Our First Women

During the flrst 200 years of our existence lt would have been almost absurd to expect that women would be extenslvely educated outside the home. The country was poor and struggling with new conditions, and great financial crises swept over it. There were wars and rumors of wars. Untll aftei 1812-15 American lndependence was not an assured fact. Whatever may be sald oí the present, wonian's place In America then was in the home, and nobly did she flll that place. That ene had not been wholly unlnstructed in even elegant leaining is evidenced by the share she took in literature and in the discussion of religious and public malters, and in such personal records as that of Eider Faunce. who eulogized Alice Southworth Bradford for "her exertions in promoting the literary improvement and the deportment of the rising generation." Dame schools were early established for girls, and here were often found the sons of the farmer and the mechanic. These were established in Massachusetts in 1835. Late in 1700 girls were admitted through the summer.to "Latin schools," where boys were taught in winter, and in 1789 women began to be associated with men as teachers. In 1771 Connnecticut founded a system of free schools in which boys and girls were taught. In 1794 tha Moravlana founded a school for girls at Bethlehem, Pa. Here were educated the sisters of Peter Cooper, the mother of President Arthur, and many women who became exponents of culture. - Mrs. Helen Kendrick Johnson in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly.