The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-09-23
WHAT A GIRL CAN DO.


sity in New York State In common
with about three hundred others. we pa
tientiy delved through the mysteries of
learning how to teach, in order that we
might teach how to learn.
A queer set those three hundred were
and very naturally for. at that time,
only the queer ones ever thought Of be-
coming professional school teachers -
Those who did were either crippled, poor,
or, like ourself, both too poor and too la
~ to think of doing anything else, or have
an ambition above the spelling book and
terule. Well, the profession has looked
up since then, which may furnish a rea~
son why we left it There was in the
school "A heterogeneous class, composed of
those scholars who had been in the school
long enough to graduate, but who, from
inattention or inability, had not kept to
the average standard, and had been put
back to go over the ground again. Some
had been Ill the school three, some four,
and some five years. They were looked
upon by the regulars, 1. G., the students
who had kept up with the regular course,
with feeling of mingled contempt and
pity, and even the scholars in the lower
classes patronized them. If any mischief
was done, this class of stupids were pret-
ty sure TO have hand in it; on which
account they were not favorites with the
faculty.
One of the most notable of this class
was young girl named NJ. She
was fair mathematician, torable schol-
ar, good natured, rather quiet girl. She
had no trouble in the lower classes. and
It was not until she came to those rheto-
rical studies where composition is required
that she stuck fast and hopeleSsly She
could not write. Every year she passed
through the same examinations, failed ex-
actly IN the same place, was not allowed
10 graduate ; and, at the beginning of the
next year, took her place where she had
commenced the year before, and, with Il
docile perseverance that was funny to
think OF, went over, and over, and over
the same round of studies with sober, de-
murc and painstaking method
She bid fair TO be what great N any
other girls become-the ordinary wife of
an ordinary man. More than once the
Faculty shook their heads and declared
that Nj would never, they feared,
become au earnest teacher. For five years
she lived this purposeless, dull and OBJ
jectless life, and then change came.
Her parents lived in Bloomington,
where her father carried On a furniture
store. He was stricken down by disease;
and, after a long and lingering illness,
| died, leaving NJ, the oldest girl,
her mother, a younger sister, and two
younger brothers, all of them dependent
upon their sister for a livelihood People
sympathized with her-sympathy is so
cheap-and came TO the following char
liable conclusions:
1st. That she would have hard time
of it.
ID That the best thing she could do
would be to get married.
Sd. That if she couldn't do that she
might be able to teach school.
And having thus settled her case, they
left her to her fate.
Then the girls nature asserted itself.
Instead of selling off the stock which her
father left for what she could get, and
living on it until something turned up, she
hired workmen, put the stock to rights,
and sold it at retail People pitied her
but they bought her goods. People sym
pathized with her, as il was dreadful
thing for girl to do what in boy would
have been thought highly commendab!e.
When her stock ran low, she astonish-
ed her friends by going to New York city
and buying larger stock of furniture
than any one ever before had the hardi-
hood TO bring to Bloomington-and, what
is more, she sold it. For the first year
the open sympathy aud covert sneers of
her friends were hard to bear.
She succeeded, of course.
The other day we saw her, after seven
years of hard work. The same old fash
ioned, quiet, goodNnatured manner, the
same Nj, unpretentious. obliging,
demure.
And yet, she owns a store worth S1S,-
600, in the upper story of which she began
her labors, but which is filled from cellar
to garret with her goods. She purchased
house some time ago for $1,000, and
can sell it now for $4,000. She has
$50, 900 in real lestate, with a stock worth
$4,000, and all paid up.
This is the work of girl still young,
who in school was looked upon only as
possessed of ordinary abilities.
The secret was, she had persistence.
She is unmarried, and-she is strong>
minded that is, she believes in women
owning property, and net being tied down
to what is called women's sphere. Who
can blame her
Had she taken the advice of those who
consider that they have settled the great
question of the age, she would be now
toiling in a scheolroom, worn out, iaded
and wretched, on a miserable salary of
forty dollars a month. Instead of that
she is free and independent, and rich.
while the rest of us, who were considered