Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Women and Men

[210] are very exceptional men. It is quite probable that she may have inherited from lier father, who preceded her in the mill, some special talent for machinery. It is often so with men, since talent is often hereditary and even cumulative, what is mere taste in a father sometimes becoming a distinct gift in the son, and being called genius in the grandson. But talent or even genius alone makes a mere amateur; she had also the courage to plan and the will to carry out, and with such results as we have seen. She expressly told me that it had cost her a good deal of labor, and that she habitually went to the mill at 6 A. M., and knew all that was going on there every day. Her husband, as has been said, was occupied with his own share of business, and left hers undisturbed. Her success shows not merely the ability of a woman to plan and execute, but the readiness of practical men to co-operate with such a woman after she has once proved her credentials. She said that she had found no trouble in this respect, and that the banks in her region had been as willing to accommodate her as if she were a man.

Such an example does not prove that it is the duty of all women to undertake business enterprises, any more than it is the duty of all men to paint pictures or open retail shops. There must be a proper consideration of special talents. In