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IN these days of women's clubs and the much-talked-of "woman's movement," the lecture field offers great opportunities for women with the necessary qualifications. These are, first, a thorough knowledge of the subjects chosen; second, a talent for public speaking; third, a cultivation of that talent, and fourth, a great many other things. Too many women are trying to get before the public who are poorly equipped. A woman is asked to prepare a paper for a club, perhaps, she does it by looking up in an encyclopedia her subjects, and copying direct from that, instead of trying to put life and enthusiasm and fresh thought into her paper. But when she comes to read it before a friendly, small audience, who, perhaps could not do as well, she is praised and told that her effort is "masterly," "scholarly," "learned." She is fired with ambition, in consequence. If she says to herself "I know, if they don't, that I could do a great deal better than that," and goes to work to improve with all her might and main, she will succeed. But if she is satisfied and accepts the praise of well-meaning but ill-qualified friends, and then goes before a larger, critical audience with her patchwork, encyclopedia-ized paper, woe be unto her! For she can only fail. In this, as in all things, earnest, thorough study tells, and in this field, almost more than any other, it is suicidal to a woman's best interests to venture without a thorough equipment.

Many women in America are succeeding along this line, however. The W.C.T.U. and the suffrage movement are to be thanked for this development of opportunities for women. When the pioneers in these movements began, what a hue and cry there was! Now it is safe to say there is not a town in the United States, not even in the most remote backwoods district, where a woman may not

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go on to the platform or stand before an audience without being sure of a respectful hearing. All honor then, to the pioneer women!

Fifty years ago both the woman who spoke in public and the woman who listened to the speech were maligned and vilified. They were characterized as "strong-minded," "blue stockings," "visionaries," "unsexed," "atheists, " "unscriptural," "revolutionaries," and to-day there are lecturers of all possible kinds in every part of the country. They do a wonderful and beneficent work in the education of the American people, and more especially in supplementing the training derived in schools and in bringing education down to date with those who have been too busy to pursue their studies after graduating from some scholastic institution.

The lecturers and their topics afford the means of determining the varied tastes of American women. A talented speaker might have a superb address upon any topic, but if the latter does not appeal, the lecture itself is almost certain of being a failure. If it does not succeed after two or three trials the lecturer gives it up.

It would be impossible to even name all the women who have made a reputation in this calling. The list with necessary comments would fill a large volume, and all that can be done is to select a few representing the various fields of thought and work.

Of the many prominent ones, a capital example is Miss Harriet Keyser, of New York. She is a woman of great ability who has made a special study of political and economical subjects for many years, and who lectures regularly before large audiences. One of her finest efforts was entitled "The Economic Value of Woman to the State," and beyond its great rhetorical beauty and value it was a remarkable collection of statistics on the subject which had never before been put together. Then there are the marvelous lectures by Miss Charlotte Hawes, of Boston, upon music, and those of Mrs. Mary H. Flint upon architecture. The former were entirely out of the beaten path; one was upon bells and belfries, chimes and bell music, and gave a succinct history of the subject from the earliest times, along with illustrative music ranging from the simplest bob major to the greatest compositions by the Italian masters; a second was upon ancient and classic music; and a third upon the music of birds, and the musical element of natural life. Such work could not be obtained in any book, or even in any ordinary library. Put together in book form it would be invaluable to the musician and the general student. Mrs. Flint's lectures brought architecture down to date. The latest discoveries in the East, the newly found and explored ruins of both the Old World and the New; the newest creations of modern architects were all ably handled and brought together in compact, concise form. Her full course of talks would make a hand-book of remarkable value to the reading public.

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[image: LENA LOUISE KLEEPPISCH]

Five distinguished specialists are Madam Eva Alberti, the president of the New York College of Expression; Professor Mary Williams, Professor Angeline Brooks, Miss Mary Proctor, and Professor Cornelia C. Bedford, the president of the New York Society of Teachers of Cookery. Madam Alberti is so versatile and accomplished that it is difficult to restrict her to any one class. In her college, which is a post-graduate institution, she devotes the most time to philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, and the art and science of physical culture, in all of which fields she is a recognized authority. Professor Brooks is the great master of kindergarten science. Professor Williams makes a specialty of woman's education and the education of women's educators. Miss Proctor is the distinguished daughter of the famous astronomer, Richard A. Proctor, and inherits much of his matchless talent in making astronomic truths easy of grasp and popular to the public mind.

Madam Kleppisch has devoted many years to modern painters and paintings, has a superb collection of photographs of all the more important ones, and a remarkable fund of anecdote and incident respecting both the workers and their works. She has traveled through Europe several times, visiting the studios and galleries, and has utilized the knowledge thus gained for her addresses.

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[image: MERCEDES LEIGH]

Three public speakers who add to high culture and many accomplishments, great personal beauty and remarkable oratoric power, are Mrs. Mercedes Leigh, of New York, Miss Mary Haviland Sutton, of Chappaqua, and Miss Mary C. Francis, of Gotham. They are all young, graceful, enthusiastic and brilliant. Mrs. Leigh is seen at her best in the highest class of poetry, such as Shakespeare, Emerson, Goethe, and Omar Khayyan. Miss Sutton tends toward aesthetic thought, and Miss Francis to the literary spirit. It is a treat to hear Mrs. Leigh upon the "Rubayyat," Miss Sutton on "Beauty in Daily Life," and Miss Francis upon the "New Woman." These three represent the incoming generation and show that there is no dearth of splendid material for the speakers of the coming twenty years.

The field of literature is very well covered by women lecturers. While all of them are possessed of the broadest literary culture, yet either their own taste or the public fancy has identified nearly every one with some particular poet, playwright, school or period. Mrs. Abby Sage Richardson, although a finished Shakespearian scholar and a learned political economist, is best known by her magnificent lectures upon the Arthurian romances; Mrs. Sarah Cowell Le Moyne enjoys a national reputation, but it is as the exponent and student commentator and transcriber of Robert Browning; Mrs. Anna Randall Diehl is associated in the public mind with Shakespeare and nothing else; Mrs. Alexander Kohut, of New York, one of the superb leaders of the modern Jewish women, by Semitic literature, of which, as a matter of fact, she is a great master. A lecturer who belongs to no class, but is a class unto herself, is Madam Hanna Korany. She

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comes from Syria, in Asia Minor, where she was born and raised. She came to this country the first time as a delegate to the World's Fair at Chicago. Here her oriental beauty and eloquence, exquisite manners and remarkable knowledge soon attracted attention and made her famous. At the suggestion of the newfound friends she tried the lecture platform, and won an immediate and gratifying success.

[image: ALICE PARKER LESSER]

Miss Jane Meade Welch, of Buffalo, N.Y., came into popularity first as a writer and then as a lecturer upon American history and literature. She began her work in her native city. It was of so high a character as to receive the highest praise of the press and pulpit, and to make her name known in the great cities. She took advantage of invitations to address various societies and lyceums, from which she rose to the highest step in the profession by being appointed a special lecturer of many women's colleges.

While law may not seem a very attractive field, it nevertheless has produced some very able women lecturers. At least five have already attained distinction in this part of the country. Mrs. Cornelia K. Hood, Miss Stanlietta Titus, and Miss Kate Hogan, the two latter belonging to New York, and Mrs. Hood to Brooklyn; Miss Mary L. Greene, of Providence, and Mrs. Alice Parker Lesser, of Boston, are all exceedingly popular, and in lecturing before mixed audiences or before women's clubs, they have shown great tact and wisdom, avoiding all technical terms, explaining delicate and

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difficult points, using as examples the questions which come up in the every-day life of private individuals.

In this line of opportunity is it not gratifying to think that these women occupy the positions they hold by reason of the demand of hundreds of thousands of men and women, principally women, in every part of our great country, who see something in life greater and better than wealth, frivolity, or pleasure?

They indicate that a revolution has occurred in the present century such as our ancestors never dreamed of, and that the twentieth century will start upon the basis of a mental, moral and spiritual plane, higher than any the world has yet known.

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THE women that we are going to talk about are not the literary workers, pure and simple,--those who write for magazines or story papers; nor those who in the shelter of their own home write letters for daily and weekly newspapers. The girls we are talking about are those who go into the newspaper office, have regular desks there, "take assignments," and go out to attend to them; going to their work as the young men go to theirs and working side by side with them.

Among all the professions that have been opened to women during the past few years none seems on first sight so tempting as that of newspaper work. Not "journalism," for that term is too dilettanti, too little expressive of the real thing. Your genuine newspaper worker is an honest worker; there is no make-believe about him or her. As for your "journalist," he is very likely to think more of his title than his achievement. One of the best American editors has a fashion of saying, if any one speaks of a journalist to him, "Oh, a journalist, is he? Well, I'm afraid he won't suit me: what I'm looking for is a good, wide-awake newspaper man."

I have in mind a young woman with "journalistic" aspirations. She had had no experience, but she made up her mind to begin her work as an art or musical critic; or she might consider reviewing books. She found all such places occupied, but she could not see why the people who had grown up to a knowledge of work and were of value to their papers shouldn't be set aside and give her a chance. With the insolence of inexperienced and uninstructed youth, she really thought that her claim for consideration was greater, because she was "new and fresh"--very fresh, if one may drop into newspaper slang--and that those people

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who had the wisdom born of experience and were valuable workers, whose opinions were sought for and respected, should be put to one side in favor of her youth. She was quite indignant because it was suggested that she win her place by showing her ability to do any kind of newspaper work first. Now, a girl like that will never become a good newspaper woman; she will never gain the position she desires. While she is standing outside with folded hands, waiting for somebody to die or resign, and so leave an opening for her, another woman--or a man, maybe--is fitting for the place which shall be hers or his because he has won it. Positions don't come by way of legacy in a newspaper office, I assure you.

There is more than one reason why this profession should be regarded as a pleasant one, although it is a question whether the reasons are "good and sufficient." In most cases they are based on wrong premises, and arrived at through ignorance. In the first place, many think it an easy way to earn a livelihood; they imagine the remuneration to be greater than it really is; others think it a work that brings influence with it, and still others regard it as a somewhat less objectionable mode of work than that done with the hands, and they are very fond of setting off mental against purely manual labor. Others, again, are ambitious of position, and think it a fine thing to have, as they term it, the public ear. Now, any one, man or woman who takes tip this profession with ideas of this kind, will make a speedy and signal failure. It is one of the best professions in the world, even if less remunerative than the other professions. It catches and holds the enthusiasm of the workers as nothing else does. It opens possibilities of attainment that are undreamed of when the first steps are taken, but it is a profession that must be undertaken with humility of spirit, and treated with the highest respect. It cannot he used as a makeshift; it will do nothing for one who takes it up carelessly or to serve a mere purpose, intending to drop it after the purpose is served, or some other position won. It gives much to its honest workers, but to the selfish and shirking it refuses its best gifts.

