The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 21, 1895, Page 5

4 hon 4 - 200,000 families, no less than 150, * upon honor. » :_and are honored citizens of the town. b4 5 yital forces that are in the home. It is the bome that chelienges our best thought and our de-fest concern. alone your home home, but the universal home, the bome of humanity. 4 mere glance at the programme will show you at it is ihe purpose of the congress to_treat he home in its relation to the individual, v, 10 the municipality, to the Siate, 10 n end the world. The logicof events that ail wen are prethren. If ome member suffers, fer with him. Wé need o finer social and civil development, os the solid basis of a true material prosperity. Far-superior in importsnce to mere physical wealth is the wealth whicu comes from high mental an, the prosperity that lies in the 1i ‘nce and real virtue. There must be genuine nobility of character, or the chances are that posterity will regard tells u the brilliancy of the family jewels more religiously than the br s of the family name. 1t is in the home (hat these great moral transformations to be worked out. The vorld is on the advance, and our homes must ,ond o that advance by sending forth no- » well-equipped men and women, inspired h did purpose and lofty intent; ready, 1f needs be, to do and to suffer. Science needs explorers and expounders, and nkers are in demanc. The foot- generutions are well-trodden. pioneers to new fields of discoy- idents of nature are called ms await solution. Great g for birth, Queen of the West, keeping 1 projected work? Is America, mistress of civilization, ready behests? e afirmation is true, that the classes of statesmen, philosopher: nor Iaborers are up to the modern of their several professions. We k 10 the home for the remedy of these 1ings. The average standard of the » must be raised or humanity wiil be lashed 1 goaded into helpless decrepitude by exac- s that transcend its capabilities. A bal- e must be preserved between the present requirements of the age and the ability to meet those requirements. They must be made to harmonize. These are vital questions that reach back into the home for their solution. The generation justat hund will be the logical sequence of the generation of to-day. It is the purpose of this congress {0 bring ont whatever is highest and best in regard to the e in all its far-reaching and wide-branch- relations. The good and the true are one, and truth is cternal; and amid the perplexin; discussions and opinions in regard to social and political economy it Is comforting to remember that truth or error, justice or injustce, are in no way dependent upon our own interpretation of them. These ure inherent in the very nature of things, and humun law u vain to ignore or defy them. They are 1o be trified with. Happy the nation or ual that discovers these essential 1ds quick and cheerful obedi- ame. ( ization is but another de of expressing a wise and reverent com- ance with Na laws. All permanent improvement along any line consists in bring- ar opinions into nearer agreement with ring times, in the midst of ussle with life have little time ring the pros and cons of atin cs. Conscientious, truth- ing and progressiv would iain throw their influence in the way of righteous reform, 1€ eagerness for the new and fearful lest an und wey work injustice to the old they often silence renl conviction, and suffer themselves to be ady-made srguments and eid to the popular and the of opportunity to study and for themselves. This congress will tions on which there will doubt- qu Jess be a d v of opinion. Opportunity will be given e discussion of every paper presented. Discussion stirs the soil around the Toots of truth ana gives it a vigorous growth. 1t is not tobe expected that all minds can ac- cept the same presentation of & subject; nor should the advocates of either side be charged with a lack of conscientiousness, or & selfish disre; 1 to the welfare of others. An inherent sense of personal dignity will always beget & spirit of courteous consideration for the opin- ions of an opponent, which is but a just tribute 10 & proper. sel “Our "antagonist our helper s Burke, and noth- Q is so subversive of truth as intoler- ce of discussion. Even public opmion is by no means infallible; it is sometimes sim- ply public impertinence 'and absurdity. It is on that eliminates the truth,as churn- eliminates the butter; and *‘the age that tes the most and the wisest has the most n avoirdupois to stow away in its firkin.” reality in the old becomes the new die. losure, just as the bulb becomes the flower. nd 0 we may expect very earnest, and, we ery profitable diseussions in regard to home'in all its veried aspects. In propor- n.as mankind gets away from sayage condi- jons the home becomes more complex in its development and its power. The homespf & nation are a nation's safe- gun The ome is the nurse of patriotism. A man does Lot shonlder his musketin defense of bis boar but in defense of his Th have a thousand 11 it can have but one nest, es the man far more than he home. thing for any common- orkingman had it in his esting_every month what he nt in the paymeat of a home. a fresh iucentive for every 10 work toward the same say with just pride and s our home!” I rejoice when- le homes going up all around ful city, raveling out r districts, thus uniting the es of the city with the more elements of country life. It 1s man that makes land valuable; and s incresse the dignity and happine.s of The manufacturing interests of great d be enhanced in value if the work- e peying of & home as an incentive dustry and fidelitv. This question for the working classes is a_guestion ical economy. Homes for workingmen wotild sound the déeath knell of “strikes.” Tt is the homeless land that will ke the imperiled land, whether it be France, Ireland, England, Scotland, or own loved America. 1 have been deeply interested in_some remarkable facts, {furnished by Rev. Dr. Northrop, the veteran &duvator, who, some time since, passed through San Francisco on his way to Japan. He had been gathering statistics for 8 magaziue article on “Strikes, and the Homes of Working Peo- ples” It was full of deep and suggestive im- port. The following were among the facis “stated: In the city of Philadelphia, with its g are liv- ing in their own homes, and 80,000 of these weze built by good, substantial loan and build- - fng associations. the stock of which is not taxed, 0 highly is it appreciated. There has not been 8 sérious strike in Phiiadelphia for many years. Look et the city of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where the great Fairbanks’ scales manufactory is turning out from seventy-five to eighty thou- sand scales a vear—every one of them made The operatives own their homes One of the Fairbanks brothers has given $300,000 for #n academy; others of the family have given a museum, an athenseum, an art gallery and a Young Men's Christian ' Association building. There has never beena “strike” in St. Johns- Ty. The Cheney silk manufactory, in South Man- chester, Connecticnt, is the largest in the world. 'The company furnishes the ground at cost and loans money for homes. No saloons are allowed, no fences; the plans are by one eichitect. One thousand acres are covered by these mworks and these beautiful homes. There are A strikes” in South Manchester. ~Take the Estey organ manufactory at Brattle- boro, Vi., as another instance. They have recently celebrated the completion of the two hundred and fifty thonsandth organ. The operatives own their homes and are a happy set of men. This may account for the beauti- ful harmony of their instraments. There isa close relation between harmony of spirit and harmony of production. There are no “‘strikes” in Brattleboro. The Pope bicycle factory, at Hartford, Conn., is another conspicuous instance. There are no less then 1400 hands employed. They own their homes. The noon-lunch, at the works, is furnished at cost, and the comfort of the workmen is o primal thought. There are 1o “strikes” at the bicyele-factory at Hartford. And the bicycles them:elves never g0 on “strikes.” The workmen have put no such spintin their manuiactures. The owners of homes have every inducement to be honest workmen, faithiul empioyes and respected citizens. ' Suppose all our outlying suburbs were dotted with small, comfortable homes for the working classes, with quick and cheap transit, homes that could be paid for on easy ments with money that would otherwise be spent in rent for dreary dwellingsin the deso- lute districts of the greatcity. Suppose the hard working mothers, who now are compelled to £ forth 10 hard ‘service, dey after day, to eke ont & mere pit-ance for family necessaries, had # smull plat of ground where