young friend has just married & gone out to Colorado with her husband They intend to go in for sheep-farming, & she, hitherto an artist & occupied only with her profession of singing & music, has now begun life as a farmer's wife, doing the cooking, washing, scrubbing, making & mending of the household. I am looked upon by many of my friends as a sort of ambulant Encyclopedia & I have to procure answers to questions, many of which in mu turn I have to ask of others. This means letter and [?] & lo I have been occupied lately. Then, other friends here in Paris have been in great trouble, a young child, 8 months, ill of gastroenteritis & being baby fed a loving mother; but, oh, so ignorant! A stupid, obstinate [?] peasant as nurse to fight against & their house on the Ile St Louis, an hour's ride from mine. So you can imagine the hard work it has been in the midst of the terrible fire & snow. Well the child seems [?] memory; & here is a threat with a glorious [?] strong South-wind, such a low [?] delighted in I have lately been much interested in leading two works on a subject dear to you. One, a manuscript light to me by the author, Mrs Fisher, Arabella Beckley & entitled "The Moral Teaching of Science". The other a volume called "Ethical Religion" by William Muckinlire Salter. Edited by Roberts [?] [?] I beleive Mrs. Gisher's papers will be published by Stamford, Chasington. London. In reading these works, it has seemed to me that many of our young people may herein see their way out of the difficulties they feel in [con?] Science & Religion. Most certainly an evolution in the teaching of morals is being prepared & I feel thankful that serious minded thinkers are taking upthe subject. 31 me Henri Masis Brussels. Dear Dr Blackwell. I began my letter before leaving home but was not able to finish. We are staying with my husband's brother for Christmas & I have a great many letters to write so I am sure you will forgive me if I do not write more to you just now. My husband begs me to [?] send to you his "compliments" profound & sincere respect." And with our [u?] Christmas feelings & good wishes for the New Year, believe me. Dear Dr Blackwell Yours affectionately Jeannne {?] [Sch?] 2 [?] BD Jourdan. Paris. Dear Dr Blackwell, It seems really as if I never [?] finish my letter to you, & as the days go by, events accumulate of which I wish to inform you, or on which I wish to ask your opinion on now & then so I have not written off at once it does not seem worth while going over old ground. Oh, how different it would be if I could run into Rock House! Since I began my letter to you I have been very busy trying to get a [?] to make an amendment to the "project de or now before the chamber, & also to make sure of a good majority when the question comes befor the House - As the idea of an amendment is my own I am doing the canvassing myself & deputes are ticklish fish to catch! Then I am busy in going to different women's meetings One of which was extremely interesting. A womens conference at Versailles of which I send you a short account. My great objection is that [?] is the [?] goal [?] in these assemblies: whereas to my wayof thinking, if justice were the object ,a good deal of the Charity would not be needed. As in medicine, I believe that were the laws of hygiene properly understood & taught, many diseases would be prevented & much physic unnecessary You will have seen by the papers the stir Dr Cornil's communication to the Academie de Mercin has made? The Koch experience seems to have frightened people & even the most ardent advocates of virus inoculation are obliged to appear to defer to public opinion. I also send you an account of an attempt made by a Russian to found a hospital such as you speak of. All this is very interesting, as a proof that people are beginning to be exercised in their minds as to the legitimacy of the tendency of Modern Medicine. (Another interruption) This time I must finish or I shall never get my letter on its way to Hastings. I want to tell you about my friend Dr Foutin will be present at the International Hygienic Congress in August & I shall be so glad to think that he will have the opportunity of perhapshearing you speak. You will be glad to hear that our house is now finished saving the work to be done by the painters, plumbers, & glaziers. I shall indeed be glad to possess this wee corner of quiet retirement. The view from the upper windows is so pretty! Please remember me very kindly to Miss Barry & accept for yourself the assurance of my most sincere affection J. E. Schmahl My husband begs me topresent his homages & profond respect. J..E.S. Chadou L. & O. June 18th 1891. Dear Dr. Blackwell, I ought to at once on its reception, have acknowledged your most kind & interesting letter, & the P. O over it contained for the postage of The Bulletin Medical. But I wanted to write you at greater length than I was then able to do; & I am now glad to have delayed for I have one more item of news which I am sure you will be interested to learn. Do you remember my telling you of a bye lass our little Robesland Society for le Retirement de la Moralife' Publique has been for the last six or seven years endeavouring to get Electors && Dejoulis to take into consideration. This law proposes to enable women, cursed with bad husbands, to receive by right, their own earnings, a sort of married women's earnings act. At last, on Wednesday June 3rd Mr Jourdan laid the "projet de loi" before the Chambre. It was received favourably & a Commission