After twenty-five years of constant work in the profession which I chose when very few young women had dreamed of adopting it, I believe that it is a profession well suited to the woman who suits it. Not to all women, for all women will not make successful newspaper workers, any more than all men will. It is not an easy work, albeit it is fascinating. It, more nearly than any other I know, will answer to the description of woman's work in the old doggerel which ran,

"Man's work is from sun to sun;
Woman's work is never done."

This is true of newspaper work. Literally, it is never done. Your newspaper goes on through everything; it is printed every day, and sometimes several times a day, as in the case of the paper with which I am connected, the Boston

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Herald, which has eight daily editions. Can you understand what that means? Something fresh and new in every one. The last incident caught in its happening, chronicled in white heat, and put before a waiting public before it is two hours old. Nothing must escape; every class in the community must be looked after, from the merchant prince to the rag- picker. Do you realize what this requires? Quickness, alertness, and if you will permit the use of a specially coined word--aliveness. A readiness to do whatever may come to you, to turn out an interesting story on any subject, to make the most of trifling inciden--in short, to give value to very piece of work put into your hand to do.

[image: MRS. SALLIE JOY WHITE]

In regard to any personal gain of influence or recognition, that comes slowly. In taking a position on a newspaper you are but one of many workers, and you have your own place to make. First of all, you must make yourself of value to your employers, your editors. You must show them that you have within you the qualities which will, when you have had experience, develop into good working power. This you must prove in small ways before you will be given large opportunities. The mere fact that you have been taken on to a paper on trial does not make you a newspaper woman. You must prove your mettle before you are admitted fully to the inner circle and recognized as an accepted worker. Some young women who have an ambition to be journalists imagine that the whole thing is accomplished if they can secure the publication of something which they have written, and then have personal notes of themselves put into other papers, saying that "Miss Featherbrain, of the Tattler," says so and so. Nobody knows who Miss Featherbrain is, but what difference does that make? She has been in print, and she calls it being famous. It seems silly that persons should be content to pose on such very slim pretences as these, but there are many who do. Please, dear girls who are reading this, don't any of you join this army of incompetent hangers-on and make-believes. If you are ready to become honest, conscientious newspaper workers, consider something beyond the negative side which has been presented to you.

Having made up your mind that the work is not easy, but that it is exacting and insistent, convinced that although you may make a fairly comfortable living if you work hard enough, you will not make a fortune, and knowing perfectly that your personality is to be swallowed up in the paper for which, nevertheless, you are willing to do your best work, you are ready to hear the affirmative side of the question.

You must possess the ability to write well--that is to express yourself in good English free from all redundancies, with clearness and conciseness. Fine writing is not wanted. By fine writing is meant the tendency to the use of excessive metaphor, flowery language, and long words of foreign extraction. It may not be easy for you to believe, but it is perfectly true, as you will admit after a

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[image: ESTELLE M. H. MERRILL ("JEAN KINCAID")]

few trials, that the simplest mode of expression, that which is elegant and refined in its directness, is the most difficult of attainment. If you watch yourself, you will find that the tendency is to amplification and redundancy of expression rather than to simple conciseness. You would learn the lesson very quickly could you be an invisible listener to the criticism of the desk editor on a piece of work over which you had spent much time, and of which you felt very proud. Every dash of his relentless blue pencil through lines over which you had pored and which had given you most exquisite satisfaction as you read and re-read them, would pain you. You would writhe in mental agony to hear this brain labor of yours characterized as "gush" in a tone of unmistakable contempt. But you would most certainly grasp the idea that what the newspaper wants is lucid statement, a clear bit of description, and an idea understandingly presented. Not careless work, or work without thought, but the work which has to be most carefully done and so well written that no one can find fault either with the essence or the mechanical construction. To be a successful newspaper woman--versatile, and who can be put to do work of any kind on any copy--one must be fairly well read, up in historical subjects, have some ideas about the movements of the time, and quick to catch the spirit of events. There are many well-read, highly educated women whose ideas are worth a great deal, but who would never make

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good newspaper workers simply because they never can be made to have any idea of relative values of happenings. They do not know how to take the public pulse; they have no genius for selection; and so, while they are most valuable friends for newspaper workers to have, they can do no practical work themselves. It is not always the person who knows the most who can best impart information. One must know how to give out, as well as to take in, to make a good teacher; and the same qualities, in a great degree, are necessary to make a good newspaper woman.

[image: ADELINE E. KNAPP]

It requires perfect physical as well as good mental endowment, to make a newspaper career successful. The girl who has not a good constitution, unimpaired health and a perfect nervous system, should never think for a moment of entering this profession. In no profession does one have to meet so much in the way of physical disadvantage as in this. No matter what the weather may be, if a piece of news is needed, it must be secured. Daily papers do not wait on the weather clerk's convenience. Often there is great irregularity in eating. Hours of labor are uncertain; you are at the behest of others, and you must always be ready to respond. It is only right to put all this before you, for it is far better to know that there is a "seamy" side before you undertake the work, than to fancy it all smooth and even and find out your mistake afterward. If you have splendid health and no nerves; if you are ambitious to learn your profession and willing to begin with

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the alphabet of it; if you will understand that your remuneration will be small at first; and that severe economy will be necessary in order to get on; if you are free from nonsense--then you may undertake the work, feeling sure that there is no more delightful profession in the world, even though it is the most exacting.

[image: CATHARINE COLE]

You must be content to begin at the very beginning of things. You may be inclined to turn up your nose at being sent out to describe a shop window, or to make a paragraph about a removal. But it is all in the way of your education, and when your superior officer, your city editor, finds that you do the small things understandingly you will be given larger things to do, and it rests with yourself to make your work valuable and advance your own position. The trouble is, so few are willing to begin at the beginning; they want to strike in somewhere along in the middle; or they will make a found for the very top--and usually come down quite outside the limits of the profession. Having once obtained the opportunity to make a trial of your powers, it rests with you to make the trial a success and your position a permanency. In the first place, do everything as well as you can. Put as much good work into a report of the most trifling nature as you would into an important editorial. Carry your conscience with you all the way along. Never let a feeling of private pique or private personal interest influence your work. You are a part of the paper which you represent and you must give to your work all the dignity

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and impartiality that belongs to the paper. There is nothing a good editor resents so quickly as the feeling that any member of his staff is using the position occupied as a means of carrying out private schemes, whether it be of advancing an interest or pulling down a reputation. Above all things, do not try to enhance your own value by writing about yourself and your own affairs and accomplishments. There is nothing which so quickly opens a person to ridicule as this habit of constantly writing about herself. It is simply the most palpable and laughable kind of self- laudation, and no girl of refinement or good breeding will show such a lack of taste as to permit herself to make this pitiful bid for notoriety.

In regard to remuneration, which is what every possible worker wishes to know about--it is much less than is generally imagined. There have been so many sensational stories written concerning the money earned by newspaper workers, that they raise high hopes in the heart of the ambitious girl. But here is the truth to be told. The number of women who are earning less than a thousand dollars a year in newspaper work is very much greater than those who are earning that amount, and all who are earning one thousand dollars and over are women who have served a long apprenticeship. A girl has to work a long time, unless she has an unexpected piece of good fortune, before she will earn as much as a school teacher, and she will work all the time, day and night--with a possible two weeks' vacation-- instead of having the long vacation and the off days which the teacher has.

Within the last few years there has crept into women's work a tendency which one cannot but regret to see; that is, the habit of many of the leading city papers to give to the young women in their employ tasks to do which no self-respecting young woman should permit herself ever to undertake. It more often happens than not that the young woman to whom such work is given is a country girl, unaccustomed to city ways, who is anxious to "make a hit" with her editors and who, in her ignorance, undertakes something which the editor would never dream of giving to the city girl who would understand its full import. The very ignorance of the country girl is her shield from harm in the beginning, but this ignorance cannot be of long duration, and the knowledge comes to her in a most bitter awakening, often with the loss of self-respect, if not of honor itself. If any girl who reads this is ever tempted to make her entrance into newspaper work through this unclean path, let her put aside the temptation and give up her fondest hopes of becoming a newspaper woman if they are to be attained at such a cost.

There is an honor list of newspaper workers which should be given to the world, but it is so long that only a few names can be mentioned. First and foremost is Mrs. J.C. Croly, the woman who, as Jennie June, was the pioneer

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woman to enter the newspaper office as a regular worker on the same terms with men. Her story is so well known that it will be needless to tell it, but all newspaper women honor her for what she has been and are grateful to her for what she has done to open the way for them. Other newspaper women deserving special mention are Mary Krout, of Chicago; Adeline E. Knapp, of San Francisco; Catharine Cole, of New Orleans; Grace Sheldon, of Buffalo; Eliza Archard Connor, Cynthia Westover-Alden, Harriet Holt Cahoun and Eliza Heaton Putnam, of New York; Helen Winslow, Estelle M.H. Merrill and Elizabeth Merritt Gosse, of Boston; these are a few out of the multitude of women who have stood side by side with men and done honest, noble and conscientious work in the newspaper world, not as editors or special writers--although all have done special writing and editorial work--but as everyday workers--real newspaper women.