they could grow the vegetebles for the table, raise chickens, cultivate flowers and beautify the home. giving the children a part in this delightful work, thus evoking the true home-spirit in them, would there not be & great incentive 1o frugality and a wise saving of wages? Crowded quarters, insufficient, poor fodd, unkealthy alleys and scant clothing, aecount for e large proportion of the misery and the iarge cities. Having "had close Sommunication with more than 15,000 omes of the poor in this City during the pastsixicen vears, I know much of the sad #ory of discouraged fsthers, overworked mothers and helpiess, neglected children— necessarily neglected in many instances— where the mother goes forth to her day’s wash- ing or scrubbine, leaving her babe in the rude cradle, with the ifitie sisier of six or seven years 1o look aiter itand to do the work for e family. This is no faneiful sketch. It is 100 sadly real, as we know from personal ob- servation and experience. So, I say, let us rtellectual, and | profoundly suggestive re constantly present- | Men and women in a work for the time when the toilers and strug- glers shall find their toil rainbowed with hope —the hope of acquiring homes of their own. There is an old proverb, “Make a man the owner of a bare rock and he will soon make of ita garden; send him n garden and he will soon make of it a desert.” The great problem of the world’s history is open before us. It is briefly this: The struggle of the kingdom of heaven against all that is dracging the race downward. It aims to create social conditions which shall be just and beneficent. The kingdom of God is not impossible even here in what has been characterized as “wicked San Francisco.’ We are not so wicked here. . “No, indeed you're mot,” m(erfiosed Miss Anthony. *‘That's right,” replied Mrs. Cooper. “You tell that BEast.” And the house came down with laughter. It does not call for saints, but simply for sen- sible, earnest, honest men and women, who prove their love to God by their love and service to their fellowmen. ~Early saints died for their Lord; new saintiiness must live to help and to bless those for whom he died. There needs to be more of real fellowship between the top and the bottom of society. Instead of chiding, cheer. Show the timid and discouraged that character is freedom; that ggrlty is liberty; that to have few wants is to rich, and that to be master of one's self is to be conqueror of all things. Let them feel that moral riches tell, in the long run, every time. There must be & deeper religious sense, by which common life is redeemed and ennobled. Uncommon religion is, for the most part, a laughingly failure on this common earth. What the true home needs is @ religious climaie or atmosphere, full of health-giving ozone and stimulating sunshine. The truth and beauty of the higher life should t'e an ob- jeetivereality. The ideal of character is too low, both in home life and in public life. We have too low { a standard. It is time for men and women to have a higher conception of character and to indoctrinate children with this lofty (‘oncei)» tion and give them a true idea as to what noble living really is—not merely as to what any- thing is worth in the market-place, but as to ‘what is escentially right and true and just and of good report. Let virtue, honesty and right- eousness be so ingrained into the young that they shall carry these qualities as weapons, both of offense and defense. Good judgment comes, very largely, from sound moral qualities, and good judgment is to business what good steering is to naviga- tion. It keeps the ship in safe channels. Good judgment is indispensable in the efforts made 1o right the wrongs of society. The conserva- tive as well as the radical element is needed. A fine writer has said: “In every commu- nity there areenough of those restless by con- stitution and reformatory by vision to prevent soclety from sinking into’ stupid lethargy; while the majority are made to be reverent of the past, content with the present, and needing & great stimulant and the pressure of great wrong, to provoke them into attitudes of resistance or the countenance of revolutionary schemes. * % = Thus permanent basis is provided for | the strong and solid growth of civilization. * * * Ifageneration should be born in which no fiery souls, with burning democratic in- stincts ‘and hopes, impatient for the future, | should appear, society would be like a long train of cars without an engine. And if, for once, all the individuals of a race should grow up scornful of past wisdom and rabid for advance—social Jehus — what a moral stampede would be exhibited! A general rush on all sides, for no particular ohfm, except the good time coming, making society like a long train of engines, each with the steam up, each crowding the one ahead, but with no train attached, no passengers or freight, everybody an engine 'r or fireman, and bound for no place in particular, only for brog- Tess as lone as the track will hold out!” Itisa fine thing for the world that the conservative and the radical tendencies are so well bal- anced! But, whether conservative or radical, every life should be replenished and lifted up into its divine stature by the breath of God, There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understending. Every heart and every home has its own secret history and its own con- scious need. If this congress shall do some- thing toward meeting the bungry of the heart and the aspiration of the soul for that which hest and best, and thus through the in- dividual lift up the home, it will have accom- plished its divinest intent. In the faith and love of Him who is prepar- ing for all his children the home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, let us enter | with joy upon the work of the congress Mrs.. Cooper’s address was enlivened throughout by epigrammatic sailies dur- ing the interruptions caused by applause, and when she concluded she wasgivena | perfect ovation, ; Rey. Eliza Tupper Wilkes of Oakland was next introduced to the assemblage. She began her remarks with the story of an old Welsh church, which, from a weak foundation on one side bhad tilted over shightly. Workmen came, however, tore down the ivy which had helped drag the church one-sided, put in new foundations, and there it was standing solid to-day. *‘The home,” she continued, *‘the most sacred edifice of humanity, is threatened to-day by the one-sided foundations under it, but with strong, true, courageous hands they come to the rescue. Th have shat- tered a good many old traditiosn—they have torn down the old ivies and they have brought us to see clearly what was needed. We are beginning now to give them due credit for it.”” AR InE She spoke of a conversation with a Hindoo preacher, who was in attendance at the former women’s congress, and of his comparison of the Ameiican and Ind- ian woman, a comparison, strange to say, flattering to both. 4 “He pleaded for the harem.” she said, “as I have heard American men plead for the home. Underneath all this sentiment there is the same foundation. The new bome must be on different foundations. There can never be a foundation with one of its sides absent—there can never be a home_in a nation which is only repre- sented in a one-sided way in its councils, ‘I do not wonder that you shake your heads over the new woman. She’scom- ing, and she’s coming to stay; and she’s bringing with her new power and a new voice, and she's going to make room for the home that has never been before. Along with her is coming her caricature, The swaggery woman is coming, too, and I don’t know but that she is as good as the simpering woman. There wiil be all sorts of chance misfits in the transition, but you have given the coming woman a chance to learn the faith; you have opened the door, and when she got outside and into the world she has taken aavantage of the occasion to educate herself as to her rights.” % At this point the president announced a recess until 2:30 o’clock. Sl o THE AFTERNOON SESSION. Some Very Pertinent and Forceful Remarks on Home and Marriage. The afternoon session of the congress was opened by the president, Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, who publicly complimented Mrs. Ada Van Pelt, the recording secre- tary, on the immense amount of work she had accomplished in preparing for the congress. Mrs. Cooper then introduced to the audience Miss Beatrice Harraden, the authoress of “Bhips That Pass in the Night,” and the young lady having been received with much anplause Mrs. Cooper expressed regret that Miss Millicent Shinn could not be present, but stated that Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes had kindly consented to read Miss Shinn’s gmnper on ‘‘Early Home Environment.” Mrs. Wilkes then read the following paper: One is a litile tempted to begin a paper on early environment by utinzlfig Dr.pfll‘;lmes' ever-handy phrase, and remarking that early environment is everything |I‘¥Ou only take it early enough, the great-grandfather’s environ- ment. say. But notonly am I sure that onr speaker of this morning” has already said all that need be of hereditery Infitence: T am aioe disposed to minimize somewhat the influence of heredity, in some directions, as compared with that of the surroundings of infancy. 