was at once appointed of whom the majority are favourable to women, so we have every reason to be hopeful. Our little society - though it does not make much noise in the world is working earnestly & steadily. We have now again begun a campaign against lewd publications & obscene literature. Our little house is growing apace & will in a few days be roofed. I thought I had told you that by reason of the land being old quarries the soil was loose a long way down & not sure for the foundation so we had to dig down to what is called here the "bon sol" which is 16 metres below the level of the street in the front of our house & about 13 metres below the level of the street at the back. [diagram of house] attics 1st storey level of rue Garzan ground floor cellars bon sol MMe de la Glacrireso we have been obliged to build pillars of masonry deep down into the soil & this has cost so much that we have been obliged to modify our plans & make a smaller house than we at first intended to do. Perhaps the garden front of the house on the other side will make it plain to you. 6.7.91 P.S. Henri says that the P.O.O. was above the amount necessary for a years postage. Which is 10 centimes per week. J.E.S. OUVRAGES DE HUGHES LE ROUX A LA MÉME LIBRAIRIE AU SAHARA Illustré d' après des photographies de l'auteur Un vol. in-18 -- 3 fr. 50. ROMANS L'attentat Sloughine (J. Lévy) . . . . . . 1 vol. Médéric et lisée (J. Lévy) . . . . . . . . . . .1 - L'amour Infirme (Carpentier) . . . . . . . 1 - Les Larrons (Charpentier) . . . . . . . . . . 1 - Un de Nous (Carpentier) . . . . . . . . . . .1 - CONTES Le Frére Lai (Quantin) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 - Chez Les Filles (Havard) . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - Entre Hommes (Havard) . . . . . . . . . .. 1 - ETUDES DOCUMENTAIRES La Russie Souterraine (J. Lévy) . . . .. . . .1 - L'enfer Parisien (Havard) . . . . . . . . .. . . .1 - Le Chemin du Crime (Havard) . . . . . . . 1 - Abbatoires de Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 - Les Fleurs a Paris (Quantin) . . . . . . . . . .1 - Les Jeux du Cirque (Plon) . . . . . .. . . . . .1 - Portraits de Cire (Lecène, Oudin et Cie) . . 1 - THÊATRE Crime et Chatiment (En collaboration avec P. Ginisty, Plon). [Emile Colin - IMrimeie de Lagny.] En Yacht (Flammarion) 1- Le Calendrier Parisien (Conques.) L'Amour Infirme (Charpentier) . . . . . . .EN YACHT Rue Gazan. Paris. March 1st 1892. Dear, dear Dr Blackwell, You see how I have availed myself of your kind permission not to write you before I was free from the many occupations which had accumulated during my illness. I desired to write you a long letter & that meant taking time & so arranging that I should not be interrupted, for I have begun several letters to you & one thing or another has interfered & they have never got finished & sent off to you. My little house is beginning to get into order & I have a room to offer my friends - When shall I have the pleasure of your visit? You know Paris is very pleasant in May. I should be so glad to have you & I would do my best to makeyou comfortable. I hope to go to England in June all my friends are complaining that it is now a long time since they have seen me, & there are now too, little ones whom I do not know. I had Dr Frances Hoffan staying with me on her way south It is curious to remark the turn her mind has taken concerning her husband, since his death. She then spoke of him & she now writes about him in a peculiar sentimental way which contrasts singularly with what I knew of Dr George & what she herself had told me of his attitude to her . . . This change, & this modification of her appreciation of certain facts. Simply because death has come, make me doubt Dr Frances' judgement in other matters? It is not a pardon & a forgiving of past faults & errors; but, an affirmation of absolute perfection which astounds me & leaves me silent & speechless in her presence on this subject. What I feel is this. We should have clear & bright before us the highest good, the perfect moral state, & absolute verity, & seeing these, proclaim them: deploring our own & others failures in attaining to them. Rejoicing when we do accomplish some act in accordance with this high ideal (for we do well sometimes & we become better the longer & the stronger our effort). But we should not, because a person has gone from this life, say that his acts were good if they were not. The best one can do is to be silent! Dr Frances is at present at Athens & seems to be enjoying her stay there very much.I have been wanting to tell you that the first thing I received by post in my little house was your "Letter & the Brussels International Congress" & it was also the first thing we read there. We read it together, my husband & I & we have been glad ever since that your moral influence was hovering over all our little household from the beginning. I was very glad to get a second copy of your Letter as I have sent it to a young friend newly married. It seems to me so important that young women should exercise their minds on this great subject of sexual morality. It is the keystone of the bridge. Have you read Arabella Buckley's (Mrs Fisher's) little book "Moral Teachings of Science". published by my friend Ed. Stanford...? If not, do please read it & let me know what you think of it. I am wondering if there be not therein dimly shadowed I hope the "Bulletin Medical" reached you safely. You will have seen "une notice biographique" of yourself which I enclosed in the parcel