also at that. But seeing and hearing are always more effective
than mere figures. The female pupil at a free school in London is,
as a rule, either a ragged pauper or a charity girl, if not
degraded, at least stigmatized by the badges and dress of the
charity. We Englishmen know well the type of each, and have a
fairly correct idea of the amount of education which is imparted to
them. We see the result afterward when the same girls become our
servants, and the wives of our grooms and porters. The female
pupil at a free school in New York is neither a pauper nor a
charity girl. She is dressed with the utmost decency. She is
perfectly cleanly. In speaking to her, you cannot in any degree
guess whether her father has a dollar a day, or three thousand
dollars a year. Nor will you be enabled to guess by the manner in
which her associates treat her. As regards her own manner to you,
it is always the same as though her father were in all respects
your equal. As to the amount of her knowledge, I fairly confess
that it is terrific. When in the first room which I visited, a
slight, slim creature was had up before me to explain to me the
properties of the hypothenuse, I fairly confess that, as regards
education, I backed down, and that I resolved to confine my
criticisms to manner, dress, and general behavior. In the next
room I was more at my ease, finding that ancient Roman history was
on the tapis. "Why did the Romans run away with the Sabine women?"
asked the mistress, herself a young woman of about three and
twenty. "Because they were pretty," simpered out a little girl
with a cherry mouth. The answer did not give complete
satisfaction, and then followed a somewhat abstruse explanation on
the subject of population. It was all done with good faith and a
serious intent, and showed what it was intended to show--that the
girls there educated had in truth reached the consideration of