Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/480

Rh helm, and to concentrate all her thought and attention upon the heavy responsibilities connected with the management of the M. T. Scott estate, one of the largest estates in this the most fertile and influential agricultural region in the world. To the surprise of herself and her closest friends, her sound judgment and careful husbandry soon gained for her the title of "the best business man in central Illinois." Moreover, with that dignity, poise and balance which have always been her distinguishing characteristics, she demonstrated that it is quite possible to be hard-headed without being hard-hearted. For in spite of being a first-class woman of affairs, she never forgot nor allowed others to forget, that first of all she was an old-fashioned Kentucky gentlewoman.

Up to the time of her election to the highest office within the gift of the women of this country, Mrs. Scott had been too completely occupied with her own business interests to devote much time or energy to club matters or public affairs. But in spite of this, her friends had quietly pushed her to the front as much as she would permit, instinctively recognizing her innate capacity for leadership, and for the effective handling of large enterprises.

It is a curious and interesting psychological fact, that at an age when most women don becoming lace caps and retire to the fireplace with their knitting—to watch the procession of life go by—Mrs. Scott, whose previous years had been almost exclusively devoted to her home, her friends and her business interests, should suddenly have launched out on a new, untried and signally tempestuous sea of activity, where she at once assumed a prominent, and very soon, a dominant position. Mrs. Scott during her incumbency as president-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution has been a surprise to herself and her friends as well as to her enemies. Talents and traits of character which had lain almost dormant