Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-09-24
AMBITIOUS GIRLS.
SOME GREAT WOMEN WHO WERE
 PREcocIouS CHILDREN.


 PREcocIouS CHILDREN.
 Some Notable Examples Which Go to Prove That Ability Is Apt to Reveal Itself as Them Had to Struggle.
 ''I wonder if most famous women were as ambitious and gave signs of fu- ture greatness in their early youth as famous men?" asked thoughtful look ing girl, dropping her book, ''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 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 13 ycarz old when that learned scholar and fine gen tleman. Roger Ascham, found her read ing Plato's 'PhRtiOn' in the original Greek while the rest of the family were of on hunting party. But it was not with q knowledge of Greek little Lady Jane was satisfied She spoke French, Latin and Italian fiuently, writing them also, and translated easily from Hebrew, Chaldee and Arabic. When her father took her to court, they found with as tonishment that this demure country bred girl was q far finer scholar than young Edward VI, then q 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 II.
 Angelica Kaufman. the beautiful woman and gifted artist, who painted the portraits of royalties, when only II used her brush far better than her fa- ther. who was an artist by profession. ''Mmc. Roland never remembered when she learned tO rad, for :t years of age she was grCetlily pcruSing any books tEat came tO hsr hand Dancing and music she readily acquired. but | geography and Latin were her favCritc studies. As girl of she would eager ly rise at , o'clock i'll tine morning to get to her books. and SO dearly did she | love reading shc carried her volumo of 'Plutarch's Lives to church when she was II years old and secretly read il during the long prayers
 There is not a more touching story of child's quick mind starved of its proper food than Caroline HerschCl. | Her mother was a stupid woman. who kept her daughter TurpOSely SO busy about household wUrk she could neither study nor practice on her violin she dear ly loved and in which her father wished to instruct her. IL 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 lonEcd t0 join. She bCg- 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 n good education. It 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 SOmcrvillc s&ys that as q lit tie girl she had q very had memory, and at 10 years of age was sent to a board ing school, where the chief lesson for each day was page Uf .IOhnSun's Die tiOnary committed tO memory. She never cxCellcd at school, and yet at home no one sympathiZed little later with her desire to study Latin except m ur- cle, who gave her some valuable in I struction. She was very much interested in two celestial globes the village schOOlmastcr taught her to use, and yet, on the whole. shc 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, ill horror at the idea of a girl wasting time on studies meant for boys, deprived her of q candle to read by, and her fla ther feared she might go crazy. It was long after that she really found the cOur- age and sympathy to take up her great studies in earnest.
 ''It was as pianist George Eliot was noted at her school. and with the most amazing case she acquired languages. yet as very little girl she showed no great promise. much prcfcrring n rOmp with her brother to her books.
 Fannie Burncy, who is also known as Mime. d'Arblay, published her first and CicvCrest novel whcy. she was only l5. and yet she Was years old before learning her alphabet and scarcely rc- ceived any regular education at all
 Rachel, you must remember. was a girl just turned into her teens when she borrowed a volume of Racine from ] 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 Jewcss, the youngest of seven children, who had begun life as q street singer, on her second appear ance on tho French stage was greeted as great genius So. you sec, my dear. ability is apt to reveal itself as early with girls as boys, and these arc very, very few of the worlds great women whC loved books in tho nursery and gave thc most glorious promise while still il short frocks "-Chicago Inter Ocean
 X ButtsrmIIk We'll.
 Did you ever see 0 buttermilk well mean O well that yields buttermilk-
 No, there arc no buttermilk we'll about here that know of. but l saw