Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-05-10

the past. For all reform movements
tend toward tragical or peaceful So
luton. If there is too much of man in
them they become rancorous, denun-
ciatory, violent and end in tragedy.
For the abuses of the world touch man 8
temper rather more than his sympa-
thies. He is more inclined to hate the
wrong-doer than to love the one who is
wronged. Hence, he is disposed to be-
come fierce and destructive in
his methods. If he is in
Congress. and gets very much in
earnest. he knocks another member
down. At his worst estate he becomes
an anarchist, uses dynamite and gets
himself hung. 1t is part OF his ma
ture to think that the way to improve
matters is to make the pieces fly. Hence
the history of reformation has been ex-
ceedingly tragical, forit has been large
ly under mans management.
But if human history is
not to be continual series of
tragedies, in which men try to make
the world better by killing one an
other. there must be a change in the
method of reform. This change, it is
to be hoped, the advent of woman as a
reformer may effect. Her qualities
and methods, her sympathy, tact and
subtitle influence. seem to be just what
is needed to make reform less tragcal.
more peaceful. She is not so much
impelled by her antipathies as drawn
by her sympathies. She hates the
rum-seller less than she loves the
wretched victims of his business. She
is more anxious 10 save the wheat than
to destroy the tares. She extirpates
vice by supplanting it with virtue.
She uses tact, and has little faith in
main strength and awkwardness. She
believes more in mustard seed of
good influence than in a whole battery
of violence. She has the power of pa
thence and bides her time; is not dis
heartened because the hour is not yet
come, but sees the promise afar of, and
reads the large hope of her heart into
all the future. Like Napoleon's stub
born enemies. she never knows when
she is beaten. There is no evil which
she thinks must needs be, and she as
firmly believes that this world is re-
deemable as that it has Redeemer.
Perhaps the most notable feature of
woman's work as reformer is her sys-
tematic method. This is what was
least expected. But it is hardly too
much to say that her great temperance
movement is the best controlled and
nest systematic effort at reform that
the world has yet seen. The agencies
which have been organized, the forces
which have been set in operation, the
between this movement and the halls
of legislation, the platform, the press.
the teachers and textbooks of the pub
lie schools. the home and the praying
circle, the formative and refOrmative
processes. the minute attention to de-
tails and the comprehensive plans.
wide as the world, all show consum-
mate generalship. And it may also be
said that this and other reform move
ments, and the great missionary enter
prises. are bringing into view a more
notable class of women than has ever
before crowned the generations. The
mastery management, the eloquence.
earnestncss. faith and power which
they have brought to their work, mark
a new era in the history of reform.
But history does sometimes repeat
itself. and the circular tendency of this
movement will be to come around
again to the old Pagan notion. that
woman can only realize her full power
by straining after the masculine type.
and by putting on mans armor and
using mans weapons. But her influ-
ence and success rs reformer depend
as much upon her loyalty to her woman
hood as upon a free field of action. And
if she continue both reformer and
woman, this word will soon be a far bet
ter world than it has ever yet been.-
Reu. j. a. adams. in Adrdnce.