The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 8, 1896, Page 10

19 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, MAY B, 1896. SUFFRAGISTS CHEER Miss Anthony’s Glowing Tribute to the Jour- nal That First Advocated Woman Suffrage in California. WOMEN IN CONGRESS. Splendid Address by Miss Eliza- beth U. Yates of Maine. HISTORIC VIEW OF WOMAN. Charles A. Murdock Reads a Paper on Our “Fore-Mothers” at the Evening Sessicn. Stainless callas, graceful annunciation lilies, white roses, snowballs and margue- rites made the stage at Native Sons’ Hall look like a bridal bower yesterday. Inter- est in the great Woman’s Congress seems to increase day by day. Yesterday sev- eral ladies expressed the keenest di appointment when they found it impossi- ble to get within hearing distance of the speakers. Theentrance way was thronged with eager, enthusiastic women, whose | lively interest in the proceedings gave them endurance sufficient to stand the or- deal of passing hour after hour on foot in one cramped position. The first paper, on “‘Prinxitive Woman,” was by Mrs. Sara Gamble. She said: In the primitive form of marriage men fought for their mates, ana in all probability the primitive woman looked on in gelight at the combat for her ownership. The difficultics of presenting any- thing beyond mere specutation of our primitive foremothers are very great, as she no 10nger exists anywhere. 1 ao not believe, however, that she is worth con- sldering except as an anima untl long after she has a well aeveloped grea. toe to her foot instead of a hypothetical thumb: unl long after the period when her mate built her & temporary home of twigs in a tree and remained with her only a season instead of for life. She must have been a wife with something binding about the marriage tie before she is ready to pose as a human belng. Iu calling up primitive woman from her long re- tirement 1 have avafied myse.f of four sources— history: deductions from mythology, considera- tions of woman's qualities nOW snd what sne would do stripped of civilization and piaced in primitive circumstances. Tt has been tritely said that the difference be- tween barbarism and civilization is simply the dif- ference between a wigwam and a lady’s boudoir. Earller testimoily describes the women of Gaul as being fiercer 1o battie-th up t0 the charge with bl and loud, hoarse cries capable of beating in siull of an adversary. They were ready to die for their chastity when taken prisoners and Kkilled their chiidren to p serve them from slavery. Tnis primitive woman 100k care of the but, kept the fire zoing, gave birth aud training to the young WAITiors, fought at her husband’s side, and ‘wien he was out of temper aud gave her & beating she was able to return it with interest. No ope could conceive that the model which stood for the pictures presented by these myths were weak, dependent creatures who wanted to be ivy leaves and twine or to repose on a sofa or bank all dey. Brunhilde’s Jovers must fight and win three combats with her to gain her hand, and she was 50 strong that sne was only overcome by astratagem at last. Karly Scandinavisn litera- ture is full of such instances, and it is refreshingto turn from the namby-pamby heroines of the civi- lized descendants of these same people. There is something equally suggestive in the story of our first mother, Eve. Her curiosity, her daring and her disobedience were magnificen: . Shecuts a better figure than Adam, who appar- ently would never have taken even a nibble at the fruit of the tree of knowledge—a full meal of which would have made them as wise 2s_the gods. Pan dora must not be ignored—her curiosity led her to 1ift thelid, and soall the evils were let out. Suffer- ing and shame result from both exploits. But if we had always remained naked and innocent where were the arts and all the interesting_com- plications of civilized life? If ev)l and suffering are the natural preludes to knowledge and virtue we are proud 10 know that the primitive woman zalsed the curtain and gave the signal for the tragedy to begin. Westermarck describes four forms of marriage. First. when men fought with each other for the possession of women: second, she was an object of barter, and her suiior must pay & good price for her to Lier father: third, she mude & choiceof a husband from combatants who fought for her favor: fourth, the peasant form, except in happy America, where the father must pay a certain sum 10 the man consenting to marry the woman. This last form would seem to insinuate that the woman of to-day is not as useiul and desirable as her primitive mother, and it is hard to say which form leaves.woman with the most dignity. At first glance we look at the earliest primitive marriages, when men fought like animals for their mates, with a shudcer, but probably the primitive woman Jooked on with plessure and gladly gave berself to the victor. Physical strength was the chief consideration—was what made a king among men. Titles, money-bags, social position, ieading the cotillon with grace were in the dim future as Teasons for feminine j reference. Following this primitive courtship came the practice of the father demanding a price for his daughter, which varied with her beauty, family standiog and_drudging capacity. The higher the Pprice paid in shells or hard service the prouder the primitive maiden, who would have felt disgracea 1o pess from her father to her husband as some- thing worthless. “The point which I wish to accent in all this is that the primitive man paid or served for and paintolly adorned himsel? to sue for the primitive woman, and that her industry, patience and_con- trivance gave her a value quite equal. if not greater than she has possessed in subsequent states of socety. The conclusion of Westermarck in_the end Is: “There is no doubt that under more primitive con- ditions woman was more free 10 choose than she is now among the lower races” Havelock Eilis gives woman & higher place in physical evo- lution than man. Her arms are shorter, her jaw less protrading and her face smaller in comparison 10 her head, these things suggesting greater difter- ence between her and the ape than between man and the ape. Miss Severance, the woman of ready thought in 1 their husbands, coming ing eyes, streaming hair tingiug their huge fists, all the discussions, had something to offer. She sald E “The primitive woman by tradition is credited with the invention of the needle, the basket and the spindle. The [needle may have been only & thorn, the basket & leaf. and the spindle a smooth stick. But withal she was the first adapter of means 10 ends. It may have been that man made the first bread, but we can hardly think that the bread was of angelic origin. 