ortion of the
accumulations of the business in which they labored in early years
with equal faithfulness, side by side. This is but another instance
of women's blind faith in the men of their families and of the
danger in allowing business matters to adjust themselves on the
basis of honor, courtesy and protection.

Among the literary women of the State are Sarah C. Hallowell, on
the editorial staff of the _Public Ledger_; the daughters of John
W. Forney, for many years in charge of the woman's department of
_Forney's Progress_; Anne McDowell, editor of the woman's
department in _The Sunday Republic_; Mrs. E. A. Wade; "Bessie
Bramble" of Pittsburg has for many years ably edited a woman's
department in the _Sunday Leader_; Matilda Hindman, an excellent
column in the _Pittsburg Commercial Gazette_. In science Grace Anna
Lewis stands foremost. Her paper read before the Woman's Congress
in Philadelphia in 1876, attracted much attention. These ladies
with others organized "The Century Club"[271] in 1876, for
preeminently practical and benevolent work. Its objects are
various: looking after working girls, sending children into the
country for fresh air during summer, and improving the houses of
the poor and needy. The Club has a large house to which is attached
a cooking-school and lodgings for unfortunates in great
emergencies.

Woman's ambition was not confined at this period to literature and
the learned professions; she found herself capable of practical
work on a large scale in the department of agriculture. The
_Philadelphia Press_ has the following:

The beautiful farm of Abel C. Thomas, at Tacony, near
Philadelphia, is remarkable chiefly because it is managed by a
woman, Mrs. Louise H. Thomas. Her husband, the intimate friend of
Horace Greeley, and well known as an author and theologian, in
time past, has long been too feeble to take any part in managing
the property. That duty has devolved upon Mrs. Thomas. The house,
two hundred yards from the Pennsylvania railroad, is hidden from
view by the trees which surround it. The grounds are tastefully
laid out, and the lawn mowed with a regularity that indicates
constant feminine attention. The plot is 20 acres in extent. Six
acres comprise the orchard and garden. In addition to apple,
apricot, pear, peach, plum and cherry, there are specimens of all
kinds of trees, from pine to poplar.

A _Press_