The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 24, 1895, Page 8

i | i | 8 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1895. APOTHEOSIS OF WOMAN AT THE CONGRESS. Women! women! women! Legions of them, swarms of them, floods of them in- undated the Woman's Congress at the three meetings yesterday afternoon. They crowded the seats and jammed the aisles. They packed the galleries of the First Congregational Church and they over- flowed the platform. The chancel was filled with them, the organ loft was thronged and the corridors were alive with them. It wasawoman’s congress with a vengeance—an apotheosis of women—and the temerarious man who ventured into the wilderness of spring millinery, per- fume and balloon sleeves was lucky to es- cape even with the loss of his antagonism to woman suffrage. And no man who attended the congress yesterday was bold enough to declare that he had not experienced a change of heart on the suffrage question. He might have gone there a skeptic as to the necessity or probable efficacy of woman’s exercising the franchise, but when the speakers in the congress had finished there was little left of him and nothing of his previous convictions. In the language of the Jersey farmer, he was a “gone gosling.” “Politics’”’ was the theme, and the pot boiled merrily on a red-hot fire of feminine oratory against the old—the present— order. The Rev. Anna Shaw, who is also a bachelor of medicine, announced her ardent desire to be a policeman to begin with. She twisted her wrist as she swung an imaginary billy on the hydra-headed wrongs of which she complained, and the most near-sighted could easily see what she would make, if given the opportunity. She inveighed bitterly against the liquor traffic and described the Government as a mod- ern minotaur in a labyrinth of saloons calling upon the mothers of the country to furnish forth on each new year 100,000 young victims to take the place of those she claimed were yearly sent to destruction by rum. Miss Shaw was terrific in her denouncia- tion of the obstinacy or the incompetency of man, she did not know which, in the direction of municipal affairs and sug- gested, what to her was the only remedy, ‘woman with a big W. And Miss Susan B. Anthony. What a grand reception she got from the crowds. They applauded loudly at each of the ses- sions at her appearance on the platform, and grew positively wild in their enthu- siasm at some of her very positive state- ments. The grand old “new woman’’ was enough of a woman to appreciate the ova- tions, and during the entire day smiled and beamed and bubbled over with joy at the success of the congress and the interest it had excited. But it was not the visitors alone who made such an impression on the vast audi- ence. To Miss Sarah Severance of College Park fell the honor of making the big hit of the day and the session so far. Her ad- dress was so filled with unctuous humor, so exquisite in its irony, so clean in its thrusts at sham and pretension and popular assumption, that she was encored and encored again and, what is more, was eompelled to respond. Miss Severance is the most convincing humorist in the West to-d and that means the country. Not one of the speakers but handled her subject in the most perfect manner. Mrs. Alice Moore McComas, Mrs. Nellie Bles- sing Eyster, Mrs. Phillip Weaver, Mrs. Ada C. Bowles, Mrs. Mila Tupper May- nard, all furnished burning thoughts on the political aspect, and the other ladies who joined in the discussion of the papers presented struck the nail on the head every time. They hammered diligently away at old notions and never struck a feminine thumb—which is more than the “old” woman can say. So great was the crowd last evening that there was a great deal of talk about an overflow meeting. Over 3300 people wWere crowded into the church, and more than 1000 stood hopelessly in the streets half an hour before the meeting, still half an hour too late to reach the promised land of seats within. It was decided, however, that no overflow meeting would be held, and the poor outsiders were fain to be content with the prospect that the congress lasts two days longer. To-day and to-morrow the congress will meet in the church, as it has been fully proved that Golden Gate Hall is entirely too small to accommodate the crowds that press to the shrine of the priestesses of the new women. e WEEDS AND FLOWERS. Miriam Mlchelso—n Finds Both of Them In the Woman’s Con~ gress. One of the cleverest women in the con- gress said a very true thing the day it opened. “The new woman,” said Eliza Tupper Wilkes, “‘has come, and with her her cari- catures; the exaggerations, the cranks who accompany every movement and itali- cize it.” The speakers of the congress, of course, are the flowers of this strange new plant which has grown up in the United States. That there should also be weeds and wild warieties of the same species is not surpris- ing. The women who are talking to thousands of people every day at the First Congrega- tional Church are of three kinds: those who are actuated only by conviction, those who love notoriety for its own sake and those who have the brains and ability to think clearly and to act honestly