Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/52

Rh position in that respect is indubitably one of the most beautiful aspects of the New World. They are acknowledged, still more and more unreservedly, to be the best instructors of childhood and youth, and they are employed for this purpose in public schools for boys, even of thirteen or fourteen, or even more. I have spoken with young ladies who were teachers of youths of seventeen or eighteen, and they told me that they never experienced anything from them but attention and esteem. True is it that these young girls were remarkably noble, and had great self-possession of manner. Female teachers are not nearly so well remunerated as male; but every one acknowledges the injustice of this, as the health of women suffers more from that laborious employment than that of men, and prevents their being able to continue it so long. It is hoped, however, that this unequal division may be remedied, as new paths of industry are opened to women. And this is beginning more and more to be the case. A remarkable young woman in this city, Elizabeth Blackwell, has opened as a physician, a career to her sex; she has done this so resolutely, amid opposition and infinite difficulty and prejudice (which exist even in this country), and so triumphantly by her talent, that a medical college is now about to be established here, solely for women, in which they may study and graduate as physicians. This has pleased me greatly. How useful will these female physicians be in the treatment of their own sex and of children; yes, there are divers diseases for the treatment of which they seem to be peculiarly calculated.

The education of women for the industrial employments is, I think, greatly neglected even here; and they ought, much more than they do, to learn book-keeping. In France, women have in this respect greatly the advantage of those in this country; and here, where two-thirds of the people follow trade, it would be of great importance