Around the World in Seventy-Two Days and Other Writings

THE GIRL PUZZLE

Some Suggestions on What to Do With the Daughters of Mother Eve

What shall we do with our girls?

Not our Madame Neilsons; nor our Mary Andersons; not our Bessie Brambles nor Maggie Mitchells;5not our beauty or our heiress; not any of these, but those without talent, without beauty, without money.

What shall we do with them?

The anxious father still wants to know what to do with his five daughters. Well indeed may he inquire and wonder. Girls, since the existence of Eve, have been a source of worriment, to themselves as well as to their parents, as to what shall be done with them. They cannot, or will not, as the case may be, all marry. Few, very few, possess the mighty pen of the late Jane Grey Swisshelm, and even writers, lecturers, doctors, preachers and editors must have money as well as ability to fit them to be such. What is to be done with the poor ones?

The schools are overrun with teachers, the stores with clerks, the factories with employees. There are more cooks, chambermaids and washerwomen than can find employment. In fact, all places that are filled by women are overrun, and still there are idle girls, some that have aged parents depending on them. We cannot let them starve. Can they that have full and plenty of this world s goods realize what it is to be a poor working woman, abiding in one or two bare rooms, without fire enough to keep warm, while her threadbare clothes refuse to protect her from the wind and cold, and denying herself necessary food that her little ones may not go hungry; fearing the landlord s frown and threat to cast her out and sell what little she has, begging for employment of any kind that she may earn enough to pay for the bare rooms she calls home, no one to speak kindly to or encourage her, nothing to make life worth the living? If sin in the form of man comes forward with a wily smile and says fear no more, your debts shall be paid, she cannot let her

Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochrane (1864 1922), an American journalist best known for her record-breaking trip around the world and her controversial undercover investigation of Bellevue Hospital's insane asylum.

Jean M. Lutes is an associate professor of English and director of academics for Gender and Women s Studies at Villanova University.

Maureen Corrigan is the book critic for NPR s Fresh Air, a lecturer at Georgetown University, and the author of the literary memoir, Leave Me Alone, I m Reading! She lives in Washington, D.C.

"Absolutely fantastic...superb in its entirety" 
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

"A classic from one of the first prominent female journalists in America."
Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine

"Splendid...The only thing unbelievable about Nellie Bly is that it s taken this long for her work to be recognized and with a life story this rich, where is the biopic? Thanks to this new collection at least, Bly s life work will be accessible for a whole new world of readers."
The Daily Beast

 "From the start, Bly is a natural writer. Her voice is caustic and confident, lilting effortlessly between the gush and private wonder of a schoolgirl s diary and the rigor of the most celebrated political reporters of her time. "
The New Inquiry

If you ve never read any of 19th-century journalist Nellie Bly s work, this is the place to start. And if you re a longtime fan of the first girl stunt reporter, this is definitely a tome worth adding to your library . [Bly] made indelible observations about a woman s place in the world that are no less valuable today than they were 150 years ago.
Bust Magazine

"The editing is outstanding, providing the backstory for this important but all too often neglected figure in American journalism."
Huntington News