Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-06-24

one-hundreth year. She made intri-
cate astronomical calculations when
in her ninety year.
Lady Morgan was another instance
of a woman who had little early edu-
cation becoming distinguished In lit
erature. Her father was poor
"barnstormer" in Ireland at the close
of the last century, and the authoress
of 1.-THE Wild Irish Girl" and other
popular novels of that time had to
overcome the prejudice against her
fathers profession. She had also TO
contend with poverty and poor edu-
cation. Yet she became famous.
We have had two great female as
tronomers, Miss Herschell and Miss
Mitchell. Both were single women
and both took up thestudy OF astron-
omy in order to assist their brothers.
Miss Herschell's pathway to lame was
over a smooth road. but Miss Maria
Mitchell had everything to battle
with. She was the daughter OF q small
farmer in Nantucket, who was ooiiged
to exc out his income by teaching
school at 50 a week Maria was con.
stantIy occupied with household
duties. and she describes her child.
hood as "being an endless washing oil
| dishes"
II is a curious fact that so many OF
our celebrated literary women were
the daughters of farmers and began
their life work by teaching school
gradually acquiring fame and afhuence
by writing. Take the Cary sisters to
begin with and Mrs. Lydia Sigourney,
the poetess, before them, then oface
Greenwood, and lastly Ella Wheeier.
Ella Wheeler never taught sehooi'
but her parents were poor farm peo-
ple in the West. The first poem she
wrote she sent to Mrs. Frank Leslie,
who saw enough merit in it to accept
it. Ella has bought her parents
home out of her own earnings, ana is
in every respect a most excellent
daughter.
No female novelist worthy OF fame
appeared in England until the reign
OF George III. That was ''llttle' MISS
Frances Burney. She was a sort OF
governess to some OF the royal chill
dren, which gave her an entrance into
society, and this made her books
fashionable. They possessed merits,
however. She was the daughter of a
physician. not-well-to-do, and MISS
Burney had to maintain her:elf.
The lady doctors and lawyers nave
had the hardest time to enter PROBES
sional ranks. Nevertheless they nave
made great Roadway since Elizabeth
Blackwell vainly applied for admission
to the medical colleges in New York,
Boston, and Philadelphia. She was
finally admitted as student IN
the medical college in Geneva, n. I.
Her youth was one OF struggle, hard,
ship, encouragement, and restricted
means.
The grandfather of Nine. Dudeyant
George Sand) peddled birds about
the streets OF Paris-made money
enough by that to open a little tavern
and billiard room for cabmen and 9TH
ers of like grade. Her grandmother
was an Legitimate daughter OF Mar.
shall SAKE, son of Augustus, king OF
Poland. In Mime. Sands Life writ
ten by herself, she naively remarks
that she does not know whether she
is most proud of having a peddler's or
kings blood in her veins. George
Sands mother was a serving woman,
and the whole family had hard fight
for bare existence. Her first romance
depicted the adventures OF young
girl fascinated by birds.
Nine. Dudevant made herself q
deathless name by the brilllancy OF
her own great genius, and may fairly
rank among the foremost self-made
women OF the world. She had every
thing to contend with-poverty, OBJ
security, an untutored girlhood, a
wretched marriage, and opinions IN
advance of her time. Even her first
choice of a profession was mistake,
as she thought her talent lay inpaint-
ing.
1t would appear that the famous
female painters havehad less to strug-
gle against than others OF their sex.
Almost all inherited their genius, and
became proficient i'll their art, their
talent encouraged and fostered by
their father in his studio. From An
gelica Kaufman down to Elizabeth
Thompson, the painters have been the
only women who have trod the royal
road to fame and fortune.
Singers come next as instances OF
the ease with which some women at
tain high places, and at the head OF
these stands Patti, who, with the ex-
ception of few failures to draw as a
child artist, has had no uphill work
at all. Yet she has worked, and all
her life, too, and has never in all her
long career been known to disappoint
an audience, either through caprice or
sickness.
Grace Darling and our own Ida
Lewis were self-made women. Both
occupied the same position in life-as-
sistants in a lighthouse-and both be-
came celebrated for saving life. Among
the list of self-made women these hero
ines stand at the head.
The most renowned woman who
sprang from the lowliest estate was
Jeanne Arc, who fed swine.
The two most illustrious examples
of self-made women are Theodore and
Madame de Maintenon. Theodore
was the daughter of the master OF the
bears in the Island of Cyprus. She
danced with the bears for the amuse-
ment of the public. She is said to
have been the first woman who wrote
dramatic composition. She was
both gifted and beautiful, and fasci-
mated Justinian l., who made her his
empress.
Madame de Maintenon was born in
Jail, into which her father had been
thrown for some political offense, and
his wife insisted upon sharing his I'M
prisonment. The infant was taken at
birth from prison and reared by the
charity of q relative. Madame was
early Injured to poverty, and, in the
hope OF escaping it, married Scarron,
the ugliest man in all France, but she
only fell into worse straits with him.
He was brilliant wit, and among
those who frequented his house was a
certain courtier. Scarron died, leav-
| ing his wife in absolute indulgence. She
hung about the court, soliciting a pen
sion from her husbands friend, the
courtier. He obtained for her the
place of nurse to the infant Duke of
Maine, an illegitimate son OF Louis
XIV. She was sent to a watering
place with him, and the letters which
she wrote to Louis about the child
were so brilliant that he was surpris-
ed and finally fascinated, and in the
end married her.