Southwest-sentinel. [volume] (Silver City, N.M.) 1883-189?, 1894-12-04
AMBITIOUS GIRLS.
SONS GREAT WOMEN WHO wrRa
PREcocloUs CHILDREN.

mat Ahnity " Apt % Reveal Itself n.
tasiy WIN Girls o. win fioys-some Il
zhcm mad 10 Struggle.
Il wonder II most famous women
were ns ambitious and gave signs Of fu-
ture greatness in thoir carly youth IA
inmons mcnf'' asked q thoughtful look.
ing girl, dropping her book. ''Tho Lives
Of the Great Musicians, . in which with
delight she had been reading Of tho boy
Mozart
Most great women have been pre-
cocioua. " answered her aunt, whose
busy brain possessed the charming fac
ulty o~fstoling mp all manner Of inter
csting information against a rain Of
questions from her clever niece. Let
us 60 back TO that sweetest character IN
English history, Lady Jane Grey, and
we win find she was only IS years old
when that learned scholar and fine gem
tlcman. Roger Ascham, found her read
ing Plato's 'Phmdon' in the original
Greek while the rest Of the family were
Of on q hunting party. But IL was not
with n knowledge Of Greek little Lady
Jane was satisfied. She spoke French,
Latin and Italian nuently, writing them
also, and translated easily from Hebrew,
Chaldee aud arabic. When her father
took her to court, they found with MS
constituent that this demuro country
bred girl was a far finer scholar than
young Edward VI, then a clever boy
under tho 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 Romans published her first
collection Of poems when she was only
II.
Angelica Kaufman, tho beautiful
roman and gifted artist, who painted
the portraits of royalties, when only II
used her brush far better than her ia
ther. who was in artist by profession.
mime. Roland never remembered
when she learned TO read, for at 4 years
Of age she was greedily porusing any
books that came TO her hand. Dancing
and music she ro..dily acquired, but
geography and Latin were her fayorito
studies. As n girl Of 2 sho would eager
" rise at 8 O'Clock in the morning to
get to her books, and 50 dearly did she
love reading sho carried her volume Of
'Plutarch's Lives to church when she
was IL years old and secretly read It
the long prayers.
There is not a more touching story
Of a child's quick mind starved Of its
proper food than Caroline Herschel.
Her mother was q stupid woman, who
kept her daughter purposely so busy
about household work sho could neither
study nor practice ON her violin she dear
" loved and in which her father wished
10 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 a 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 hat as a lit
tie girl she had avery bad memory, and
ut 10 years Of age was sent to a board
ing school, where the chief lesson for
each day was n page Of Johnson's Die
tionary committed to memory. She
never eXcelled at school, and yet at home
no one sympathized a little later with
her desire to study Latin except an I'M
Gle, who gave her some valuable in
structiOn. She was very much interested
in two celestial globes the village
schoOlmaster taught her to use, and yet,
on the whole, she was rather in W 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 tho 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. Il was
long after that she really found the o
age and sympathy to take up her great
studies In earnest
1T was as a pianist George Eliot was
noted at her school, and with the most
amazing ease she acquired languages,
yet as a very little girl she showed no
great promise, much preferring a romp
with her brother 20 her books.
Fannie Burney, who is also known
as Nine d'Arblay, published her first
aud cleverost novel when she was only
10. and yet she was 8 years old before
learning her alphabet and scarcely re-
ceiyed any regular education at all.
"Rachel, you must remember, was a
girl Just turned into her teeps when she
borrowed a volume Of Racine from a
Jewish peddler in old olct1es. On read
ing the great French tragedies she de-
cided to become an actress, and this
poor, pretty little Jewess, the youngest
Of Esgon children, who had begun life
as a street singer, ON her second appear
nnce on the French stage was greeted as
a great genius. So, you see, my dear,
ability is apt to reveal itself MS early with
girls as boys. and these are a very, very
few II the worlds great women who
loved books in the nursery and gave the
most glorious promise while still in
short frookA Chicago Inter Ocean.
Messenger Girls.
And now there Is talk Of substituting
girls for boys at the district telegraph