1 have no doubt that the primitive woman made the first bread by ding acorns and baking them. She may also have been the first planter, digging holes with her fingers and dropping in the seeds tDat were to prove the foundution of the harvest, the orchards and the wheat fleids of later times. I have seen the primitive woman exhibit her 200d poluts on other lines,” remarked Ars. Bid- well, ~and was much touched by it. A litie In- aien boy was dying of consumption. fe coughed once when I was visiting him, and needed to ex- pectorate. Two old Indian women passed him a cuspidor, an old woman holding s handaerehief | between' the vessel and myself. These Indians | were diggers. Yet this is oniy one of countless in. stances of delicacy and refinement among t hem.” Mrs. Marshall had a lictle personal observation 10 relate. 2 | “While way up in the Sierras last summer,’’ she | said, “I saw an Indian riding & horse and beside | him'walked the woman carrying & vappoose and | a large supply of household stuff, but he had nothing to carry.”’ Mrs. Neilie Blessing Eyster, s woman known as a writer and a suffragist leader, discussed woman, “In Savagery,” asubject that she weated in the tollowing way : “1.do not wonder that the ship carpenter carves the head of 8 WOmoN on the prow of his vessel nor that railroad appliances and locomotives are ad- dressed as she, for woman in savagery was the first beast of burden of the earth. From her back to thestately shipand the fiving steamcar lies the | evolution of all that is involved in tne word ‘traus- | portation,’ or ‘the carrying industry,’ an act that bias sent our race exploring and possessing the whole earth. Nor do 1 wonder that ‘Lhat great perverter of the piastic tendencies of clay, ‘Lhe pot- ter’s wheel, was described by the poet &s “Twirling on her axis, and ever as she turns new forms of beau:y doth create.” For women in savagery were the first ceramic artisans avd developed all the technique, the forms and the uses of the potters of to-day. “Between the Eskimo woman at Point Barrow and the Temple of Vesta ai Rome, between the arld pisins of Arizona und New Mexico and the Prytaneum at Athens, lie leagues of distance, but | beiween the rude soapsione lamp of the former and the exquisite vases waich adorn the altars of | the latter are the linksof the ceramicart as in- vented by ®men in savagery. “Women in 8 .vagery were the first weavers. Centuries uc10.. the ciassical Penelope wove the famous web by which she saved Ler witely honor, tue Carib women of South Africa, the aborigines of America, Polynesia of Ausiralia, the squaws of Navajo, the hupas of California, in brief, the women In savagery everywhere, had invented the tex.lie industrs known as basketry and woaving, and even before them had come the mothers of the £+ oo spin..ng threads, drawlng them out and cutting them off. tuat climax of modern womanhood, the fine lady, who by her personal grooming and intel- lectual refinement 1s an ideal of supreme art looks and behavior, had her beginniog in sav- agery. In savagery women are the hair-cutters, the shavers and tattoers, and this characteristic struggle for beauty in every direction, by every woman. had a most refining effect upon soclety in its infancy. In the conservation of the history of language woman hLas played an important part tnrough her knowledge of folk lore. In all nur- v rhymesand riddles and jingles bits of ancient philology and traditional wisdom h: mitred for centuries. As a patron of religion wo- men in savagery have enriched tribal and national mythologles with elements pecullar to our own odern ideas of heaven. Asa proof of the stronz 1d strange survival of this anclent fancy the statue of Crawford’s armed Liberty on the dome of the Capitol in Washingion to-a: cailed by the American people the Goddess of Liberty. At this era of American women's political ine- quality iz is a cold satie. The lowliest of the lowly to-day are the Andaman Islanders, yet our boasted civilization may learn a lesson from them; for says the highest English authority, #So far as the contract of marriage being regarded'as a tem- porary arrangement. to be set aside at the will of cither party, no incompatibility of temper or other canse is allowea to dissolve the union, and, while bigamy, polygamy, polyandry and divorce are unknown, conjugal infideiity is not the excep- tion, but the rule, and matrimonial differences are soon settled without the intervention of friends.” Among the Wyandoties, the Mohawks and Iro- quois the social organizations form groups, all of which are recognized, viz,: ihe family, the gens, the phraty and the tribe. The head of the family is the woman. When & woman is Insialied as councilor a feast is prepared by the gens to which she belongs. She i3 vaipted and dressed in her best attire,and the gentil chaplet of feathers is placed upon her head by ihe sachem of the tribe, who announces in & solemn manner that this woman has been chosen a councilor. The councils are between the sexes, no distinction belng made. The tribal council is held regularly on the night of the full moon aud conducted with great cere- mony. Such are the organic functions of tribal government in savagery, the object being to pre- serve rights and enforce the performance of duties. Ferocious, wild, uncultivated, untamed, un- taught, uncivilized, unpolished, rude, heathenish, cruel, inhuman, fierce, pitiless, unmerciful, atro- clous—all