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[image: HELEN M. WINSLOW]

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IT used to be commonly said in the newspaper offices that women could never make good paragraphists. That would hardly be said to-day in the face of the success which has been achieved by the few women who have seriously taken up that line of work. One only has to point to the clever work of Mrs. Welch, Mrs. Kidder and Mrs. Cahoun, of New York; Mrs. Wakeman, of Chicago, and more brilliant than any, Miss Josephine Jenkins, of Boston, to prove that a woman can write as spicy a paragraph--one as free from ill nature, with a clever touch of honor, as a man. A few years ago Miss Mildred Aldrich, of Boston, set everybody talking over her Harlequin column in the Boston Home Journal. It was a column of paragraphs, short, pithy and scintillant. Such work as has rarely been equaled. It is true that the usual training of women upon a newspaper is not such as to develop the power of pithy paragraph writing. All through their apprenticeship they are given more or less descriptive work and work of a purely personal nature, such as interviewing and writing biographical sketches, none of which are exactly the schools for successful paragraph writing. Another objection which was brought against women in the capacity of paragraphers was that they could not keep their personal feelings out of their writing, and were apt to be satirical or spiteful to those whom they wished to punish, and unduly gracious to those whom they favored. There might have been an atom of truth in the objection in the earlier days, but as the minds and ideas broaden, this quality becomes less apparent, and the woman paragrapher of to-day is as strictly impersonal as is the

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man. Not that she does not deal in personalities, for as the subjects of the majority of paragraphs are individuals, there must of necessity be more or less personality about them, but there may be, as there should be, an entire absence of personal prejudice. It is a mistake to believe that cleverness and ill nature must go hand in hand, or that criticism must be cruel, or that satire must of necessity be ill-natured. The paragrapher who wishes to keep a reputation, as well as to earn it, must have an abundant flow of the milk of human kindness. Never yield to the temptation to say stinging things because they chance to be bright and raise a momentary laugh. The wound never heals and the exercise of this power oftener than not leaves a self-inflicted sting in the mind of the writer that causes constant pain.

Paragraphing is one of the newspaper fine arts, and the man or woman who can do it successfully is almost sure of permanent employment. It is much more difficult than one would imagine to write a paragraph that shall be short and yet carry a vital point. It is easy enough to write long descriptions or dissertations, but to get a chunk of truth wittily set in the space of a dozen lines is a feat which not one out of a hundred men can accomplish, and so far the proportion of women who have been discovered as adepts is far less; yet that fact need not be a drawback to any bright girl who feels it borne in upon her that she would succeed in just this line of work. All she must do is to put herself in training, writing and rewriting, until she has attained such a degree of cleverness and ease as will give her the courage and the confidence to approach some newspaper editor with a sample of what she can do.

Some of the most successful editors during the last decade have been women. Harper's Bazaar, since its inception, has been in the editorial charge of two women--Miss Mary Booth, who brought out its first number and held the position as editor until her death, and Mrs. Margaret Sangster, the present editor, who succeeded Miss Booth, and who has not only kept the paper up to the high ideal which Miss Booth established for it, but has added new features and given new strength and impetus to it. Mrs. Sangster is not only the successful editor, but the brilliant, helpful writer. Her poems are full of the most delicate feeling and womanly sympathy. Her prose is strong and helpful and she always says the one wise word that some woman is waiting to hear.

Another woman who seems born to be an editor, so keen is her sense of literary values, so exquisite her taste, and so delightful her methods of dealing with those associated with her, is Mrs. Ella Farman Pratt, who is best known as the editor of the magazine Wide Awake, which is now merged into the St. Nicholas Indeed, to most of the contributors to that delightful little magazine, everyPage of which bore evidence of Mrs. Pratt's keen oversight, Wide Awake was Ella Farman and Ella Farman was Wide Awake. She was living

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[image: MARGARET E. SANGSTER]

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on a Michigan farm, writing books for girls, when Mr. Lothrop carried her away to Boston to become the editor of the projected magazine. For years she continued its editor, being assisted during the latter part of the time by her husband, Mr. Charles Stuart Pratt, who attended to the art side while she had exclusive control of its literary department. She left Wide Awake to edit the young peoples publication for Mr. S.S. McClure, but the magazine was never the same, and shortly after was swallowed by St. Nicolas. Mrs. Pratt is now editor of Little Men and Womenand is bringing to the preparation of this wholesome little magazine all the devotion, all the conscience, and all the thought that she gave to Wide Awake. There are few editors, either men or women, who so thoroughly know the needs and the wishes of their readers as does Mrs. Pratt. She rarely makes a mistake, and if she does, she is the first to see it and correct it. Loyal to those whose interests she represents, strong in her personal convictions of what is best and right, kindly disposed toward the world, generous and thoughtful of those whom she employs, she is indeed an editor in a thousand.

The St. Nicolas is happy and fortunate also in having a woman at its head. Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge has occupied the position of editor of this favorite magazine from its very start and no one would ever dream of the magazine going on without her guiding hand. Mrs. Dodge has also written some of the most charming children's books, foremost of which stands that unequaled story, "Hans Brinker and His Silver Skates." That volume may be placed well up in the list of juvenile classics.

The story has been told and told again of how Mrs. Nicholson of New Orleans, was left a young widow with a big newspaper, the Picayune, on her hands, and how she developed it until it became one of the finest pieces of newspaper property in the country.

One never thinks of the Times-Democrat without also thinking of Lilian Whiting, who has been for many years the Boston correspondent of the Times- Democrat and who was also for some time the editor of the Boston Budget, and still remains its literary editor. Newspaper women everywhere should be proud of Lilian Whiting's record and should take her for an example. Beginning as a reporter on the Cincinnati Commercial under Murat Halstead she gradually worked herself up to the highest point which she could attain on that paper, then without a friend or even acquaintance she made a dash for Boston, and by her persistency, her womanliness, and the quality of her work, gained a foremost position in the ranks of the newspaper workers of the country. No woman connected with newspapers ever had higher ideals and none has ever maintained them as has Lilian Whiting. She is staunch, loyal and fearless, having the courage always of her convictions, and yet never saying one word

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that shall wound a person, no matter how undeserving or how ungenerous one may have proven himself.

[image: MISS ALICE STONE BLACKWELL]

Those who know Lilian Whiting well and have been admitted to her friendship never think of her without thinking of another one of America's most brilliant women, Kate Field, special writer, correspondent, paragraphist and editor. Kate Field is a unique figure in the history of American journalism. She began writing when still in her teens, and her letters to the Springfield Republican of Massachusetts, and other papers, over the signature of "Straws, Jr.," were always eagerly looked for and as eagerly read. She wrote from Washington, from New York and from Europe. She saw things through the rose-colored glasses of youth, and she portrayed them with a girlish enthusiasm and exuberance that was simply irresistible. She was one of the few successful paragraphists, and her criticisms of art, music, and drama, were just, brilliant and good- tempered. She was both editor and publisher of her paper, Washington, and it was but natural that when she gave it up she should quietly have laid it to one side, trusting to no other hands the work which she had carried to such a successful issue. Kate Field's personality shone in everyPage of the paper. No one who cared for her could have borne to have seen it in other hands, reflecting other opinions, swayed by another personality.

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The Woman's Journal, the organ of the woman suffrage movement, has as its editor Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, the only child of that well-beloved pioneer woman, Lucy Stone. Miss Blackwell has taken up the work left by her mother as a legacy and brings to it all the devotion of a daughter allied to strong principle and a brilliant mentality. Papers devoted to any one idea are rarely highly successful, but Miss Blackwell, in her work on the Journal, as nearly approaches success as it is possible to do.

Miss Katherine E. Conway is the associate editor of the Pilot, the Catholic organ of New England. Miss Conway received her training as reporter on a daily newspaper in Buffalo, N.Y., where she so thoroughly proved her ability and her wisdom, as well as her keen sense of news value, that she attracted the attention of the late John Boyle O'Reilly, who secured her as his assistant on the Pilot, a position which she still holds. Miss Conway is a rare poet as well as editor, and has published two or three books of dainty verse which have met with the approval of the critics and the appreciation of the reading public.

Miss Helen M. Winslow has been for some time one of the editors of the Beacon, of Boston, and has just launched a beautiful periodical of her own, the woman of the National Federation of Woman's Clubs--the Club Woman. Miss Winslow writes clever verse, is a good paragraphist, and a special writer of more than ordinary ability.

Among the other women who have succeeded as editors are Mrs. Ella Ford Hartshorn, of the Household, who comes naturally by her ability for editing, being the only daughter of Mr. D.T. Ford, the editor and publisher of the phenomenally successful paper, the Youth's Companion; Mrs. A.E. Whittaker, associate editor of the New England Farmer, Miss Helen A. Clark, editor of Poet Lore; Miss Anna Barrows, editor of the American Kitchen Magazine; Mrs. Mary Sargent Hopkins, editor and proprietor of the Wheelwoman; Miss Annie M. Talbot, editor for the publishing house of Silver & Burdett; and Mrs. Emily McLaws, editor of the American Queen. The field for women's work here is bounded only by their own ability and desire, but in almost every case the successful editor first served the apprenticeship of reporter and special writer.

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[image: MISS KATHERINE E. CONWAY]

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THE list of professions which are open to women would not be complete if the dramatic were omitted. When one considers the number of women who are making a living in the ranks of that much abused profession, it is difficult to realize that it is but a little over two centuries ago since they were permitted to appear on the stage. When Shakespeare wrote and acted all the female parts were taken by young boys, and it was not until about the time of the Restoration that women Juliets and Ophelias and Desdemonas were seen on the English stage. The condition of things was then precisely what it is to-day in the Chinese theatres, where, except in markedly isolated cases, the drama is in the hands of men for representation.

The women who have won distinction, and at the same time made a place for themselves in the memories and hearts of the public, are too numerous to be given in the limits of a chapter like the present, but a few can be quoted whose names are held in pleasant remembrance. Such a one was Charlotte Cushman, whom the whole wor1d delights to honor, as well as the city of her birth, Boston, which has given her a memorial, such as she gives only to her best beloved, in naming a school for her. The Cushman School, in the old historic North End of Boston, within a stone's throw of the old North Church, where John Pullen hung the lanterns to signal Paul Revere on the night of the 18th of April, 1775, and but a short walk from the wharf where "Old Ironsides" was built and launched, is on the site of the house where Charlotte Cushman was born, and it was in the district where she went to school. When the school was dedicated Miss Cushman was the guest of honor of the city, and she made a very beautiful speech, her words to the

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girl pupils of the school being most uplifting. If the girls of the North End, educated at the Cushman School, could live up to the high ideals of character and womanhood which Miss Cushman set for them, they would, indeed, be representative women. In all her work on the stage, all her success as an artist, Miss Cushman never forgot her womanhood, and she held herself to all the ideals which she gave to the girls in her talk that September day a quarter of a century ago.

