Little Dor-o-thy Dix was poor. Her father did not know how to make a
living. Her mother did not know how to bring up her children.
The father moved from place to place. Sometimes he printed little
tracts to do good. But he let his own children grow up poor and
wretched.
Dor-o-thy wanted to learn. She wanted to become a teacher. She wanted
to get money to send her little brothers to school.
Dor-o-thy was a girl of strong will and temper. When she was twelve
years old, she left her wretched home. She went to her grand-mother.
Her grand-mother Dix lived in a large house in Boston. She sent Dorothy
to school.
Dorothy learned fast. But she wanted to make money. She wanted to help
her brothers. When she was fourteen, she taught a school. She tried to
make herself look like a woman. She made her dresses longer.
She soon went back to her grand-mother. She went to school again. Then
she taught school. She soon had a school in her grandmother’s house. It
was a very good school. Many girls were sent to her school. Miss Dix
was often ill. But when she was well enough, she worked away. She was
able to send her brothers to school until they grew up.
Besides helping her brothers, she wanted to help other poor children.
She started a school for poor children in her grandmother’s barn.
After a while she left off teaching. She was not well. She had made all
the money she needed.
But she was not idle. She went one day to teach some poor women in an
alms-house. Then she went to see the place where the crazy people were
kept. These insane people had no fire in the coldest weather.
Miss Dix tried to get the man-a-gers to put up a stove in the room. But
they would not do it. Then she went to the court. She told the judge
about it. The judge said that the insane people ought to have a fire.
He made the man-a-gers put up a stove in the place where they were
kept.
Then Miss Dix went to other towns. She wanted to see how the insane
people were treated. Some of them were shut up in dark, damp cells. One
young man was chained up with an iron collar about his neck.
Miss Dix got new laws made about the insane. She per-suad-ed the States
to build large houses for keeping the insane. She spent most of her
life at this work. The Civil War broke out. There were many sick and
wounded soldiers to be taken care of.
All of the nurses in the hos-pi-tals were put under Miss Dix. She
worked at this as long as the war lasted. Then she spent the rest of
her life doing all that she could for insane people.