Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-12-17

Mrs. Arthur Davis, well known in
Washington as Miss Lizzie Brown,
has entered Johns Hopkins University
as a member Of the postgraduate class.
She will do the work and take the pFe-
scribed course TO win the degree or
doctor Of philosophy, but as she Is a
woman she will not receive the custo-
mary $500, and may never receive the
degree. Mrs. Davis has three small
children, n not vet three months old.
She will live IN Baltimore, near the
university, so as 10 keep her small
family neal her. Her husband, Arthur
Powell Davis, a nephew OF Major Pow
ell, Of the geological survey, has charge
Of an important work for the survey
near Los Angles, CAL, which will keep
him in the field, except at rare inter
walls, for the next two or three years,
during which time his wife proposes to
pursue her studies In the university.
Mrs. Davis vas educated 10 Washing
ton and lived there two years after her
marriage, when she accompanied Mr..
DAVIS to Los Angeles. She was born &C
Front Royal, Va, March II, 1868. Her
father was Major Victor NJ. Brown, e.
s. A., a member Of the staff Of the late
General COrse, OF Alexandria. Her
mother was the daughter OF the late
State Senator Edward Jacobs.
At the age Of seven Elizabeth Brown
impressed her first teacher with her
wonderful aptitude for mathematics.
When the philanthrOpist, w. W. Cor
cOran, had about this time endowed the
Scientific School of Columbian Uniyer-
sity and caused its doors to be thrown
open to women, Miss Brown utilized her
first salary By helping her mother and
paying her own tuition In this school.
Her professors became interested In her
mathematical proficiency. A Mr.. Ban
croft, of Massachusetts, who had filled
q place in the Nautical Almanic Office
worth 81, 200 q year, died. Prof. New
comb advised Miss Brown TO pass the
competitive examination he had ordered
70 be held TO find a person competent 10
I'll the place. She promptly fled her
papers. So did several men. all college
graduates.
On the day set for the examination
Miss Brown, the only woman applicant,
and these men entered the examination
room. In three hours every man had
given up land retired from
tho room, utterly routed by the diff
R6ait problems in higher mathematics
and astronomy which confronted them.
In FIVE hours Miss Brown had answered
every question, solved every problem.
The board of examiners were so enthu-
siastic over her success they forgot
their own regulations for e|XaCtneSS and
gave her 1CO-10O being the mark 70 de-
note perfect" They went on record
as saving she was more than perfect, as
she was at once appointed. The chief
clerk Of the Navy Department, taking
10 for granted she was q man, addressed
her as ''Sir" 10 her official appointment
and e%x-Secretary Whitney signed il in
that shape.
When she was ia the National Al
manac Office she invented and copy
righted a Washington Greenwich table,
which is now used In the departments,
as it greatly facilitates the work. She
also discovered and corrected an error
in one Of the tables OF La Place, which
had caused inaccuracies since that great
mans day. In the meantime she kept
up with her class at the Columbian
University and graduated with the class
honOrs IN 1886. Thirty days after she
graduated she married . classmate,
Arthur Powell Davis.