Wyoming and Newark who pay a
property tax are privileged to vote for Town Commissioners in person
or by proxy. All such women in the State may vote for School Trustees.

OFFICE HOLDING: In January, 1900, the Supreme Court denied the
application of a woman to practice at the bar, on the ground that a
lawyer is a State officer and all State officers must be voters.

In the one city of Wilmington women are eligible as school directors,
but none ever has been elected.

A woman factory inspector was appointed by the Chief Justice in 1897,
and reappointed in 1900.

Women never have served as notaries public.

OCCUPATIONS: Only the practice of law is legally forbidden.

EDUCATION: Delaware has one college, at Newark, which receives State
funds. Women were admitted in 1872, and during the next thirteen years
eighty availed themselves of its advantages. It was then closed to
them. The only High School in the State, at Wilmington, is open to
girls.

There are in the public schools 211 men and 643 women teachers. It is
impossible to obtain their average salaries.

FOOTNOTES:

[211] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Martha S.
Cranston of Newport, president of the State Woman Suffrage
Association.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.[212]

The women of the District of Columbia who desire the suffrage have a
unique place among those of other localities. As the franchise for men
even is not included in the privileges of citizenship, all are
compelled to work circuitously through Congress in order to gain that
which in the States is secured directly by the ballot. The suffrage
societies stand in especially close relation to the National
Association, as every year from 1869 until 1895, and each alternate
year since, they have served as its hosts and arranged the many
details of its delegate conventions. Being near, also, to the great
legislative body of the nation they often serve as messengers and
mediators between congressional committees and various State
organizations of women.

The District, however, has its own vital problems to solve, and in
these the suffrage association takes a prominent part. Since 1883,
through its organized and persistent efforts, alone or in co-operation
with other societies, many local reforms and improvements have been
secured. These have been unusually difficult to obtain because subject
to the dual authority of Congress and of the District Commissioners.
Ne