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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue VIII, 14 August 1897, Page 228

Mr Stead speaks highly of the energy with which the Queen threw herself into political work after the death of her husband. Here, says he, is another supreme instance of the immense superiority of the new ideas of woman’s work and woman's sphere that have nowhere found such conspicuous, such triumphant exemplification as in the life of the widowed Queen. If she had been a mere housewife, a mere wife, a mere mother, the blow that snapped the Prince Consort’s life might well have broken her heart. But, while housewife, wife, and mother par excellence, she was more than merely the ancillary of a man, the bearer of his children, the keeper of his house. She was a politician, a publicspirited stateswoman with endless interests in the world other than those that centre round the domestic hearth. It is said that certain French dames have carried their passion for sweet smells to the extreme of injecting a few drops of perfume into the blood, regardless of the folly and danger of such a proceeding.