and sin- cerely and to talk entertainingly. The first class embraces those well-mean- ing followers, whose tactless enthusiasm is _a cross which all reformers must bear; the second comprises those to whom insignifi- cance is worse than death, and the third is the sou! of new womanhood, the model which others will see and copy, the fittest which will survive, the best and strongest argument for woman suffrage. Miss Anthony has convictions so strong that they have outiived and triumvphed over ridicule, failure, vicuperation and old age. She has seen the world grow up to her ideas, and now she occupies a uniqne position in women’s affections. Miss An- thony isa woman of strong intelligence, of enduring friendships, of wide experi- ence. Like other veterans she loves to tell of the battle she has won, but this is done so impersonally, so modestly and with such honest feeling, ‘t)mt even he who does not approve of the victory must needs ap- plaud the victor. X Miss An thony has talked on various sub- jects in the congress, but for her all roads must lead to the one destination. In her opinion woman suffrage is vital, is immi- pent, is the step which must be taken be- fore further traveling is possible. Miss Antnony's style of address is not at all elegant. Itis unmistakably sincere; it is destitute of pretentious airs and graces; it is thoroughly self-unconscions. She deals with practical things in a homely way. If she is at a loss for a word she is not at all ashamed to ask for it; if she loses the Floods of Femininity Inundate the First Congregational Church to Learn Something Concerning Politics and the Home. topics are strange to her she uses her own good sense to make principles of her own. She never quotes from a book oran author. She tells you what this man said to her, ‘what that woman said about her and she has not spared the women of the congress the history of their early heresy. She bas something to say and says it forcibly and simply. But she is an actor, not a talker—a woman of sense rather than a woman of brains. The Rev. Anna Shaw has both sense and brains. She is an impulsive, enthusiastic speaker; her voice is full and very pleas- ant. Miss Shaw must be very good-na- tured and quite as quick-tempered. She is impatient of shams, of cowardice and of the patent, stereotyped objections to woman suffrage. She has no particular reverence for man’s opinion simply be- cause it is man's, She speaks quickly and clearly, using vigorous words, deadly sta- tistics and excellent judgmentin the choice ofargument. Sheisalwaysready to speak, and she is happiest in discussion, for she is able to compress a thought into few words, to pick out the sentimental flaw in sentiment and to see the ridiculous side of things. Miss Shaw is original, quite fearless and there is something very human about her. She is the comedy element of the con- gress, but her humor is not undignified, and when she isserious there is not a ‘woman in the hall whose speech is so ef- fective. Charlotte Perkins Stetson is not so hu- man as Miss Shaw, nor so blunt as Miss Anthony. Her comedy is largely face comedy and her tragedy is too serious. Yet she is the most graceful and the most logical speaker in the congress. She knows how to give weight to her words, and her words are worthy of significant utterance. Mannerisms and affectations aside and Mrs. Stetson has not the self-unconscious- ness which dignifies every utterance of Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, and which is the redeeming feature of public speaking for women. Mrs. Stetson is the pleasantest and cleverest speaker of the congress. Like Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, she never reads from a paper; her address is delivered in a far-reaching, well-pitched tone; there is not the appearance of effort which detracts from one’s pleasure in most women’s speaking, and she knows when she has reached the logical end of her subject and when it will be most effec- tive to stop. 1f the women of the congress could vote, these three women are the ones on whom they would bestow political honors. The speakers whose addresses are remarkable only by reason of their egotism or their ignorance would no doubt be solicitous office-seekers, but they would not be chosen to represent a body which includes women of intellect, of good taste, of good sense, of brains and of heart. MiriamM MICHELSON. THE MORNING SESSION. Feminine Views on Polltics to Fit the Needs of the Day. The First Congregational Church, with a comfortable capacity for 3000 people, was crowded yesterday morning when the fourth day’s session of the woman’s con- gress was called to order. Half an hour later the church was jammed. “Politics in the Home” was the general subject, and it was very evident that the women and many of the men of San Fran- cisco were eager to hear the views of the | members of the woman’s congress on such | an all-absorbing topic. The first paper, ‘‘Is the Family the Unit of the State?” was intrusted to the care | of Mrs. Alice Moore McComas of Los An- geles, who was introduced by the president | asone of the most indefatigable and suc- | cessful workers in the cause of woman in | the State. ““I would