founded a school for girls which attracted the attention of the whole country, as being sustained by the parents themselves who take an active and immediate interest in the higher education of their daughters, under the protection of their own homes, and without the intervention of the gov

ernment.

Stimulated by the success of this popular venture, Señor Ramon Gracia of Esquina initiated a similar movement in that town. The results have been most flattering, and thus Corrientes boasts of having three educational centers directed by North Americans, in which higher education is made accessible to a very large proportion of its inhabitants; the third one is the national normal school in the capital city, Corrientes.

In these popular schools, as they are called, no expense has been spared to implant all the newer thought of the day, and kindergarten work, manual training, and physical culture have been initiated in accordance with the most approved methods. Teachers from Sweden are training in woodwork, sewing, and physical culture; and in Goya an enthusiastic graduate from the kindergarten work training-school of Parana is directing the attention of parents to the importance of this the foundation work in the elevation of the human family.

The annual examinations and exhibitions of these schools are veritable educational tournaments, being the great event of the year, which all circles of society join in celebrating. The directors hesitate in joining the current of opinion tending toward the abolishment of examinations, believing that in these towns the direct effect of such exhibitions is to stimulate parents and children, and that climate and modes of living will of themselves prevent any danger of overstimulation.

Corrientes is called the revolutionary province par excellence, but it can also affirm, with pride, that it is taking an advanced place in the evolution which is making for righteousness and better living in all parts of this country; and

Argentina may make a similar claim as being the most advanced of the South American republics in providing educational facilities for the masses, although others may equal her in university education.

Three Argentine women have passed with honors into the ranks of the medical profession, two having added to their preparation by study in Europe. Doctora Cecilia Grierson, now having a large practice in Buenos Ayres, is doing pioneer work in educating classes of male and female nurses, and actively aiding the propaganda for organizing a “Society for First Aid."

Her efforts are strengthened by the coöperation of the Señorita Gracia Lagos and Señora Dolores L. de Lavalle, a member of an old historic family, who is president of the ladies' branch of the Red Cross Society, besides being prominent in other works of beneficence.

So in all this southern half of our continent SpanishAmerican women are advancing, and the few who have stormed the outworks and striven to attain a place in the liberal professions are sustaining their new dignity with success, and so illuminating the path for the many who are preparing to follow. Among women there are but few physicians, dentists, midwives; fewer lawyers and avowed politicians; but there are many who have achieved a degree of prominence in music, painting, and literature. Some periodicals in the larger cities are almost wholly conducted by women.

As yet women appear in but few of the telephone and telegraph offices, and in comparatively few of the stores and shops; the leveling-up process not having permeated the large middle class to a sufficient extent to induce those who can not prepare themselves for teaching to leave the seclusion of their homes.

In the statistics of the few countries that have been available there has not been noticed any great difference between men and women in the compensation for equal work done, where both have been employed; with the very

noticeable fact that women are not found in the highest positions, and therefore are not enjoying the largest

salaries.

In recent years the growth and extension of all kinds of manufactories have opened larger fields for the entrance of women to industrial circles, and as there is some complaint as to their lack of business capacity and punctuality, some time must elapse before education will become so general as to effect results in changing this complaint.

In the opinion of many, the next step to be taken is to provide greater facilities for the superior education of the higher classes, and to institute a general system of industrial education for all throughout the country.

The time is ripe, men's minds are prepared, theories have been advanced, and it can be prophesied that the large reforms in this direction will have been commenced by women through the elementary efforts begun in some parts toward teaching poor children to sew. There has even been some talk of opening cooking-schools.

Organization, or association for benevolent purposes (nearly always under some phase of religious government), has been very generally carried out; and woman here, as all over the world, is the recognized dispenser of charity. So far her work has been to feed the hungry and to tend the sick and necessitous, without looking farther than the momentary needs; but now, with the growth of better modes of living generally, more frequent intercourse with other nations, and the spread of greater literary and scientific knowledge, the spirit of coöperation is gaining strength, and a larger philanthropy is being studied, with a view to help the unfortunate to be self-helpful. Although still largely under the active influence of the church, this spirit of association, either from philanthropic motives purely or for higher education, is obeying here, as elsewhere, the impulse of to-day for coöperation in all directions. Judging by the gigantic strides made toward reforms by women here, during the short time since the first steps

were taken for higher education that made such progress possible, and by the quickness of perception and desire for improvement that characterize her, it is not impossible that the Spanish-American woman may startle her sisters by the advanced position she may be able to assume among them when the day shall come for her to be better known. At present, communication is so difficult between North and South America, and so convenient between North America and Europe, that many very intelligent and widely traveled persons in the United States have but vague ideas of the kind of civilization to be encountered among their sister republics. If the culture of a country is to be measured by the place woman holds in it, then the more advanced of these southern countries must be looked upon as possessing the highest and lowest extremes, both in the position woman has held and in the promise that is held forth as to the position soon to be taken by her.

THE PROGRESS OF WOMEN IN ENGLAND ADDRESS PREPARED BY HELEN BLACKBURN OF ENGLAND, READ BY HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON OF OHIO.

The progress of women in England is a large subject to be asked to undertake in the brief space of thirty minutes, yet the salient points may be indicated by a glance at the accompanying diagram, with its various ascents and depres sions, and ascent again.*

The Saxon period, we must remember, was not one of abiding peace-invasions and predatory attacks fill the history with records of strife; therefore, we must expect to find the idea which underlies all early systems of jurisprudence,

*The diagram referred to, a graphic presentation of the progress of Englishwomen, is too complex to be reproduced here. The line showing the trend of woman's advancement rises so abruptly as to form an almost perpendicular ascent from the beginning of organized effort among English

women.

that the woman is under the protection (mund, to quote the Saxon word) of a man, still prevailing in Saxon law. But what we also find is that the idea of protection did not degenerate into the absolute domination which we find in Indian, Greek, and Roman law at a corresponding stage of development. There was something in the conditions of life in Saxon England which contributed to this. The population lived scattered; they did not congregate in camps or walled towns, whence the men went out to fight or hunt, but they lived, each household in its own homestead, with its own garden, fields, and share of common land. In their daily avocations men and women worked side by side, each working into the other's hands, dependent on each other for mutual help. There is no country which, at a similar stage, seems to have been more favorable to women. The Anglo-Saxon girl was left free choice in marriage, the Anglo-Saxon mother was guardian of her own child, and women filled positions of great responsibility.

The figure of Hilda stands out as one of the wisest and most saintly women in the whole course of English history. "Her prudence was so great," says the venerable Bede, "that her advice was sought from far and near, not only by ordinary people, but kings and princes sought and found counsel from her;" and prelates also, for it was under her roof that the ecclesiastical council was held which allayed the fierce theological controversy about Easter, which was at that time the burning question in the British church. The pupils of Hilda's community were trained by her to thorough and conscientious study- five who became bishops were among her disciples; for she ruled a double community of monks and nuns, as did also St. Ebba at Coldingham, St. Eldreda at Ely, St. Cuthburga at Wimborne-so too, a century earlier, Ireland's great St. Brigid at Kildare. These facts in themselves indicate the respect in which women were held by the church.

While Hilda thus represents the high place accorded to