[image: OLGA NETHERSOLE]

Success did not come easily to Charlotte Cushman, she had many a hard fight to conquer adverse circumstances, but every struggle not only brought her nearer to the goal for which she had started but it added to her strength of character, and helped to develop her into the grand woman she became. After she had won renown and money she left the stage and lived in Rome for many years, where she became the friend of the magic inner circle there which included the Brownings, Robert and Elizabeth; the sculptor, William Story, and his delightful wife; Harriet Hosmer, and all the list of English and American celebrities who made Rome a delightful spot during the '50's and '60's. But even amid all these brilliant and congenial surroundings she often longed for America, which she dearly loved, and early in the '70's she came home to live. It was shortly after her return that she had the honor paid her of having the school for girls named for her, a fact which made her prouder and happier than all her professional success. She had not

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intended to appear again on the stage, but so great was the desire to see her once more that she agreed to give a few performances in the leading cities, and so once more the American public had an opportunity of seeing her as Meg Merrilies and Lady Macbeth. Her farewell tour was an ovation, but it was as much for the woman as for the artist. During her residence in Rome she crossed the ocean to act in Philadelphia one evening for the benefit of the sanitary commission. She was a devoted patriot, as she should be, born among the scenes of the early struggle for independence.

Miss Cushman was a deeply religious woman, and a constant attendant at church. Wherever she was she found out a church and attended it, and she had many of her closest friends among the clergy. She was naturally devout and her thoughts were reverential. Here is a short extract from one of her letters, written to a very dear friend. "To-morrow will be the last day of the year. I sometimes stand appalled at the thought of how my life is passing away, and how soon will come the end to all of this probation and of how little I have done or am doing to deserve all the blessings by which I am surrounded. But that God is perfect, and that my own love for Him is without fear, I should be troubled in the thought that I may not be doing all I should, in this sphere, to make myself worthy of happiness in the next."

Another American woman who won for herself distinction in the dramatic profession, but who left it while she was at the very height of her career and the fullest flush of her youth and beauty, is Madame Navarro, of England, but whom the world remembers as the beautiful Kentucky girl, Mary Anderson. Miss Anderson made her success at a very early age, being but about seventeen when she undertook the professional career of an actress of Shakespeare's plays. It was a tremendous undertaking, and she says herself had she realized all that it involved she should have never dared to face the ordeal. But her youth and her enthusiasm and her love for the poet whose characters she desired to portray made her oblivious to anything else, and she was intent only on one thing, putting Shakespeare's heroines before the world as she thought they should be portrayed. Her youth, beauty and devotion to her ideals carried her through and won success for her, and her own beautiful character gained her the love and respect of the great public. There are very few women who could deliberately cut short a successful career, as Mary Anderson did, leaving it in the flood tide of triumph, but she was, after all, more of a woman than an actress, and home life had for her the stronger attraction. Nor has she ever been tempted to return to the stage. Inducement after inducement, all of the most flattering, have been offered her, but she has always firmly persisted in refusal, and nothing short of a financial stress, which does not seem likely to occur, would bring her back.

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[image: MRS. JULIA MARLOWE TABER]

She loved her profession, and yet her advice to girls who are thinking of entering it is to pause and take a second thought. It required something more than talent and enthusiasm to make a career which one can look back to without regret, it needs strength of character, singleness of purpose, a firm religious conviction to keep one from yielding to the temptations by which every public path is surrounded, this one the most thickly of all, perhaps. It needs just such mental and moral qualities as Charlotte Cushman and Mary Anderson possessed, and which, just as much as their dramatic talent, contributed to their success.

In the same rank with these two, both as a woman and a probable artist, when she shall have had their experience, is Mrs. Julia Marlowe Taber, who is fast winning her way to the very front rank. And another, who stands for all that is sweet and true among the women of the stage at the present time, is Miss Maude Adams. It is comparatively easy to gain a sort of reputation on the stage, but that kind is not an enviable one, and the girl who risks her character to obtain it, finds, in the end, that she has something it would be far better for her to be without. She is like the girl in newspaper work who descends to "gutter" methods to win fame, and wakes up to find it unsavory notoriety. But to come to the place which Miss Adams occupies means hard work, steadiness of purpose, loyalty to ideals, and, above all, a true womanliness of character, which forbids her doing anything unworthy

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of the profession which she has adopted, or her own personal ideals. It must not be supposed that in singling out these few to mention specially that there are no others in the dramatic profession worthy of consideration; that supposition would be incorrect. But these women, representing different periods, with the exception of Miss Marlowe and Miss Adams, who are of the same epoch, but who represent different schools and methods, stand for all that is best worth following. They are representative of what the women in the profession should be, in art and character. Besides they are attractive examples, and they are American girls. To be sure Miss Marlowe, or rather Mrs. Taber, was of English birth, but she was educated in America, and her professional career has been identified with this country, so that she seems to belong to us.

All these women agree in declaring that the dramatic profession is one of the most exacting of all, and the most ungrateful, if the artist does not meet with every demand. No girl should undertake it unless she has unquestioned ability, and a strength of character which will place her above all influence for wrong, nor unless she has proper protection. There is often a glamour about it which is deceptive, and the loss of the illusion is painful. It is, oftener than not, a profession to be avoided, for, in its best phases there is much that is unpleasant about it, even to the successful actress. If you are inclined to doubt this, you should read the story of Mary Anderson's life, told by herself, and you can then get a glimpse of stage life from the inside, free from all the fascinating glamour of the footlights. And it is told, too, by a reverent lover of the dramatic art.

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R. SOL. SMITH RUSSELL said, not long since, speaking to a girl who had been talking of her literary ambitions and hopes:

"Why don't you turn you attention to play writing? That is to be the most remunerative field for writers who have, with the skill to weave a plot, and the power of expression, the instinct of dramatic values." Mr. Russell only echoed what is being constantly said by the managers and players themselves. It is, indeed, the cry heard everywhere, by those whose ears are open to catch it. New plays are wanted, fresh and pure in thought, full of sentiment which is not maudlin sentimentality, bright and clean in dialogue, natural in action, just the plays that shall mirror the healthiest, sweetest side of human life. Such plays, in intention, as "The Old Homestead," "Shore Acres," and the drama which Mr. Russell is making so popular, "A Bachelor's Romance."

The last named play is by one of the woman dramatists who are coming to the front, and it was in view of the success made by Mrs. Martha Morton, who wrote this play as well as the one in which Mr. William Crane played during the same season in which Mr. Russell appeared in "A Bachelor's Romance," which induced Mr. Russell to give the bit of advice to the young girl who was consulting him about giving up literature for the stage. He felt very sure that if she had the dramatic instinct and ability wedded to the literary power that she had the mental outfit for a playwright Of course neither Mr. Russell nor any one else can predict success with any degree of certainty, for, in this line, as in many another, success is elusive, and does not crown effort when it is plain that she should.

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Still, women have written plays which have proven successful, and which were not only good acting plays, appealing to the best of the emotions, but were literary productions of absolute merit.

First and best in this line, standing on a plane high above that of the average drama, are the two plays of Miss Anna Dickinson, "The Crown of Thorns," in which Miss Dickinson made her own ill-starred attempt at acting, and her superb picture of Roman life in the full flush of imperial power, "Aurelian." This play has never been produced, although, previous to her retirement, Miss Dickinson gave several readings from it. Mr. John McCullough had the play in contemplation when it was first written, but through some misunderstanding with the author, he decided not to attempt it, even though it was quite in his line, and he had only the highest praise for it. Those special friends to whom Miss Dickinson permitted the pleasure of reading this play, were amazed at it. Its classic tone, upheld through the whole, the strong, beautiful language, the steady increase of dramatic interest, reaching to the climax, without one lapse, the sustained power were remarkable, and made this the drama of the century. It seemed almost impossible that one so essentially modern and up-to-date in all her ideas and beliefs could so enter into the spirit of a period so far removed. It was the truest test of the genius of which Miss Dickinson's bitterest opposers could never believe her the possession. It is a great pity that the American stage can never have the benefit of this work as Miss Dickinson has absolutely refused to allow it to pass out of her keeping. The same is true of "The Crown of Thorns." After she had given up playing it, she was approached by several persons who desired to use the play, but she would never permit it, although she stood in her own light financially. No one should play the character of Anne Boleyn except herself while she lived, and she has been consistent and firm in keeping her word. This is not the place to review Anna Dickinson's work as an actress, but if every woman who adopted the profession would come to it with the reverence which she did, and bring to it the same devotion and respect, the stage would be one of the strongest educating influences that the world could have which was purely secular.

Another of Miss Dickinson's plays, "An American Girl," was produced in New York by Miss Fanny Davenport, but was not a great success. However she might meet modern topics and treat them in her lectures and books, she was not so successful with them in her plays. She needed the heroic to make her dramas; the trivialities of the nineteenth century society were underneath her comprehension, and she could not treat them with the lightness which belonged to them, and which gave them their grace. But, if Anna Dickinson's dramas are ever given to the world in a printed form, they will take high rank in literature, and stamp the woman who wrote them as a genius beyond question.

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If ever this time comes it will be too late for her to know the verdict, and to realize that the recognition and the justice, for which she so longed, was hers at last. Without doubt, had Miss Dickinson so willed it, had she given her plays to the world instead of hoarding them away, she might have taken rank as the first of the women dramatists.

At present the most prominent women who have taken up this line of writing are Mrs. Martha Morton, who has already been mentioned; Mrs. Madeline Lucette Ryley, who has written several plays for the Frohmans; Miss Marguerite Merrington, a young woman who gave Mr. Sothern one of his best successes, "Captain Letterblair," and who has written still other plays, and is still writing; and Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, who has dramatized her story of "Little Lord Fauntleroy," making it one of the most delightful plays that has ever been seen, and whose latest play, "A Lady of Quality," is placed on the list of permanent successes.

There is another rising playwright who belongs to the class of which Anna Dickinson has been called the head, the class of writers who do not sacrifice anything of literary beauty or merit to mere dramatic intention. It is often said that it is not difficult to write a play which shall be correct from the literary standpoint alone, but which will never make an "acting" play. One has only to look over the long list of literary men who have made pathetic failures in the attempt to write for the stage, to realize the truth of this. What they write is delightful to read, and fulfills every canon of literary law, but it cannot be put upon the stage successfully. It has not the life principle. It is the description of people and event, it is not the people themselves, nor the event. But the woman who can so write that her play when put upon the stage is so full of life, so true to humanity, that all who see it accept it as the genuine bit of human nature, and who with all this can keep it up to the high literary plane which stamps the writer as belonging to the guild of authors as well as of playwrights is the truly successful one, whose work shall attain something more than the ephemeral popularity of the moment.

