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New Orleans, La. The night school work was begun in New Orleans by Miss Sophie Wright, in Richmond, Va., by Miss Arents, and is being carried on in Charleston, S. C., by a band of women.

This article cannot even touch upon the tremendous unselfish work Southern women are doing under the direction of evangelical churches and missionary societies, as this work would be included in the history of the churches.

The Southern Woman in Literature.

The first American woman to publish a newspaper was a Southern woman, Mrs. Elizabeth Timothy, who published the South Carolina Gazette in Charleston, S. C., in 1744. The second oldest American publication for children, The Rosebud, or Youth's Gazette, a weekly newspaper for juveniles, was published in Charleston, S. C., by Mrs. Caroline Gilman in 1832. The Keystone (established 1899 by two South Carolina women), a monthly journal devoted to Southern women's work, published in Charleston, S. C., is the oldest club woman's publication in the United States and is owned and edited by Misses Mary and Louisa Poppenheim. The North Carolina Booklet (1900), a quarterly magazine, devoted to the history of North Carolina, is published in Raleigh, N. C., by the North Carolina Daughters of the Revolution, Mrs. E. E. Moffitt and Miss Mary Hinton, editors.

In no field of work have Southern women been more active than in that of modern literature, indeed they lead all sections, and such names as Mary Johnston, Ellen Glasgow, Frances Hodgson Burnet, Charles Egbert Craddock, Ruth McEnery Stuart, Augusta Wilson Evans, Christian Reid, Amélie Rives Chanler, Grace King, Julia Magruder, Anna

Maria Barnes, Virginia Fraser Boyle, and Martha Young are household words, and the best literary critics have pronounced Olive Tilford Dargan, Almond, N. C., as the American poet of today.

Conclusion.

Southern womanhood rocked the cradle of Washington, Jefferson, Calhoun, Davis and Lee. It sent its sons to the Revolution, to the War of 1812, to the Mexican War and to the Confederate army. It managed plantations, nursed the sick and buried the dead. When the dark days of reconstruction came, its cheerful, changeless, patient endeavor to accept the changed conditions of life, nerved the manhood of the South to that fierce struggle, that stubborn, irresistible persistence, which with strength of brain, and strength of heart and hands, lifted the South from desolation and ruin to the present era of prosperity. And now once more returning to the heritage of their fore-mothers these women are showing the sublime and permanent basis of their virtue by their deeds. They are teaching their children high ideals of American patriotism, are caring for the afflicted and distressed in their midst, are beautifying the waste places of their native states, and as they look out into the misty morning of the future they receive fresh courage from the prestige of the past, for they believe that inspiration for the future can be secured through the contemplation of that past. Such women are an element in a social structure upon which much can be imposed!

LOUISA B. POPPENHEIM,
Charleston, S. C.

CHAPTER VII.

WOMAN'S PART IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS OF THE SOUTH.

COMPLETE presentation of this subject is precluded by the limits imposed upon the length of this article. The wide geographic area covered by the Southern states and the varied forms in which woman's educational work has there expressed itself, render necessary a very general treatment of the topic.

The title suggests that the present educational progress involves an evolution or departure from previous conditions. This we take to be a fact, and is in reality a movement for the democratization of education. It is woman's part in the genesis and promotion of these conditions, which is the point proposed for emphasis.

The educational revival, now well under way in the Southern states, despite many peculiar embarrassments will be wrought out under certain highly favorable conditions. The people, though dispersed over a vast territory, are homogenous, a homogenity among the ruling race, not only of blood, but the result of forces operating both from within and without to intensify this unity.

The Southern Woman's Fitness for Educational Work.

The Southern woman comes to her task with capacities, trained under former conditions, which equip her for her work. She is the daughter of the past, and her personality involves no such break, between ante and post bellum periods, as is popularly sup

posed. From mistress of a plantation, where the lady of the household, strong in her position of social leadership, carried on her heart and mind the welfare often of a hundred souls, it is an easy transition to a position where the creation of public opinion becomes a conscious purpose, and the sense of responsibility, born under household conditions, broadens out to include the welfare of the community. Her present fitness has thus been fostered; first, by her experience as mistress on the plantation, and secondly, by the necessities of a new social order, requiring readjustment to novel and untoward conditions. The fruit of this schooling is large patience and sense of responsibility, a capacity for administration linked with an eye for detail, a power of initiative, and sound common sense, the result of contact with the homely things of every-day life. Thus equipped, it was but natural the Southern woman should enter with consecration upon this new educational propaganda.

Her influence has been exerted along two lines; first, as she has stimulated public sentiment and educational activities in the organized systems of public instruction, and in chartered institutions of learning, though without official or recognized connection; and secondly, in the various organizations which have originated under her special leadership and control. As regards the latter class, her zeal and intelligence have expressed themselves along most varied lines.

The lack of facility for advanced mental training, and the conservative opinion in the South with reference to women's being in the public eye, have operated to retard the development among them of the more scientific study of social problems, characteristic of our present age, and to cause such social work

as they have undertaken to appear, as a rule, in their less advanced and less highly developed forms. It is interesting, however, to note, in spite of educational disadvantages and the later entry of Southern women into work of a more public nature, that we find among them a beginning, at least, of almost every form of work under way in other sections.

Various Spheres of Work.

The collecting of historical material and the preservation and marking of places associated with the early history of our country has been widely undertaken by women, as witnessed by the vitality of such societies as the Colonial Dames, Daughters of the Revolution and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

The Daughters of the Confederacy, together with the various memorial associations which cover the South, have erected numbers of monuments and piously kept alive the memories of our war period, thus handing on to the present and future generations the knowledge of the spirit of high adventure and devotion to duty which characterized their forefathers.

The Federation of Women's Clubs is well organized in most of the states of the South and is doing valuable work for forestry, fostering of library boards and extension of library facilities, creating public sentiment favorable to compulsory education and in restraint of child labor, developing legislation for the better protection of women and children, and supporting and caring for numerous industrial schools for the children of the mountainous and rural neighborhoods. A system of school exhibits with prizes, held in connection with the county fairs, has been undertaken by club women in three of the

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