projected the idea of a monthly magazine of literature and theology, to be called the "Christian Spectator." To that magazine Miss Beecher was a frequent contributor under the initials "C. D. D." Those poems attracted the attention of a young professor of mathematics in Yale College, Alexander M. Fisher, who, after making the acquaintance of Miss Beecher, in due time became her betrothed husband. The wedding was arranged to take place immediately upon the return from Europe of Professor Fisher, who had gone abroad in pursuance of his educational ideas. Again was Miss Beecher to feel the hand of fate. The young lover never returned to claim his promised bride, having perished in a storm which struck the vessel off the coast of Ireland. For a time Miss Beecher could see no light through the clouds which over-shadowed her, and it was feared that even her religious faith would forsake her. She was sent to Yale, in the hope that the companionship of Professor Fisher's relatives might have a beneficial effect upon the stricken mind. Shortly after her arrival there, she was induced to begin the study of mathematics under the guidance of Willard Fisher, a brother of her late lover. After a time she went back to Litchfield, united with her father's church, and resolved to let insoluble problems alone and to follow Christ. Shortly after that, Miss Beecher, in conjunction with her sister, opened a select school in Hartford, Conn. Such was the success of that school, that in four years' time there was not room for the scholars who applied for admittance. She had always enjoyed the friendship of the leading women of Hartford, and when she began to agitate the subject of a female seminary in that town, it was through their influence that the prominent men of Hartford became interested in the project and subscribed the money to purchase the land and erect the buildings, which afterward became known as the Hartford Female Seminary. With Miss Beecher as principal and a band of eight teachers of her selection, the school grew rapidly in influence and popularity. She published "Suggestions on Education," which was widely read and drew attention to the Hartford Seminary from all parts of the United States. With all the cares of a school of between one and two hundred pupils, her influence was felt, even to the minutest particular. She planned the course of study, guided the teachers, overlooked the boarding-houses and corresponded with parents and guardians. With all those cares on her mind, she yet found time to prepare an arithmetic, which was printed and used as a text-book in her school and those emanating from it. About that time the teacher in mental philosophy left the institution, and Miss Beecher not only took charge of that department, but wrote a text-book of some four or five-hundred pages, entitled "Mental and Moral Philosophy, Founded on Reason, Observation and the Bible." She kept up her piano practice, and now and then furnished a poem to the weekly "Connecticut Observer." After seven years of incessant activity her health gave out, and she was obliged to relinquish the school into other hands. Shortly after that the family removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and, in connection with a younger sister, Miss Beecher commenced a school in that city. Although she did not personally labor in that institution, the teaching was all done by instructors of her own training. In connection with other women she formed a league for supplying the West with educated teachers, and, as the result, many teachers were sent West and many schools founded. During the latter years of her life, she devoted her time to authorship. Her first work, a treatise on "Domestic Economy" (1845), was designed as a text-book for schools. That was followed by "Duty of American Women to Their Country" (1845), "Domestic Receipt Book" (1846, "Miss Beecher's Address" (1846), "Letters to the People" (1855), "Physiology and Calisthenics" (1856), "Common Sense Applied to Religion" (1857), "An Appeal to the People" (1860), "The Religious Training of Children" (1864), "The House-keeper and Healthkeeper " (1873). In her sixty-first year she united with the Episcopal Church by confirmation, in company with three of her young nieces. She lived to be seventy-eight years of age, and although crippled by sciatica for the last ten years of her life, the activity of her mind and her zeal in education continued to the last.
BEHAN, Miss Bessie, social leader, born in New Orleans, La., 5th March, 1872. She is a daughter of Gen. W. J. Behan, a prominent southern merchant and an extensive sugar planter. She
BESSIE BEHAN.
was educated at home by skilled governesses, and had all the advantages of much travel. Her associations in the quaint Anglo-French city of New Orleans made the acquisition of the French language easy and natural, and she is thus master of two languages. Her education was completed, and she made her début in society in New Orleans in 1891, at once taking rank as a belle and winning general popularity. Her type of beauty has nothing of what is commonly called "Creole." The most coveted of all social honors in New Orleans is to be chosen queen in the Mardi Gras Carnival. That honor fell to Miss Behan in the carnival of 1891, and, was made the occasion of a memorable display of the regard felt for her by the people of her native city. She bore the festival honors easily and regally. She was not yet out of her teens when she was chosen Carnival Queen, and she was the youngest woman yet selected for coronation in that characteristic festival.