1 am not prepared to teay with any definite- ness what these directions are. Few things are more mysterious to us than the processes going on and the effcets being wrought in the oung baby. But without having much evi- ence to offer, I have. nevertheless, a persua- sion that a good deal we attribute to inborn causes, prenatal or hereditary, is really the ef- fect of very early influences from outside. We find traits in the older child not accounted for by anything in his present training; we find them in ourseives—mysterious ‘antipathies, preferences, habits—and we say that some an- cestor is cropping out in us. Doubtless this is often the true explanation; but let us not for- et that there lies at the beginning of each in- swxdu-l life & biank period—unremembered by one's se.f, very dimly understood by tnose about hini—in_which many a later growth may have had its root, not in the deeper ances- tral soil. C if we coula get an idea as to which th(éze"::::v’mn .::. it w{f)d be a most valualle knowledge; for while our control over hereai- tary influence is ver{ limited, we have the bal environment in our hands. And awe- inspiring though if is to think of the power we hold over the future through the laws of in heritance—each one that is ever to be a par- ent holding his mental and bodily powers in trust for his heirs—nevertheless, the very vastuess of this movement of evolution dwaris individual responsibility & little; we are in the hands of mighty forces, and they do with us as they will, thvarting our ‘best’ efforts some- times, and sometimes bringing about our as- pirations nout help of ours. But the re- sponsibility for the tiny life laid in the mother's lap is something near, definite, in- tense, almost beyond any other responsibility. ‘That lifelong habits of mind or charactercan be formed in these most tender and helpless years is no new idea. Plato, in this. as in most Bubjects, anticipated later thought. Froehel says of the “suckling”: “Even his lirst stage of development is of the utmost importance for the present and later life of the human peing. * * Qiten the hardest struggles of man with himself, and cven the later most adverse and oppressive events in_ his life, have their origin in this stage of development; for this reaton the care of the infant is so important. Positive testimony to this can be borne b mothers who have nursed some of their chil- dren themselves, have relegated the nursing of others to attendants, and have observed both in later life.” The early kiudergartners even tried to lay ont, in detail, a system of educa- tion from birth'on, and held that the kinder. garten system as practiced began at 3 years old only because mothers were not yet prepared to take it up during the earliest period. But when the great evo- lutionary wave swept over and through all our modern thought its tremendous enforcement of the importance of hereditary transmission overshadowed the looser speculation of pre- Darwinian philosophers about the infant mind: They had observation and they had insight; but they were unecritical, and their doctrine was not based on plain physiological knowledge of the condition of the baby's brain—such a knowledee as we are even now Dbut beginniag to have. The idea, for instance, of accustoming the babe in his first three months to orderly conceptions of the universe by systematic movements of the ball, joined with the rhythmic words “Up, down” or “Left, right,’ etc., seemed tenable enough theoretically; but mothers found soon enough that it was impracticable, even though they did not know that the actual condition of the Drain-cells was such that o systematic asso- ciations of the sort could possibly be received or held. Dr. Hall is disposed to think that especially in the direction of the religious nature the bent for life may be given in these first years. “Frocbel perhaps is right,” he says, “that thus fundamental religious ' sentiments can be cultivated in the earliest months of infancy. * * * The mother's emotions and physical and mental states, indeed, are imparted and reproduced in the infant so immediately, un- consciously and through so many avenues, that it is no wonder that these relations seem mystic. Whether the mother is habituaily un- der the influence of calm and tranquil emo- tions, or her temper is fluctuating or violent, or her movements are habitnally energetic or soft and caressing, or if she be Tegular or ir- regular in her ministrations to the infant in her arms, all these characteristics and habits are registered in the primeval language of touch on the nervous system of the child. From this point of view poise and calmness, the absence of all intense stimuli, and of sensations or transactions which are abrupt or sudden, and an atmosphere of quieting in- fluences * * * is the general line of relig- 10us culture,” So the future possibility of relation to God, he suggests, is developed in the little child’s relation to its mother; and to give it the power of reverent yet unafraid dependence and loving obedience is doing more fer the future re- ligious life than can be done by forcmg any dimly understood theology on tha little brain. Again, it is probable that every exercise of resentful or fretful feeling, every ebullition of temper, leaves its mark in a greater liability to such exercise, or in & flEm-ed nervous poise. The wisest parents avold rousing temper, in- stead of trying to control it when roused. Plato says that ‘“‘the soul of the nursling should be made cheeriul and kind by keeplug away from him sorrow and fear and pain.’ Frocbel insists everywhere that a steady, cheerful and equable tenderness surround the child, and especially that no sense of injury, of discomfort unnecessarily inflicted, shall breed in him resentment and all evil passion. It is | & significant fact that mothers are less severe with their latest children than their first, and grandmothers are notably indulgent. In the third place the power of attention, I am persuaded, is largely made or marred in the carliest years. And thisis the power, psycholo- | gists tell us, that is the basis of all others. “If you can give a child the power of sustained attention,” a Es)’chologisl said to me, “‘you are giving him the key to all intellectuel achicve- ment. Nothing will be impossible to him.”” The baby must hayve enough occupation sup- plied bim to keep his mind active, or he grows up uninterested and_inattentive, as may con- stantly be seenin the children of the poor. who, as babies, were set down anywherc an left to themselves, or in the almost equally neg- lected children of the rich, who ~have been brought up by nursemaids. Froebel says: “From a very earlv period, therefore, children should never be left too long to themselves, on beds or in cradles, without some external ob- ject to occupy them.” I have on another ocea- sion called attention to the lovely aliveness and responsiveness that early appears in the child whose natural craving for mental occu- pation has been amply ministered to; and the difference 1s visible far on into school life. But in modern American life we have in- troduced a danger to the power of at- tention that is worse than neglect. This is the distraction and over-stimulation of the power by a surplus of toys, of amusements, of excitements. The baby that is flooded with’ expensive toys is perhaps even more wronged than the baby that is set down in the back yard (o contemplate his fingers, without even the “immemorial string of spools” to occupy him. The parents make a plaything of the beby to amuse themselves With. An absorbed baby,so deepin some in- vestigation or contemplation that it sees and hears nothing else, is an actual temptation to many people to try to divert it in_mere wan- Tonness. The 0ld" rule, “Never disturb. the Dbaby when he is good.” may have rested on purely utilitarien grounds, but it is sound ped- Bgogics. 1t would be sad If the fate of the human race were to depend on any wisdom thatonly a few scholars could have. No one believes more in child-study than Ido, but I think the Lord has entrusted the practical application of sound principles about the environment of little children mainly to the ;food sense and sympa- thy of mothers, even simple and unlearned mothers; I might say to their instinct, if the word “instinel” were not used so much to mean the whims of silly people. Instinct cer- tainly will not make a silly woman & good mother. 