Page:Women of distinction.djvu/326

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
254
WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.

competent in any position in which she consented to serve, whether in charge of the whole school, or a class, or laboring for the people in church or Sunday-school. A consistent Christian, she carried an earnestness and consecration into her work which would not admit of defeat. She kept constantly in view the greatest good of those whom she served. She is unquestionably the most popular teacher ever connected with the Huntsville Normal School. Under the greatest trials she was the most composed, and in the darkest hour her womanly virtues shone most brilliantly and placed upon her brow a halo which called forth the admiration of friend and foe.

"In her dealings with the community, as well as her conduct towards her pupils, she lost her self-interest in her efforts to serve others, and Fred. Douglass himself was never more devoted to the welfare of the race than she.

"As Hamlet said of his father we say of her:

"'A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a woman.'"

She resigned her position in December, 1887, and the following year married the distinguished Dr. C. S. Smith, Secretary of the A. M. E. Sunday-school Union, located at Nashville, Tenn.

In this age of advancement all avenues are open to both colored men and women. But few of our women have entered the business arena and by their ability proved to the world what a colored woman can do in