like to say a word,” said Mrs. | McComas, *‘which I have notas yet had | the opportunity to utter. On behalf of the | woman's parliament, the Friday Club and my own club, the Woman’s Suffrage Chib of Los Angeles, I give you an invitation to hold your next congress in Southern | California.” | | sacrifices, the wattle hut, the wooden | civilization must kee | equable standard of public wealth established fea of free institutions and constitutions, the highest existing form of government for man- kind. History shows that the family life of & State colors the deeds and misdeeds of the gov- crnment of thet State; as the family so the State is; from the family life comes the na- tional life. It is needless to point to certain | States in our Union to illustrate this assertion, | It is & wise State that recognizes the impor- | | tance of the highest form of family life and, | from that potential factor, develops the funda- mental principles of an ideal government— tnat almost indefinable something for which we, as Americans, are striving. Through all the evolution 6f Government there has been but a proportionately slight evolution of the family in the governing senise. | The “head of the family” is still popularly | suppored to be the man. - vhile the broad-minded, liberal-spirited | woman has no disposition to take {rom man | amy of his honors, asa man, there are certain | reasons why she doss not recognize man as her | head. There are still those, however, who think, because the family is the oldest human institution, it should stand undisturbed &s an royal splendor while the many are battling for a pittance with which to keep soul and body together? Can itever be recognized as right for & fractional part of this great Nation to own and control the natural and acquired means of sustaining human life while the multitude beg for work even at the smallest compensation; and receive only charity from those who have re-empted their rights to au independent ivelihood? Is it just that one man’s labor | increases another man's wealth while the | laborer remains in poverty, and s a result sinks almost to the level of the beast of burden? Until women in the family—ofttimes the burden-bearers—realize this monstrous con- dition of affairs, and revolt against it in num- bers suflicient 10 overthrow such glaring injus- tice, the State will remain as it is! Why do I say woman must do the men hive not succeeded in doing it alone! This new element must be brought into activ- ity. With the co-operation of men who realize | their need, it will, { 1y utilized, re-organize our social and political systems. So, the awakened woman reads the signs of the times; is realizing the necessity ofa larger 82 Because | such that they could bear properly bal- anced children. Miss Sarah M. Severance of College Park was_called upon to give her views on “Suffrage and Safeguard.” After a few preliminary remarks of a general nature concerning the argument | of men against the suffrage question about “Dragging women down into the filthy | pool of politics,” Miss Severance ventured the assertion that woman was already sub- merged, and then she went on to describe the pitiful condition of the little Johnnie, the six-year-old son of the mother of the land, wading through the political life. Her satire was pointed and the audience enjoyed the picture she drex. ‘“‘As little Johnnie walks the streets,” she continued, ‘‘he remembers what his mother hastold him about being good and noble and pure. But mother has no con- trol of the streets. On every side of little REV. ANNA H. SHAW. unchangeable fixture in the moving univers that we must not meddle with that divine i stitution called “family affairs.” But it is absurd to ignore the principle of evolutionary progress and improvement in one | departmentof civilization while accepting it in | all others. We have no more bustness with the petriarchial family to-day than we have with the Tunescippa, the feudal system, priestly | mummeries, {abled heavens and hells, bloody | lough or the breech clout of barbaric ages. The family | pace in evolution with | the national civilization. Our present civilization, however, counts nances many wrongs. While it has made for. ward strides in art, literature, invention and scientific discovery, the body ' politic is full of | social corruption. and economic disease. It is | the victim of wild extravagance on the one hand and abject penury on the other; and not until these evils are eliminated and a more can we call ourtelves civilized. But when the whole family is recognized as the living em- Dbodiment of a civilized government, there ma: be & possibility of improving conditions whic MRS. J. L. THARP OF THE AUXILIARY BOARD. “We receive the message with great pleasure,” said the president. Amid the warmest kind of applause, Mrs. McComas pluneed into the middle of her subject. She said, in part: Of all the institutions of government the family is the oldest. Historians do not agree as to ithe exact process of its formation, but they all admit that from the family has come every institution of civil government. These historians tell us how, in early times, zroups of individuais were formed info families, and