these' are synonyms for savagery, and yet the phrase “woman in savagery” seems s paradox in that connection. The road from the woman in savagery to the fin de siecle queen of society is long {ndeed. Who can estimate its countless miles of toilsome travel, its pitiless, patient plodding and its journeyings to and fro across the sweiling Jordans of prejudice and ignorance® The maternal instinct, the strong back, tne def. hand, the instinctive aversion to ageressive employment, the conservative spirit were there in flower. The phrase the survival of the fittest refers gen- erally to plants and animals; but there is a higher law a5 well as a lower one of the survival of the fittest, and the emancipation and exaltation of women is always the synobym of progress. All the social fabrics of the world are built round her. Both web and woof are as yet sadly imperfect, but the thought of imperieciion iies behind them. Thoughts re things. God help her to preserve her holy ideas. “Savage woman,’’ remarked Miss Sever- ance, ‘‘wasinnately honest before she be- came contaminated by traders of the plains. A trader was asked by a squaw to lend her a shirt pattern, as she wished to gamble, for among those Indians shirt patterns were standard currency—no silver question bothered them. ell, that squaw returned later in the night with two shirt patterns as a result oi her gam- bling. That might have been considered gambling with a purpose.” Mrs. Swett told another story. “During one of my summer vacations,” sbe said, “T noticed the squaws gathering berries for the white traders. One of the newly married Indians tried to get his wife’'s wages. But she knew a thing or two, and slipped her hand in above that of her husband, clutched the money and “THE CALL.” sped off with the reward of her Iabor. That squaw had a good idea of woman’s rights, Mrs. E. G. Greene of Banta Oruz, a suffragist prominent in kinde; ten work, took up the discussion of *“Woman in Barbarism.” In part she said: In the Colum bian exhibition the place of honor was occupied by the colossal statue of s young woman ngl’mmad in burnished gold. In one hand she held the world, in the other the cap of emancipation or liberty, Upon her right hand stood the building devoted to the manufactures and liberal arts, upon her left the temple of sgri- | culture. In the distance the dairy, the leather and horticulture bulldivgs. At the extreme south of the grounds was an exhibit from the cemetery of Ancon in Peru. One figure was of specia! interest in this connec- tion—the skeleton of an ancient Peruvian woman. It was in & crouching attitude, wrapped in the cus- tomary g cradle-frame, pottery and di-hes of vegetables with which she was familiar in her life and from :hilchh her spirit was not to be separated in her eath. The statue of liberty represents the high lights of civilization. TLesKeleton of the ancl-nt woman the shadows of savagery: back in the perspective, creeping out from the shadows, the veiled woman of barbarism might be seen, enthroned in the gilded apartments of the harem, dressed in elegant attire, bedecked with jewels, Jounging upon luxu: rlous cushions, surrounded by a retinue of serv. anis, forbidden to enter the streets unvelled or un attended; or she migh be seen oppressed as & slave In service, in the abject humliiiy of ascetl cism, or in the obedience of caste. Agaln as & queen at court and the leader or follower in battle. As the mother and toller in the home and in the fleld. Asan industrial factor In the family and in the tribe. As the social ruler aad the ethical gulde. As a bullder of civilization thi hind the throne. oo Herodotus telis us before t he time of Mohammed | women were acquired by inheritance. as 11ve stock. The custom of buying wives not only prevailed in the early days of barbarism, but in a Ligh state of barbaric civilization. Mohammed pald for certain of his wives two drams of silver, o handmill, a water Jar, a pillow. Mr. Layard relates that a young girl rushed into Ius tent one day in great despair: her mother had s0ld her for \wo sheep, two donkeys and two meas- ures of wheat. She did not wish to marry the young man. and finally he was persuaded to take back the price and give up the maiden. Mohamme- dens have numerous proverbs expressive of the very low estimate they put upon woman. Dr. H. H. Jessup, In his valuable book entitled the omen of Arabia,” quotes as follows: bedience 1o women will have to be repented he hear: of woman is given to folly.” Women are fhe whips of Satan.” Alas for the poor people ruled by woman.” “Trust nelcher a King, a horse or & woman, for the king is iastidious, the horse liable to run away, and the woman is perfidions.” Arab women have distnguished themselves by bravery hardly less than the men. Records of armed herolnes frequently occur in the myths of prelslamic times and in suthente history 656 A.D. Aveshah, wife of Mohammed, led an army, and this is only ‘the first of & number of instances in which Arabamarzons bav - taken sword in hand. It isnow customary foran Arab force 1o be ac- companiea by some courageous maiden, who, mounted on a black camel, siugs verses of enconr agement of her own and of insult to the opposiog In the tinseled splendor of an_ anclent Persian court we find Queen Vashti who discloses to us the social position of a few women in oue of the early Aryan races. She had the courage to maintain the dignity of her womanhood and refuse to present | Berself amid the drunken revels of her husband’s | court. —e ve-clothes, and avout it were spindies, | | & Persian King—a star to her people, but a single using the feminime personal pronoun, as for in- stance: Well, it Englang wants the earth. why let her take it if shecan. Esvecially is this true since the era of civilization. That government in its feminine capacity has Always used men to administer her behests Is only the indication that she needed muscle. She even @dded to this muscle a keen-edged weapon 0 cut her way to what she deemed right, and after the orunlu Of our era welded thereto the Cross & han- dle. 1n considering the relatiou of woman s to g0V- ernment under the early civilizations let ns cast about for an initial poini—a pex in the cabinet of memory, Lo which {0 aitach & live for the display of those adornments of femenine character that have lent themselves to the problems of govern- ment and at the same time accentuated the charms that have claimed the attentlon of manxind. 