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284 only group in which the teachers were colored. Her election was a special honor, for, although there were many more colored schools, the Board expressed the opinion that they could not secure competent teachers to fill them.

Possessing, as she did even in these youthful days, stern integrity, invincible purpose and a will strong to command, traits of character more frequently sought in the other sex, she has not been troubled with the question of discipline as most teachers are. But with this apparent sternness Mrs. Bowser possesses a tender heart, which always pulsates with sympathy for the anxious inquirer after knowledge and for the distressed of whatever creed or nationality. Her boys and girls, who can be numbered by the hundreds, would gladly unite in this testimonial to her ability as a teacher and to her warmth of heart as a friend. She did not, like many school-teachers, as soon as elected content herself with pursuing the rut of only her daily routine work in school, but each evening found her either learning more about her profession, reading for the sake of culture, pursuing some new art or perfecting herself in some new accomplishment. That same determination to succeed which characterized her early efforts has run through all her later attempts. Any one who has conversed with Mrs. Bowser for half an hour will be convinced of the first and second statements, and you have only to spend an evening in her cultured home to be assured of the third and fourth. A well-selected and carefully read library graces her parlor. Specimens of her fine laces, fancy needle-work