WOMEN'S WORK.
The night before commencement Miss Ashton had reserved for the reading
of notices of woman's work and success. This she did at that time,
because she wished her pupils to carry away a full belief not only in
their own abilities, but also in the position which, with diligence,
these abilities would enable them to reach.
The whole school gathered in the hall. Miss Ashton had requested that
the notices should be handed in to her a few days previous. Now she
said, "Young ladies, I am both surprised and pleased at the readiness
and faithfulness with which you have responded to my request. I have
here," lifting a pretty, ribbon-tied basket, "at least one hundred
different notices! Just think! _one hundred_ instances in which women
have tried, and have succeeded in earning not only a respectable, but
a successful livelihood. This fact speaks so well for itself, that all
remaining for me to do is to read you some of these notices. I must
make a selection from among them, and the first one I will read I am
sure will interest you:--
"'Mlle. Sarmisa Bileesco, the first woman admitted to the bar in
France, is said to have taken the highest rank in a class of five
hundred men at the Ecole du Droit, Paris, where she studied after
receiving the degree of Bachelor of Letters and Science in Bucharest.
She has begun to practise law in the latter city, where her father is
a banker.'
"Here is another one in the same profession:--
"'Mrs. Tel Sone is a leading lawyer in Japan, and has a large and
profitable practice.'
"'Miss Jean Gordon of Cincinnati, upon whom will be conferred the
degree of Ph.G. at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, has earned
the highest average ever attained by any woman graduate of that
institution. Out of one hundred and eighty-four graduates of this
year, only six obtained the highest rating of "distinguished." Miss
Gordon was one of the six. She was the only woman in her class, and
had to contend with bright young men.'
"Miss Gordon, I think," remarked Miss Ashton, "has a distinguished
future before her.
"'Female professors and lecturers are to be introduced into the
Michigan University at Ann Arbor.'
"'Two female medical graduates have been appointed house surgeons at
two English hospitals.'
"'An Ohio girl discovered a way of transforming a barrel of petroleum
into ten thousand cubic feet of gas.'
"'Another woman has constructed a machine which will make as many
paper bags in a day as thirty men can put together.'
"'An invention which you hardly would have expected from a woman, is a
war vessel that is susceptible of being converted off-hand into a fort
by simply taking it apart.'
"'Chicago, March 25. Miss Sophia G. Hayden of Boston wins the one
thousand-dollar prize offered for the best design for the woman's
buildings of the World's Fair.'" (A sensation among the scholars,
which pleased Miss Ashton). "'Miss Lois L. Howe, also of Boston, was
second, five hundred dollars, and Miss Laura Hayes of Chicago gets the
two hundred and fifty dollars offered for the third best design.
"'Miss Hayden is a first-honor graduate of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, and Miss Howe is from the same institution. Miss Hayes
is Mrs. Potter Palmer's private secretary.
"'As soon as the awards were made, Miss Hayden was wired to come to
Chicago immediately and elaborate her plans. The design is one of
marked simplicity. It is in the Italian renaissance style, with
colonnades, broken by centre and end pavilions. The structure is to be
200 x 400 feet, and 50 feet to the cornice. There is no dome. The
chief feature of ornamentation is the entrance.'
"I am glad to tell those of you young ladies who feel symptoms of
architectural genius only waiting for development, that year by year
this institute is opening its door wider and wider to admit women.
This last year the ten who are new members of it were for the first
time invited to a class supper, going to it matronized by Mrs.
Walker, the wife of the president.
"One other thing I want you to remark. These three young ladies, by
their ability, and the success which is the fruit only of faithful
study, have done more for women's advancement than has been
accomplished for years.
"A man who is a successful architect occupies an important and proud
position; that a woman can do the same is no small help in the
struggle she is now making.
"I recommend them to you as examples, particularly as I know there are
a number among you who will not be content to let graduation from this
school end your educational life.
"The next I shall read you is a notice of women as journalists:--
"'Let me give you a fact about women as journalists in my own office,'
said the editor of one of the largest dailies to me a few days ago.
"'Five years ago I employed one woman on my staff, to-day I have over
twenty, and the best work which appears in our papers is from the pen
of women writers. Of course you cannot give women all sorts of
commissions; but if I want a really conscientious piece of work done
nowadays, I give it to one of our women. I find absolutely they do
their work more thoroughly than do the men.'
"Young ladies, it has always been complained of women that, though
they are quicker, guided by instincts that act promptly and for the
greater part correctly, they are not patient or thorough. Now, as I
have told you so often that it must sound trite to you to have me
repeat it, it is only patient thoroughness that wins. I am glad to
have this editor of one of our largest dailies give this indubitable
testimony that we _can_ be thorough if we will. For those of you who
neither wish nor expect to continue study any further, I will read the
opportunity offered for a bucolic life:--
"'Miss Antoinette Knaggs, a young woman with a good collegiate
education, owns and manages a farm of two hundred acres in Ohio. She
says she made money last year, and expects to make more this year. "I
have tried various ways of farming," she says, "but I find I can get
along best when I manage my farm myself. I tried employing a manager,
but I found he managed chiefly for himself. Then I sub-let to tenants,
and they used up my stock and implements, and the returns were
unsatisfactory. So I have taken the management into my own hands,
planting such crops as I think best, and I find I am a very good
farmer, if I do say it myself.'"
