21 MARCH 1891, Page 3

It has always been said that free education in America

was confided to women, the " school-marms " from the Eastern 'States furnishing the main body of instructors for the entire Union. The compilers of the new Census have investigated this question, and their report, forwarded to us this week from the Census Bureau, does not confirm the correctness of the popular impression. In the Yankee States, women do most of the educational work, and even in Pennsylvania they are double the male teachers ; but in the South and West, the -proportions are nearly equalised. In Massachusetts, for every ten. male teachers there are ninety-two female ; in Rhode Island the proportion is ten to sixty-nine, and in Connecticut it is ten. to sixty. In California it is lower, but still there are thirty-seven women to ten men ; but in South Carolina there is exact equality, and in Ohio the men are to the women as ten to thirteen. The sexes instructed are everywhere tolerably equal. • Judging by the results of the education given, the women su3ceed best, Massachusetts, for example, being far better educated than any Southern or Western State; and we are curious to know whether in the West there is any reason for their comparative unpopularity. It may simply be that in the West, owing to the enormous immigration, all women can marry.