1n all earlier civilizations, s e Dt ) periods whaen women occupled ‘the throne. Noble pedigrees were almost invariably traced through the female line, and this may make & base | line from which to procecd—turnish the initial | point we seek. Just here in the of culture is struck the first chord In all the later harmonies. Now life is secured and catered 10 and thought is winging it- | | self in bright colored plumage 50 88 L0 ALLTACE &t tention that iis story may be heard. Mo estimate of woman's worth a8 & ruler can be | formed without finding the very point,be it In savagery, barbarism or civilization when the royal succession of tribe, clan, country or empire passed | from the female line 1o the male—for from thai moment indiscriminate paternity was acandoned | and the woman was hela sacred. She could now | transmit with the blood of the royal line the qual. | | ities of ruler or Jeader, the courage of chief, and more often than not the viriues of & king. Then was the circle of the sacred fire drawn around her | within which she still stands—possibly by man's | seifishness, but he “builded better than he knew.” | The earliest legends relate thut Belus, the great- est god of Egvptian worship, cut the darknessin | | twain and so severed the body of the woman who ruled over chuos. This is the firsc mention of a feminine ruler, ana she was a failure, for she ha! never been able to reduce her realm (o order. After caiting the woman in two be cut his own head off and the trickling drops mingling with the earth to form man. Hers man is the afterthought. He stili thinks that he Is the resuit of some second and better lh(.ll%l:. The sun god Ra was so solickous for the royal succession as 10 give it his personal attention when he feared that carelessness or «aprice might taint | | the blood — therefore daughters us well as sons | were held capable of transmitting the royal dezree | and name. 1If it be true that a nation’s civilization | may be estimated by the more or less lofty posi- | toa It accords its women the Egyptians surpassed | all other ancient peoples. Witli the second dyn- | asty we learn that there was a law passed that women could hold the sovereign power. Queen Nicrotis was the builder of tne third pyra- | mid—the first of double design (might have known it, cries the misogynisc). Her historical character | has been 10st in & succession of legends. This | double designer is said by some to be the most an- cient form of the story of Cinderella. In Moses’ command to read and explain the law toall people woman was Included by name. In the exclamation of Deboran, Lthe prophetess and judge, we see where she gets her authority. *The Lord made me have dominion_over the mighty.” She calls herself a “Mother in Israel,” and by & | wise adminisiration of her power of prophetic command gives the land rest for forty years. But for the stop-watch one would Jike to dwell on some of the attriLates of Sarah. Miriam, Debo- rab, Abizuil, Huldah and Esther, not forgetting Jezebel, that vigorous wife of a purling imbecile, Wwhose characterizaiion we should Iike Lo trunsiate by some other term Lhan termagant, &s we are quite convinced that the need produced the instru- ment. From Sarah to Esther the difference is as wide a8 from earth 10 a star. Sarah was a prio- cess over peoples, Ksther was & radiant beauty to | ar, Dot a cousteilation—neither a “Cross” to her husband por a “Great Bear” (o uny one else. Sa- rah ruled In and of herself, Esther in and by means of_her influence, The Assyrian Empire was founded by Ninus and Semiramis. One skips, for the nunce, the part of the hisiory relating to Ninus and cthe son Ninyas 0 center the attention on Semiramis. We see | that she caunoy he all a myib, as earth works bear the stamp of her fine hand. Wrlting was well | ot Heavenly Feet,” and they have ofien asked the America 15 enly equaled by the ignorance e regarding China. Here we see only the hewers of wood and the drawers of water. As for the Chinese women whom we find In this country, they are generally-speaking, men- tal bisoks. But in history we find neted several iilustrious Chinese women of letters. The first book ever written on the higher educa- tion of woman was by Pan Gow, a Chinese woman, who also completed the annals of the em which had been commenced by ber brother. The Empress Ann, in recent times, is A luminous ex- ample of the hizh-minded Chinese woman. Coun- cilors of State deferred to her judgment, and It Is related that the Kmperor once made nine prostra- tions before her, which s considered the highest honor which can be given to a human being. An impression prevails that female infants born 1n China have their necks wrung as soon as they come into the worid. This is a great error. There is in the south of China a very poor district in which the killing of children is said to be more or less frequent. Yer I doubt whether there is not ‘more infanticide in China than in this country. ‘Che mothers chovse the wives for their sons and they complain in their old age that tney have dis- tasteful asughters-in-law. ‘The Chinaman has no Tight 10 take his wife awey from the home of his mother. 1n China they have a society called the “Society missionaries why th h do Dot have & “So- clety of Heavenly W The women of Japan and China have their liter- ary societies. 5 1 shail close with the message to-day of th Bos.on Sorosis to the women of Japan and China ell them the world was made 10r women, (00, As the world opens up for ns I am glad to say it is broadening up for them, wo. “The Chinese woman,’”’ said Miss Yates, in answer to a question by Miss Sever- ance, “'like the American woman, has no legal claim upon the community prop- erty. Like her sister here she gives her all” to her husband, and in return he dresses her, clothes ber and physies her as he thinks fit."” “In what capacity did you visit China and Japan?’ asked a woman in the auai- ence. ‘1 was twice in Japan and China as a tourist, and lived five years in China as a missionary,” answered Miss Yates, simply, amid much applause. f In answer to another question, Miss Yates said: “‘Among the peasant classin Japan the woman works side by side with ber hus- band and eats at the same table with him on a basis of equality, but as the social scale is ascended, the man becomes a figure of greater relative importance than the woman.”” The discussion then became general, and much interest was shown in the sub- ject.. g Miss Sarah D. Hamlin of this City, and {or several years a resident in India and a student of the social conditions of that most conservative Oriental country, spoke of “Women in India.” She said in part: India, like other Orfental countries, Is sadly lack- ing in’ historic records. In their place is a con- fused mass of legends, traditions, customs and re- liglous laws, which must be read between the lines for the story of historic development. To the outside world India was known in a vague, half-fabulous manner in the time of Homer, but it was Alexander the Great who introduced Indis to the western world through bis invasion in 327 B. C. The accounts of that date agree remarkably with the conditions of ilfe In Indin at the present time, in spite of foreign_conquests, the infusion of alien blood and the wearing effects’ of twenty-two centuries. Home and her provinces were familiar with the brocades, fine musling, silks, gems. spices and many more of the natural productions and “THE CALL'S” HEROIC AND SPLENDID ATTITUDE. EDITOR D AILY CALL CALL as champion of woman's political equality commends itself to every right-thinking man and woman in California. the winning side, and the the front will not only be in the lead but in time pride itself others must fall into line or get terribly in its good work; T Telt = I have been a Sunday subscriber to THE CALL for a long time; please write me down henceforth a daily subscriber, as I cannot afford to lose any good thing your paper may say on our behalf. Scores of other women will do likewise, and remember those who remember our cause. Very respectfully yours, -President Woman's Republican State Central Club. Room 62, 1170 w2 5 :.%»r. e ccicon, May 3d. press which is .. WOMANS .., Republican State Cent PresiOEnT, ADBE-L SALLOU % SscreTany, MARGARET JONES The heroic and splendid attitude of THE ral Club Market Street &5 . We are on earliest to come to We get & further giimpse of the social customs and the position of women by the treatment of Vashti and the introduciion of Estber inio the court. A number of falr young maldens were brought to the King, from whom he might select & wife. These women were in the custody of Heg: the King’s chamberiain and “keeper of the women.' Esther plessed the King, and he made her his Queen. " Her infiuence at court secured the liberty of her people. The Bedouin woman has more freedom than her Arab sister. She does not wear a veil, aithongh she sometimes throws the folds of her dress over her face when meeting a strance man upon the highway. She walks the street arm in arm with her chief, much to the disgusi of the Arabian, while the Bedouin 1ooks down with contempt upon the poor fellabs who dwell In houses and till the soil. With a careless freedom they wander on the mountains where Moses and the Hebrews viewed the Jandscape o'er,and camp in places sacred to | A Goop WisH. Uumqlm Cuuncn. Rev. E. F. Dinerijre, Minister. ot Burkorm, Gatif ]%"r 4 é,}yg Pr. Cloas W Moy, — Alear J# e e e BV & the memory of great nations. Some of the Tartar women follow the Turkish women In matters of dress, others are dressed in garments of skins. Women are largely the manu- facturers and wearers of these garments. Women setup and take down the tents, pack them then with their children and valuab es, join the caravan either for war, plunder, or change of home. The yell of the women in batile Is the inspiration of the army. The women also care for the sick and wounds The only direct relation of woman to the system of polity or body of principles by which the suto- cratic affairs of barl . are administered is her obedlence to its requiremenits and her mainte- nance of its institutions. She is a producerof wealth, but has no voice in its distribution. 1n exceptionai cases she stands at the head of government, aud has a decisive voice in its affairs. The Influence of woman in barbarism is more industrial, social and ethical than political. Exercised under the law of force, itis not always at its best. To women 1t 18 8ald we owe the existence of the family. The mother and child are the unit of the first step in civilization. When woman became tired of bearing children to be swept nto the com- mon mass she gathered them about her and gave them her name; here became the nucleus of the family: and when the father could stand by her side and call the chiliren by his name tbe iamily was established and parentage an acknowl- edgeu relstion. This then is woman's first state in government: through womau the line of descent was first reckoned. She organized family life and is everywhere its central power. Out from the family grew the state. Out irom family govern- ment the government of thestate and of the iarger family, the nation. 