Arain from these little groups of families and kinsiolk clustered around & spring or along a flowing stream, where they buflt their rude hute and drank from the same water and tilled the same soil, and finally grew into the state or community at first called “Tunescippa.” We trace the progress of government from thie triarchal family, the Tunescippa, the one undred, the Councils, the Saxon conquest, the rule of the court of nobles, the military Teign, the shire, the parish, the’ Norman con- quest, with its feudal system, the divine right of kings, and_fin our own colonies and thread of her argument she acknowledges it; if the phrases and fashions of modern y States, through revolution to evoiution, until to-day we have at least & semblance_ in Amer- now bring a slur upon our boasted love of jus- tice and independence. The gradual emanci- pation of womanhood in the family will build up manhood in the State. Nothing short of this will enable women to hold power and in- fluence in the State. One of the most potent causes of the present unrest and disorganization in our social and industrial fabrics is the lack of seli-control in the people. Lack of moral responsibility in iamilies, the disposition, even among chil dren, io overreach each other, is the result of the common greed and excessive competition which exists everywhere. The temptations for alife of ease and luxury are hard to resist and are none too much guarded against in any grade of lifs. Nor is the yielding to these temptations wrong in one sense.’ It is in- herent in all human nature to love the beauti- ful and the comfortable. As long as these privileges are obtained wiihout dishonesty and deceit it improves the family and the in- dividual. But{s it right that we should have in this 1and of plenty—this land where we are toid “every man is born such conditions of inequality as exist in_the matter of wealth field of action for herseli and a broader train- ing for the family which is committed to her charge. found among us, father and mother are work- inr together; the mother not less gentle, the father notless firm, both combining their power to rear to manhood and womanhood citizens who will carry forward the highest interest of the f-mng which find their ultimate realiza- | e tion in t] perfectly developed nation—the nation which is to build Ged's kingdom upon earth. The state needs woman’s hel?; the greatest men of the state are calling for her wise councils and swift intuitions. God speed the woman who bravely Inys aside her natural shrinking from publicity and comes forward to combat the present eléments of dis- order, and even dishonor, that are insidiously creeping into our American institutions. She is responding to a divine call. We are looking with hopeful hearts toward a peaceful time when there will be more father- 00d in the family and more motherhood in the state; when men and women, standing eide by side in the home life—that will also mean ‘a pure political life—will rejoice as never before in true liberty. This time will come only when governments cease to be in- strumentalities in the hands of kings, princes lords and bosses for the perpetuation and support of tottering thromes, despotic mon- archies and rotten republics; when kings and popes and lords and millionaires cease to be parasites and_plunderers and step down into the rank and file of Lonest men; when govern- ments shall be conducted not for tho ag- grandizement of the few, but for the common weliare of the many. Then that other fierce war—less bloody, but no less fatal to human weal—the war of competi- tive interests, in which men struggle to build up self by downing and rcbbing their fellow- men, shall also cease. ¥rom the homes, from the firesides, let moth- ers’ voices be heard in response to the bugle blast that is sounding loud and clear for vol- unteers in the great cause of justice and hu- manity. Let the family, in theé father with the mother, the son with™ the daughter, join the mighty hosts tbat are marching from the old to the new—hoping for universal justice, uni- versal fraternity, universal equality to rule supreme {rom the family—a permeating unit, to the state, the sovereign power, guided by the first law of earth and heaven united, “Peace on earth, good will to men.” “My Quaker spirit moves me to say something,” said Miss Anthony, rising at the conclusion of the paper. *‘We are glad,” said the president, *‘that the Quaker spirit moves her.” “Ralph Waldo Emerson,” began Miss Anthony, ‘‘once said that men are what their mothers made them. All of this crimination about men and business affairs and political affairs only sets forth, as in a mirror, the work of the mothers of the United States. I want to say, as I said in the late anti-slavery days, the very fact that there was a nation of veople willing to live without protest against an institu- tion that bought and sold human beings as chattels in market made it impossible for_these same human beings to be honest or just in any other direction; and I want to say to you to-day that just as long as all men conspire together to rob women of their right to a voice in the Government, to rob women of a just share in the pro- ceeds of the labor