1do not know any reles that will. It seems a pity such & woman could not be for- ever young and pretiy enough 'to_cnteriain men that like silliness in_women, for I do not know any other niche in life where she can be useful. But give the baby & mother of good sense and sincere love for her ¢hild, and then let her be the child's near comrade, and she will succeed well enough in shaping his home environment if she have a fair chance. She should be herself her child’s environment, and the wiser and better she is the safer will ne dwell inside that sweet encircling. If the father can be asone with her in her influence, then it is doubly well; and aunt, or grandmother, or older sis- ter, or brother (as in Froebel’s case), have been able to take the place of & mother or to supple- ment her influence. Itisin the spirit which makes intimate comradery with children pos- sible that the power comesin; not in physio- logical motherhood after all, and childless men have had that spirit sometimes. Froebel’s “Come, now, and let us live with our chil- dren” is the one rule. Icannot see what possi- ble right or temptation wealth or social occu- pations can give to a mother to sacrifice this close comradery with her child, this intimate persoual care and responsibility for him. Given this fine human environment, it does not matter so much about material ones; so there is nothing injurious to heaith in his housing, the child may grow up the bestof men in a cabin or in a mansion. Doubtless Holmes was right about the benefit of “tum- bling round ina library;” doubtless it is a great thiug, all.one’s life, to have heard poetry and music as & matter of course from baby- hood; doubtless it is good to surround the child with beautiful forms and let him_absorb artistic tastes. But there is but one thing in external surroundings that seems to me of prime importance, and that is to have the child row up in touch with outdoor nature. Tolive fn the country—to see birds flying and_flowers growing and trees wavinf in the wina and great skies spreading alove—to dig in the round—to know something of the way sjod works his wonders in plant life—to have some friendship _ with his humbler tribes, ants and frogs and chip- munks and farm animals—this seems to me the only real living for a little child. It may be in & mountain_clearing, a suburban garden, a farm perhaps best of all, but one hopes for some rearrangement of our civilization such that it shall never be a city nursery or the streat. And if somesense of their children’s needs could stop people’s rushing into the great cities for a more exciting life for them- selves there would surely be an immediate sociological return for all ‘energy spent in cre- ng a deeper sense of the importance of the ittle chiid and his surroundings. The following delegates were introduced before the next paper was read: Mrs. Laura de Force Gordon, president of the State centrai committee; Mrs, Emma Gregory, president of the Equal Rights League, and Mrs. May Etta Chandler, president of the Political Equality Club of Alameda. These ladies having expressed their congratulations, Miss™ Anna_ M. Stovell, principal of the Golden Gate Kin- dergarten Training hool, was intro- duced by Mrs. Cooper, who said: “T pre- sent to you the trainer of our teachers, She will read to you a paper on ‘The Kin- dergarten Gospel.'’ Following was Miss Stovell’s paper: . The good message that the kindergarten gos- pel brings to the home is embodied in the simple but soul-stirring appeal, *‘Come, let us with our child live, that all on earth may better, happier be This appeal is the heart entreaty of ome whose childkood, through the early death of his mother and the preoccupation of his father, really felt the need of & parent’s loving companionship, a_parent’s loving influence, one whose early manhood was spent in the service of teaching, whose maturerand richer vears were sel{-sacrificingly and zealously de- voted to the reform of education; one whose life was animated by a desire to contribute to the welfare of humanity, to further the happi- ness of the race; & grand desire that gave birth to a grand educationsal achievement and won for him the urnique name of ““discoverer of childhood.” To live with children in the Froebelian sense involves a preparation for its performance—a reverent study oi child-nature—a training in the science and art of educating growing hu- manity. To live with children man and woman'sin- sight must be superlor to their parental in- stinet, their wisdom equal to their parental love, and_possessing the insight, the wisdom, illumined by a holy enthusiasm, they must transform it into habits of conduct. To help them raise this instinet into insight, to help them gain this wisdom, and aid them in translating itinto practice Froebel, the great lover and revealer of childhood, consecrated many years to the task, and left to mankind a rich legacy in the educational institution he founded, and its literature. The beautiful message he gave to the world concentrates itself on the precious years of in- fancy. It holds that, however important all subsequent periods of human growth may be, the seedling time is the basis upon which they rest. It knows that the later years of one's life are largely what the earlier years have deter- mined theém, “‘that to the sin of omission may be traced much that has made the sin of com- mission possible.” It maintains that loving insight wisely em- ployed at the outset may accow plish more than the greatest skill in after years, when habit and the complexity of all the conditions have rendered the mind less plastic, less receptive, It therefore bestows upon this critical period of life, its surrounding and its resuits, its chief attention. This gospel holds that the happiness—the joy, peace, freedom—of the child is willed by the Deity, and that to be truly happy he must truly live, that is, exist according 10 his inner nature, develop according to nature's law. The inner condition necessary to this de\'elog. ment the child brings with him into the world, the outer ones must be supplied by education. . It holds, furthermore, that the adult, in ac- cordance with natural law, must provide this education, these outer conditions, and that the right directing of this education is only possi- ble through a correct understanding of the laws of childhood. Also that this education will only fulfill its task when it deals with the child in"the totality of his powers, his physical and psychic—when it encourages and strength- ens all'the natural disposition; when it treats him as a child of nature, a child of humanity and & child of God and supplies the condition for it to realize its relationships, and practice ina childlike way the duties which arise out of them. It holds that the inner individual life of the child reveals itself most freely, most perfectly, in play: that _this natural, spontancous activity must be the means by which his early education is achieved. To make clear his thougnt of the proper method of procedure Froebe! uses an analogy that grew out of his observation and study of plant and child life. He finds a correspond- ence between the plans of unfolding the chiid’s mind and the care a skilled gardener would give his plants. The plant must do its own Towing, but the responsibility of the gardener f2 % provide the hest conditions conducive to that growth. The gardener must work thor- omihll ‘snd by the laws that govern the plant’s unfolding. With this thought in mind Froebel terms the environment created for the child’s all-sided growth the kindergarten, and to the care- taker, the educator, he gives the name of kin- dergattner—chiid-gardener, The first stage of which this gospel treats is the child in the family from birth to the age of 3 or 4 years under the immediate guidance of the mother, the natural and divinely ap- pointed child-gardener. Since her influence 1s the first and therefore the strongest, it fol- lows that {tis of the highest importance that it should be the best. One necessary condition to make it the best is that the child be ‘‘the welcome child.” Since the original outfit largely limits the amount of development pos- sibly this gospel pleads that the child be born well—that the parental conditions be the most favorable. Obeying a hint from the scrupulous care na- ture takes in providing the child’s first physi- cal food the mother must as carefully prepare the child’s first mental nourishment, hence she must lay chief importance upon early impres- sions. She should so regulate, select and har- monize these early impressions that crowd in upon the littie child’s mind that they will best contribute to & healthy mental growth and awaken into life the child’s sleeping soul powers. She must know the necessity of enlisting the child’s play activity in the direction of these impressions, for in no other way can the child’s nature be so well directed, so well controlled. For this work the mother’s most helpful guide is the smdgoar Froebel's “Mother Play,” that wonderful ok prepared for mothers and known to the kindergarten fraternity as the richest product of his experience as an edu- cator. The next stage of which this gospel treatsis the child in the kindergarten from the age of three or thereabouts to six years under the guidance of the kindergartner—a woman en- dowed by nature for this holy mission and made efiicient in & high degree by special training. 