June 15th, 1882.

reading that most excellent work, "Duties of Women," by Frances Power Cobbe. We read with pleasure the number of Western Women's Journal you so kindly send, and are praying and hoping this advance wave of civilization may reach California.

A daughter of the late President Johnson manages a farm near Albany, Texas, with great economy and success. The Kansas women are equally enterprising. Miss Jennie Henrie secured a tract of land on Ash Creek, Kansas. "To show what an enterprising girl can do,” says the Logan Enterprise, "we will state that she came to that place several years ago with barely enough means to sustain herself after entering the land. She went to work by the week, and the money she earned was invested in improvements on the land until now, at which time she has about thirty acres under cultivation, a comfortable house, well furnished, and other valuable improvements. By her industry and perseverance she has gained the admiratior of all who know her. She will soon have a deed to one of the best tracts of land in the country."

The Women's Journal says: "People round Lawrence, Kansas, say, that the best farmer of the neighbourhood is a woman, Mrs. Mary Macutchen. She is a widow. Ten years ago, when her husband died, he left her a few acres of land and four children. She went to work, following the plough herself. Soon she added to her property by purchase and improvement. In 1874 she contracted for an improved farm for 1800 dollars which she gave to one of her boys. She has since paid for the land from the surplus products of her own farm of 120 acres. Last year she bought a farm of 150 acres at the price of 2500 dollars, cne-fourth of which she has already paid and will pay over the other three-fourths from the crops of this year. She works her farm with the aid of her two sons and without much hired help. This is a good example of what has been done in the midst of hard times in Kansas by a widow left with a family of children and no resources.

The following is part of a letter from Mrs. Thomas, a farmer living near Philadelphia :

"Something over thirteen years ago my husband (a clergyman) failed in health, and I found that I must

June 15th, 1882.

provide for four persons, ourselves and our two boys. Hearing that this farm of twenty acres was for sale, I purchased it, and have since that time reared and educated thirteen children, besides my own, to lives of industry. Five of these were blacks and three Indians. Some are married and some are still with me. I superintend everything upon the place. I have five Alderney cows, each one of which pays for herself in milk, butter, and cream every season. The calves are sold for 50 dollars each when four weeks old. I have several hundred white Brahmas that are worth from three to five dollars apiece, and their eggs always bring 1 dol. 50 cents per dozen for incubating purposes. I keep only pure blooded stock; it pays best. I have twenty-five hives of bees which add about 100 dols. to my income."

The cultivation of silk is also occupying many women. Miss Bertha Olsen is superintendent of a silk society in Rockville, Kane Co., Utah. The society has planted 10,000 mulberry cuttings, besides a large quantity of seeds; has built a silk house and has raised plenty of eggs from imported silk worms.

A short description given in Demorest's Magazine of a lady who has made a large business for herself by selling milk will not be out of place here:

THE WASHINGTON "SWISS DAIRY."-Mrs. Wagner, who keeps the "Swiss Dairy," at No. 403, East Capitol Street, began business in August, 1877, with five gallons of milk, her first sale being of one half-pint at her store. She is now selling two hundred gallons per day, and her business is increasing so that she is seeking for a larger supply. About seventy-five gallons of the two hundred she sells and delivers at the stores. She is a quiet woman of pleasant manners, who says she is willing to work and have her family work. She had no experience in any business affairs until she took up this business.

Mrs. Wagner's force to transact this large business consists of herself, her daughter, and her mother, who is more than seventy years of age, and a small coloured boy-these at the store. Then she has three horses and waggons, with three men, one of whom is her son, to carry out the milk to consumers.

The waggons start at half-past four in the morning, and deliver milk at all hours of the day, and the store is open until late at night. Besides the milk she sells some fifteen gallons of cream a day, part carried out and part at the store. She also sells sour milk, buttermilk, and skim milk at five cents a quart, and makes cottage cheeses and sometimes butter of any milk or cream left.

woman's Keview

15th, 1882

We shall from time to time bring additional instances forward, as there can be no reason why English ladies should not follow the same occupations profitably if they put the same energy and business capacity into them.

ART. IV.-WOMEN REGISTRARS.