"Said the daughter of a New Hampshire farmer to me a few days ago,"
continued Miss Ashton, "'When my father died my mother took the
control of our whole large farm into her own hands. She managed so
well that we have sold our farm and moved down to suburban Boston,
where we can command the literary advantages she has taught us not
only to prize but to love.' The collegiate education fitted Miss
Knaggs to be a better, wiser farmer. I hope if it shall be the choice
of any of you, you will find yourself abler for your life here."
"I am sure we shall," thought a Dakota young lady, whose father's
broad ranch covered many a goodly acre, and whose secret wish had
always been to own a ranch of her own.
"There seems to be no profession now from which a woman is shut out,
though we hear of fewer among lawyers than in any other profession. I
find only one more among all these notices. 'Fourteen women were
graduated from the university of New York Law School last night, among
the number being Mrs. George B. McClellan, daughter-in-law of the late
General McClellan.' But I well know there have been women associated
with their husbands in the law. Women also with their own offices,
doing a large and important business.
"In England, civil service is open to them; and though it does not
correspond of course with our law, still the same strict education is
needed for success.
"Here is a paper which states the terms on which ladies enter the
civil service.
"'They enter as second-class clerks, receiving $325 a year, rising by
fifteen dollars a year to $400. Here the maximum, which is certainly
small, is reached; but there is promotion by merit to clerkships,
rising to $550 a year, and a few higher places, which go up to $850.
Three lady superintendents each receive up to $2,000, and four
assistant superintendents each $1,000. The work is not difficult, and
the hours are seven a day. An annual holiday of a month is allowed.'
"These wages are no larger than would be paid here for the same
services. I know women have no difficulty, if once elected, in filling
clerkships and secretaryships, and they even have important places in
the treasury department at Washington. A very telling record might be,
probably has been, made of their successes there.
"In the medical profession we all know how rapidly they have risen to
the front. Stories that sound almost fabulous are told of the income
some of the most talented receive; and to show the popularity this new
movement has attained, it is only necessary to state that at the
present day it would be hard to find a town, north, south, east, or
west, which has not its woman doctor. The medical colleges have large
classes of them; and in Europe names of many American girls, if they
do not lead in number, do at least in ability."
Here there was a resolute stamping and clapping, which pleased Miss
Ashton too much for her to attempt to stop it.
"If I had more time I could tell you some wonderful but entirely true
stories of difficult surgical operations being performed in foreign
hospitals by young American women in so remarkable a way that they
excited not only the applause of the fellow-students, but won prizes.
"As this is only one of the professions, I must hurry on to the
ministry. We all know that in some of our denominations there are
numbers of women who occupy the place of settled minister, and do
well. On the whole, however, they may be considered more successful as
lecturers, Bible-readers, and elocution teachers; and then there is a
wide open field to them as actresses and singers; indeed, no public or
private way of earning a livelihood or a reputation is denied them.
"Teaching always has been theirs, and year after year the profession
becomes more and more crowded and the requirements for good teachers
more strict. Many of you, young ladies, I find are looking forward to
this in your immediate future. I need not here urge upon you the
necessity of being well prepared when your day for examination comes.
I have held it up before you during all the past year.
"This is an incomplete list of the great things which I expect you
young ladies of the graduating class to perform. I would not, however,
on any account, forget that broad and specially adapted woman's
work,--the different philanthropic schemes with which this nineteenth
century abounds.
"So many are in women's hands; like women's boards of missions,
children's hospitals, homes for little wanderers, young women's
Christian homes, young women's industrial union, North End missions,
Bible-readers, evangelists, flower committees for supplying the sick
in charity hospitals, providing excursions for poor children,
providing homes in the country for the destitute and orphan children,
society of little wanderers, newspaper boys' home, boot-black boys'
home.
"It is possible for me to name but a small part of them, but those of
you who have the means of helping any one of these objects named, or
any of the many others, will remember, I hope, that wonderful cup of
cold water which, given, shall give to the giver the rich reward.
"This will probably be my last opportunity to speak to you alone as my
school. Let me thank you heartily for all you have done this year, and
some of you for four long years, to make our life together pleasant,
and we hope acceptable to our great Taskmaster. I wish you now, for
myself and all the other teachers, a pleasant vacation, and a safe
return to those of you who are to come back to us."
There were many quiet tears shed among the girls, and Miss Ashton's
eyes were not quite dry.