A school-mistress.
1840. At the age of fifteen, we were qualified for the responsible station of “country school ma’ams.”—‘Lowell Offering,’ i. 74.
1857. It is like the school-ma’m who came to a difficult word, and not understanding it herself, told the child to say, “hard word,” and pass on. You must not say that which is contrary to their belief.—John Taylor at the Bowery, Salt Lake City, Sept. 13: ‘Journal of Discourses,’ v. 241.
1864. Before this day of larger ideas, to be a school-ma’am was to be a stiff, conceited, formal, critical character, which it was not altogether pleasant for a man to come into contact with.—J. G. Holland, ‘Letters to the Joneses,’ p. 254.
1878. He up an’ married one o’ them school-marms sent out from Boston.—J. H. Beadle, ‘Western Wilds,’ p. 188.
1906. If there is a sweet exhibition on earth, it is to see a little schoolmam on her way to and from the scene of her duties, so garlanded about with sweet, devoted childhood, that her modest footsteps are absolutely retarded.—Tombstone (Arizona) Epitaph, Dec.