Such a one is Mrs. Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland, of Boston. Mrs. Sutherland is first of all a newspaper woman and a critic, successful in her profession, but with a taste for dramatic writing which could not be held down by the harness of daily newspaper drudgery. She has written several plays in collaboration with Mrs. Emma Sheridan Fry, who was once a player, but who left the stage for the, to her, more congenial profession of letters; but more recently she has been working by herself, and has produced some most interesting plays. She is versatile, portraying the scenes of modern life, or catching the spirit of the middle ages. She delights in army incidents, and has made a spirited dramatization of Captain Charles King's story, "Fort Frayne." Mrs. Sutherland has by no

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[image: MRS. EVELYN GREENLEAF SUTHERLAND]

means achieved her best work yet, but with her high ideal of the stage and its possibilities, she will do something by-and-by which will surprise every one, except her best friends.

The writer of the successful play has an assured income as long as the play runs, for she is paid a royalty on every performance which is given of it. Sometimes she is paid an arbitrary price, so much every evening; again, and the most frequent way, she receives a certain per cent of the manager's receipts nightly. The contract settles which way it shall be.

Many young women make a regular income by writing for amateur companies. Miss Rachel Baker has made a specialty of this kind of work, succeeding her father, Mr. George M. Baker, who was the pioneer in it. Mr. Baker's little parlor plays have been produced by nearly every school and society in the country, and his daughter's are achieving the same degree of popularity. Miss Furniss has written several which have proven very popular for amateur clubs, and Miss Caroline Ticknor has also written some exceedingly clever ones. Other young women have contributed to this class of literature, and while they have tried, as yet, nothing so ambitious as writing for the professional stage, there is no question but some of them might attain a degree of success, should they give their attention to this class of work.

As a rule, women's work in this line is pure and wholesome, and a relief from much of the foreign spirit which pervades the larger part of the modern drama. It is surprising that managers still cling to the argument-- probably it is from force of habit, and the inability to see indications-- that

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the public cares most for the plays of foreign life, in the face of the immense success which has attended, for years, the simple plays quoted at the beginning of the chapter, and such idyls as "Alabama" and "The Professor's Love Story." The public does like sweet, pure, clean things, and the people who are making up the attendance upon the best class of drama are the ones to be considered, and it is for this class that the the women dramatists write.

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THERE is no name in the American roll of honor which should be more venerated than that of Dr. Samuel G. Howe. His devotion to the cause of the education of the blind, thus opening to them the world of opportunity and self-support which had been so hopelessly closed, ranks him foremost among American philanthropists. It was through his untiring effort that the Massachusetts School for the Blind was established and placed upon an enduring basis. During his whole life he gave his personal attention to this school, and on his death left it in the hands of his son-in-law, Mr. Michael Anagnos, the present director, whose unselfish devotion to the work for the blind has been second only to that of Dr. Howe himself.

Formerly the blind boy or girl was considered an incumbrance, a lifelong care to be supported by the family if their means would allow, if not, to become a dependent upon the bounty of the State. It was a hopeless outlook for these afflicted ones, but with the opening of the schools came a new hope, a new light, into the darkened lives.

At first the industrial training was of the simplest kind; knitting, bead work, the plainest of sewing, and the simplest of household avocations were taught the blind girls, and their mental education went hardly beyond the simple grammar school training, while those with musical gifts were taught to play on the piano and organ. But even with simple training the girls who went out from the school were able to assist in household duties at home, and to earn a small

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income which met their own frugal wants. Knitting stockings and mittens, crochetting collars and laces, making toy furniture from wire and beads-- these various things contributed to the support of many a blind girl.

But as the years went on, and the ability of the blind to learn was demonstrated, the scope of the teaching was enlarged and new industries were added. If any one who reads this has a doubt as to what these girls can do, she should visit the School for the Blind in South Boston and see them running sewing machines doing the most exquisite work without ever a mistake, modeling in clay, carving in wood, and running typewriters with the facility of an expert operator. Indeed, these blind girls are so phenomenally quick of ear and touch that they can follow the most rapid dictation when once they have learned their instrument. They use the needle with dexterity, and it is the boast of many a blind girl that she makes every article of clothing that she wears. In their studies there seems nothing too advanced for them. They take the sciences with avidity, and their mathematical work is wonderful. Nothing could be more interesting than to listen to a class of children reciting geography. They have raised maps and globes, and with their fingers will find localities much more quickly than the average child with its eyes. Their geography examinations are wonderful displays of perception and memory. Dissected maps of different countries are placed in a basket, the teacher mixing the parts with her hands, until Europe, Asia, Africa and America are in a hopeless jumble. She then calls the children one by one to take a piece from the basket and tell her what it is. Almost as quickly as the piece can be drawn the little intelligent fingers have answered the question, and the reply comes almost before the hand is raised to the level of the shoulder to show the teacher what it holds. In no case is the name of the country on the piece; the child tells entirely by the shape. Dr. Howe himself would be surprised, could he listen, for instance, at a recitation in physics, chemistry, botany or physiology, where the most complex tests and analyses are given by the means of models in the two latter studies, and of the special apparatus in physics and chemistry.

In music many of them attain a remarkable degree of efficiency and become teachers and composers. The late Miss Cornelia Roeske, who was during its first years a teacher of music in the Kindergarten for the Blind, published several quite ambitious pieces of music and many settings for children's songs and simple orchestral pieces which were used in the Institution. Miss Roeske was a fearless, independent little body, with shrewd business sense, and she made all her arrangements for the publication of her music personally with the house of Ditson & Co., Boston.

Blind people have attained eminent positions in the world of literature. Probably there are few of you who are not familiar with the beautiful hymns and religious poems of Fanny Crosby, the sweet blind singer.

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Another woman who attained to a fine position in literature was Mrs. Helen Aldrich De Kroyft. She was born in Rochester, N.Y., October 29, 1818. Early in her life her father lost a fortune by endorsing for a friend, and when only fifteen she conceived the idea of achieving a higher education by teaching winters and attending what has since become the Syracuse University summers, and finally graduated, as may be imagined, with no small degree of honor.

Shortly after leaving school she was married to a young physician to whom she had been long engaged; but owing to a carriage accident, four hours after her marriage, she was a widow. As if the fates had not left her life sufficiently desolate, not quite a month had elapsed when she awoke to find that the darkest of all earth's misfortunes--blindness--had also fallen to her lot. Confronted now with the necessity of doing something to maintain herself, she entered the New York Institution for the Blind to become an organist. In a few months, however, a card invented in Paris for keeping the lines straight was placed in her hands, and in less than three years her first work was written, entitled: "A Place in Thy Memory."

Having no name as an author, no publisher would undertake to bring out her work without being secured for half of the first edition; and with a courage that has been compared to that of Napoleon crossing the Alps, she wrote a prospectus and personally solicited subscribers enough in New York to bring out her work with two engravings, all paid. Delivering the book to her subscribers, she saw that she had in her hand the means of travel by everywhere introducing her own work; and engaging a young lady companion, she went first to Washington, D. C. Several of the New York papers announced her there, and one of the directors of the Institution gave her letters to his friends, Mr. Henry Clay, Mr. Samuel Houston, Mrs. Commodore Aulic, the Chaplain of the Senate, and so forth. During her stay in Washington, her charming personality, her brilliant conversation, and her consummate address, to which her misfortune only added interest, won her so much favor that on leaving for Charleston she was overwhelmed with letters of introduction, among them one from President Zachary Taylor, in the name of his family presenting her to all his friends in the South.

So, under the auspices that she had won for herself, through forty-eight years she has been almost constantly traveling, exploring the world that in the morning of her life was veiled from her eyes. Meantime, though, her pen has not been idle, and there are seven volumes in the world that call her their author. One has been quoted from in five elocutionary collections, the second has been abridged in Johnson's "Classics," a third was pronounced by Dr. J. G. Holland. "an immortality," and four others are yet in manuscript.

One always associates with the name of Dr. Howe the thought of Laura Bridgman. Her story of achievement in spite of the fact that three avenues of

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intercourse with the world were closed to her--those of sight, hearing and speech--has been told all over the world in nearly every spoken language. And yet, wonderful as it was, it is far surpassed by the records of achievement of Helen Keller, Edith Thomas and Willie Elizabeth Robin, all three deaf, blind and dumb. Helen Kellar is almost a miracle of attainment. Told in the old days, her story would read like a fairy tale. As it is, it is regarded with wonder and almost awe by those who have watched the growth and development of this brilliant girl of seventeen, to whom until she was eight years old, the world was a sealed book of whose pages she had not the faintest comprehension. Her story has been so often told that it seems almost superfluous to give it here, but lest there are those among you who have not heard it, just the merest detail will be given. Helen Kellar was a little Southern girl, born in Alabama, and until she was nearly two years of age, was in possession of all her faculties. A severe attack of cerebral meningitis, from which she barely recovered, left her without the senses of sight or hearing, and naturally she never exercised that of speech. But with all this deprivation of sense, her brain was as active as ever, even more active than that of the average children by whom she was surrounded. When she was eight years old her father sent to Mr. Anagnos, having heard the story of Laura Bridgman and what had been done for her--to know if a teacher could be sent to his little girl.

[image: WILLIE ELIZABETH ROBIN]

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[image: HELEN KELLAR]

Mr. Anagnos at once decided upon Miss Annie Sullivan, a former pupil and a graduate of the school, who had by a successful operation upon her eyes regained her sight. Miss Sullivan was an exceptionally brilliant scholar with a rarely sympathetic nature and affectionate, sunny disposition, just the sort of young woman that one would choose to be a companion to such a child as Helen Kellar. It took but few months of special study to prepare Miss Sullivan fully for the position, and as soon as she was ready she went to Alabama and began her teaching. The little girl proved amenable and learned with a quickness that was surprising. When once she found that intercourse with the world was possible for her, there was literally no end to her eagerness for attainment. Now, at the age of seventeen, she is a regular student at Radcliffe College and is doing the most brilliant mental work. She has a positive genius for learning languages, and Latin and Greek possess no terrors for her, while she is already proficient in French and German. She has even learned to play the piano, and since she has learned to speak in the mechanical manner by which the dumb are taught, she expresses herself as anxious to study singing.

