Page:Women of distinction.djvu/324

252 later this same lady told Miss Shoecraft that she never thought she would make a teacher. The gulf between the little washer-woman and a school-mar'm was too great to be bridged by this young colored girl—so thought her once employer. But she has changed her mind since she has seen how much Miss Shoecraft has accomplished by her indomitable will and strength of purpose. These essentials to success are so overshadowed by the womanly graces of our subject that even many of her friends fail at first to note these sterling qualities. Doubtless a short sketch of her life will be an incentive to girls who may find themselves surrounded by difficulties that rise as walls of adamant between them and long-cherished desires. Her hio-hest aim in life was to get a thorough education, and then touch the sleeping heart of the masses and set it throbbing with a newer and a better life.

Miss Christine Shoecraft was born July i, 1866, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her parents were A. R. and Mary B. Shoecraft. Her mother died when she was but two and a half years old, and the care of the motherless little one rested upon her father and grandmother, who, when Christine was eight years of age, moved to Muncie, Indiana. It was in this city that she received her education, finishing from the high school when seventeen years of age. During her last three years in school many difficulties barred her pathway. But, nothing daunted, she went right on, assisting in the house-work, washing and ironing, and at the same time keeping abreast of her class. When it came time for her final examinations.