Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-13

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chon before the Social Science Association
at Manchester, she started the Suffrage
Society. Twenty-Five years. hard and
persistent work have not yet been
crowned with success, as far as the
primary object of the society is con-
cerned, but from every other point of view
more has been gained for women than prob
ably Miss Becker herself originally con-
templated. And for many years, in the
eyes of the general public, she was the GEN.
trail figure in the fight for women's political
rights. Nevertheless she is now the mouth
piece of that less-advanced section of the
Suffrage party, who do not wish to grant
the vote to married women, apparently on
the grounds that married women are not in
need of the benefit, and tnat, in her own
words, "a good husband is worth all the
votes in the world"
A LONG PUBLIC LIFE.
Miss Becker's energy and power of work
are simply phenomenal. She works as
hard to-day as she did fve-and-twenty years
ago. For many years she was secretary to
both the London and the Manchester Suf-
irage. Committees, which necessitated al.
most weekly journeys to and fro. Since the
recent split in the original society, she has
been elected secretary of the National So
ciety, whose headquarters are at 10 Great
College street, Westminster. When it ID
fnrther recollected that since 1870 she has
sat uninterruptedly on the Manchester
School Board, it will be readily admitted
that the old taunt of women's physical in
capacity for public life does not in any way
apply to Lydia Becker.
An early co-worker with Miss Becker, but
one who has recently almost entirely re-
tired from active political life, is Miss Helen
Taylor. As the adopted daughter of John
Stuart Mill, she imbibed belief in her own
sex at very early age, and enjoyed special
educational advantages. A clever speaker
and a thorough Liberal, she exercised at one
time considerable influence with the work
ingmen. She also sat for several years on
the London School Board.
As regards the status of actual popularly.
elected women, our doyenne on the School
Board, Miss Davenport Hill, most valu.
able member, is the only one among us who
has never married; on the County Council
both Miss Cons and my friend Miss Golden
of whom have spoken in a previous letter,
are, Of course, spinsters, while on the Board
of Guardians, out of about 20 lady members
IN different parts of England, at least two
thirds are unmarried women.
RECOGNIZED BY ROYALTY.
have left myself no room to do Justice
to whole row of spinster ladies, heads oi
schools and colleges, to whose energy we
owe the higher education of women. One
of the first and oldest among them is Miss
Frances Mary Buss. She is now kind,
placid-faced old lady, with smooth gray hair,
and her life's work is to be seen in the fine
large buildings Of the North London Collie
giate School in Camden Road, which spe-
cially prepares students for the London Ma
circulation examinations. Forty years ago
when Frances Buss was barely out Of her
teens, girls education was in hopelessly
deplorable condition; there were no colleges,
no high schools, no university examina-
tions, and worst Of all, no women teachers
fit to instruct the girls when attempts were
first made to fill the blank. Now all is
changed, and no one rejoices more heartily
than Miss Buss. Only this summer II. n.
Princess Christian made public recogni-
tion of her great services by coming in per-
son to distribute the prizes at the North
London school. Among other claims to
distinction, the college has the honor of
being one Of the first girls schools to build
a proper gymnasium for the use of the
pupils.
Finally must not forget to say few
words about one whose clever kindly face Is
almost as well known on the lecturing
platform in America as in England-I mean
Miss Emily Faithful. She has turned her
attention principally to opening up remun-
erstive employments for women. and as
early as 1860 she collected the first band Of
female compositors and set up q typo
graphical establishment, in which only
women were employed. Since those days
Miss Faithful has seen many of her
schemes of improvement carried into prac-
tice; quite recently she has given great
help and encouragement to our most promis-
ing lady decorator, Miss Charlotte Robinson.
Miss Faithfull's unselfsh goodness has won
her friends in every rank of life, and her
Majesty Queen Victoria, who is always
quick to appreciate talent in her own sex,
has on more than one occasion displayed q
gracious interest in her labors.
M. M. DILKE.