solve, the preparation, and
the application to enter the University of Michigan; and young as
she was, her clear-sightedness and courage called forth our
admiration. As a child, in Ann Arbor, from 1845, to 1852, she had
often attended the commencement exercises of the University, and
on those occasions had felt very unhappy, because all the culture
given to mind and heart and soul by this institution was given to
young men alone. It seemed a cruel injustice to young women that
they could not be there with their brothers, enjoying the same.
In connection with her efforts and those of her friends to enter
those enchanted portals, she bears grateful testimony to the
discussions on the question of woman's rights, as follows:

When it was my blessed privilege to attend a women's rights
convention at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1853,--and it was a grand
meeting--where dear Lucretia Mott, Ernestine L. Rose,
Frances D. Gage, Antoinette Brown, Lucy Stone, and others,
dwelt upon the manifold wrongs suffered by women, and called
upon them to awake and use their powers to secure justice to
all, I felt their words to mean that the Michigan University
as well as all others, should be opened to girls, and that
women themselves should first move in the matter.

Thus aroused, though but sixteen years old, she resolved at once
to make application for admission to the State University. Early
in the autumn of 1856, she entered the high school at Ann Arbor,
and studied Greek and Latin two years, preparatory to taking the
classical course. Four young ladies besides herself, recited with
the boys who were preparing for college, and they were all
declared by a university professor who had attended frequent
examinations, to stand head and shoulders in scholarship above
many of the young men. Miss Burger wishing as large a class as
possible to appeal for admission, wrote to a number of classical
schools for young women, asking cooeperation, and secured the
names of eleven[320] who would gladly apply with her. In the
spring of 1858, she sent a note to the regents, saying a class of
twelve young ladies would apply in June, for admission to the
University in September. A reporter said "a certain Miss B. had
sent the regents warning of