Her letters show a wonderful power of composition and an understanding of social and moral questions far beyond that of the average young woman of her age. Her belief in the goodness of humanity is positively touching. She has the

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sublimest faith in the possibilities of men and women that can be imagined. It would be a pure and lofty soul that could live up to Helen Kellar's ideals, and it is not too much to say that she finds the inspiration for them and the embodiment of them in her teacher, Miss Sullivan, who is as marvelous in her way as Helen is in hers. In fact, whatever Helen attains will be through the instrumentality of her teacher, who learns everything that Helen learns and is a constant source of encouragement and helpfulness. One cannot think of these two apart, who has ever seen them together.

[image: EDITH THOMAS]

The sensitiveness of Helen's touch is almost incredible. With the tips of her fingers resting lightly on a speaker's lips and throat, she understands all that is said to her, and she enjoys the music in the same way, always detecting the slightest discord. She can tell the color of the flowers which she holds; but more wonderful than this, she can detect a mistake in her typewriting by passing her hand over the paper, not even a misplaced punctuation mark escaping her.

Dancing is another of her accomplishments. Though she cannot hear a note of the music she keeps perfect time and moves gracefully, with no guide but her partner's motions. It has been said that she cannot hear the music, and yet, by some sense, she knows what is being played and feels the rhythm, probably, through the vibrations in the floor. When Miss Sullivan first went to her and she had begun to speak in sounds, she used to frequently ask to be taken to

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church; on being questioned as to why she wished to go, she invariably said, "Because I so love to hear the organ." Experiment after experiment was tried proving conclusively that she could not hear, and yet, by some subtle sense, she could feel and enjoy the music.

Similar experiences have been noted with Edith Thomas, another girl a year or two younger than Helen, who has also lost the senses of seeing and hearing. On opening a door into a room which contains a piano, she can tell at once if it is being played upon, and will ask quickly, "Who's at the piano?" Edith Thomas, like Helen Kellar, was born with all her faculties, but lost them by scarlet fever when she was between two and three years of age, just as she was learning to talk. After her recovery she was blind and deaf, but retained the habit of speech for some weeks, until, failing to hear the sound of her own voice she gradually dropped the habit and soon forgot all the words that she had learned. And yet, strange as it may seem, the very first word which she spoke when she began to learn mechanical articulation was the last word that she ever spoke when she finally, as a child, gave up speaking. The word was "kitty." Edith Thomas, although not possessing the mental brilliance of Helen Kellar, has a remarkable mechanical genius, and her work in wood-carving is very beautiful. It is already so finished and so original in design that there is every prospect that she may be able to earn a good income by the practice of this art.

Willie Robin is the youngest of the three, and as yet has not indicated her special bent. She is exceedingly bright, learns quickly, both in her mental studies and in the industrial branches. If the need ever comes for her to be a bread-winner, she will find some way out from among her list of attainments.

Surely no girl in full possession of her senses should ever allow herself one moment of despair, nor yield for an instant to discouragement, when she thinks of how much more she ought to get out of life than these other girls who are so heavily handicapped, and yet are so bright, so brave, and so courageous.

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-WHAT would have become of me if I'd delayed a bit?" asked the Irishman, who was born on the last day of the year, and Josh Billings declared that it "would have been money in his pocket if he had never been born."

Had the girl with a predilection for science who was born fifty years ago "delayed a bit," it surely would have been "money in her pocket."

No road which leads to success is an easy road, but the woman scientist, in whatever line, finds far fewer obstructions in her path to-day than she did during the years when her mother or grandmother or aunt was striving to make a way in the sterner pursuits which had hitherto been monopolized by men. It is with awe and admiration that one thinks of those women who hewed a way through the blocked highways of half a century ago.

The story of Maria Mitchell, the child of the Quaker school teacher of Nantucket, is too well known to need lengthy recapitulation. She began the study of astronomy with her father, devoting her attention especially to nebulae and comets. In 1847 the woman of twenty-five published an account of the discovery of a new telescope comet, for which she received from the King of Denmark a gold medal. During the next ten years she was employed by the coast survey, and assisted in compiling the nautical almanac. In 1857 she visited the principal astronomers and observatories in Europe. In 1865 she became professor of astronomy in Vassar College. She was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Science, and also of the American Academy ot Arts and Sciences, to which she was the first woman to be admitted.

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Probably no woman since Maria Mitchell has made more remarkable progress in astronomical directions than Mrs. Elizabeth Preston Davis, of Washington, who married her classmate, Arthur Powell Davis, of the Geological Survey.

From a mere child, Miss Preston showed a remarkable fondness for mathematical calculations and a marvelous ability to work them out. She graduated from Park Seminary and the Normal School. In 1888 she took the degree of Bachelor of Science at the Corcoran School of Columbian University, and afterward secured the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy at the Johns Hopkins University, making mathematics her specialty, being afterward admitted to the university as a graduate student.

It fell to Miss Preston to read the proof sheets of an important work by Professor Gore and of Professor Newcomb's Calculus. Both men acknowledge their indebtedness to her in the prefaces of their books.

While on her bridal tour in New Mexico, Mrs. Davis accomplished intricate work on a volume for the Navy Department. While in California she visited the Lick Observatory for the purpose of establishing methods of computing the orbits of new comets. A few years ago she published a mathematical table entitled, "The Washington-Greenwich Reduction Table." Her most important work has been the calculation of the sun's ephemeris for the Nautical Almanac.

Mrs. Davis, with all her care and studies, is a devoted wife and tender mother, and her family "rise up and call her blessed." She is a member of the Woman's Literary Club, of Baltimore, and of the Anthropological Club, of Washington. She has made time, with all that crowds her days, to fit two cadets for Annapolis and two young men for Stanford University.

Miss Dorothea Klumpke is one of the youngest of American women who have won distinction as scientists. She wears the tiny purple ribbon with which the French government decorates the officers of its academy. Her honors were won in the Paris Observatory, where she was given an important position over the heads of fifty French male competitors.

Miss Klumpke is a Californian by birth. She was educated in the public schools of Valentia, and afterward went to Germany to study.

The New York Journal speaks thus of women scientists employed by the government:

"Uncle Sam employs a great many scientists, and among them are several women who are regarded as experts in their several departments.

"Miss Adelaide Hasse enjoys the distinction of ranking higher officially than any other woman in the government employ. She stands next to the chief in her department, and acts for him during his absence. While she was still a child she moved to Los Angeles, Cal. On being graduated from the high school there she obtained the position of assistant librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, and

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so distinguished herself there as an organizer and manager that in March, 1895, when it was first decided to establish a library of public documents in Washington, she was sent for to take the place of librarian. "Up to that time nobody knew how many public documents there were, excepting that there was a great accumulation of them piled up pell-mell somewhere in the depths of the Interior Department.

"There was nothing for me to do," said the pretty librarian, "but to put on a big brown gingham apron and get down on the floor and go to work." She had no help except simply a couple of laborers who moved about the heavy volumes under her directions. There are now 1500 volumes in the library, and there is room for 200,000. They are all arranged with wonderful method and exactness, and the catalogue is most complete. By its aid the smallest pamphlet can be found in a minute.

"In a large bright room in the annex of the Agricultural Building Miss Lillie Sullivan sits. She has two desks--one where she keeps her paints and pencils, and the other bearing a microscope of the latest pattern. Here are also such entomological treasures as the left hind leg of a flea, part of a wasp, a baby mite and a spider's head.

"Miss Sullivan is a particularly sweet looking little woman, with shy brown eyes and a charming smile. Her business in life is painting bugs. In order to paint them well she has to dissect and study them. It is said that there is no one in this country who can depict insects so accurately and so beautifully.

"Miss Sullivan, who is a Washington girl, studied art and painted portraits until one day she saw a friend painting insects. She became at once infatuated with the study, and began devoting herself to it. She has been in the government service for nearly fourteen years.

"Miss Alice Fletcher's life study has been ethnology. She took part in the opening of many Indian mounds from Florida to Maine. Then she took a daring resolve. She made up her mind that the real way to study Indians was to go and live among them. So she took up her abode among the Dakotas. This was nearly twenty years ago.

"After being among the Dakotas and Omahas for some time, Miss Fletcher went to Washington to beg certain favors for them from Congress. She was successful, but was asked to see the reforms she asked for carried out personally. This she did, living among them altogether for fourteen years. She administered for them at one time a million and a half of acres. She has helped to have educated a great many of the children. One of her former proteges is Mr. La Fleche, one of the cleverest employes in the Indian Bureau. He is now preparing a work about his people.

"Miss Thora Steininger makes mammals her study. She is authority on the names by which these animals are known.

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"Two of the best known of the government scientific women are Miss Rathburn, of the Fish Commission, who is considered the greatest living expert on crabs, and Miss Caroline Stevenson, of the Ethnological Bureau, who is a profound student of American ethnology."

"Although," says the author of "Women in the Business World," "fashions, rather than fluxions, are popularly supposed to be the peculiar province of women, nevertheless women have furnished a very respectable list of mathematical celebrities, even within the last century. Two women astronomers--one of Hamburg and one of Boston--discovered the comet known as Olbers', almost at the same moment, though studying the heavens independently. In our own days, for a long time a woman was director of the astronomical observatory of Rome, which was always famous for the brilliancy of its staff. She was one of the ablest mathematicians of the century, and a member of nearly every European learned society, but so modest and unobtrusive that only a few of her own countrymen knew that the work of the great observatory of the capitol was conducted under the supervision of a woman. A woman filled the mathematical chair in the University of Stockholm many years, much to the surprise of that part of the world, who imagined the feminine mind incapable of mastering so abstract and logical a branch of knowledge as the science of numbers in its higher development and application.

"No greater example of perseverance against difficulties can be cited than the life of Mary Somerville, 'whose name stands at the top of the scanty roll of women eminent in science.' At the age of fourteen a friend taught her some fancy work from a fashion magazine. On one of the pages she saw some strange x's and y's and was told that they belonged to a kind of arithmetic called algebra, but nobody could explain it to her. It was even next to impossible to procure books to study from. At last her brother's tutor brought her Euclid's geometry and Bonnycastle's algebra, and she set to work to master the contents without an instructor. It was necessary to first brush up her knowledge of arithmetic, which had never been very exact. Indeed, at this time, she frankly said she could not add up a column of figures correctly. She studied at night till there was complaint that she used up the candles too fast, and she was deprived of them altogether. Then she began reviewing her geometry from memory at night. The intellectual rank assigned women by public opinion at that time was very low, and any attempt on their part to rise higher was met by prompt and severe disapproval.

