NAWSA    SUBJECT FILE    Chant, Laura O. 

The Woman's Column.
Vol. VI.  Boston, Mass., May 13, 1893.  No. 19.

The Woman's Column.
Published Weekly at 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass.
Editor:
Alice Stone Blackwell.
Subscription, . . . . . 25 cents per annum.
Advertising Rates, . 50 cents per line.
Entered as second-class matter, at the Boston, Mass.
Post-Office, Jan. 18th, 1888.]

LAURA ORMISTON CHANT.
   Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant was born at
Chepstow, England. Her father was a
civil engineer and a lineal descendant of 
Prince Rupert, who was an artist, a poet,
a loyalist soldier, and a Governor of Windsor
Castle. On her mother's side, Mrs.
Chant is related to Edmund Burke, one of
the most famous orators in England's
history.
   When fifteen years old, Mrs. Chant engaged
in Sunday School teaching, continuing
it for about seven years. For five
or six years she taught in ladies' schools.
Afterwards she became a nurse in a hospital,
and for one year she was assistant
manager of a lunatic asylum. Thus,
through heritage, training and experience,
she was prepared for the varied and
remarkable work she has carried on along
reform lines since her marriage.
   In her first public address, on "Women
in the Ninetenth Century," Mrs. Chant
advocated the franchise for women. For 
years she has been active in the work
of the suffrage and temperance societies
of England; also in the National Vigilance
Association, the Peace Society and the
Women's Liberal Federation.
   Her home is described as an ideal one. 
Dr. Chant is in full sympathy with his
wife's good work, and lends her a helping
hand in it whenever possible. They have
four children. Besides this, they have
taken into their home at different times a
multitude of forlorn and forsaken fellow-
creatures, who have been nursed and
helped back to health and rectitude. Mrs.
Chant has done valuable work also in
establishing clubs for working women.
   Few women who have ever visited
America have so completely carried all 
before them by their heart-stirring eloquence.
It has been well said of her by
an appreciative friend:
   It is not all owing to her inspirational 
utterances, her potent eloquence, her 
womanly bearing, her soft-toned, well-
modulated, magnetic voice, her pathos, 
her humor, her immense versatility, that
she makes so profound an impression; but
above all and underlying all is the assurance
that her listeners feel that she not
only preaches the gospel of love and humanity,
but that at home and abroad she
lives it, and this gives the greatest value 
to her remarkable work.
   In March, 1888, Mrs. Chant came to the
International Council of women held at 
Washington, D.C., as a delegate from 
numerous English societies. She was a 
guest and speaker at the New England
Woman Suffrage Festival that year, and 
travelled as far west as Chicago, filling
engagements under the auspices of the 
W.C.T.U. In 1890, she came again to
America, and during Anniversary week
in Boston she went from meeting to meeting,
and great throngs of people gathered
to her her speak on suffrage, temperance, 
social purity, Lend-a-Hand, Sunday
School work and other themes.
   For the third time this gifted, versatile,
uplifting woman is visiting our shores, and
for the third time she has been an honored 
guest at the annual festival of the New
England and Massachusetts Woman Suffrage
Associations. A host of friends will
greet her wherever she may go, and will
bid her thrice welcome.   F.M.A.

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