CHAPTER XXXVI.
WOMEN’S WORK.
The night before commencement Miss Ashton had reserved for the reading of notices of woman’s work and success. This she did at that time, because she wished her pupils to carry away a full belief not only in their own abilities, but also in the position which, with diligence, these abilities would enable them to reach.
The whole school gathered in the hall. Miss Ashton had requested that the notices should be handed in to her a few days previous. Now she said, “Young ladies, I am both surprised and pleased at the readiness and faithfulness with which you have responded to my request. I have here,” lifting a pretty, ribbon-tied basket, “at least one hundred different notices! Just think! one hundred instances in which women have tried, and have succeeded in earning not only a respectable, but a successful livelihood. This fact speaks so well for itself, that all remaining for me to do is to read you some of these notices. I must make a selection from among them, and the first one I will read I am sure will interest you:—
“‘Mlle. Sarmisa Bileesco, the first woman admitted 252 to the bar in France, is said to have taken the highest rank in a class of five hundred men at the École du Droit, Paris, where she studied after receiving the degree of Bachelor of Letters and Science in Bucharest. She has begun to practise law in the latter city, where her father is a banker.’
“Here is another one in the same profession:—
“‘Mrs. Tel Sone is a leading lawyer in Japan, and has a large and profitable practice.’
“‘Miss Jean Gordon of Cincinnati, upon whom will be conferred the degree of Ph.G. at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, has earned the highest average ever attained by any woman graduate of that institution. Out of one hundred and eighty-four graduates of this year, only six obtained the highest rating of “distinguished.” Miss Gordon was one of the six. She was the only woman in her class, and had to contend with bright young men.’