Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1893-08-17
woMAws WORLD IN PARAGRAPHS.
The Bankers Daughters-True Story Of
Two Noble Girls.

Five years ago well known Italian
merchant and banker Of New York city,
Mr.. Bergamini, died, leaving two daugh-
ters and what was supposed to be a
large estate. The young ladies had
been highly educated and spent much Of
their time in Italy. They had SIC, 900
and some personal property in their own
right when their father died. They had
not been educated to anything practical,
however, and they knew no more of real
life than falls to the lot Of the ordinary
fashionable girl. After Mr.. Bergamini's
death his business went down from one
cause and another Two firms failed
that owed his estate large sums, and the
Bergamini bank was forced to suspend.
Hundreds Of poor Italians, fruit yenders,
laborerS and rag pickers, had deposited
all their savings in the bank, and their
case was o pitiful one. Then it was the
girls showed the true blue blood
there was in them. Their prop
erty had been given to them when
their father was prosperous. Tt was,
moreover, all they had to live on. There
was no law that could have made them
surrender cent except the moral one.
But Teresa and Rachel Bergamini did
not hesitate a moment. They turned
over all their possessions for the benefit of
the depositors Of their dead fathers bank.
1t made soon after his death dividend
of 25 per cent. Then the tenderly reared
girls started to earn their own living.
Miss Rachel became teacher Of lam
guages. Miss Teresa did clerical work
for the executor of her fathers estate.
Above all, they wished to clear their
dead parents memory from any sus-
picion Of dishonor. For this they toiled.
They were invaluable in aiding to un-
ravel the tangled accounts. Lately there
was q second dividend, this time of IL
per cent, and that fact brought the two
brave sisters into public notice again.
They themselves stood behind the cash
ier's desk when the dividend was paid
that they might identify the depositors,
many of whom they knew by name and
sight. Then they went back to their
work again, one to teach, the other to
keep books, quite unconscious that they
are two of the most heroic girls alive
1t has been finally settled that women
are capable Of learning anything that
men can IN the ordinary college and
university curriculum. AtCornell com
mencement the present summer the
finest oration was delivered by young
woman graduate of the law school, At
the examinations for scholarships in the
Chicago university two-thirds of the
applicants were men, yet the women
carried off prizes in Greek, Latin, math-
ematics, biology, physiology, languages
and English literature. In England we
are informed 10 girls have won wran-
gler's hcnors this summer without being
allowed to be wranglers because they
are women. This of course is f1atter-
ing record for one summer for women
intellectually, but in thinking it over
Charles Reade's question, "What will he
do with itT" rises to the mind. What
will all these fine girls do with their
education after they have it? The world,
alasl is not yet as wide for them as for
men. Most of them doubtless intend to
earn their own living. How can they
secure as good paying places as their
brothers, who know even less, can get?
This is saddening query on the whole
The only answer to it is that each girl
must strive with all her might to do the
best work and get the best pay she can,
rejecting at all times that the whole
future Of our sex industrially is in some
measure committed to her keeping.
It was praiseworthy for your grand
mother and your great-grandmother to
knit because there was need of it. 1t is
waste Of time for you to knit. Go out
doors and cultivate health and flowers,
ride bicycle, learn music in the even
ing or study some of the Thousand won
derful branches Of learning that lie all
about you, inviting the attention of ev-
erybody with brains. The empress Of
Germany knits and embroiders, but the
empress Of Germany has not brains
enough to read or study. She is just too
utterly domestic to live at the end of the
nineteenth century.
Do nos be satisfied merely to belong
to a club and read and listen to papers.
Do something positive, either useful or
ornamental, and add to the worlds solid
work If at the end of each year we
have not made at least one life better
and nobler, if we have not given steady
assistance to at least one person who
needed it, if we have not mastered at
least one department. Of knowledge Of
which we were ignorant before, then we
might better have been dead during that
whole year and left room for somebody
who would have used the time to advan-
tage.
Even Japan has one woman lawyer
now-Mrs. Tel Seno. Since her return
to Japan she has taken active part in
getting for them what Japanese women
need moro than law-an education.
If you wish to know how much good
women can doin municipal government,
even without a vote, read Julian Ralph's
paper in Harper on "Chicago's Gentle
Side"
Mrs. George D. johnson has invented
a most beautiful bicycle costume and
bravely appeared in it upon her wheel.
She is bicycle enthusiast. Some time
since while riding she caught her dress
skirt in the sproclket wheel of her ma
chine, and the result was fall and a
dislocated shoulder Then she said, II
never will ride in skirt again, and she
kept her word. On her wheel trips she
now wears full Turkish trousers gathered
in at the knee. Below them are tan col
ored leggings reaching from the knee
and covering the ankle and the instep,
coming down over the low bicycle
shoes. She wears with these neat
shirt waist, belt and sailor hat or cap.
In this natty and unique costume she
looks as striking and pretty as SONS Of
the oriental ladies at the worlds con-
gress Of women did. What is more, she
will never catch her skirt in the wheel
again. The Turkish trousers have in ef-
feet the appearance of a short bicycle
skirt. ELIZA ARcHARD CONNER