Woman of the Century/Belle Case La Follette

LA FOLLETTE. Mrs. Belle Case, social leader, born in Summit. Juneau county, Wis., 21st April, 1859. Her father's name was Anson Case. Her mother's maiden name was Mary Nesbitt. Belle Case spent her childhood in Bamboo, Wis. She was educated in the public schools and in the State University, from which she was graduated in 1879. She was conspicuously bright, and won the Lewis prize for the best commencement oration. BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE. Her perfect health was proved by the fact that she attended school and was a close student for eight consecutive years, including her university course, without losing a recitation. She became the wife in 1881 of her classmate, Robert M. La Follette. a lawyer. She became interested in his work, which led to her enter the Wisconsin Law School in 1883, and from which she was graduated in 1885. She was the first woman to receive a diploma from that institution. During the same year Mr. La Follette was elected to Congress, which necessitated their removal to Washington, and Mrs. La Follette has done no practical professional work. In meeting the social obligations incident to her husband's official position, held for six years, she found no time for anything else. While not the most profitable life imaginable, Mrs. La Follette yet found it far from vain or meaningless. She saw Women greet one another in drawing-rooms in much the same spirit as men meet in the Senate Chamber and House of Representatives, and her Washington experience resulted in enlarged views touching the Opportunities and possibilities offered women, called into the official circle from all parts of the United States, not only for broad social development, but also for wholesome and effective, though indirect, influences upon the life and thought of the nation. On the banks of Lake Monona, in Madison, Wis., the present home of Mrs. La Follette is delightfully located. She has proved herself a most worthy and inspiring sharer of the honors trials and responsibilities of her distinguished husband's professional and political life. Devoted to him and to the education ol their young daughter, Flora, she is to-day not only one of the most prominent, but one of the most quietly contented, of Wisconsin's progressive women.