5 When the little child begins to delight in the exercise of his powers, to use his muscles deliberately, his senses consciously, to express his desires 'and observations in language, when his social consciousness begins to dawn— then the kindergarten beckons him to enter. This kindergarten, let it be distinctly under- stood, invites the child, not to relieve the home of one of its chief responsibilities and duties. It is not its mission to draw the child insen- sibly from home influence. It comes to the home to render net‘es&nr¥ helpful efficient service in the education of the child of the home, to share with the home & responsibility. It invites, not alone the little child from the neglected, squalid, depraved home to give it the loving protection, the happiness its birth- right demands—not alone the littie child from the wealthy, indulged home, to curb its selfish- ness, its caprice, and to change its social view- point to & more humane one. But if the kinde.garten idea is to be known in its fullness, it must be known in more than its philanthropie phase. It claims to be essentially educational. It recognizes the fact that children are most happy and active when together. All their powers, receptive and expressive, mental and physical, are strengthened, developed in pro- portion to the offorts they make to assist each other, to do for and to do with their associates. We are told ‘‘Man’s impulse toward civiliza- tion comes from his intercourse with his fellow- men”; that in the instinct of fellowship lies the origin of church and state, and of all that makes human life what it is. It is & truism that if the hand is to do skilled work in later years, it must be trained in its growing state. This principle of activity to Eroduce development the kindergarten gospel olds as vital, and applies it equaflv to the morai powers. II the man is to practice soefal virtues to bé & useful member of society, the child must be given opportunities to exer- cise his social instincts to be useful among his fellow-equals. The social impulse manifests itself very early in life. In his first smile the child proclaims his social self. Aslong as this impulse is vague the family circie is sufficient to satisfy all his social needs. But soon the little one reaches out for the companionship of those equal in ability; soon he requires a wider training for his social instincts. The home cannot offer it to himp for lack of many indi- viduals of the same or nearly the same stage of development. Mere companionship with other children cannot give it to him for want of proper superintending power. The mother, to fwe it constantly, robs herself of time needed for other important duties. The home, then, is t00 narrow: the frec, undirected play with his little neighbors on the street orin the play- ground too unconfined. It is at this time that the kindergarten comes to the aid of the home and offers to the child for the need that is manifest what the home alone, however rich in resources material or intellectual, cannotdgive. It creates an envi- ronment that provides at this_ period condi- tions suitable for the vigorous development of the child’s physical, mental and spiritual powers. The kindergarten gospel rings out its con- demnation upon those w ho intrust the tender- est of creatures, at the most impressionable time of their existence, to the care of unskilled, uncouth nursemaids, women whom the parents would not hesitate, by speech or action, some- times even in the presence of their children, to class their inferiors socially and intellectually, ‘women, often, whose superior qualification for the office is brawn of muscle, whose lever in discipline has its fulcrum in & sweetmeat. a switch, & “bogey” story, or perhaps & soothing syrup, yet with whom their child, at a time when he is predominantly imitative, when habits are being formed upon which the future character is to be bulit,he is more closely companioned than with either of his parents. The kindergarten does not_ex; the fruit before the blossom has unfold: he blossom before the stalk and leaf have grown. It de- mands that the child fulfill all the require- ments of childhood before it merges into the youth and man. The third stage of which this gospel treats is the kindergarten in its relation to the school education of the child. It lays e?llll stress upon this stage. It holds—as it follows as near as is known the laws of natural develop- ment—that its dominant principles undenre all true education, and must therefore per. meate the life of the school as well asthe home; that the kindergarten must stand in or- ganic relation to the school as well. The law of continuity, it claims, should rule in educational practice; ‘as to the home, that its piace is mediatory; that there should be no rude transitions, no breaks in the child’s de- velopment. It depends upon the scnool to take the child from it as a blessed trust to continue uninterruptedly the work of uunfold- ing his powers, to aid him to control even more skillfully all his modes and means of ex- pression and to lead him to perform ever more consciously and jorfully the duties which arise out of his relationships. The next stage of which this gospel treats is the preparation necessary on the part of women for the work of the preceding stage. In this respect it holds that while the influ- ence of both men and women must be felt in education the theory and practice of de- veloping children according to the laws of chilihood should be an essential part of the education of every young woman. Since the home,as this congress will show this week, is the center from which radiates all human aclivities, all phases of human life, the religious idea strikes its 10ots deep into the home heart, and in the home it expects to fina its fruitin the fully matured young women, yen, and the young man, who are qualified in mind, heart and hand to guard, to care tor and to gulde little children; qualified to lead them into right babits of thinking, feeling and will- ing, into right habits of doing, right habits of living; qualified to open to their vision the beautiful relations and interdependence of all things, “that though apart thines may stand, life has its unity inner and fmnd." This gospel makes no claim that all who study its principles will assimilate them equally well or ba equally effective in practice (what is brought to the study is the measure of what is %filll(‘ from it), but it does claim that each will find that the world holds more for her than ever before, and thereafter no child can ever be an object of indifference 10 her— her inflnence will o some degree be better, fuller for it. In conclusion, it must be said that this gos- pel that has been but faintly and incompletely outlined to you thisaiternoon does not claim that “‘wisdom will die with1t.” There was more animation shown in dis- cussing this paper. Mrs. Cootes, a lady in the ‘audience, fired the first shot by asking: “Is the mother always prepared to be the best companion to the chiid?”’ *“That de- ends on the mother,” answered Mrs. aura de Force Gordon, and the reply was received with laughter and npslause‘ Mrs. Gregory said she thought it depended on the rapport between the mother and child. Mrs. Sparks added: ‘1 am so glad this paper has made us hear something about children’s rights. We are always hearing about the rights of women, but nothing about those of children.” Mrs. Anna F. Smith remarked: “‘I think it is Emerson who says, ‘To the well-born child all the virtues are possible and do not need to be painfully acquired.” In order to have well-born children we must have well- born mothers, and until the mothers are industrially free they cannot have well- born children.” Rev. Mrs. Sprague said that though it was well to tell mothers what they should do, the fathers must be taken an’interest in them too. ¥ The time for discussion being ended, Rev. Ada C. Bowles came forward and read the following paper on “Moral Educa- tion of the Young,” by Dr. Mary Wood Allen of Ann Arbor, Mich., who was un- able to be present at the congress: Perhaps no moment in a woman’s life is so full of & sacred joy as that in which she looks for the first time into the face of her child, That little bundle of helpless capabilitiesowes itslife to her. From her it has received many of its talents and tendencies. Upon her depends very largely its moral and physicial training. Will she prove equal to the demand? is the question which presses upon her with over- whe!mln% fore [0 the father the same que; presents itself; nall probability, not wit the same force nor in the same way. His mind leaps forward towerd practical success in maturity, and sees in fancy the results of training rather than the processes by which these results arc to be secured. The child who is guarded only by parental watchfulness from the acquisition of evil knowledge finds that guardianship only too easily evaded, and outside of its pale Ke is greeted with voluntary proffers of the infor- mation o sedulously kept from him by his parents, but clothed, alas! in the garb of vile words, and shrouded with a veil of evil mys- tery which stimulates his imsgination and arguses a prurient curiosity to pry still farther into the fascinating darkness. ‘In all prob- ability if the same facts which he learns in a guilty and alluring manner and which con- duceto evil thought and conduct were pre- sented to him by parent or teacher as simple scientitic truths, he would find in them no mysterious charm. The effect would rather be to strip them of their fascination. This is no mere theory. Experience has proven it to be true. In this question of the moral training of children, we must bear in mind the fact that we cannot keep them in ignorance until we have come to the conclusion that they are old enough to be insiructed; we must also remem- ber that their direct moral training begins in thecradle, and therefore its inception is in our hands. By the habits of life which surround the infancy of the child are laid foundations oi moral character. The regularity of hours of sleep or of feeding has more than a physical bearing, it is moral in gquality. Felix Adler says that regularity s notin itself moral, but it conduces to morality. Rules may not be good, but the life of unregulated impulse is always bad. Those who are taught or allowed in childhood to yield ever to the demands of the senses, be it only in so small a matter as eating whenever the impulse seizes them, are being weakened in will power, and are thus being unfitted to cope with the stronger tempta- tions of more mature life. As tne child develops in intellect he begins toneed something more than a careful guar- dianship, and should have some direct instrue- tion as to the sacredness of his own body and the need of himself protecting it from evil. This does not involve frightening him with horrible delineations of the results of sin, but arousing a reverence for his bodily temple makes him instinctively shrink from the inva- sion of its sacredness in thought. The limits of this paper will permit only of suggestions ‘which it is hoped the hearers will follow out in thought through their various ramifications. We are teaching the boysthat they may treat girls with familiarity if the girls will permit it, and we are teaching the girls to permit it in childhood and then later we try to undo this teaching, too often with little eflect. Boys and girls also imbibe the idea from our foolish jests that there is noother relation between persons of opposite sex except that of sentimentality, and & condition arises which furnishes one of the most perplexing problems to the teachers of our public schools. These teachers testify that foolish sentimentality pervades the school and boys and girls are so constantly engaged in writing love letters, quarreling, making up and holding clandestine meetings, in fm, are in such astate of emotional excitement that study is interfered with.,” At firs might seem an argument against co-education, but in fact it is not the association in the schoolroom that is at fault but the suggestions through jests and teasings of friends at home. The girl in convent or girls’ school is apt to invest young men with ideal virtues and the glamour vanishes when she comes to competo with them in practical school life. And this would be still more comrletely the case were she permitted outside of school to associate with them on terms of frank comradeship. While we claim to be exceedingly reticent concerning the facts of sex, holding it to be in- delicate to teach scientifically the truths of the body and its powers, we are uctually stimulat- ingto a_consciousness of sex which embar- rasses the association of dy(:iung people with eacn other. What we need is, by accurate in- formation concerning the peculiar physical endowments of men and women, to create a reverence for true manbooé¢ and womanhood which forbids the question of sex to intrude itself into all the relations of life, but allows it to remain in retirement until it is called upon in the sacred precincts of the home to confer the gift of earthly life and so add, not to per- sonal gratification, but to the power, great- ness, virtue and glory of the nation and of the race. As the boy and girl sgpru-ch the Heights of Maturity they pass through the mysterious land of ‘the Teens, at the gateway of which is conferred upon them the gift of creative life. This gift is accompanied with & wondrous un- folding of powers, physical, mental and moral. The body develops into greater beauty and perfection; new avenues of thought are opened and new and strange emotions begin to sway the youth with tremendous force. The whole organization seems to be in a state of reyolution, and the result is often shown mor- ally in wiliullness, perversity or hysteria, and Phyniully in the appearance of languor or of nherited tendencies toward some special form of disease. This period ““,{g“’“’ be styled climacteric, which Webster defines as ‘A criti- cal period in human life in which some great &hnn;e takes place in the human constitu- on.” Marian Harland says: “All climacterics are attended with more or less peril. The transi- tion period in religion, Government or in- dividual, is one which calls for wisest care and vigilance.” Parents usually comprehend that the firl at this period needs’ especial care and watchfulness, even if they do not give her sReeln instruction; but few parents recognize ‘hat the boy needs as much sympathy as the irl; indeed, even more, for the internal orces are stronger and work with greater energy, while the temptations from without are more numerous and poweriul. One can scarcely wonder that the boy fails into im- morality when we recall these two facts and add to them the fact of his ignorance and the common idea that he is not to be heid to the standard of absolute purity which is raised for ris. “0 friends, this subject of moral training is 80 broad, so high, so deep, so wide that it in- volves the whole of life. Itisiound not only in the lessons at the mother’s knee, but in the lchool,lhe{mlp(l. the press. Itisfound in the statule books, where laws remove or strengthen the safeguards of virtue. We may keep silence, but myriads of voices are proclaiming truth or falsehood in regard to purity. In city streets or country lanes, in field or forest, in market or court, irom printed page or the book ol na- ture the facts of sex are being taught. Shall we turn away in confusion and leave the world of innocent childhood to learn these in- evitable lessons from the evil book orimpure companion, or shall we, believing_in God, pro- claim his truths with dignity and purity. not abashed before the pure eyesof our children because the “truth hath made us free” and God himseli Is justified through his works. Rev. Ada C. Bowles, speaking to the paper. said she had been a stepmother, a mother and also a %randmmher of both boys and girls. She believed that the sug- gestions made in the pa;{er are as practi- cabple, trne and app licable as stated. ““I believe that it is possible for moth- ers,” she continued, “and not only pos- sible but obligatory upon mothers to " train their children along these lines. Espe- cialiy do I believe that it is the mother’s duty to train her sons. “I was very happy in being the step- mother of a boy when he was 8 vears old; and of being, I think, a very havpy mother to him until he was 23 years old, until he passed over the river. do not feel that the bond is broken. I believe that the pleasant bLours of comradeship and of counsel we held together will be the means of uniting us more truly in the land to which we go than if I bhad neglected my opportunity to instruct him. T believe that my own boy, separated from me to-day by 3000 miles, having just attained his majority, is a bet- ter man to-day and a better citizen of the United States because his mother took him on her knee as a little boy and instructed him in regard to the sanctity of his own body. I believe that boy has a truer rey- erence for women. 