Mrs. Richards wrote many helpful books about home-making. She organized a society of people interested in promoting right living in the home, the school, and the community. The name of this organization is American Home Economics Association. Because of her influence home economics is now taught in schools throughout the land. To Ellen H. Richards, sanitary chemist, the facts of science were never just facts, but the means of making people healthier and happier. [Illustration] Elizabeth Cady Stanton— The Girl Who Helped to Draft Woman’s Declaration of Independence “What a pity it is she’s a girl!” Four-year-old Elizabeth heard this remark over and over again from the visitors who had come to see her baby sister. She thought that she ought to feel sorry for the baby, too. When she was a little older, Elizabeth Cady realized what a pity it was that girls and women could not have the same privileges and advantages as had boys and men. Elizabeth Cady was born at Johnstown, New York, November 12, 1815. When this little girl grew up, she called the first Woman’s Rights Convention and worked all her life to gain more privileges for women. As a child she felt the disadvantages of being a girl in the early days of the 1800’s. When her only brother, a fine promising college graduate, died, eleven-year-old Elizabeth realized that her father loved his son far more than all of his five daughters. Longing to comfort him Elizabeth climbed on his knee. “Oh, my daughter, would that you were a boy!” was all that he could say. From that moment Elizabeth resolved to equal boys. To be learned and courageous she decided was the way to accomplish her purpose. Before breakfast the next morning she went to her dear friend and pastor and asked him to teach her Greek. She insisted on beginning that very minute. To prove herself courageous she learned to drive a horse, and to leap a fence and ditch on horseback. Within a short time she began to study Greek, Latin, and mathematics with a class of boys at the village academy. She did so well that she won the second prize, a Greek testament. Joyfully Elizabeth rushed home expecting to hear her father say, “Now, you are equal to a boy.” However, his kisses and praise failed to take away the sting of his remark, “Ah, you should have been a boy!” Elizabeth’s father was a distinguished lawyer and judge. His office adjoined the house, and there his little daughter spent much of her time talking with his students and listening to his clients. Often his clients were widows who wept and complained that the property which they had brought into the family had been willed to their sons. Elizabeth could not understand why her father, who was wise and kind, could not help these poor women. Then Judge Cady would take down from the shelves a big volume and show her the law.