The New York _Evening Post_ of September, 1875, gives the following
of one of Rhode Island's brave women, but the State has not as yet,
thought it worth while to honor her in any fitting manner:

Yesterday noon Miss Ida Lewis again distinguished herself by
rescuing a man who was in danger of drowning in the lower Newport
harbor. Miss Lewis first came into prominence in 1866, when she
saved the life of a soldier who had set out for a sail in a light
skiff. It was one of the coldest and most blustering days ever
known in this latitude, yet a girl but 25 years old, impelled by
the noblest spirit of humanity, ventured to the assistance of a
man who had brought himself into a sorry plight through sheer
fool-hardiness. One day, during the autumn of the next year,
while a terrible gale was raging, two men sat out to cross the
harbor with several sheep. One of the animals fell overboard
while the boat was rocked by the heavy sea, and its keepers, in
trying to save it, were in imminent peril of swamping their
craft. Ida Lewis saw them from the window of her father's
lighthouse on Lime Rock, and in a few minutes was rowing them in
safety toward the shore. After landing the men, she went back
again and rescued the sheep.

These brave deeds, with others of a less striking character, made
Miss Lewis' name famous throughout the world, and won for her the
title of "the Grace Darling of America"; but in 1869 the
newspapers were filled with the story of what was perhaps her
greatest exploit. On March 29 two young soldiers set sail from
Newport for Fort Adams in a small boat, under the guidance of a
boy who pretended to understand the simple rules of navigation.
Mrs. Lewis chanced to be looking out of the lighthouse window,
and saw a squall strike the boat and overturn it. She called to
her daughter, telling her of the casualty. Ida, though ill at the
time, rushed out of the house, launched her life-boat and sprang
in, with neither hat on her head nor shoes on her feet. By the
time she reached the scene of the disaster the boy had perished,
and the two soldiers were clinging desperately to the wreck,
almost ready to loose their hold from exhaustion. They were
dragged into the life-boat, and carried to Lime Rock, and, with
careful nursing, were soon sufficiently restor