The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-12-11
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
FUTURE OF AMERICAN WOMEN.

LIN WUMAN y DEf1ALr.
FUTURE or AMERICAN WOMEN.
The Grand Probabilities That Are Opening
Up fLr women of the Present Day
Whatever demand for prophecy - to
woman's future the past may have held,
to-day has small need Of it and to-mor-
row will have less For al women, the
world over, life holds promise unknown
70 any generation, and the twentieth
century. whose dimly rounded sphere
even now moves on toward the fullness
OF light carries with it the hope and
fulnllment OF all dreams OF the past
Here Is q certainty. yet the student OF
human life, To whom at moments
thousand years seem but . day, in any
backward look finds a day - thousand
years. and marvels. not SO much at tho
dragging pace IS 1t any pace at All.
For IL real search begins, and this past
Is weighed and measured; il the true
story Of human struggle Is told. with
the slow unfolding and evolution Of the
human soul, there il always the sense
OF Q miracle. and the acceptance OF all
tho ages Is the necessity for . growth.
in which the century counts hardly
more than the moment Of to-day.
With this evolution We have naught
to do, save as thought must for an in.
slant return to 1t before any present es-
innate becomes possible. 1t IL the
American woman's background that con-
Germs uA 1t 10 her past that 10 founda-
tion for the future on the way.
The English woman OF that seven
teenth century in which the story Of the
Republic begins was > composite pro-
duction. Anglo-Saxon and Norman
traits still battled together for suprem-
acy, though Puritanism had taken both
in charge, and hidden nature behind .
mask OF its own. The transfer to Amer.
ican soil simply shifted tho scenes, but
for long, made no alteration In facts.
From the beginning Of American life.
two distinct types were always hers.
The Puritan led-the Puritan In whom
every impulse had been repressed and
schooled; whose sense Of beauty in art
and literature had been stiiled or rooted
ont - the work Of the enemy Of souls
himself, and whose life was bounded by
duty. with small margin for human loso
or human desire. Painful. minute OBJ
servance; rigid obedience to law; un-
swerving fidelity to . principle, was the
life Of our New England fore-mothers,
who spun and wove, and cared for their
households with zeal which knew no
Tagging, and had few ambitions be-
yond.
Ono, was common to man and woman
alike. The colony which before the
tree-stumps were brown in its fields had
founded college regarded learning - >
prize second only to godliness, and the
New England mother. as she rocked the
cradle, saw already the gown and bands.
which meant the highest attainment
| mortal could know. Tho voice of ono
mother has come down to us in IN old
chronicle OF those early days: Child.
| II God make thee good Christian and .
good scholar. thou hast all that thy
mother ever asked for thee
This was the Puritan woman, narrow
Ing year BY year. and year by year more
incapable Of comprchending that on the
same continent. under tho Same sky,
breathing the samo Air, tbs cavalier on
Virginia soil had sought and found
| equal rights. For them faith in beauty
and JOY. and the delight of living had
never been cu"nched. and their women
shiyered as they thought Of the North.
and the lives as barren as the New Eng.
land hill-sides. and counted their own.
ers IN alien people.
Farther south, tho Spaniard and the
Frenchman had already set their seal
and dark-eyed. soft-voiced crcOlos added
another type to the sharply y-defined onee
already in possession.
/ So the years went on, and - the Sax
/ on love OF dominion and possession
drove its owners always before it, I'D
vance guards from South and North mel
in tho West the angles OF the last soft
cned by the curves Of the frst, till ,
new people, bearing tho traits Of both
had sprung up and lived life frecr thar
had been possible to either. Invention
fertility OF resource. adaptiveness :.
conditions, and always the outreach 70
something better. had added themselves
70 the sturdy English qualities. Climatt
and condition worked together. Tha
subtle added drop Of nervous fluid
stirred in American blood and sharpen
ed American perception; tinged In tn.
child. and urged the mother to eve
more strenuous effort to give It tn
'chance' often denied herself.
These were the forces slowly prepal
ing for the work to come, but uncon
scious of its nature or need. Old tradi
tions were strong and still held tho eye
from seeing. Women were counted tn
natural enemies OF women. 1t was d
lied that they could ever work Il
gether; certainly nevcr in wider sphoY
than that offered by the sewing-circle Z
the missionary society. Women then
selves repeated the old formula, IN
eyed suspiciously the few who affirme
that such faith was part Of the old bont
age. and that larger life WAS on th
way. Fight 10 they might, It was .
ready here. A thousand forces unknow
to the Old World work in the New.
the sharp struggle with hard condition
grosser forms fell away. and the ne
ideal showed it, true shape Dominate
as it might be by partisanship and :
lower passions OF political life. Il
i / tuOukuV Vu0t u0U ul0UC SuC AACPuOA
lived and strengthened. and wome
breathed it hrst insensibly, then vii
yearning to make 1t consciously u
actively their own
For any struggle toward somethil
higher 10 always the full proportion
error, blunder. stupidity and temporal
failure which makes up human life.
is within compass Of hardly moro tn,
fifty years that al tho new forms aI
necessities for woman's work have
fined themselves 1t il not : generate,
since trades Of all orders became open
women, and far less than this befo
this could be said to be true for all wi
sought The higher education is OF
. day. The flood OF new life has pour,
in silently; so silently that many Ph
. istine still believes 1t can be fore
backward. and clamors for = return
old methods and the good old times.
surface holds froth and foam and dri
wood, and navigation Is often unccrtai
but underneath al commotion Is I
deep sea whose depths We have but
gan to sound. and whose treasures =