Transcriber's Notes.
Hyphenation has been standardised.
A GROUP OF FAMOUS WOMEN
STORIES OF THEIR LIVES
BY
EDITH HORTON
ILLUSTRATED
D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
BOSTONNEW YORKCHICAGO
Copyright, 1914, by
D. C. HEATH & COMPANY
1 C 4
TO THE
WOMEN TEACHERS OF AMERICA
WHOSE NOBLE LIVES HAVE EVER BEEN
AN INSPIRATION TO THE YOUTH
OF OUR LAND
FOREWORD
The best kind of American woman is proud. She hasconfidence in herself. She is not vain or conceited or self-assertive,but she has faith in her own powers. Even ifshe could, she would not spend her life in play or in idleness;she would choose to work. She believes that becauseshe is doing her chosen work—whatever it may be—steadily,hour by hour, day by day, she is achieving.Because she has confidence in herself, she can live andlabor serenely, proudly. No matter how obscure her lot,she feels herself to be in the same class as the most famousof her American sisters who have worked with steadinessand confidence at their task, and who have achievedgreatness.
So difficult has it been for teachers to find brief, readablebiographies of distinguished women to use in connectionwith their lessons in history and civics that they will welcomethis interesting collection. It should help to makethe girls in our American schools proud of their womanhoodand it should give them a strong desire to be worthy ofbelonging to the same class as this group of noble workers.
Emma L. Johnston
Principal Brooklyn Training School for Teachers.
March 16, 1914.
"If women now sit on thrones, if the most beautiful paintingin the world is of a mother and her child, if the image of awoman crowns the dome of the American Capitol, if in allegoryand metaphor and painting and sculpture the highest idealsare women, it is because they have a right to be there. Byall their drudgery and patience, by all their suffering andkindness, they have earned their right to be there."
—O. T. Mason
"The Egyptian people, wisest then of nations, gave to theirSpirit of Wisdom the form of a woman; and into her hand,for a symbol, the weaver's shuttle."
—John Ruskin
INTRODUCTION
The advantages of biography as a means of educationare obvious. History and biography go hand in hand, thelatter giving vitality and reality to the former.
Educators have for a long time appreciated this, and inmany Courses of Study throughout our land provisionhas been made for the teaching of history throug