The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-10-29
WHAT A GIRL CAN DO.

Versity in this State. In common with /
about three hundred others, we patient t
ly delved through the mysteries of learn
ing how to teach, in order that we might /
teach how to learn.
A queer set that 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 lazy to think of doing anything else, |
or have an ambition above the spelling |
book and ferule. Well, the profession
has looked up some since then, which |
may furnish reason why we left it
There was in the school a Heterogeneous
class, composed of those scholars who |
had been in school long enough to grad |
uate, but who, from inattension or ina |
bility, had not kept up to the average
standard, and had been put back to go
over the ground again. Some of them
had been in school three, some four, and
some five years. They were looked up
on by the t'regulars" 4. e., the students
who had kept up with the regular |
course, with a feeling of mingled con-
tempt and pity, and even the scholars
in the lower classes patronlzed them.
If any mischief was done this class of
'stupids" were sure to have hand in
it on which account they were not IA
VOf1UeS Win the faculty..
One of the most notable of this class
was young girl named M. She
was a fair mathematician, tolerable
scholar; good natured, rather quiet
girl. She had no trouble in the lower
classes, and it was not until she came to
those rhetorical studies where compost
ton is required, that she stuck fast and
hopelessly. She could not write.
Every year she passed shrough the same
examinations, failed exactly In the
same place, was not allowed to gradu-
ate and. at the beginning of the next
year, took her place where she had COM
menced the year before and, with do
Gle perseverance that was funny to
think of, went over, and over, and over
| the same round of studies, with sober,
demure and painstaking method.
She bid fair to be what great many
other girls become-the ordinary wife
of an ordinary man. More than once
/ the faculty shook their heads and de-
clared that M-would never, they
feared, become an earnest" teacher.
For five years she lived in this purpose
less, dull and objectless life, and then
change came.
| Her parents lived in Bloomington,
| where her father carried on a furniture
store. He was stricken down by a dis
ease, and, after long and lingering ill-
ness, uleu, leaving MI TIC OiuCSC
| girl, her mother, q younger sister, and
| two young brothers, all of them de-
pendent upon their sister for hvefi-
hood. People sympathized with her
sympathy is so cheap-and came to the
following charitable conclusions:
| LIST. That she would have hard time
of it.
I'd. 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 pit
led her-but they bought her goods.
People sympathIzed with her as if it
: was dreadful thing for girl to do
what in boy would have been thought
highly commendable.
When her stock ran low, she aston
ished her friends by going to New
York city and buying larger lot of
furniture than any one ever before had
had the hardihood to bring to Bloom
ington-and what is more, sold it. For
) the first year the open sympathy aud
|
: to bear.
She succeeded, of course.
!. The other day we saw her, after seven
wears of hard work. The same old
fashioned, quiet, good-natured manner,
the same M, unpretentious, obliging,
demure.
And vet she owns a store worth SIS, 600,
in the upper story of which she began
her labors, but which is filled from cell
/. | I, dc Slaa
} chased house sometime ago for 1900,
: and can sell it now for $4,000. She has
$4,000 in real estate, with stock worth
} $4,000 more and all paid up.
} This is the work of girl still young,
;. who in school was looked upon only as
: possessed of ordinary abilities.
j. The secret was, she had persistence
a She is unmarried, and-she is strong
e minded that is, she believes In women
owning property, and not being tied
+ down to what is called woman's sphere
l Who can blame her?
e Had she taken the advice of those
S who consider that they have settled the
r great question of the age, she would
: now be toiling in a school-room worn
a out, faded and wretched, on misera.
: bic salary of forty dollars a month
:, Instead of that she is free and independ-
:. ent and rich, while the rest of us, who
!, are considered smart, are grinding
e along, editing country papers or star
e wing. She is as unpretentious as ever
for the executive talent that could dc
e so much is not one that blows its Owl
= horn.
d Finally, every word we have writer
r is true. The only reason we do no
e give her name in full is because we d.
# not like to drag her name into publi
IS notice without her consent. Resident
l. in Bloomington will know who ",
r, mean, and others who are curious ear
+ find out by addressing us personally
It We only publish the case because /
Z shows that there is no real bar to a wo
e mans doing business, if she has natur
.eI al faculty and persistence.-LdSou