1t was the horde of women through all ages who learned self-control under the oppression and_ sub- jection which barbaric life- imposed. who be- Queathed to their sons and their daughters that amount of self-gontrol and loyalty upan which & #ree republic can safely build. Then woman in barbarism will pass out from the shadow into light and her stake in government . v il will be recognize¢ aud redeemed, for she will bring to government her rich inheriiance from the pasi—the crown and «lory of the future. “Woman in the Ancient Civilization” is the title of a most interesting paper b; Mrs. George Oulton of Bouldin shn% which was read by Mrs. Edna Snell Poul- son. The foliowing synopsis will give a fair idea of the fascinating essay. Fancy the feelings of Sir James Mackintosh when Mme. de Stael called upon him to “tell her the British Constitution in ten words,” and you will understand how one might feel upon béing asked 10 tiptoe from the first CAtaract to the deita of the Nile, across to the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates, thence down the Hellespont into the Zgean Sea and around to the Eiernal City—crate- ful at not being required to pirouette over Gaul or stand Colossus-like, one f0ot on the Iberian Penin- sula, tne qiher On the british Isles imitatug Canute—all in twenty minutes. Were 1 to be asked what woman's relation to government is or has been in any period of human culture, I should snswer that she maintains and always has matntained the most intimate of pos- sible reiations—that she is ihe government—that advanced and architBcture had & perroanent place 88 an expression of the degree of culture of these people. Woman was always subordinate to the general polity and_without pubilc or political power, but the ife of separation Ip duties ¥nd_pleasures was nefther flavoriess to man nor colorless to woman, for their occupations were 8o varied—the climate demanded so much and there seemed 8o that was supplemental in their actiiude to- ward each other. While the woman of Roman did exert a valiant, patriotic and herolc influence, she had less political power than the woman of the north, but more legal consideration than the Helene. Her infinence 1n affairs was direct and important, sometimes ele- vating and refining. She belonged to the family more than LG the community, and_the State took care of her interests and provided for her welfare. In the househola she was as much mistress as the mau was master, et It was &y if aman should goner the tile, aignlty and responsibility of mis tress of lils houseliold upon his child (as it is with ay). Jirs. Oliphant says, In her late book on Kome, speaking of the Empress Agnes, that “there 18 nothing that women have done so well as in the great art of government." The wit might add thereto the comment that the Teason Is that_she accepts responsibility in her very best mood—ihe imperative. ithout wishing to trench upon the province of the pr-acher, which is mainly to dilute a dogma, we must in conclusion exhort woman to let her 10100k be honest and her expression a reflection of that, 80 that In government, be it of self, or nursery, or home, or country, she may refute the eynle who says that when women rule well it is due to sound masculine advice, And when man has ruled badly it 15 frequently due to baneful femaie influence. To sugar that pill I have endeavored to show that that incousiderate anid inconsiderable quan- lity, woman, has ieft an {mpress, though never so slight, upon goverumental systems. The morning session then adjourned. S AFTERNOON SESSION. Woman Viewed as She Is in China, Japan and Indla, and From Other Standpoints. Miss Elizabeth N. Yutes of Maine opened the aiternoon session with an ad- mirable paper on “Woman in China and Japan.” Among other things, she said: We find in Japan, one of the most picturesque Isles of the sea, & very picturesque class of women. The women of that nation Lave had beiter advan- tages than the women of other oriental natious, and as & result they have been the mothers of & noble type of men. For centuries they have had the ndvantages of education. Way back in history, aimost 8 mythical tradi- tion, there was a Joan of Arc in Japan, the wife Of an K mperor. The siory goes that it was con- ceded the Emperor was nou considered good S pedition, teaditi e fiu out a milit: ex| ition, ti tion goes, and aiscovered Korew, and while there made such av impression upon that people that they pieaded with her (o remain there as thelr queen. t was her son that arterward became & great mili- tary leader in Japan. e preseat Empress of Japan has ericouraged the founda.ion of iraining schools, orphanages and asylums: she i3 a great zood woman. Latterly the Empresses of Japan has appeared in the roval pro- cessious side by side with the kmperors, and no. following behind them ws in former times. The Japanese have an excellent school system. The wife of oue of the great miiltary leaders in the Tecent war against China was & graduate of Vassar joilege, and she was a great aid in counseling her usbaad. \ith all the advances made by Japaa in civill- 2zation in the last century the general progress has manufactures of India, but they added nothing to historic lore. There 1s' no_doubt that early Chris- tianity pianted her standard in India by means of Syrian missionaries. though tradition assigns the honor to St. Thomas, the doubting Apostle. A flourishing commerce arose betwesn Venice and other Italian republics with India through the so- called Dark Ages of European history. The difficuity in considering this subject fs great because of the multiplicity of castes, religions, Iangusges, social cusioms snd iaces; because of differences due to the climate and geography of this vast region and because India is a land of con- tradictions and inconsistencies. What is irue of one district may not be true of any other, and the laws of one community may be the opposite of those of another within sight. India is the camp- ing-ground of differences of belief, the home of contrarities, the nursery of bair-splitling casuistry, the place of the strongest accentuation of minute differences in habits of life and thousht. Benenth all this, however, is & system to which all seek to adapt themselves, and that is the religious and so- cial tystem imi by the Brahmin priesthood, without a knowledge of which no one can form a conception of Indian Iife and history. In the sixih century, B. C., Buddhism and_ kin- §ren, was a plece of s, 8 household chattel. to do by her as he saw was the first to be ensiaved,and she will be the Iast to be wholly free. Rough and rude as we see