Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-17

sketch for the ''Englishwoman's Review,
 was Barbara Leigh Smith, Madam
 bodichon. She was the daughter ant
 granddaughter of we'll known members o
 Parliament, both men of keen intelligenc
 and very earnest in advocacy of reforms
 A beautiful and spirited girl, intellectua
 and warmhearted, sine was also endowed
 with artistic gifts which she thorough, valued and cultivated. Her painting
 were full of power and individuality poetic interpretations of nature, yet SC faithful as to win for the artist from { noted French critic the title of "the Rosf Bonheur of landscape painting"
 It was in 1854, when she was in hel twenty seventh year, that she began an | active work of reform, collecting in 6 pamphlet all the laws specially relating to women, pamphlet very thin and insigni- hcant looking, but destined to prove the small end of the wedge which was to rend the fabric of the law. The importance ot her social relations brought the subject before influential men connected with the society for the amendment of the law: Lord Brougham and MT. George Hastings took up the question actively; meeting after meeting was held; bill after bill at tempted to be carried through for the pro- lection of the earnings of married women; the Association for the Promotion of Social Science was founded Lord Brougham being president and MT. Hastings honorary sec, retary, and questions relating to the social and legal status of women engaged it's at tention. The law which gave to married women, control and possession of their own earnings was finally carried in 1870.
 In 1857 Barbara Leigh Smith was mar ried to Dr. Bodichon, French physician of marked ability, and for some years their time was divided between Algiers in the winter and London and Sussex in the sum- mer. In the next year the English woman's Journal' was founded, Madam Bodichon furnishing part of the capital. When in London she visited the office all most daily, bringing into the work the in- spiration of vigorous intellect and earnest interest
 Among the first of donors toward the establishment of Girton college for girls was Madame Bodichon, and to this college she bequeathed ten thousand pounds. Be side her fortune, which was ample, her paintings readily sold at large prices, and of this wealth she was the generous, con- scientious almoner. Of money, as of ideas, she was lavish, and always to the enriching of others
 ''In her existed" writes Name BelIoc. tan indefnable power-a something which transcended that which was done. And the lack was due not to any fault of or ganization, but solely to causes external, to failure of physical power, to the out ward accident of a weighted life. I feel. when I think of how much she did do, and yet of the more popular greatness of so many others, that can only ftly quote the poets words:
 But thou, O friend vert more than these'r
 z-A DRIVING WOMAN.
 There are some women who have great admiration and respect for machinery, es- pecially for steam engines. At safe dis tance they marvel and approve, awed and fascinated by the magic of rod and cylin- der, wheel and beam, valve, piston and boiler.
 Very few of them, however, would at tempt to take the management of one of these latter-day dragons into their own small hands. Miss Ida Hewitt of West is not one of these timid ones. She is the daughter of one of the chief owners of the Cairo Short Line. As a child she played about the machine shop near her home and learned to love the grimy monsters. She rode upon them, studied their mech anism and management, and even learned the use of-tools that are used upon the To- comotives. During the illness of an en- gineer she volunteered to take his place, filled it satisfactorily, and upon the mans | Heath was appointed the regular engineer
 A blonde in blue denim, with cap cov- 'rlng her fair hair, she handles her shining | locomotive with the utmost dexterity, ,hough never without gloves, for though a | 1river, the young woman still loves all | gentle and dainty womanly accomplish | nents. | Mrs. Lynch, the representative of West | Virginia on the Board of Lady Managers 'f the Worlds Fair, considers her the fair | of the progressive spirit of Vir- | ginian women, and has invited her to take | | train, loaded with the forest and mine | products of that state, to Chicago. What | m attraction she would have been at the l railway conductors fair, had that needed | my other attractions than those with which it now bewilders the public!
 HILARY. |