Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-12-04
AMBITIOUS GIRLS.
SOME GREAT WOMEN WHO WERE
PRECIOUS CHILDREN.

Come Notable Examples which Go to Provo
That Ability Is Apt to Reveal Itself a.
Early With Girls as with Boys-some Of
Them Had to Struggle.
II wonder if most famous women
were as ambitious and gave signs of flu
ture greatness in their early youth as
famous men," asked thoughtful look
ing girl, dropping her book, 1.-The Lives
Of the Great Musicians, -" in which with
delight she had been reading of the boy
Mozart
Most great women have been pre-
cocious," answered her aunt, whose
busy brain possessed the charming fac
ulty of storing up all manner of inter-
esting information against a rain of
questions from her clever niece Let
us go back to that sweetest character in
English history. Lady Jane Grey, and
We will find she was only ID years old
when that learned scholar and fine gen
tleman. Roger Ascham, found her read
ing Plato's 'Ph9don' in the original
Greek while the rest of the family were
off on hunting party. But it was not
with knowledge of Greek little Lady
Jane was satisfied. She spoke French,
Latin and Italian fluently, writing them
also, and translated easily from Hebrew,
Chaldee and Arabic. When her father
took her to court, they found with as
constituent that this demure country
bred girl was q far finer scholar than
young Edward vi, then a clever boy
under the first tutors in England. Yet
with all her knowledge of literature and
languages Lady Jane embroidered
charmingly, sang to several instruments
that she played very well, danced and
wrote easily and gracefully.
Felicia Hemans published her first
collection of poems when she was only
IA.
Angelica Kaufman, the beautiful
woman and gifted artist, who painted
the portraits of royalties, when only IL
used her brush far better than her IA
ther, who was all artist by profession.
Mime. Roland never remembered
when she learned to read, for at years
of age she was greedily perusing any
books that came to her hand. Dancing
and music she readily acquired, but
geography and Latin were her favorite
studies. As girl of she would eager
~ rise at ) O'Clock in the morning to
get to her books, and SO dearly did she
love reading she carried her volume of
'Plutarch's Lives to church when she
was IL years old and secretly read it
during the long prayers.
There is not q more touching story
of child's quick mind starved Of its
proper food than Caroline Herschel.
Her mother was stupid woman, who
kept her daughter purposely SO busy
about household work she could neither
study nor practice ON her violin she dear
" loved and in which her father wished
to instruct her. 1t was with an aching
heart and fearful eyes Caroline piled
her needle, while her father and his
sons held their little family concerts in
which the girl longed to join She beg
ged to be allowed to study French with
her brother, and dancing also, but this
her mother forbade, though her gentle,
clever father was anxious his Caroline
should have good education. 1t was
not until later in life, when her beloved
brother William, the great astronomer.
sent for her to join him in England,
she had any opportunity to exercise her
fine mind.
MARY Somerville says that as lit
tie girl she had very bad memory, and
at 10 years of age was sent to board
ing school, where the chief lesson for
each day was page of Johnson's Die
| tionary committed to memory. She
never excelled at school, and yet at home
no one sympath;ccd little later with
her desire to study Latin except an I'M
| Gle, who gave her some valuable in
struction. She VS. " much interested
| in two celestial globes the village
| schoolmaster taught her to use, and yet,
on the whole, she was rather in awe of
the big consultations, whose brightness
reminded her of lightning, of which she
was desperately afraid. At length she
persuaded her brothers tutor to buy her
an algebra and Euclid. which she
studied at night until her mother, in
| horror at the idea of a girl wasting
time on studies meant for boys, deprived
her of a candle to read by, and her ia
Their feared she might go crazy. 1t was
long after that she really found the cour-
age and sympathy to take up her great
studies in earnest.
lit was as a pianist George Eliot was
noted at her school, and with the most
amazing ease she acquired languages,
yet as very little girl she showed no
great promise, much preferring 4 romp
with her brother to her books.
Fannie Burney, who is also known
as Mime. d'Arblay, published her first
and cleverest novel when she was only
Is, and yet she was years old before
learning her alphabet and scarcely re-
ceived any regular education at all.
Rachel, you must remember, was a
girl Just turned into her teens when she
borrowed volume of Racine from a
Jewish peddler i'll old clothes. On read
ing the great French tragedies she de-
cided to become an actress, and this
poor, pretty little Jewess, the youngest
of seven children, who had begun life
as q street singer, on her second appear
| T.,