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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
For instance, at the very same time that Miss Elizabeth Blackwell was patiently and persistently pressing her claim to be allowed to pursue the study of medicine in one of Philadelphia’s famous medical schools, meeting with ridicule and violent opposition, in a lonely farmhouse in Virginia a young girl was seized with the same unquenchable thirst after a knowledge of medical science, and triumphing over similar prejudices and opposition, became a thoroughly educated physician, for she did not fail to attend the first medical school that opened its doors to women. She traveled widely, especially in the East, returned home to act the part of an angel of mercy during the war, founded a hospital in the town nearest her own home, and died full of honors while yet young. She did not depart, though, until she had demonstrated to the satisfaction of all cognizant of her career, that what had been deemed a young girl’s freak had been rather a call from on high to enter a peculiar field of usefulness and beneficence. Oriana Moon’s name should be honored as one of the pioneers who opened to woman the career of medical practitioner, which has given the missionary in the East a lever of immense power for effecting the conversion of women, and through them, the rising generation of Asia’s myriads. Inspired by her example, two of her sisters became students of Oriental languages, and ardent, successful missionaries to China.
The standard of excellence in the study of English literature at one of Virginia’s best-known schools for young women—Hollins’ Institute—is well illustrated by the fact that for eight consecutive years, under the training of Prof. Wm. Tayloe Thom, the prize offered to American schools of either sex by the New Shakespeare Society of England, was won by members of his senior class in literature. This prize was given for proficiency in a competitive examination prepared by the Shakespeare scholar, Mr. H. H. Furness, and adjudged in England. The answers were printed and sent to England, and upon one occasion complimented in an autograph letter received by one of the successful competitors from no less a person than the then poet laureate, Lord Tennyson.
In education Virginia women are determined not to be behind their fellows. They have many flourishing seminaries which are thronged with pupils from their own and other states.
In the one town of Staunton, with about ten thousand inhabitants, there are six well equipped academies for girls, with an attendance of about a thousand pupils, representing many states. Even at our national capital no seminary for young ladies maintains a higher standard than Norwood, presided over by honored Virginians. Recently in Lynchburgh, the enthusiastic president of Randolph Macon College, at Ashland, determined to found an institution for the higher education of women; and such was the response obtained from the people, impoverished as they are, that in the short space of eight weeks he obtained $200,000, a sufficient sum to warrant him in pushing forward the work. And now, after the interval of one brief year, the buildings have been reared on the most approved plans and next September will go into operation—not a boarding school, but a veritable college for women.
The primary branches of education are not neglected in Virginia, and are largely committed to the hands of women. The new mode of learning to read by sight rather than sound, through power of observation rather than memory, has been quietly and unobtrusively practiced in Virginia for the past fifty years. The writer was thus taught in her mother’s nursery at home.
It would seem, then, that Virginia women are prone to do, rather than boast of their doings, and quietly pursuing the even tenor of their way, are largely oblivious of comments made flattering or otherwise. The awakening, during the last two decades, both as to literature and art, in this state has been amazing. YVoman workers in both these delightful branches of human industry may be reckoned by the legion, and worth is by no means confined to those whose names are already public property. A pleasant little incident indicates the possibilities of female achievement in the latter direction, viz., that of art. Mr. Ginter, one of Richmond’s wealthiest citizens, sent an order to New York for two handsome water-color drawings, to ornament a particular