The Frankfort roundabout. [volume] (Frankfort, Ky.) 1882-1908, 1899-08-19
For the Roundabout
To School Girls.

AS this is the season when so many
girls are 'getting ready" to attend
college, we feel As If Il few words of
encouragement, or, rather If advice
from an old and experienced teacher.
may not be amiss.
| Now that there are so many col
leges accessible to girls, we hope none
who desire it may be denied the adj
vantages ola college course of instruc-
ton. Surely no young girl who
may read this article will be so I'M
wise as to fail to avail herself of any
opportunity she may have for ac-
quiring an education
To those who are. making up their
minds to enter college we would say,
do so with the determination to sue
coed with your studies il industry
and application will enable you to
do so. Do not imagine that an edu-
cation can be obtained by spasmodic
efforts at study-that you can work
two hours day, three days i'm a
week, or four months in year and
idle the rest OF your time and accom-
plish very much at educating your
self. 1t may require years of con-
slant application and hard work for
you to obtain moderately good
education, but when you have
gained this you have a treasure
whose value you can never fully es-
innate. 1t is capital which will
not only yield for you comfortable
hving-which is itself sufficient COM
pensatiOn for your labOr-but one
which will gain for you the respect
of all around you, from the most
illiterate to the most learned, and,
besides, your own self-respect, which
is of incalculable value to you. Some
of you may say, II never expect to
have to earn support for myself"
That may be, but amid the uncer-
tainties of life, you do not know
what may be your future necessities.
Our advice to you, therefore, would
be to learn something b. which you
may be able to earn livelihood for
yourself if left dependent. 1t is run
ming too great a risk of future misery
to allow your youth to pass without
making this preparation. But if
never compelled to exert yourself
for livelihood the strength of mind
and character that you will gain by
your efforts to fit yourself for such
an emergency will more than COM
pensate you for your work.
Not long since, having occasion to
visit a dress-making establishment
in one of our cities, we found among
the poor, weary sewing girls who
were working there as if their every
breath depended upon their constant
labor with the needle, a woman, a
native Of Frankfort, KY, whose
name ! might give you, whom we
had known about fifteen years be-
fore as a girl of excellent mind and
considerable means who had bad
more than ordinary advantages for
obtaining good education, but who
had failed to apply herself to her
studies with the determination of
learning some one study thoroughly.
She had spent several years at one of
our best schools, and, like Miss
Swartz, of Vanity Fair, had learned
to play her "tw0 pieces" and sing
her "three songs" at an expense of
one hundred dollars apiece to her
father, but was as totally ignorant of
even the fudiments of music as if
she had never seen a musical instru-
ment. This woman, we suspect, was
reared with the idea that she must
marry for support, consequently
she linked her fortune with that of a
poor man, who died several years
after their marriage, leaving her
with several small children to bring
up and nothing with which to meet
her expenses. We inquired partic-
ularly about her condition and found
that she and her children were living
in small iourth-stOry room in Il
most undesirable part of the city
cooking, eating and sleeping in the
same room while she was hiring her.
self at seventy-tive cents day as an
incompetent hand to II city dress
maker for the purpose of gaining
for her family. This is
only one instance of a thousand that