og their own hands, to rob women of their right to individual ex- pression and to have that indivividual expression counted in the ballot-box so |long as men are content to usurp the rights, powers, privileges, earnings and proceeds of the labor of one-half of the people, it will be utterly impossible for those men to be just to each other. They will rob each other whenever thef' get an opportunity, because there is planted in their heart'of hearts this principle, or this lack of principle, of their right to possess themselves of and to own and control the possession of the women of the world. ._“Now, the men in politics are maneuver- ing to gain ends by maneuvering, instead of by straightforward argument, are merely patterning after the example of the mothers in the home. Do not blame these boys in politics, the men in business. They are but carrying out on a larger ccale the same maneuvers that their mothers taught.” Mrs. Kline wanted to emphasize the statements made by Miss Anthony, al- thouch she rather excused the mothers on and poverts, comfort and misery? Is it right for a few people to iive in almost the ground that their environment was not In the ideal families, even now to be | Then war shall cease. | Johnnie are traps that no mother has ever sanctioned. He sees the very vices against which she has cautioned him, and John- nie bagins to think that mother is a good woman, but that woman do not under- stand that men must be measured by man’s standard. And so Johnnie goes | and does the very thing his mother has urged him not to do. e would risk his life by fire or flood for her, but very fow boys are going to measure their lives by woman’s standard. “Why should not women vote? They say it would drag weman down to the | level of men. The anti-suffragists are very complimentary to men, you see. Well, men are on all levels. Bome are in the aepths and some are on the heights. We live with them 365 days in the year, and | 0 hand in hand with them to our mu- | tual profit. Then what is there about poli- tics to change the nature of men and | women in that one election hour of the be raised to 18, and that a law be passed to grolect the cigarette boy from himself and the paper-coffin nails which he smoked. Both of them had failed for want of the Governor's signature. They had sought to have the lovely eschscholtzia adopted as the State flower, and the matter was referred to the very hard-worked Com- mittee on Public Morals, and after that committee had duly sat upon the golden poppy and declared it a highly moral Hower the Governor had failed to attach his signature to it. The effort of the Civic Federation to haye created a municipal investigating commit- tee, after the nature of the Lexow commit- tee in New York, was dwelt upon, as was their final unsuccess and the failure of the movement to put a suffrage amendment before the people of the State. “A bill was passed,” she continued, “‘to place before the people of the State of California a constitutional amendment to allow the women to exercise the franchise in the State of California and it failed. Now, what position shall we take? What must be the effect upon men in thus deny- ing to woman what they would rather die thaw lose themselves—the power of self- government? What ust be the effect upon humanity of classing the mothers of humanity with the most degraded of the land ? V{e are not to blame for this condi- tion of things. It is a matter of inherit- ance. It has come to us from the dark ages, from a time when politics meant lit- tle but war and plunder, and later it was war and taxes. But politics has expanded, until it covers every earthly interest. The men have enlarged their boundaries in proportion, but woman is still attached to the middle ages. What a good thing for man and woman it is that he should dwell in the nineteenth century and she be liv- ing in the year one. “One of the first arguments against giving the vote to woman,” she said, ‘“‘was the best one—‘woman cannot sing bass, therefore she cannot vote.” On top of this they had piled another—‘woman cannot sin$ bass, therefore she should not sing_at all.” And so they bring in boys to sing alto and soprano in the high' ritualistic churches and the Chinese theaters to-day.”’ Miss Severance then related some highly humorous stories of the advent of women into song in the most elaborately unctuous manner. She brought down the house time and time again. Then she returned to the suffrage question again. “‘About this amendment,”” she said, ‘“‘what shall we do? There are many men who are always ready to share their every gain with us. Shall we. by our apathy, paralyze their friends or deliver the people into the hands of their worst enemies— every divekeeper, every saloon-keeper in the State?” The londest kind of applause followed the last word of the speaker, every one in the big auditorium joining in. Miss Sev- erance had decidedly made the hit of the congress, and the audience was disap- ointed at the time limit which had cut ier off. Everybody wanted to hear more, and one woman in the gallery voiced the sentiment of all when she moved that Miss Severance be given ten minutes more for any remarks she might choose to