SOCIAL LIFE IN NEW NETHERLAND   161

to the age of twelve. After that, the burghers and
well-to-do people made their daughters study to
be thoroughly practical in home and business.
Economy, administration, the keeping of accounts,
and the management of farm, garden, dairy, shop,
and household were according to rigid training.
Success was the prize of ambition. Legitimate
rivalry was encouraged and cultivated. A young
woman was led to find her enjoyment in preparing
herself to be not only a good wife and mother, but
a wise conserver of her husband's property and
fortune. The popular art, proverbs, and literature
illustrate this, but matter-of-fact local records illu¬
minate it.

All Dutch history shows how nobly the women
were helpmates of the men in managing those hos¬
pitals, orphanages, and retreats for aged couples,
and homes for old men and women, which made
the glory of Holland. Women as well as men won
the independence of the Fatherland. Compelled
during their eighty years of struggle for freedom
to provide for thousands of widows, orphans, crip¬
ples, wounded soldiers, and victims of the Inquisi¬
tion, the Dutch people in their little country de¬
veloped a vast and minute system of charity, the
like of which was not to be found in Europe, and
which is as yet unexcelled. In no lands were the
laws more favorable to women. Such development
had its roots far back in the Middle Ages.

To New Netherland the woman brought her in-