THERE is peculiar satisfaction in recording the appointment of two ladies in widely different parts of England to the office of Registrar of Births and Deaths. In both cases these ladies have been well known to have greatly assisted their predecessors; they had thus received thorough training for the work and had established a sort of claim upon the authorities for promotion. In the first case the lady, Mrs. McAlister, is the widow of the gentleman who had filled the post for many years in Leicester, and has a large family to maintain. She had frequently discharged the duties of her husband's office, and the Board of Guardians on being applied to, unanimously appointed her to the office. A memorial to the Registrar General, Sir B. T. Henniker, was the next step, and this was signed by the mayor, magistrates, and many other influential inhabitants, and to the general satisfaction the Registrar General has confirmed the election.

The other lady, Miss Markwick, has been appointed to the offices left vacant in Uckfield by her father's death, she being known to have greatly assisted him for many years. She is Registrar of Births and Deaths for the Isfield district, Secretary to the Uckfield Building Society, and Assistant-Overseer and Collector of the poor rates for the parish. We can see no reason why ladies should not often be appointed to these duties; exactness, punctual attendance to duty, and clear headedness are as much womanly as manly characteristics, and as education increases among women a much larger number than formerly will be found qualified for these offices.

REVIEWS.

June 15th, 1882.

The Deceased Wife's Sister Bill. The Woman's Side of the Question, by some Middle-class Wives and Mothers. Waterlow & Sons, Printers.

THE pamphlet is addressed to the House of Commons by middle-class women of England, who say they have waited in hopes that some well-known and influential voices would be raised in behalf of the woman's side of the question, but the majority of men seem indifferent to the subject, and a grave domestic evil may be laid upon the country for mere want of thought. The Bill, it points out, is founded on no principle; it sets men free, but it leaves women bound; it lets the husband marry his wife's sister because it is said she is not his sister; but forbids him to marry his brother's widow, because in some unexplained way she is his sister. It maintains that the women who dislike and fear the Bill might be counted by thousands, and that some pains should be taken to discover their desires. on a point so vital to their happiness by men who prefer to speak personally for their womankind to letting them stand up for themselves in public. It concludes:

We earnestly hope England may never in an evil hour loosen her restrictions, with regard to marriage. In America, one marriage in every eleven is followed by a divorce, and in Germany, where marriage between uncles and nieces is permitted, all the domestic relations are broken up. Let us, before it is too late, join hand with hand to oppose it, and pray that the men will give us the opportunity of stating our case-privately, through themselves, or publicly, as they prefer, only let us be heard somehow. Let special measures be taken to ascertain our wishes, for it is essentially a woman's question. Rational Dress; or the Dress of Women and Savages, by E. M. KING. Kegan Paul. Price 6d.

This pamphlet consists of the paper that Mrs. King read at the Brighton Health Congress last December, now republished with additions. Mrs. King urges that the way women clothe themselves is a proof of the present inferiority of women to men as showing a lower condition of mind, character and civilization.

Our Farm Servant Girls.

Under this title the Countess of Aberdeen has published a short account of the objects of an association

recently set on foot in Aberdeenshire, and entitled the "Haddo House Young Women's Improvement Association." The Countess urges that the best means of elevating the life and tastes of farm servant girlsthe best, at all events, that are available to outsiders who desire to benefit them-consist in giving them some interest in life outside their daily work, in trying to induce them to remain as long as possible in the same place, so that they may acquire settled habits of home life, and that there may be time for the cultivation of better relations between them and their employers; and finally, in endeavouring to cultivate among them feelings of self-respect and purity.

RECORD OF EVENTS.

IN the Natural Science Tripos Examinations for Easter, the following places were obtained by women: -Class I. Misses Aitken, Greenwood and Wood, Girton. Class II. Miss Steedman, Girton; Miss Turrell, Newnham. Class III. Miss Edge, Girton. Twenty-four men obtained the first class at the same time; the ladies' are therefore at present in the proportion of 1 to 8; a marked success.

CAMBRIDGE.

NEWNHAM COLLEGE.-The Vice-Principalship of Newnham College, with the charge of the north hall-which will be resigned by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick in October next-has been offered to and accepted by Miss Helen Gladstone. The Council of Newnham College will award, on the results of the higher local examination in June, 1883, three scholarships of £50 for two years, given respectively by the companies of the Clothworkers', the Drapers' and the Goldsmiths', and the Cobden Scholarship of £50 for two years, given by Mrs. Stephen Winkworth. These scholarships will be continued for a third year to promising students preparing