in her county, and grant certificates to such, and such
only, as she honestly thinks are of good moral character and
sufficient scholastic attainments. As no one can teach in a
public school without such certificate, this gives her the
veto power over all teachers. Dr. Bateman, commenting on
fourteen specifications, of which the foregoing constitute
but eight, says these are _some_ of the _many_ duties made
obligatory upon the county superintendent by law. Besides
all these, is the visitation of schools, which every true
superintendent considers a very important part of the work.

For convenience we will group these duties in three classes:
1. Those concerning finance. 2. Legal duties. 3. Duties to
teachers and schools.

I. To give an idea of the financial interests intrusted to
the hands of these women, we find by reference to the State
superintendent's report for last year that the total
receipts for school purposes in these ten counties which
they superintend was $1,009,441. So far as can be learned
from the records, not one cent of the large sums over which
they had supervision has been lost through their dishonesty,
or, what was more to be feared, their ignorance of business.
Unlike those of Dora Copperfield, their accounts _will_ "add
up." In the county (Knox) where the receipts are greatest,
aggregating $182,423.22, the greatest difference between
receipts and expenditures, as shown by the superintendent's
books, is ten cents. In many of these counties the financial
affairs were in the greatest confusion when the ladies came
into office. In one, perhaps more, the preceding
superintendent was a defaulter, in another he was engaged in
a law-suit with the county board, and in still others
strange irregularities were discovered. In every instance,
so far as we can ascertain, these crookednesses have been
straightened out, the finances put upon a surer basis,
hundreds, we believe thousands, of dollars of bad debts have
been collected, treasurers and directors have been induced
to keep their books with greater care and in better shape,
reckless expenditure of sch