1 believe that the young women with whom he will asso- ciate through all his life will receive from him the chivalry, the regard and the honor that would hardly have been possible without this scientific instruction from the mother who loved him as no other person could. “I tell you, we need to come a little nearer to our children than we have and guide our lives along this right kind of in- struction.” Mrs. Lila F. Sprague and Mrs. Arm- strong made brief remarks commending the views laid down in the paper and were roundly applauded. Reyv. Anna H. Shaw had some very clear views on the same subject and expressed them force- fully amid salvos of applause. She said: I think the first thing necessary in teachin, the higher laws of life is to teach boys an girls reverence and respect, the first thing of all, for themselves and theén reverence and re- spect for each other. Now when that is done the rmblem will be solved. But the training of girls, from the time they are able to toddle about, is that they are nobody to be respected, and that all deference and respect must be shown toboys. The training of boys, as far as my experience goes—and I've had a’ good deal, 1 taught school when I was 15 and boarded around and I have been boarding around ever since—in all the homes T have visited, I find that forever and forever boys are taught that the prineipal service of girls in the world is to walt on boys when they are little, and men when they are big; and through this training the girls have come to have no respect or def- erence for their own opinions, for their own judgment, for their own self-respect. Our girls are tlu%ht to yield to boys when small, young girls yield to young men and older women (o older men, and to have no deference for their own opinions. I believe, if you are going to have more purity in the world, you must first teach the woman that she is ‘endowed by God with opinions of her own, and a mind of her own, and that Tespect and defer- ence is as much due to her opinion, her mind and her judgment as toany other human being under the sun,and that'this continnal deference to man and being led by his opinions is the weakest thing in all the world We can teach girls this—-that a woman is the daughter of God, the King, and that no daughter of royalty must stoop toanything low, no matter who it is that proposes it, no matter who it is suggests it; that the highest duty of the daughter of the King is to recognize her divine descent. And we have never, never done it in the past. We must in the future, and the new woman will be a new woman because she recognizes the factof her individuality above and over every- thing else. Now, I do not know how much we shall teach the laws of life to little children. I have scen reformers in this direction who have tanght the most absolute nonsense to children in trying to teach the laws of life. My idea of motherhood is this. that every woman is not intended to be a mother, as every man was not intended to be a father. I do not believe that everybody was intended to marry. If God mesnt that all should marry h;a made some awful blunders in making some of us up. I believe it is only the rare and exceptional women who should marry; only the rare and exceptional man who is fitted to be & father. They are not born for fatherhood and not born for motnerhood. First of all, where a woman has the intuition of motherhood in her soul motherhood is the wisest guide as to the best methods of instructions for the children, and every mother should follow the instincts of her own nature in teaching her own children. But what we are to teach now is not that a woman who has not experience enough to measure off tape at & counter, Lo sell buttons, orrun a nflypawmer, or be a preacher, as I am, oris not fitted to do anything else, is fitted to become & mother. No! The highest, divinest thing in ali the world 1s fatherhood and motherhood, and no human being is fitted to enter upon this rela- tion who has not been selected by God for that purpose. It requires health of body, health of mind, health of soul to enter into this highest and holiest relationship of life, and then we will have the home as it should be. We will not have it, however, until the women have the vote and have voted a thousand years. Then we will have the right kind of training for_children, but never so long as the laws make an unejqual distinction between fathers and mothers, men and women, boys and girls. Until we have had a few generations of homes we will not know what children ought to be. The world will never see the kind of homes, the kind of children God meant to have here until we work them up. The first essential is that noman and no woman should marry unless they desire to live with each other above all other things in the world. A Eeneral!y expressed desire on the part of the audience about this time to again i bear Miss Anthony was gratified by an announcement from the chair that the evangel of woman’s rights would respond. Again there was applause as Miss Anthony rose to her feet, waving of handgerchiefs and clapping of hands. She said, speak- ing of the training of children: Every woman who marries the instant she enters upon the relation she is legally robbed of her right to_the custody and control of her own person. More than that, she is robbed of the right to the ownership and con- trol of the services of her own hands. The pro- ceeds of the labor of her own hands inside of the marriage copartnership belong to another, not to herself, legaily. Another feature of the relationship into which she enters is that if children are born unto her she has no right to the guardianship of those children, How can you expect that a woman who has no more self-respect than to enter into such a legal relation, who is by the law of every State in the Union—nearly every one—deprived of the ownership of herself to possess herself legally, who ceases to own the proceeds of the labor of her own hands—how can you expect such a creature, so devoid of self-respect, of princlgle. so devold of everything that goes to make humanity—how can that woman teach the boy or the girl anything? Now, the first step for you women who are mothers is to get into the condition of freedom. You might about as well, under the old slave regime,have talked the slave women into & sense of their responsibility as to talk the women into a knowledge of their responsibility. The wives of to-day are not absolutely bought and sold on the anction block; but, still, if there is not a sufficient knowledge of freedom and of self-respect in themselves in that relation to secure the laws of the State to be so amended as to leave the wife and mother in freedom and control of herself and children, you cannot hope much for her intelligence inreiation to her children, > This is very severe talk, but I remember, years ago, of my speaking of this legal slave condition of the wives of the country, and every single married woman on the plaiform protested and said it wasn’t so. Lucy Stone said it wasn’t so. Then Mrs. Livermoreé said it wasn’t so. Some moments later I heard her tell what a nice man her husband was. Nev- ertheless he could have, under the laws of Illinois, if he had wished, tied her to the bed- post and not allowed her to come to the con- vention. Get out from that law and come into the law of freed it talk about what you lom. After thy will do and what your responsibilities are. There was no doubt about it—Miss Anth- ony’s utterances had caused a commotion. They struck deep; whether favorably re- ceived or not, the women only know. Some of them certainly did not view them in an enthusiastic manner. Among these was Miss Tessa Kelso. She was on the card to read a paper at this xaint, and, on the introduction by President Cooper, arose, paper in hand, and bowed to the au- dience. “I want to say something,” she began, “in Teply to the statements of Miss Authony. Asa spinster 1 am going (o protest against mar- riage being brought into the suffrage question. Noone is in & position to know more about the disadvantages of the lack of the franchise than I am, and I do not believe that you are going to discourage the young men, or tne young women from marriage with all this talk about the frightiul lack of freedom. You leave out one tremendous element that every young man and every young woman believe in, that there isa law of love that operates in these lhingslnfl is going to fix all things. I disagree