.

There has been a woman on the State Board of Charities since its
organization in 1893, Mrs. Howey, Mrs. M. S. Cummins and Mrs. Lewis
Penwell having been successively elected.

Dr. Mary B. Atwater has been for over three years chairman of the
Board of Health of Helena.

Women served as notaries public until a ruling of Attorney-General C.
B. Nolan (1901) declared this illegal.

In 1892, the first year the Populist party put a ticket in the field,
it nominated Miss Ella Knowles for the office of Attorney-General. She
made a spirited campaign, addressing more than eighty audiences, and
alone organized some fourteen counties, being the first Populist to
speak in them. She ran 5,000 votes ahead of her ticket, in a State
which casts only about 50,000. The contest was so close that it was
three weeks before it was decided who had been elected; but when the
votes came in from the outlying precincts, where she was unknown, it
was found that her Republican opponent, H. J. Haskell, had a majority.
Miss Knowles was then appointed Assistant Attorney-General, an office
which she filled for four years to the eminent satisfaction of the
people. During this time she married her rival.

OCCUPATIONS: No occupation is now legally forbidden to women. Mainly
through the efforts of Mrs. Haskell, a bill was passed by the
Legislature of 1889 which gave women the right to practice law. The
Rev. Alice S. N. Barnes was ordained in the Congregational Church in
1896, and has preached regularly ever since. In 1889 she was chosen as
moderator at the Conference of the Congregational Churches of Montana,
at Helena.

EDUCATION: The educational advantages for women are the same as those
accorded men. All institutions of learning--the State University, the
Agricultural College, even the School of Mines--are open to both
sexes.

In the public schools there are 201 men and 885 women teachers. The
average monthly salary of the men is $69.28; of the women, $48.61.

* * * * *

Montana women were awarded seven medals at the World's Fair in Chicago
in 1893. Their botanical exhibit was one of the most notable at the
exposition. It was artistically arranged by Mrs. Jennie H. Moore, the
flowers being all scientifically labeled and properly classified. Of
the $100,000 appropriated to the use of the State Commission, the men
assigned $10,000 to the women for their department, exercising no
supervision over them. At the clo