"Not until she was thirty-three years old, a widow with two children, did she possess a library of mathematical books. This treasure was the reward of a long course of years in which she had persevered almost without hope. She was considered eccentric and foolish even by her own family, and much of her studying had to be done in secret. One of her male admirers accompanied his offer of

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marriage by a pamphlet on the 'Duties of a Wife,' with the pages turned down at the narrowest precepts. After her second marriage her life flowed smoothly, success followed success; the leading scientific men of England did her honor, and she lived to the age of ninety-one, working till the day of her death upon her difficult calculations.

"The first woman doctor of note in this country was Harriet K. Hunt, of Boston. She was educated in her profession by private instruction, and began practice in 1835. Twelve years afterward she applied to Harvard University for admission but was not admitted. Three years later the faculty were willing to receive her, but as the students objected she declined to attend, and continued a successful practice in Boston for more than a quarter of a century.

"Now nearly three thousand women practice medicine in the United States, and most of them are more than ordinarily successful. One woman in England has been appointed house surgeon in a children's hospital, the first of her sex to hold such a position in London. Nine male candidates for the place were vanquished by her superior qualifications. She is both Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery of the London University. Paris, for a time, had a medical examiner of girls in its municipal schools. The examiner's duty is to see that the girls are not overworked, and that they get through their studies under sanitary conditions.

"The woman doctor goes through severe discipline to qualify herself for future usefulness; but if she is possessed of genius for her work, and applies herself to it zealously, she will achieve enviable financial independence.

"To begin with, she should have strong predilections for the profession-- should be a born doctor, not a made one. This is the only kind that ever succeeds in the true sense of the word. A genius for healing and helping underlies all the training of the greatest lights of medicine. Next to that, good health and a stout, though sympathetic, heart are most essential, granting, as a matter of course, that the head is supplied with brains. In this calling more than any other, perhaps, the higher or subjective senses need to be developed, though of this the schools have nothing to say.

"Formerly the woman who chose to become a physician experienced great difficulty in getting a medical education, and had the sentiment of the public against her, besides. Now the doors of the schools are open to her and the public accepts her without an antagonistic word."

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WOMEN as archaeologists?" says Rev. William C. Winslow, Ph.D., L. H. D., LL. D., vice-president of the Egypt Exploration Fund. "Yes, a good number of women have done splendid work in this field, but in many cases their work has not been accredited to them, but to the men whose best helpers they have been. There is Madame Edouard Naville, for instance; her husband, Henri Edouard Naville, is king of Egyptologists, you know. Madame Naville is a splendid draughtsman, and illustrates all her husband's books, copying hieroglyphics from tombs, and everywhere where they occur, in a most masterly manner, besides assisting him in a thousand other ways. I am not sure but she is about as good an Egyptologist as he is.

"Then there are Mrs. H. M. Tirard, who edited Erman's 'Life in Egypt,' Mrs. McClure, who edited Maspero's 'Dawn of Civilization,' and Mary Broderick, Ph.D., who edited 'Outlines of Ancient Egyptian History,' 'Egypt under the Pharaohs,' and who edits all of 'Murray's Hand Books for Egypt.' These are all good Egyptologists. But, of course, the stars, however brilliant, pale before the sun, and all women and most men Egyptologists look small beside Amelia B. Edwards. She was the queen of this realm, and it is not likely that we shall look upon her like again.

"Miss Edwards was, as you know, the honorary secretary for Great Britain of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and did her best work as an Egyptologist. And yet she was marvelously gifted in other directions. At nine years of age she won a prize for a temperance story, and had a tale accepted by the Omnibus at fourteen. Hers was a voice of such wonderful flexibility and compass that it was thought at twenty that the opera would be her profession. She was well known

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at twenty-two as a contributor to periodical literature and as a full- fledged novelist. Later on she became a reviewer on the staff of the London Morning Post, Saturday Review, Graphic, Illustrated News and other journals. And so on and on in a splendidly brilliant career, till late in the afternoon of life she took up the study of Egypt, preparing, as a result, the best work, in its scope, on ancient Egypt that I know of, giving the world a most captivating, inspiring, instructive book that has become almost another 'Baedeker' to the Nile tourist.

"She was many-sided as an Egyptologist. When she vividly painted the many pre-requisites of the successful explorer in situ, in one of her lectures, I inwardly said, 'What a queen among explorers you would make!' As an incipient Egyptologist, in 1874, she 'wriggled in' through 'an aperture about a foot and a half square' in 'Discoveries at Abou Simbel,' so graphically told by her in Chapter XVIII of 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile.'

"By nature and by grace, and otherwise, it came about that Miss Edwards was the best delineator that Old Egypt has ever had. The Saturday Review thinks 'no other writer did so much to render Egypt popular.' Her advent christening as an enthusiastic amateur in Egyptology may date from 1877, when 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile' appeared, and her confirmation in that science from 1881, when she had critically mastered all the details of the unprecedented discovery of the royal mummies at Thebes, and substantially assisted Sir E. Wilson in preparing his book, 'The Egypt of the Past,' which she was revising the last year of her life. Harper's Magazine, of July, 1882, under the title, 'Lying in State in Cairo,' gives her clear, picturesque delightful story anent those regal mummies.

"Harper's, October, 1886, contained 'The Story of Tanis' (Zoan), which, as an archeological paper in a popular magazine, is, as a whole, without its peer. Its background of study and research, its grouping of historical data and exploration details, its dignity and classic finish, its imaginative play (resting on ascertained conditions and established topography) in the portrayal of Zoan in all its glory, when Rameses oppressed Israel--particularly in the description of the scene, which a stranger approaching that great northern capital of the Pharaohs would have witnessed, when the king of all colossi in Egypt and in the world towered in majesty above the vast temple--these and more stamp this article as a masterpiece of archaeological and historical verbal painting.

"One of Miss Edwards' pamphlets is in substance her paper read at the Congress of Orientalists, held at Leyden, in 1884, entitled 'On a Fragment of Mummy-Case,' illustrated by herself. Here I may exemplify the clearness and grace with which she transcribed hieroglyphs. OnPage 212 of the New England Magazine, for April, 1890, I introduced a fac-simile of her manuscript that she had intended solely for my own eye. The characters are models of elegant drawing; yet I am sure that Miss Edwards executed them with a running hand.

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Some of my readers will pleasantly recall her electric manual touches upon the blackboard in her lecture upon the evolution of Egyptian letters and text.

"Had Miss Edwards' life been spared another decade the world would have been the richer by at least two or three more new books of a calibre and merit equal to her 'Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers;' and her revision of Wilson's 'Egypt' is the work on the history of the dynasties and marked epochs of Egypt for the general reader, and singularly useful for reference. Her translation of Maspero's 'Egyptian Archaeology' gives to the English reader a most authoritative text-book on the architecture and art of the ancient Egyptians.

"The Egypt Exploration Fund owed an unpayable debt to Miss Edwards; that debt is now due, will be ever due, to her memory. 'Miss Edwards,' as the obituary in the Annual Report of the Fund says, 'has followed Erasmus Wilson and James Russell Lowell. In honor of their memory, we, who survive, have a sacred duty to the great enterprise consecrated by their names.' It may be truly added that the archeological bread she cast upon the waters returned to her not after many days.

"Intellectual culture, education, may everywhere regard Miss Edwards as a generous creditor in the great exchange of knowledge. For out of Egypt has chiefly come our knowledge of the evolution of man during a period of five thousand years B. C., and among the delightful surprises of our day is the enthusiasm, intelligence, skill, magnetism and poetry with which her pen and voice have invested the old, old subject, now regenerated to notice-- public notice--by discovery, and by portrayal like hers. May other imaginative and scholarly souls take up the burden of her song in the promotion of exploration to reveal and to record monumental history by the sweet waters of the Nile."

The most famous woman archaeologist now in the world is Madame Dieulafoy.

"When people go to the opera or theatre or the salon in Paris," says the Sketch, "they sometimes see a small, well-dressed man, with a clean-shaven face and small feet and hands, and they sometimes think what a nice- looking man, but never in the world do they suspect that this same fine- looking man is a woman, and one of the most famous in Paris. Mme. Dieulafoy is one of the most celebrated of the world's archeologists, and has been of great service to the scientific world. She discovered the ruins of the Temple of Darius, which are now in the Louvre, in Paris. For this great achievement the French Government decorated her with the Order of the Legion of Honor and gave her the right to wear men's attire at all times. She is married, and she and her husband both patronize the same tailor. Their home is one of great luxury, and they gather about them the savants of France, who are anxious to pay homage to so learned and remarkable a woman."

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A most noted traveler in unusual paths was Florence van Sass, better known as Lady Baker. In 1861 she started, a mere girl, with her husband, Sir Samuel Baker, on his memorable journey to discover the source of the Nile. She shared all his hardships, and her courage and tact were equal to every draught upon them. On one occasion Sir Samuel was obliged to struggle through fire and water to get through the Ellyrian pass in advance of his deadly enemy, the Turk Ibrahim. When he believed that the task was accomplished, and imagined he heard his men talking behind him, his implacable foe, Ibrahim, confronted him. That this encounter meant the entire failure of his expedition he did not doubt, but, as he himself declares, "its fate was retrieved by Mrs. Baker. She implored me to call him, to insist upon a personal explanation, and to offer him some present in the event of establishing amicable relations. I could not condescend to address the sullen scoundrel. He was in the act of passing, and success depended on that instant. Mrs. Baker herself called him. For the moment he made no reply; but upon my repeating the call in a loud key he turned his donkey toward us and dismounted."

Baker reasoned with the Turk, and by "clinching his argument with a promise of a double-barreled gun and a bag of gold, Ibrahim was won."

At a time when a number of the men had mutinied, Mrs. Baker quelled the riot, and caused the little army to go quietly forward.

She accompanied her husband in all his African travels. In 1861 she went with him to Abyssinia; in 1863--65, while investigating the course of the Nile; and in 1869--73 she labored with him during the Ismailian expedition to suppress the slave trade. In the midst of actual engagements, while the air about her was thick with spears, she remained cool and collected. Her kindness to her husband's men filled them with love for her, and by her skill and devotion as a nurse she saved many of their lives.

The story of Alexandrine Trine as a wanderer in strange paths reads like a romance. Miss Trine was a born traveler. In her early teens she had visited Norway and Sweden and at eighteen had journeyed through Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt. The Pyramids captivated her; the Nile enchanted her; and there was kindled in her heart a vehement desire to explore a part of the unknown regions of Africa, and to investigate the source of the Nile.

