Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-10-16
Mrs. Fremont's Discovery.
FROM tho Now Yofk Gun.

Prom tbs New York Fun.
How many matrons and maidens are
there between Madison Square and the
Park who feel Il generous discomfort
with their lives and desire TO shape
them To better and wider uses? They
have more money and more time than
they well know what TO do with. They
have had the best teachers and read the
best books. They have had the more
stimulating education Of travel. They
peer out from the windows OF their
drawing rooms into the abysses Of igno-
rance, want and crime that yawn around
them on every side, and they feel de.
sire, more or less clearly defined and
urgent. to let their light shine into that
outer darkness. They have no Boston.
ian yearnings for Mission with a capi.
tai NJ but they are pursued by sus.
picion that beyond the familiar routine
Of church and Sunday.school and aims.
giving lie untrodden paths Of usefulness,
II they could only find them. We do
not know how many such matrons and
maidens there are in New York, but We
are sure there are more Of them than j.
generally suspected
John {. Fremont used 10 be called
the Pathfinder, and proud title il
was. Apparently his wife, the Jessie
Benton OF old days, has turned path.
finder, too, though in different field Of
exploration. The other evening the
Poet printed an extract from one OF her
letters to friend in the East. She
found in her new Arizona home Il his.
tory class OF big boys and girls, the
children OF poor parents, who had 10
work out Of hours IN order to get the
time to attend school. She was 80
pleased with their looks and pluck that
she volunteered TO help teach them.
She writes:
at was q great pleasure to me TO find
that ] could add to the knowledge OF
these young people, that ! could make
real and human to them names and
personages. that | could link togethe er
one event and one personality after
another. until history became not q dry
mass Of names and dates and isolated
events, but a connected and yet broad
cninp stream Of human effort. can
not, OF coursc, begin to tell you all
said TO them, but the thiriy.two history
talks | gave my Arizona flock Of schol-
ars. each Friday Of the term after
Joined them, were o panorama Of history
A. my father had taught the 10 know it,
a. / bad realized il IN many spot OF
classic ground in Europe, a. reading
had enriched IL with personal belong.
iugs and lights, and a. had seen it
made both in France and in our own
great trial time. For this, when they
would thank me, ! would tell them 10
thank my father. acquired last winter
practical insight into the vast and
spreading influence Of the spoken word
on receptive and willing young minds.
! have never done any one thing that
gave me 70 much content in the doing
and the remembrance
What Mrs Fremont has done in Ari.
zonA other women have done much
nearer home. We have now in mind
one such case in New England town
barely hundred miles from New York:
and the high school itself would not be
more missed in that town than the
quiet little lady who for years has gath.
cred its lads and lasscs into her paTlors
and inoculated them with her own love
for the best books, and for the study Of
the wonderful and beautiful world
around them.
Where is there better field for this
sort of work than New York