The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-06-13

ments are the asylums for the insane.
which through her immediate efforts.
were established in many states, among
others in North Carolina. Her labors
were not limited to America, for she
personally appeared before many of the
legislatures and potentates- of Europe
and secured reforms which have placed
her in the front rank of the worlds ben
efactors.
Did time allow, should like to tell
you of Ellice Hopkins, woman of high
social position, wealth, education and
refinement who found happiness in car
rying sunshine to the homes of the Door
and, by conversations and lectures, lifted
them to a higher moral, social and intel
lectual plane. Let me hope, however,
that the inspiration that comes from the
study of such lives as these, will infiu-
ence. the currents of your own
1t is Trowbridge, | believe, who says:
Women can do with us what they will"
This being true, what pity it is their
of Lucretio Borgias and Catherine de
Medicis. ''The tide of action in the
later years. says George Mcdonald.
g flows more swiftly in the hearts OF
women, whence has resulted so much
that is nobler, so much that is paltrv,
according to the heart in which it swells.''
Heed the lesson: your Influences is either
tor good or for evil-it is never negative.
trust that my object in thus calling
attention to women in history has been
realized. The examples cited, prove that
Notwithstanding checks and hindrances
she has demonstrated by success her abil-
lty to succeed in every sphere of life.
The checks and hindrances are being
removed slowly in the South, it is true,
but we must remember that as reforms
are not born in day, neither are they
accomplished in day. The educational
history of New England is a source of
national pride but even in that of our
union, it was not until recent years that
provision was made for the higher edu-
cation of women. When Harvard was
founded in 1886, there was a law in Mas
sachusetts that girls should be taught to
spin and gather fax-such schooling is
very necessary, but it does not compen-
safe for intellectual training, and had
Massachusetts made no further provision
for female education, she would never
have occupied in history the honorable
place she does to-day. You will be sur
college in the Eastern States was estab-
lished in 1865, but now that the north is
awake to the importance of the higher
education of women, she is giving the
South an example worthy of emulation.
In recent address, the President of
a New England College stated truth,
the Importance of which | would that
every citizen of our State and Nation
might realize. The education of
women,'' said he, ''is just as important as
that of men, In fact the nation is rust
what the women make it. Every man
is born of woman and up to the age of
seven is almost exclusively under the
control of woman. For the next seven
years, too, he is but little less under her
control; and by the age of fourteen the
character is essentially, in most cases
formed. To woman, therefore. is COM
mitted the moulding of characters and
the safety and perpetuity of the nation
depend upon her and her education.''
Not only in this, but in other countries,
the necessity for the higher female edu-
cation is being realized. Norway, Sweden,
Denmark and Switzerland have opened
to them their universities. In Great
Britain they are received at the universe
ties of London, Edinburg, Cambridge
and Oxford. In America Harvard re-
ceives them in an Annex. through a side
Boston Universities, at the State Uni
Vermont, and at many Eastern and
Western Colleges, they are accorded
equal privileges with men. When it is
remembered that fully thrce-fourths of
the teachers of the United States are
women, the necessity for their higher
education can be understood for how
can they teach properly useless they
themselves, have been thoroughly in
structed.
The old plea that women cannot
maintain themselves in intellectual COM
petition with men has been demon
strated to be false. Some of the foremost
American scholars and thinkers, among
others, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John G..
Whittier, Wendell Phillips and George
w. Curtis, have recognized womans in
tellectual equality. But the best proof
If their ability is the record they have
made and are making for themselves in
the civil service of England and America,
n various businesses and professions,
md in the colleges and universities. At
Cambridge and Oxford, they have re-
Gently won the highest honors in Ian
-uages and mathematics, and Professor
I4aughlin, of Harvard, is authority for
the statement that the ladies of the
Annex take higher marks in Political
L onomy than do the men of the Uni
versity on identically the same course.
1t IS worthy of mention that some of the
most difficult calculations required in
the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge
were made by Mrs. Roebling. l cite
these facts only to show that ambitious
women need not let their ardor be
chilled by the fear that their best efforts
will still find them far behind the men
in the intellectual race.
| remarked while ago that it is the
crowning glory of our age that it is the
| first to endow women with the oppor-
| tunity of thorough and liberal educa,
| ton. From history | have endeavored
| to show that she has demonstrated hel
| fitness to be regarded as mans equal
| and as in every way worthy of this edu
| cation. But do not understand me to
say that woman was created to usurI
mans place in the universe, nor was
| she placed here to do mans work. In
| order to attain the highest civilization
| it is necessary that there should be per
| feet harmony and cooperation between
! the seXes-as man progresses woman
| should progress as woman progresses
man will progress. Nor does it follow
| from this that woman should enter the
| political arena. l agree with the writer
who says, "Women should not attempt
to influence politics in any other way
| than in which they influence war-name
| ly by the potent influence which they
exert over the minds and hearts of men,
But that civilization is most advanced
where woman is more enlightened, ano
it is strange we should have been SO long
/ paxoour,izinn ho fr,1f1, For N, of I,
ods have been devised to awaken anC
j l.oo dor, ,,,a.,:e ;nfolloot,,al .,at,,,.1, h.,