the condition of the Germanic woman, it yet never sank to the degradation that her sisters touched in the lands where the Mussulman’s cruel edicts held sway. gratify his boser animal nature from Mohammedisny to Mormonism, and every shade of polygamy, have always sacrificed women by the most unjust usages. minutes to a rather caustic review of the addresses of Dr. Voorsanger and Miss Shaw on the ‘“‘wished to la; the great ideal of womanhood was a very Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates, Who, Because She Is a Ready, Entertaining Speaker, Was Brought Ont From Maine to Aid the Campaign for Equal Suf- frage in California. She Spoke Yesterday Afternoon About Women in China and Japan, Having Been Twice a Tourist and an Observer in Those Countries’ and Later e Missionary in China for Five Years. Miss Hamlin expiained that everywhere the Government in India is organizing schools, but very few of the women take advantage of them. Only about 6 per cent of them can read and write even their own vernacular. Colonel Dickinson asked if the native women of India are adopting the English style of dress. The reply was that per- haps not more than one in a hundred of the women converted to Christianity wear the European dress; it is not encouraged by the missionaries. Miss Yates remarked that she had never attempted to have the Chinese women opt the European costume, for she be- lieves theirs is vastly superior to ours, nor could she advise them to adopt such as her own, because the next fashion papers from America might wholly change it. Miss Agnes Manning of this City began ber paper, “Women in Northern Races,” with a proud bosast that she had converted Sarah B. Cooper, the president of the Woman’s Congress, to the suffrage move- ment. Continuing, she said in part: “Our German women are too low In the sccial scale,” says a German writer, Jenny Hirsch, “to dream of the franchise.” Our object is tolift them out of their insigniticance, frivoiity, poverty, mis- ery and shame and train them for work which will make themselves and others happy. Here is the law of Prussia: Children may not marry without the consent of their father. The mother is Dot even mentioned. By marriage the husband obiains control of the wife's fortune. Whatever the wife earns during her marriage be- 10ngs to the husband. The wife may not spend & cent of the fortune she brought to the husband. nder it as he pleases. statute-book says: The law al- lows the husband to chastise the wife moderately. Women, with the exception of the motuer and grandmother. are unfit (o be guardians. The Germanic man has been greatly shocked that his poor slavish Gretchen should aspire to the higher education. He could complacently look on at an overburdened wife and moiher toiling np four stories in his cities with a load of brick and. martar on her shoulders, but for a young lady to seek to enter a college was & most unwomanly outrage on her whole sex that he was bound to prevent. Nlowly, Indeed, is he learning that God’s Jjustice on this earth s neither for man nor woman alone, but for both. If history teaches us one les- son more forcibly than another it is this inevi:able | faci—thut no human being can be trusted with irresponsible power over another. Before the dawn of Christianity the natlons of the north were little better than hordes of savages. In their deep forests beyond the Rhine they lived their wild lives, knowing nothing of the civiliza- tion that veneered the surface condition of their southern neighbors. Or by the lonely shores of | the Baltic,under cold, gray skies, they pursned thelr barbarous tasks with_ little to brighten the present and only & gloomy mythology to speak to them of a future. It does not require much imag- ination to picture the position of their women. She knew nothing of the unrest of her little sis- ters in the to her unknown lands of the South. She had never even heard of the sunny lIsles, where women, as s0on as learning had been given them, had blossomed 1nto poetry and song, headed by that great poet that all her contemporaries united in putting her beside the sreatest tnat Greece has known. ~he knew nothing of the dis- | content that stirred other women by the banks of | the Tiber. She never knew how they combined together and even clamored at the gatesof ihe Senate against the unjust laws forced upon them by their tyrants. The dark-eyed women of Rome were not quietly held In subjugation. Because they were barred out of the world of letters they have been unable to defend themserves from the base sianders of the corrupt writers of their time. The Germanic woman gave no cause for com- plaint. she knew notbing of combination, and it it occurred to her to blame anything ic was the fate tnat made her a woman. All liberty for her slept in the night of time. The semi-savage at her side had no conception of liberty himself. Mo man ever has that denies it to another, If he was rich he tyrannized over his people: if lie was poor | hio bowed bis head to the yoke. Whether Tich oF r, the wife of his youth, the mother of his chil- . Alas, for the history of the human race, woman The religions invented by some man to A man in the gallery devoted some receding evening. learned speaker,” he said, down the proposition that ‘If that intellectual being of fi standard is too low.” Mrs. Harland also s lines, complimenting her able paper. A German lady said the miserable con- dition of German working women was dua in great measure to the fact of men being obliged to serve in the army. Miss 8haw’s attention being called to the gallery man’s comment on ger address, she stood up for herself as follows: “There are always reasons for things, and the German woman has had to bear a great many burdens that the German men would have borne under different militar regulations. I should rather climb a lad- der with a great stone on my head, be | hitched with a dog in drawing loads than be a worker in the sweat-boxes of a great city like New York. “I said that the coming woman would be physically better. Most people think women