make. “T move, before you put that motion,” said Mrs. Armatrong, *‘that this Woman’s Congress of California will pass a resolu- tion of protest so strong against our Gov- ernor, who refused to sign the bill raising the age of protection, that no Governor will ever dare refuse to sigm such a bill hereafter.” There were loud cries for Miss Sever- ance, interrupted by a voice from the b0(13: of the church, “Why can’t woman fight?” She can,” replied Miss Shaw, whose uick ear had caught the inquiry, “‘butshe gues not want to. She has other means of eaining her ends than by fighting. : Mrs. Ada Van Pelt echoed that senti- ment, as did Mrs. Sarah Pratt Carr, who stated that if it were not for the women | there would be no men. and it certainly was of as much importance to the state that men be produced to fight as to be shot down. A Miss Phabe Couzins told a little anec- dote of revolutionary daysof a conversa- tion between a Britisher and General Put- nam. The Britisher had ventured the assertion that 5000 English redcoats could overrun the celomies in no time. “Old Put’ replied to this that “he didn’t know about the men, but he would stake his life that the women cf the colonies would beat out their Briti-h brains with their ladles and their broomsticks before they had gone balf through the country.” All the ladies ;resem seemed of the opinion that **Old Put” knew what he was talking about, for they applauded his his- torian most heartily. The next paper, “The home as a Poli cal Influence,” was read by Mrs. Nellie MRS. WILKES, year? There is nothing degrading in poli- tics. Politics is the science of government. Itis God’s law as to the correlation of human beings. Nobody is degraded by politics. The degradation comes by leav- ing it to the degraded. “They say that if women should vote it . would ‘take away a certain indefinable yi"x}nce that hedges around every woman. ell, if the blush and the bloom about which' you hear so much iz to be taken away, the sooner woman is un- blushed and unbloomed the better for her. And, as for woman’s wonderful angelic qualities, we have no authentic woman unfels, and it pains me to confess that the only angels with whom I am agquainted are Michael, Gabriel, Ariel and Sandalfo, all glorified men.” iss Severance then went on to recite to the congress some of the things the women had asked the Legislature and the Gov- ernor of California to do for them. They had asked that the age of consent in girls Blessing Eyster of this City and was re- ceived with much pleasure. There are two places, said the speaker,from which we grasp the round world, the altar and the hearthstone. From these 'we touch ail ages. Justas we might see, had we but vision clear enough, in the acorn the branching oak with hundreds of summers murmuring in its leaves, 50 in the ground nnd seed-plot of home We may have & previcion of the best conditions of this world or the other. Home is the seminary of all other_ institu- ;Lor?:.y Thore lie the roots of all public pros , the foundations o of the state, the germs There is to be found all that in the ohild makes the future man and woman; all that in the man and woman makes the good or bad citizen. There s no joy in life, there isno misery in life like that growing out of the dis- positions which consecrate or desscrate a home, ond the state is but an aggregation of homes. How shall we define politics? Purs and stmple it is the science of civil government or the management of the city, the state, the Dation. It may be wise, prudent, sagaclous and discreet or it may be artful, cunning or | unserupulous. It may be in form monarchi- | cal, despotic or repnblican. It mustbe one of the three or affairs will go haphazard. Now, if the family is_the unit of the state, if from the home issues influences which shape the polity by which that state is to be gov- erned, what should be the character of the homes which possess such almighty power? When father and mother are in intelligent ac- cord, when they teach their off<pring that the basis of all public law is private virtue, that the love of home is the foundation of a love of country, that to defile the body by the falsely so-called “small vices” of alcohofism and io- bacco poisoning is to fetter and clog and destroy the nerve channels through which a healthy zentiment should flow without any obstructions, they do more for the anchorage of our beloved national union than sught else. Mrs. McComas of Los Angeles told the audience about an interesting young gen- tleman of 22 who told her as a reason that women should not vote that no one was fit to hold the bailot who could not back it with bullets. Miss Severance narrated an anecdote about a young man, consump- tively inclined, who had said the same thing. “And his lungs were in such a state that I think I couid bave fought bet- ter myself,” said Miss Severance. Mrs. Armstrong said that from the remotest periods of history women had shown that they could fight, if necessary, and Mrs. Cruzan added words to the same effect. Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper then introduced U. G. Hubbard of Columbus, Ohio, the president of the Peace Association of riends in America. ‘“Apropos of builets,” said this gentle- man, “I have been lecturing for the tast forty days in California in the interest of arbitration versus bullets. I have also been offering peace literature gratis to any student who would write on peace and ar- bitration.” Mr. Hubbard then offered documents on the same subject gratis to any lady of the W. C. T. Union who would sgudy, write or speak on peace and arbitra- ion. “If you read the documents you'll very soon come to the conclusion that it is very foctish for human beings to be splitting one another’s heads about boundary lines, and when the women vote we shall have no need for bullets—we shall have ballots.” Mrs. Eyster then told of 2 dream she had of a legisiative Utopia, where legis- lators promptly passed good bills and re- pealed bad ones, and hoped that the day would not be far distant throughout the land when that dream would become a reality. The appearance of Miss Anna Shaw, reverend and bachelor of medicine, was greeted with loud hand-clappings and waving of handkerchiefs, and every person present settled herself and himself as comfortably as possible to hear what she had to say on “The City and the Home.” I know of no institution, said Miss Shaw, more dependent upon justand righteous gov- ernment than the home. Whatever tends to degrade government tends to degrade the home; and especialiy is this true in regard to city government—municipal government; and oneof the interesiing features of the present hour is that all over our country in the na= tien’s municipalities women are organizing themselves together in good-government clubs to devise ways and means by which the city can be bettér governed. This is & preparation for the time when they will have some power and some voice in the government of the cit The home is the only institution in the we in which the people having its responsibilities and obligations upon them are absolutely left without any power to control or regulate its conditions.” All men engaged in var of business have the power of the ballot, which conditions can be regulated, controfl the life of their business, while women, whose principal business is the deve: the rearing of cl ren and t development of society at large, are left absolutely without the power to directand develop the home in the same way. Now, then, if it is the uniform business of ‘women to rear homes and bring up children, it is the right of women to have the power of building up homes and to_rear children. But, in this country no person has that power who is not possessed of the ballot. 1live in Philadelphia, continued Miss Shaw, and I want to show you that men are fncapabla of managing and controlling city governments by themselves. 1 am not assuming that they are not just, or that they are not honest, or that they do not try. 1 believe they are honest and just and that they do try. But they have made egregious failure. and the failure is not through want of endeavor, but through lack of ability. Then Miss Shaw went on to show how in her own town of Philadelphia the mem- bers of the Board of Public Works had failed utterly to comprehend street-sweep- ing, and she argued from this that women, who knew how to handle either end of the broom with equal facility, would bring about a desirable and remarkable change in this direction if given membership on such boards. The new Mayorof New York had shown his wisdom in "this particular by appointing two women on the Board of Sireet Commissioners. Had he appointed twenty women instead of two, said the speaker, he would have shown a great deal more wisdom. For the reason that women knew more about the training of children than men, Miss Shaw argued that they should have places on all school boards, and she in- stanced the case of Mrs. Claflin of Quincy, Mass., and showed how that woman had brought about some remarkable reforms. In the Police Department women are cer- tainly more interested than_men, continued Miss Shaw. Take the city of New York, for in- siance. For vears the policemen of that city have been filling their purses with the lowest vices of the women of the city. A gentleman s6id to me the other day “If you women vote ;'luu will have to be policemen,” and I said I ave never aspired (o office in my life, but if I wanted a favor or could make my selection I would rather be & policeman in the city of New York than be President of the United States. There has been one office I have lon and that s the office of pojiceman. Wit o want in San Francisco aud in every other city in the country is good women on ti.e police boards. If they were there, there would not be one-thousandth part of the immorality. We have got to have women on the police board before Staies will be purified. The city us kinds Food Removes wrinkles and all traces of age. It feeds through the | pores and builds up the fatty | membranes and wasted tissues, nourishes the shriveled and shrunken skin, tones and invig- orates the nerves and muscles, enriches the impoverished blood vessels, and supplies youth and slasticity to the action of the skin. It’s perfect. Yale's 8kin Fflo;l( price $1.50 and 88, at all drug. flores. MME. M. YALE, Health and Beauty Bueclalist, 146 S e m‘m‘e‘." street, Chicago. Beauty