Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-23
HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

What the wealth OF q Pennsylvan1a Mill
lionaire Is Doing to Advance 1t.
The opening of the Drexel institute in
Philadelphia marks another forward
step 10 the enlarged provision for the
education of women. The institution is
indeed designed for the training of both
young men and women, but its advan-
tages are equally available to either sex,
and the benetcent purpose of the found
Or. as we happen to know, has had espe-
sially In mind the enlargement of the
opportunities for women in the direc-
sion particularly of manual and kindred
training 1t was gracious purpose
and what has been nobly planned has
been nobly built
No structure for kindred use, SO
complete and stately. exists today in
this country A vast expenditure of
money has been attended with excellent
taste and marvellous thoroughness of de-
tail If elegant and costly surroundings
are themselves an education-and in one
sense undoubtedly they are-then those
who are to be pupils within the walls Of
the Drexel institute will have daily
stimulus to do worthy work in a worthy
way e
The range of teaching runs all the
way from cooking to bookkeeping and
stenography9 and includes some eleven
departments more or less kindred to
these. Any one who knows what Amer
ican cooking at its average point is
will invoke blessing on this new center
of sweetness and light" and any busi-
ness man who has striven to master the
intricacy of feminine accounts, as kept
by the "girl of the period, viii be glad
to learn that the sex is to learn at least
that checkbook full Of blank checks
DOES not mean an account with an in
definite balance to the credit. But when
this is said, it is well to recognize that
the education Of women, in its highest
sense, calls for something more than the
enlargement of opportunities for techni-
cal training.
It is undoubtedly true that the de-
mand in this country is more and more
for that kind Of education which can be
converted quickest TO some wage earn
ing purpose, and in the case of women
this is especially the case, but what a
people want is, after all, very imper-
feet measure of what they need, and ad-
mirable as is every provision which be-
neficence may make for the training Of
women in bread earning handicrafts, it
is not. and cannot be, her highest train
ing.
Whether for better or worse, we have
emancipated her from the old limita-
tions which so largely shut her away
from direct contact with what, for want
Of better phrase, may call outdoor
life. She has been hidden to stand upon
her own feet, to earn her own bread, to
live her own life, if no man asks her to
come and be the center of his home and
everywhere the ballot has not been put
In her hand, in many places it has been
or soon will be.
She is in directories, on school boards,
charitable commissions, in editorial
chairs, inspects almshouses and insane
asylums, and, in word, is or is likely
TO be hidden to great many tasks in
which it will not in the smallest degree
help her that she can handle a telegraph
key or play on typewriter. For tasks
such as have indicated, women want
extra scientific knowledge of the highest
character, training in the habit of
thinking accurately and reasoning log
ically. and discipline of those noblest
powers of the mind which, it cannot be
denied, ages of domestic subordination
have done little to awaken or develop.
ltmay be urged, indeed, that wo1n-
ans intuitions are usually better and
surer than mans most labored conclu-
sions, and there is truth in such plea
But the subject of intuitions is, unless
some other powers are developed, not
unlikely to be also the subject Of emo
tions which, for the time being, dismiss
mere intentions wholly out of the hori-
zon- Ii women are given the ballot we
are told that they will use it quite as
often as weapon to express their un-
reasoning dislikes as they will to enforce
their better convictions; and the charge
Ia. or easily may be, true, until a woman
has learned enough political and social
economy TO realize that her ballot is q
weapon with which to guard both the
sanctities of the state and the hearth
stone. rather than cowhide with which
% chastise an unpopular candidate
Henry q. Potter in New York Post.
A Successful Woman Sculptor.
Alice Rideout, young San Francisco
girl of eighteen, has received the first
prize in the contest of woman sculptors
for designing the statuary that is to or
nament the Woman's building at the
Worlds fair. When, three months ago.
the women sculptors were informed that
they might prepare designs for the con-
test, nearly dozen responded, and vari-
ous specimens of designs were sent in,
but none satisfied the committee of ex-
perts except those of the slight, pretty
Californian, who ought to be very proud
of herself, because when Mrs. Palmer in
atr &<.A kt<xA - IL