with Miss Anthony and state that we must first have the marriage bondage be- fore we can discuss the training of chiidren. I am always advocating marriage to the young women of my acquaintance. “To the young men, too?” asked some lady in the audience. ‘“Yes,"” answered Miss Kelso, ““the young men, too. I believe a girl can marry any man she chooses.” She then began the reading of her paper, as follows: For two years past1 have been making care- fnl investigation of the use of books by men, women and children; have analyzed and classified the results. I find the readers of the best books in literature, his- tory, biography—books of culture—to be women—women~ of family. of social posi- tion, of wealth, of leisure; that is gratifying, but when I looked into the records ot books on modern edueation, on psychology, heredity, ethics, hygiene, kindergarten,manual traluing, etc., such absorbingly in teresting ma- terial for thoughtful parents, men and women, Liound their only readers’to be that over- worked, brain-fagged ceretaker of other peo- ple's cliildren, the teacher, the public school teacher; @ spinster, who after eight hours’ grind with fifty children drags herself to the library (o get & book on heredity and treatises on _the education of delinquent children, because she has two or three pupils that cannot be made (o fit the universal scheme of education, and this poor overworked teacher sets herself seriously to work 1o devise some special plan suitable for this other woman’s boy or girl, and this other woman who is the mother of this boy or girl sits by iundifferently and lets the family skeleton be hauled out and analyzed and guessed about by strangers. Why not—what do we have a public school teacher for? What is the consequence: A growing shift- ing of parental responsibility upon the teacher; destruction of respect for home on the part of children, and a distinct loweringof the teacher standard. This tendency is the fatal spot in our American free school system. One of the chiel canses of the steadily grow- ing load of responsibility for_the moral and physical and mental welfare of children which is put upon teaehers is_because so large a pe cent of them are women-—there is & senti- mental attitnde of the public mind about the woman schoolteacher that is decidedly harm- ful. The indifferent mother says with great unction: “A woman is the nafural teacher; a woman has sympathy, love and all the natural instinets of motherhood that make her qualifications uniqueasa_teacher of the young”—and as indifferent mothers is one of the flowers of our American civilization there are enough of them to make what may be called a howl of approval of the woman teacher, and the teacher has come to accept it if she is'a good teacher, and if she is a poor teacher to make it her “wail” in case she may be dismissed—and as a matter of fact the whole thing is sentimental and not educational when subjectad to the tests of pure qualifications. The child is to be taught mentally, to be subjected to authority, discipline—attributes that in tne family be- long lo the father. Love and sympathy belong to the mother in the family, and not to woman generally, especially when all else Is to be made subordinate to that sex qualification and no account taken of the | fact that womanly love and sympathy divided among fifty-two children belonging to some one else, distributed over five days in the week, is apt to wear a little thin. 1should like to know how many women here to-day have seen and read a number of the magszine issued by G. Stanley Hall of Clark University, the center of *child study” in America. It is called “Pedagogical Seminary.” Here is an article by . Johnson, ‘“Education by Plays and Games You all know what games mean in a house of children—what & 1ask it is to keep active minds and busy fingers. engaged in the evening. Well, Mr. Johnson has here analyzed and fabulated 440 games, and, as he says, from this table a list of games may be selected that will have a corrective or s\wcihc use. It is believed, for example, thata child of weik power of atténtion and memory or observation, or s child not strong in chest or legs, may be greatly benefited by judicious choice and tact in the selection and guidance of his games. [Read baseball.] It is a pity the boys are not here to hear all these scientific reasons why they should pla; baseball instead of cutting the lawn and pulf- ing weeds. You can see from this article on games that many of the features of the science have a Erncllcal,e\'er)‘-day\ lue 1o you as mothers, ut I can give no adequaté idea of the fascinating interest and possibilities that would be possible to an earnest grou of women who were anxious to have and nols a high place in the education of iheir children. To them I say, get together and read a little from the Seminary, from_ Tracy's little book, from Preyer Perez(e). If you forget these names write to the professors of “Pedagogical Psycholofl'" and ask for a reading list, and, best of all, induce Professor Barnes to come and talk to you about some phase of child study; you will not forgive yourself for having missed beginning sooner the critical, intelli- gent observation of your baby. It means anew view of the responsibility and relation between parent and child. THE EVENING SESSION. Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna H. Shaw on Home Influence. There was not room in the little hall for the crowds that clamored for admittance in the evening to listen to addresses by Susan B. Anthony and Rev. Anna Shaw on the subject ‘“The [nfluence of the Home on Men and Women.” Mrs. Cooper introduced the lecturer of the evening, Susan B. Anthony, as the honored, loved and respected champion of women. Miss Anthony spoke very enter- tainingly of her early home life and strug- gles, and reviewed the origin and growtl of the woman’s movement. She said in part: I know what a gcod home was. My father was a Quaker and my mother a Bapiist, yet they could agree to disagree on religious mat- ters. Political questions were not then such a great matter of discussion asnow. My father belonged to a denomination who believed in absolute equelity of man and woman, and my mother was the equal in the home, over and above the law. My father, as far as my earliest recollection goes, always thought to give his daughters an equally good education as his boys, and so we were educated. The effect of a home where such a doctrine was preached, and not only preachea but practiced, and where each of the daughters in turn as she grew up and went out into the world and earned her bread, was a most re- markable object lesson sixty years ago. The women in that convention were as much shocked as the president himself. At the close of the session I heard some of the ladies say: “Who was that creature? Where did she come from? I was so mortified to hear a woman speak that I wished the floor would open.” There is something mysterious in all this. The objection they make to it is that women would degrade themselves to the level of men, and there is nothing so abhorrent to the aver- age man as that woman should be brought down to his level. Professor Davies was hon- est. He really was shocked. I followed those conventions in whatever city they were from year o year. They declared, and do so to-day, that man has to” support woman. Yet there are 40,000 women in New York State keeping boarding-houses to support lazy men. At la women were put on the various committee: They were appointed vice-presidents and see- retaries, never presidents. Miss Anthony went on to pay a high tribute to Elizabeth C. Stanton, who held the first woman’s convention forty years ago, and who was of material assistance to Miss Anthony in helping her ptrepare her reports. At one of these, where Miss Anthony presented a particularly good report, the president, Father Hazelton, said, ‘‘He would rather see his wife or daughter in Greenwood Cemetery than have her read such a paper in public.” Baid Miss Anthony: Miss Anthony was frequently inter- mgwd by applause, and at the close of her address was given an ovation. Mrs. Ada Van Pelt, president of the W. C.T. U., moved that Susan B. Anthony, Rev. Anna Shaw and Elizabeth Cady Stanton be made honorary members of the Weman's Congress of the Pacific. The motion was carried unanimously, and Miss Anthony, in responding, said that the best way the women could honor them was by perpetuating the work of which they were the pioneers. Dr. McLean was the next speaker. His subject was higher education, which he developed in an interesting manner. Rev. Anna H. Shaw was the next speaker. She discoursed at length npon the question of hcme influence, home training and home education, and was listened to with marked attention by the vast assemblage.