simply want the ballot. That is not it. All we wantis tools to carve our | way with. No woman will be perfectly | developed until she is physically and in- | tellectually developed, until she is free. | Of course” we must have something else besides tools; but women have been mak- | ing bricks without straw since civilization fbegan. Laws do not make us free; they kee{;‘us from getting, so, however. ‘‘We have got to-day not only where we | believe we ought to be free, but where we | insist on getting free. “There bas been nothing that has made me feel how little we are removed from barbarism as that debate a few days ago in the great Methodist conference, that women had no right in that body. One thing that will be conceded to her is that I!:hfi will have the right to help pay the ills. *‘If woman had the proper spirit and strength of character such a condition would not be possible and man_be par- mitted to live in ease and comfortina community. I shall reiterate what I said iast night. The woman to be will be physically developed, intellectnally de- veloped and averse to linking her life to man smenable to a more lenient law of morality than that that governs her.” The lady president read a cordial invita- tion addressed to the congress by the Woman’s International Congress at Ber- lin inviting its memb ‘rs to a great assem- blage there in the fall. After that Mrs. Mary Field of San Jose, writer, poetess and founder of the California Chautauqua Society, gave a fine paper on “Woman in Feudalism.” Her essay was a masterpiece of quaint and beautiful word-painting, borrowed from the buried treasure-houses of medimval times, and the gifted au- thoress was frequently interrupted during its aelivery by prolonged salvos of ap- plause. e i EVENING.- SESSION. The Rev. Anna Shaw Is Beslaged With Questions, but Holds Her Own Right Bravely. “Sardines in a box” is a very trite com- parison; yet that simile suggested itself ne physique, his fio_ke on the same iss Manning on | to every one at last night’s session of the congress. Miss Anthony was present in a throne- like chair draped with snowy fur, and looked every inch the queen that she is. She took occasion to say some very nice things about THE CALL, while Miss Shaw was kept busy answering the strange queries found in the question-box. There was only one essay read, but in the opinion of an enthusiastic admirer it was ‘‘worth twenty.” “Mrs. President and ladies,”” began Charles A. Murdock of this City, “and I think T address this audience so ad- visedly. Heretofore we have been told that woman embraces man [laughter], and I have no doubt that a great many of you since the action of the Republican dred reformed ous. entered Like & wedge' Into the great soclal and religions structure built up by Brahminism. The life of Buddha was a typical one, based on the Indian ideal of the nobie life. He found, however, that the path of salvation did not Lo in the old asceticism, but in the nobler type of the preacher, striving to bring deliverance to others. To his banner flocked all classes of people. even women, for in_his religion women were per. mitted to become nuns, though no woman could ever attain to Buddhahood without deing born again asa man. It was no. without & struggle that Gautama per- mitted the order of nuns, such was the stigma a- tached to unmarried women in India. It is reiated that women were indebted to the intercession of a monk, Gautama’s cousin Ananda, for permission 10 found an order and that Buddba's nurse became the first nun. Yet when Ananda asked, ~How are We monks 10 behave when we see women? Gau. tama repiied, “Don’t see them.” “But if we should see them, what are we 1o do?” “-Don’t speak (o the “But if they should speak to us, what then®” “Let your thoughts be fixed in deep medi- 284100 and mAka no reply.” 3 Among other women 0f India are the Parsees and Ben lsraell. Although they enjoy & greater degree of freedom than the high-caste women, yot it has always been true that the proud Jew or Par- see could thank God that he did not_make him & woman, and_sbe would most humbly thank God that he'did not make her anything ®orse, while the proverbs of both kiindoos and Mohsmmedans are fail of the most abominable gibes about wom- an's inferiority to man, regarding her mitigated evil, but the greatest evil of that sne is necessary, ‘L here is, however, a darx side, and every reform In India begins with some reference to the abuses which woman suffers in connection with infant marriage, enforced widowhood, and her illiteracy. In spite of the resirictions of caste and custom, of law and religion, 1 wish (0 say that 1 have found women nowheres a “greater power behind the throne” tnan in India. But,as I have aiready said, India is a lan 1 of contrudictions, and side by side' with all that is most pure and iofty and holy in life are the most cruel aud degrading super- stitions. The wonren of Indla are. howaver, thelr greatest CONservators, tne strongest and bitterest opponents of reforms, "although, these reforms seck the wmelioration_of the ' evils from which they especially suffer. There is in the Orienzal womun a submissiveness, 4 self-depreciation, & conserva- tism which seems to be the crystallization of habits of thought produced by the social system under Which she lives, by the code of Manu and by the Vicissitudes of lier national history. Added (0 this, and perhaps mos: important of all, is that doctrine of Brahminism, whereby Woman can secure eternal blessedness only so far as she coniorms to all the minute regulations of her religlon, whereby in the whirling cycle of births and deaths she may some time De born & man, live and die a man, aod_thus attain in this blessed condition, to the heaven of heavens, uot been 50 great as the progress in the develop- ment of her women. Bocne ever spoke 10, or of, or from her witkiout | The ignorance of the average Chinaman con- complete absorption In the Deity, or Nirvana. In reply to a question from Miss Yates, PROUD OF ' "THE CALL” o5 o mvef i o Aecoro | ad B A ave forrict o T ol Heccd A M & Habe.