The needs of the
West were constantly kept before us in the churches. We were
asked for contributions for Home Missions, which were willingly
given; and some of us were appointed collectors of funds for the
education of indigent young men to become Western Home Missionary
preachers. There was something almost pathetic in the readiness
with which this was done by young girls who were longing to fit
themselves for teachers, but had not the means. Many a girl at
Lowell was working to send her brother to college, who had far
more talent and character than he; but a man could preach, and it
was not "orthodox" to think that a woman could. And in her
devotion to him, and her zeal for the spread of Christian truth,
she was hardly conscious of her own sacrifice. Yet our ministers
appreciated the intelligence and piety of their feminine
parishioners. An agent who came from the West for school-teachers
was told by our own pastor that five hundred could easily be
furnished from among Lowell mill-girls.
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