of papers. I have made enquiries concerning Hugeres Le Roux. It has been difficult to get information. You know how very cautious French people are- but I gather that he is just of the same moral calibre of the ordinary French novelist & journalist. His list of works I send you & I have noted the book containing the article of which you made mention. My husband joins me in most sincere & (if you will permit it) affectionate remembrances. Pray give my very kind regards to Miss Barry & believe me ever, dear Dr Blackwell. Yours most affectionately Jeanne E Schmahl2) a form of Religion compatible with Scientific teaching; which may be acceptable to more christians. I shall be so glad to have your opinion on this subject & when I am in England, I should like to talk over an idea I have as to the forming of a League, or Universal Service for the promotion of morals sanitation. All the Societies, as now existing, seem only to interest themselves with poor fallen, vicious creatures. Just as physicians are only interested by the divers forms of malady & disease. To keep our minds & hearts pure & our bodies healthy, should, it seems to me, be the aim of the Masters & Pastors of the people; yet how little heed is taken to preserve health of mind & body!rue Gazan Paris Dear Dr Blackwell, Thank you so much for your kind message of encouragement. I need it badly, for I am quite alone in the work, saving that a young sage-femme has been in a few time to write addresses on the envelopes. What I find the most difficult in trying to organise working committees in the provinces PS. may I ask you to give the enclosed to Miss Blackwell I have stupidly mislaid her note LE.S.People do not seem to understand the importance of confining their efforts to one or two points. They think that as there is so much to be done, more should be attempted at a time. And so I have to write over + over again, the same things, + try each time, to put them in a new light, lest they should become tedious by constant repetition. Then the newspapers are a great trial to me Most of them are Well disposed but they think the subject "dry as dust" + so to make their articles palateable, they write the most sensational reports in which I + my quiet little home-nest are depicted in a most theatrical fashion. The Paris correspondent of the "Queen" called on me the other day, + I have been asked by the Paris correspondent of some minor English daily papers to give him "a few notes, birthplace parentage, girlhood, education[*Madame Schmahl*] examinations marriage &c. + he will give me a column or two! Ah, Dear Dr Blackwell whatever spice of variety I may have had, has been surfeited to Death with all this publicity. It worries me too, all the more, as it takes up so much time. Although I have sent out over a thousand circulars + my little "Avant-Courriere" has been mentioned in eleven Paris papers, I have not received one sou from any one in consequence of all this advertising, toward the expenses. 2/ My article on the Womans Question is now finished + is accepted by Mme Adarn I will send you a copy as soon as it is published I hope you will approve. I am afraid I shall not be able to give Miss Blackburn the article I promised her for April for, in addition to all my Work, I have a Domestic worry. My servant who fell ill early in December + whom I nursed here for a little while, + for whoserecovery I have been pottering on ever since, has now been found to have some internal tumour (stomach) which will probably necessitate an operation So I have to begin all over again with a new girl. This Domestic Question is doubtless one of the principal reasons why women do so little else than attend to their daily household duties My husband begs me to tell Miss Barry that yesterday's strong West Wind reminded him of the pleasant walks he had with her in just such gusty weather, + he asks me also to add his "respectueux hommage to our Dr Blackwell". I am always, dear Dr. Yours affectionately J E SchmahlMadame T. E. Schmahl to Dr. Eliz undated Author of "Avant-Courriere" DJeanne E. Schmahl to Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell last part of letterI have reason to be somewhat sanquin as to a not remote reading of our Married Women's Earning Bill. Only on Monday M le Senator Cazon, late Minister of Justice + Guardian of the Seals called upon me + promises to get to work speedily on what he is pleased to call my law. I am glad to learn that you + Miss Barry are keeping well Please thank her for her kind message. You know, dear Dr Blackwell, we alway associate her, my husband and I, with you in our thoughts of dear Rock House Poor old dog! He is however, though old + blind, better off than are many human animals in their last days. I shall never see his serious brown face again, poor old dog!Mr Jules Bois lives at No 19 rue Gazan next door to us Some day, I will tell you how sorry + perplexed I am at all this dancing + singing medium business in which M Jules Bois is got mixed up. Well he says his is making a deal of money by it, so that may, for him, be an excuse. He is not well off, I believe Somehow, I think he perceives how distressing his present course is to me for I rarely see him now. It is an though he were two persons one - the one I talked to you of, the other pandering to the tastes of the multitude. Thank you for the Report. I found it very interesting With most affection regards + my husband's cordial hommage believe me, dear Dr Blackwell, Ever yours affectionately, Jeanne E. Schmahl.