The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-04
THE DorSGs OF WOMEN FOLK.
Who Go In for Reforms or Make
Pretty Things for the Holidays

Who Go in for Reforms or Make
Pretty Things for the Holidays
New YoRK, Nov AIRS. Lucy Stone,
TO whom some social courtesies have been
offered in Brooklyn within a few days,
makes the third Of the trio Of early woman
suffrage agltators Of which Susan B. An
tho ~ and Eizabsth Cidy Stanton are the
other two. A stranger would fnd that
Miss Anthony struck him as acute, Mrs.
Stanton as impressively dignif ID, and NJ rs
Stone as serenely motherly. Hardly ole Of
the woTnsn who have made their mark on
this generation has been other wise than
pleasant TO look on. Maria Mitchell was
Mary A Livermore has features
that are nobly modelled. Anne
Whitney might pose for one
Of her own statues, Marietua Holley is as
wholesome to the view as a rosy apple and
Lucy Stones face with TIE benigaant eyes
and the soft rose flush in her chez IS seems
eloquent Of peace and tenderness. Once
when she was lecturing in the west she sat
down to a rough miners table. won't
you pass the butter, mother" was the
spontaneous tribute of the flannel shirted
stranger at her side. OF all women who
appear in public Mrs. Stone cares least for
herself and most for her cause. Miss Will
lard acknowledges frankly ami honestly
that she rejoices to have made reputation,
but Mrs. Stone would hardly feel pang if,
in case woman suffrage were estab-
lished tomorrow, her name, though
she has devoted her energies
for forty-two years to bringing
about sucn a contamination, were never
heard of in its history. Even newspaper
people who come TO b. pretty well in
formed as to who does and who does not
nd
wi ABSOLUTE disinterestedless. 1t was in
1855 that she married Henry B. Blackwell,
and their marriage contract furnishes a
convenient gauge by which to measure the
changes in the legal position of women in
marriage during the last generation. Mr..
Blackwell by contract voluntarily relin-
pushed all rights that the statutes gave him
over the person and property of his wife,
and they both entered their protest ag inst
the laws which gave to the husband the
custody of the wife's person, the exclusive
control and guardianship of their children,
the sole ownership of her personal property
and use OF her real estate, unless especially
settled on her or placed, az in the hands of
minors, lunatics and idiots, in the hands of
trustees, and the absolute right to all her
earnings. They also protested against the
laws which gave the widower so niue
larger interest in the property OF his de-
ceased wife than the widow in that OF
the deceased husband, and the whole sys-
tenn which forbade a married woman to
make a will, to sue or to be sued in her
own name or to inherit property. What
ever may be the final outcome of the woma 4
suffragist's extreme demand, it is their agi-
tation which has in so many of the states
practically revolu tionized the position of
women, and not even Miss Anthony, who
is now marshaling her forces against South
Dakota, nor Mrs. Stanton, who yields the
influence of broad philosophy, has done
more to bring about this result than quiet,
persuasive, heart winning Lucy Stone
Mrs. Stone, by the way, has solved the
servant girl problem. Her secret is cour-
teSy and genuine respect shown toward the
woman who may be working ia her kitchen.
Once, l remember, on the morning after
one of Boston's anniversary week conven-
lions, the breakfast table at her pleasant
house in Dorchester was full. The servant
as she brought the steak to table looked a
little anxious aud worried over such flood of
company The int oductions OF guest to
guest we're just completed, when Mrs.
Stone continued: "Ald this, friends, is my
Mary, who has taken SO much pains for
our benefit this morning" Mary blushed
brightly at the kindly recognition, and
everybody present must have ceased to
wonder that Mrs. Stone was reputed a model
housekeeper. She got the best service be-
cause she got it from willing hands, Mrs.
Stones daughter, Alics Stone Blackwell,
now the Junior editor of her mothers
paper, The Womdn's Journal, has been
brought up in the family principles, which
however, put home duties before other ties
II should like, she said once to Alice, ito
see you in the House of Representatives,
but not if you left a baby or achild need
ing attention behind"
Miss Amelia B. Edwards, who is to give
her first lecture ia this country In Brooklyn
| nbxt week, Is about as distinguished a
| woman as Great Britain could send us, re-
| joiciog In the titles OF Phi. D. and L. t. D.
| She was one Of the delegates to the Con-
gress OF Orientalists in Stockholm this fall,
and is a member of about all the learned
societies that England keeps going. She
became known in The first place as a novel
ist, and few fiction writers have done such
conscientious, thorough-going work in the
| arrangement and elaboration of plots and
the picturing of scenes. As a literary work
man her strokes were we'll considered and
clean. From writing she began travelling
and visited nearly every section of the
globe, lingering longest and making most
| faithful study of tho ancient and modern
civilizations of the people who dwell beside
the Nile. The Egyptian Exploration So
| ciety enlisted her services, and she has
| made herself as an Psychologist probably
the peer of any authority living. Her
| favorite recreation is walking, and she is
planning tramp tours through many inter-
| esting sections of this country.
Miss Ida NJ. Street is the name of the
| young woman who has won the fell )wship
| offered by the collegiate alumne for
| advanced study in foreign universities by
graduates of colleges in the association likely
to do original work in science or literature.
George Eliot as a Representative of Her
| Times was the title of the thesis which
won Miss Street the plize. Mrs. C. Ladd
Franklin, the mathematical genius W o
won fello wship at Johns Hopkins, has
taken much interest in the project of the
college girls to support financially such of
their mates as might seem most likely to
disprove the assertion lat genuine research
and discovery is not TO be expected from
| women The Western Association OF Colleg-
| late Aumn9 united with the eastern holy
| of the same title at a meeting in Buffalo
week ago, so that now the graduates of all
| the most prominent colleges in the country
admitting women form the largest woman's
club in existence. Mrs. Cleveland, by the
way, refused to attend a meeting held in
Washington some time since because Wells
| College was not admitted to the association.
| 1t has been discovered that the pretty