The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-12-27
WOMAN AND HOME.
SOME OF THE ADVANCES MADE IN
THE PAST FIFTY YEARS.

OOWG VT ITI6 NOVVlNS10 WNO@ uN
THE PAST FIFTY YEARS.
A Woman Who Was Cool and Shrewd-To
Whom They Are Indebred-The Clothing
of Babies-Statistics of Women's Hair.
To Prevent Moisture in the House,
When remember the world as I knew it
forty or even fifty years ago, and compare
these recollections with what see today, the
moral advance made by society appears to
me unmstakable, and in this advance
women have been not only participators, but
active agents. This is not to say that there
were not many good women in the time Of
which speak, nor that there are not many
bad ones now. But the position of women
has essentially changed since that time.
In this country, of which we can speak
with the greatest certainty, the whole ideal
Of womanhood has been lifted bodily and
placed upon secure elevation. How should
it be otherwise where freedom has given wo-
man room to grow and expand to her full
stature, and where the cruel gives of servile
superstition have been stricken from her in
tellectual facultiesa
The question of woman's educational ad-
vance might almost appear superfuous in a
day in which the ancient barriers no longer
cross the onward path of the women who
would know something.
The high schools and colleges of the coun-
try, once closed against women, are now in
great measure open to them. Their record
in these institutions shows their studious zeal
and capacity. After and beyond this scho-
lastic training, the education of practical life
is now vouchsafed them in the variety which
corresponds with the variety of their gifts
and predictions.
"What Will He Do With ItY' is the title
of one of Mr.. Bulwer's novels. The ques-
ton "What will she do with ita'' has often
retarded the granting Of the higher educa-
ton to woman. We Of today can answer:
''She is doing good work with it." Thorough
intellectual training is making plain to her
the laws which underlie her most gracious
instincts, giving her the rationale of the
poetic saying that
Spirits are not finely touched
But to fine issues.
The pursuit of the higher education for
women has been met by two grave difficult
ties, viz, the fear that its emancipation
would react unfavorably upon their moral
nature, and the persuasion that severe mem
tai application would impair the physical
condition of the mothers of the race.
The first of these foregone conclusions
springs from the tyrannical instinct which
is at certain stages Of society the leading
force among human tendencies Not men
only, but women also, wishing to command,
naturally desire that others should be inca
pacitated from sharing their rule. The sur
est way to do this is to keep for themselves
the secrets of the knowledge which is power.
Statecraft and priestcraft have closely allied
themselves with these views, and in our days
a sort of crank craft" has done what it could
in the same way.
The heroic men who have INDICATED the
cause of human freedom have brought So
ciety out of this rut of fear and repression
They have shown, and history has shown
with them, that the true danger of society
lies in ignorance, and not in intelligence
The Channings, Garrisons, Phillips have
made the atmosphere all clear and bright
about U.s. Before their time the sanity wom-
en- of the Puritans and of the Quakers, and
in their time the brave women of the anti
slavery movement, have aided in trampling
out the embers of the old inquisitorial fires
And today the women of the suffrage move
ment may point to Ann Hutchinson, Maria
Weston Chapman, Harriet Martineau and a
host of others, and ask whether a woman is
less woman because more a citizen, less fit
for home duties because she has learned to
apprehend rightly the relation of these du-
ties to the state.
Much as consider women to have gained
by the position and opportunities secured to
them in America, l have yet to name an i'm
portant item which is both condition and a
mark of their improvement. This is the fact
of their ever increasing tendency to associated
action.
The social instinct is stronger in human
nature, but it does not attain its best results
without study and self discipline.
The women's clubs which are springing up
all over the country are marks of this study
and discipline. I know of many of them,
and do not know of one which does not
keep in view serious and worthy objects
The feeling of sisterhood which naturally
grows out of club intercourse among women
tends to put out of sight the inordinate am
billions of the few, and the self distressing
passivity of the many.
In the club it is soon found that one wo-
man cannot do everything. All must help,
and tasks are constantly found which give
scope to the activity of each and ALL A gen.
erous and far reaching sympathy tends more
and more to take the place of fantastic aims
and illusory relations
The women's clubs are, as see them, the
sign and seal of the advance of woman in
health, in sound life, and in rational enjoy
ment and service.-Julia Ward Howe in
Boston Globe
A Woman Who Was Cool.
We are reminded of an incident that came
to our knowledge some years ago which
should show women that presence of mind
and the power of self-control have a saving
power where impulse and lack of courage
would have been certain destruction. We