In July, 1861, Miss Trine and her aunt and a friend were domesticated for a while in Cairo. After a time, and with a suitable retinue, they journeyed as far as Khartoum, and from thence to Gondokoro, the place where preparations had been made for Captain Speke and Captain Grant in the unlikely event of their returning from their expedition into Zanzibar in search of the source of the Nile. When they did return, after discovering Victoria Nyanza, Samuel Baker and his wife met them at Gondokoro, but never had a meeting with Miss Trine.

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Miss Trine's expedition to search for the Nile's source was fitted out on so grand a scale that the natives averred that she was the daughter of the Sultan. Terrible disasters overtook this expedition: sickness, famine, obstructions of all kinds. These things and the death of her aunt drove the adventuresome lady back to Cairo, where for a time she lived in Oriental magnificence. She finally started on another expedition, still with the purpose of tracing the Nile to its source. She was murdered between Mourzouk and Ghat by the savages, whose rapacity her apparent wealth had excited.

An entire volume could be interestingly written about the travels of Isabelle Bird, afterward Mrs. Bishop.

Miss Bird, a frail, delicate, refined woman, pushed her way along many tracks which had been trodden by no woman and by few men. In her youth she visited America, about which she wrote with justice and intelligence. She traveled in Japan, the Malay Peninsula, Persia, Kurdistan and adjoining countries. About 1893 she went to Corea and China. Her books are full of interesting information. Wherever she travels Mrs. Bishop takes a warm personal interest in the people, and does all she can to make their lives brighter, their outlook more hopeful.

Miss Gordon Cummings is too well known and too widely loved to need extended comment here. Like Mrs. Bishop she is a wanderer in many far fields, and, also like Mrs. Bishop, she everywhere "goes about doing good."

Nellie Bly's exploits as a traveler have been too widely and too recently exploited for our readers to have forgotten them.

Miss Annie S. Peck, a young American woman, is one of the comparatively few people who have ascended the Matterhorn. Miss Peck says:

"It was early in the eighties that my attention was first called to the Matterhorn by hearing Dr. David Jordan, now president of Leland Stanford University, describe his ascent of that mountain. He told a tale so terrible that while my spirit was fired with a determination to see this wonderful rock pyramid if I ever went to Europe, I concluded that I should be satisfied with beholding it from below. When, in 1885, I first saw this magnificent rock towering above me I was seized with an irresistible longing to attain its summit. But alas! fifty dollars is a large sum to spend on a single day's pleasure . . . so I reluctantly turned my steps onward, cherishing the determination that some day I would come again and fulfill my heart's desire."

"Miss Peck did "come again," and this time she was prepared for the stupendous climb. She goes on:

"Though nearly all the snows of winter slide from the mountain's steep slopes, it is nevertheless true that the irregular ragged rocks allow of the lodgment of a few inches of snow here and there, enough to make the footing insecure and the handholds uncomfortable, thus increasing the danger both of freezing and of

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unexpectedly gliding down the mountain side. One is so situated during a large part of the time that if he should slip, and was not held by the rope, he would slide two or three or four thousand feet down to one of the glaciers three thousand feet below."

The narrator speaks of parts of the route where "the incline was from forty to eighty degrees, mostly eighty, the rocks smooth," and where "there were no secure handholds." "The distance covered by ropes," she goes on, "is probably one or two hundred yards. It was here that young Hardow fell, dragging three of his companions to death four thousand feet below."

Miss Peck's story, as told in McClure's Magazine for July, 1896, relates a feat of splendid endurance and persistence.

One of the most remarkable trips ever taken by a woman, however, was that of Mrs. May French-Sheldon in east Africa, when she traversed 990 miles of interior, never before explored by white person. There have been white women in Africa before--Lady Burton, Mlle. Tinne and others even--who have gone at the head of expeditions. But Mrs. M. French-Sheldon--an American woman by birth, training and loyalty--was the first, and so far the only one, to enter the African wilds at the head of a large caravan of natives, and entirely unaided or unaccompanied by any white person.

Mrs. Sheldon is a native of Philadelphia, and has lived in several American cities, although for some years she has been a resident of London. In making this journey into savage wilds Mrs. Sheldon did not lay aside the social graces for which she is noted, nor discard the amenities of a refined civilization. On the contrary, she observed and maintained the same dainty habits which belong to a lady's boudoir in London.

Instead of adopting a rough dress and lowering her personality to the level of wild and uncivilized surroundings, she provided herself with one magnificent court dress of white satin, and was carefully costumed in becoming, clean and suitable clothing at all times. Only a woman versed in the ways of the world would have acted on the truism that "clothes make the man," and recognized in advance that the way to maintain her social prestige, even among savages, was to live up to it. Throughout her journey she had her private bathing tent, which was sacredly guarded by boys detailed for the purpose; and every day she performed in it the sacred mysteries of a refined woman's toilet, securely screened from observation, and was regarded in consequence as a being of better than ordinary clay, a creature of finer mold--in short, as the "white queen"-- ("Bebe Bwana").

The Sultan of Zanzibar, although not an uncultivated savage, recognized the divine royalty of a pure and true woman, and threw around her the protecting influence of his despotic favor. He not only assisted her materially in the

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selection of men for her caravan, but he sent before her a proclamation threatening instant death to any who should molest her.

[image: MRS. MAY FRENCH-SHELDON]

And so this woman at the head of two hundred men was regarded as a superior being, and was paid involuntary tribute like a princess with greater powers than their own chiefs. The native potentates met her with gifts, invited her to visit them, and allowed her to talk with their women and to witness rites and ceremonies

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which are usually carefully kept from white men. Their homage at times threatened to become tedious, as when they brought tribal differences to the "white queen" for adjustment. Domestic trials were also laid before her, in the hope that she possessed some occult authority to right all family wrongs. She was taken to their lurking places, too, giving her an insight into their character and customs far beyond what she had dared hope. They had no doubt of her motives, and she carefully kept up the appearance of royalty which had so impressed them.

[image: PALANQUIN IN WHICH MRS. FRENCH-SHELDON TRAVELED 900 MILES IN EAST AFRICA UNATTENDED BY ANY WHITE PERSON]

Every night she slept in her palanquin with the curtains closely drawn, and a faithful native guarding it on each side.

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[image: MARIE ROBINSON WRIGHT]

Mrs. Sheldon's object was not simply to gratify her love of adventure. There was a humanitarian reason for her journey. She succeeded in penetrating the wilds of Central Africa, unattended by other assistance than her own woman's wit and marvelous firmness and magnetism of character. She has proved to a thoughtful people that the natives of those countries are intelligent human beings. If she shall convince the world that the problem of educating and Christianizing them can be solved by industrial education she will have more than succeeded. Mrs. Sheldon was recently made a member of the Royal Geographical Society of London, an honor seldom accorded any woman. Her lectures before scientific societies in London have been heard with extraordinary interest. Her work supplements that of Mr. Stanley, which was purely geographical, by giving a side no male traveler could have ever reached--the customs, habits and home life of the women and children. Mrs. Sheldon brought back with her an immense variety of objects which she uses to illustrate her lectures, and which give graphic interest to her picturesque narrative.

Along the same line of effort is the work of Marie Robinson Wright, of Georgia and New York. She was reared in luxury with slaves at her command to gratify every wish, until she was almost a young lady. At the age of sixteen she married, and by the time she was twenty she was the mother of two children, and the ravages of war had devastated the fair Georgia country so that neither

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husband nor father had any property left. She had to go to doing her own work and taking care of her own babies--a rather dismal prospect for a high-bred, high- spirited Southern girl of twenty, was it not? She did not dream then that some day she would be a distinguished traveler, nor that she would be received by foreign potentates with every mark of respect and distinction.

When she was left a widow a few years after, she found that she must do something for the support of herself and her young children. And so it happened that she struck out into a new path. Not all at once, however. She went to the office of the little magazine called the Sunny South --not with poor poems and worse stories in her pocket, but with a proposition that met the wants of the publishers. She asked for the privileges of traveling and soliciting subscriptions. Doubtless she would have liked to be a famous author as well as anybody else, but she had good common sense, and she knew that the business end of the magazine offered her a much quicker opportunity.

She was engaged at once, and for two or three years made a good living for herself and babies, and very materially increased the circulation of the periodical. So successful was she that a chance came from this work to go on to the New York World, not as a sensational reporter, nor even as editorial writer, but to travel through the Southern cities and write them up for the big city daily. This work was even more successful, and her great feat of writing an article descriptive of the resources and development of Mexico, for which the Mexican government paid the paper the sum of twenty thousand dollars, is one of the most remarkable in the annals of modern journalism. At the World's Fair in Chicago, she was again given an opportunity to distinguish herself by getting the illustrated edition of the Fair, again making several thousand dollars.

"But why should I go on making enormous sums of money for other people?" she asked herself. "Have I not now sufficient ability and experience to stand alone?"

She decided to try, and in 1895 with her daughter, Miss Ida Dent Wright, for her sole companion, she went again to Mexico. Secretary of State Mariscal and President Diaz were already her warm admirers, for splendid courage and womanly independence were never more strongly combined with all feminine graces--and to them she went with her plans. Both these executives furnished her with letters to every governor in Mexico, and the President ordered, not only a military escort wherever needed, but that special trains and steamboat facilities should be given her throughout the country. Then she spent a year in thoroughly inspecting and studying the country. Besides thousands of miles of railway and steamboat traveling, Mrs. Wright and her daughter went nearly nine hundred miles in mountain regions, on mules, attended by military escort, and penetrating regions where none but native women have ever been seen. The result of her

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experiences has been put in a large illustrated book on Mexico, which is the most comprehensive and altogether the most beautiful book on Mexico ever written in any language, and which was ordered in advance by Mexican officials to the number of 8000.

In addition to this, or as a result of her success, Mrs. Wright has been invited to Costa Rica to prepare a similar book for the government, and later she will make a thorough tour of South America for the same purpose.

And so tired, weary young woman, do not get discouraged no matter how dark the outlook. The clouds may hang low at times, but they are sure to clear away and perhaps your sun may be mounting toward a zenith of whose brightness you little dream. Only keep up courage and determine to do your best to develop the highest qualities of which you are capable, and you cannot fail.