Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-13
TALENTED OLD MAIDS
Mrs. Ashton Dixie Writes About Dis.
tlnguished English Spinsters.
TRYING TO ELEVATE THEIR SEX.
Investigating the Hardships of Poor Work.
ing Girls.
THE FIRST LADY ALDERMAN on RECORD

The Elh0I HAUL AuDEhmAN VN hECVhU
CORRESPONDENTS OF THE DIsPATcH.1
LONDON, October 2.-Should any one in
America still be old-iashioned enough as to
regard spinsters as a necessarily narrow
minded and comparatively useless portion
of the community, 1 think they ought to be
converted BY single glance at all the work
English spinsters have done during the last
30 years. To be sure, we have here in
England three-quarters of million more
women than men; in other words, 750, 900
women for whom marriage is an absolute
impossibility; but even with this immense
surplus they have reason to be proud of all
they have accomplished. Putting aside for
the moment the vast army of lady novelists
and lady artists, many of them unmarried,
and turning to practical social
work, either political, educational
or philanthropic, we find the erst-
while despised spinster Distinguishing
herself all along the line. Best of all, our
spinsters have ever been true to their own
sex, and their work tends invariably
toward the development and ultimate en-
franchisement of women.
If one fact more than another points to the
truth that ''the old order changeth, giving
place to new" it would be found in the fact
that even that time-honored and most con-
servative of institutions, the Office of Alder
man, has been invaded by the female sex in
the person of a spinster. When last winter
London County Council took place, it was
felt that not even the difficulty of finding a
suitable feminine equivalent for the title
was sufficient reason for excluding the whole
sex from the Office, and Miss Emma Cons
enjoys the distinction of being the first Lady
Alderman on record.
MISS CONS SPECIALITY.
Miss Cons metier is practical benevolence
on large scale, and her sphere of work has
been that vast area constituting South Lon
don, so little known to the ordinary dweller
in the West End. Ever since she was IL
years of age, when she began to teach in
Ragged Sunday schools, Miss Cons has been
busy working for somebody, and such ques-
tions as the better housing of the poor, the
drink traffic, the erection of peoples palaces
and polytechnics, are only few of the
many subjects with which Miss Cons has
qualified herself to deal by the experience
and study of a life time. For 20 years she
has had the management of various blocks
of working mems dwellings, and some years
ago she formed a company for the erection
of a block of model dwellings, which in
1884 at the "Healtheries" Exhibition was
awarded the only silver medal accorded to
any block in London for sanitary construc-
ton. On this one subject alone, her pres
ence on the new County Council, whose
duties embrace the whole sanitary system of
the metropolis, ought to be invaluable.
Perhaps the work with which our Lady
Alderman has endeared herself most to the
poor dwellers in South London, has been as
manager and trustee of the Royal Victoria
Hall, better known as the "Old Vic"
Theater, the only place in the district which
supplies really healthy and enjoyable re-
creation at an extremely cheap rate.
Miss Cons has never taken part in any
political agitation, and is by nature quiet
motherly woman who would never court
publicity; thus the outside world-even in
London-has remained very much in igno-
rance of all she has accomplished, although
among her own people there is no one more
warmly loved and respected.
A NEW SCHOOL.
The founder among women, of what may
be called the new school of enlightened phi
lanthropy, as distinguished from the old
fashioned virtue of indiscriminate almsgiv-
ing, is of course Miss Octavia Hill. She it
was who originated the '1ady rent collec-
tor" who has since become well-known
feature in London poor districts. The lady
rent collector, as rule, takes charge of q
"block" of workingmen's dwellings; she
not only collects the weekly rent, and keeps
a watchful eye ON sanitary arrangements,
but she generally mothers" the whole con-
Germ, finds work for the boys, and places for
the girls, cheers up the over-driven wife,
and does her utmost to keep the husband
from the public house. The whole system
depends, of course, for its success on indi-
vidual character, and power of sympathy
and discrimination, and it was in this that
Miss Hill excelled. She is quite an old lady
now, and have only once had the pleasure
of meeting her and hearing her make short
speech on some benevolent scheme; but
remember being much struck BY sense of
her quiet strength and evident power of dis
cernment.
Among Miss Hills numerous disciples is
a lady who has now entered the bonds of
matrimony as Mrs. Leonard Courtney, wife
of the Chairman of the committees of the
House of Commons, but who, as Miss Kate
Potter, was extremely successful as rent
collector to large block of dwellings in the
poorest part of Whitechapel.
A Younger sister of Mrs. Courtnev, Miss
Beatrice Potter, ought hardly as yet, in
point of age, to be reckoned among English
spinsters, except for the determined manner
in which she has given up fashionable So
ciety, and devotes her whole time and inter-
est to the social and economical problems of
the day. At the time when the horrors of
the sweating system were exciting particular
attention in London, Miss Potter worked for
a whole month, disguised as a common
hand" in one of the East End tailoring
workshops in order to master for herself the
real conditions of female labor, and the re-
suits were published in most ably written
article in the Nineteenth Century Since
then Miss Potter has written large share
of "Life and Labor of the People," edited
by Mr.. Charles Booth, quite the most valua-
Bile book of reference which has yet been
published, on the conditions of life in the
Eas End. She is now absorbed in a study
of cooperation which will probably keep
her engaged for two or three years.
TITLED LABoRER.
A very energetic worker, of a less intel
lectual sort. although member of very
Intellectual family, is the Hon. Maude
Stanley, daughter Of Lady Stanley, Of AL
derley, and sister to Lymph Stanley, great
educationalist and member of the London
School Board. Maude Stanley is the founder
of large and particularly successful girls
club in Greek street, Soho, which has been
the model for many similar institutions. 1t
requires great tact and much judicious
supervision in order to make club of that
sort both attractive and useful to girls; but,
when 1 went over the building few months
ago, 1 was quite charmed with all that 1
saw. A large and lofty clubroom was made
bright with red curtains and lots of pic
lures and flowers; there is lending library
and refreshment bar, while classes for