Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-02-26
NATIONAL COUNCIL.
Triennial Meeting of the Woman's
National Council
FRANCES B. WILLARD'S ADDRESS.
Remarkable Words From the President OF
the New Movement-Parneu Roasted
Spinner and Catherine Drexel Praised
Cleveland Criticised.

Albagh's Grand opera house this morn
ing. The decorations which were used
last night on the occasion of the memo
rial services of the Military Order of
Washington were left untouched and
the body of the theater was crowded
with intellectual women, with a fair
sprinkling of men, while on the stage
were seated the delegates, many Of
whom were the most conspicuous fig
ures in the woman world.
The meeting was opened with prayer
by Rev. Mary B. Hit, after which the
delegates were introduced by President
Frances E. Willard, who delivered a
long and most interesting address,
which was frequently interrupted by
storms of applause.
In opening her address Miss Willard
said she held with the president of the
previous council that "a difference of
opinion on one question must not pre-
vent US from working unitedly for those
on which we can agree. To lift woman
up from sexhood to womanhood and to
do this for humanity's sake is our prob
lem. But it has taken women of brains
and purpose more than forty years to
find out this simple fact-to learn that
they must agree to disagree on many
things in order that to the greatest
number the greatest good might be at
tanned"
She distinctly disavowed any banding
together of women as malcontents or
hostiles toward the correlated other
half of the human race. She said she
IL l,,4 al ehA,,11
lie a miniature council in every town
and city, confederating these in every
state and instructing the state council
to send delegates to the national coun-
Gil. Were there such a council of
women in town and city, state and na-
ton, the women should have their rep
resentatives constantly at the state and
national capitals and should ask united
ly for advantages that have heretofore
been asked for only by separate socie-
ties.
Miss Willard said: 1--WE have long met
to read essays, make speeches and pre-
pare petitions; let us hereafter meet in
this great council to legislate for wom-
anhood, for childhood and for the home.
Men have told US solemnly, have told
US often and in good faith, no doubt,
that they would grant whatever the
women of the nation asked. Our time
to ask unitedly has waited long, but it
is here at last
Speaking of woman individually, Miss
Willard paid high compliment to Miss
Kate Drexel, of whom she said: Let the
Catholic Catherine Drexel speak, who
4a1 ha,-aa11 1r-
solemn vows to the exclusive service of
the Indian and the negro, devoting her
fortune of $1,000, 900 to their religious,
intellectual and social elevation. As
true priestess as walks is such
woman in this mammon loving age"
On the subject of social purity, Miss
Willard spoke at length with especial
reference to the recent Parnell-0'Shea
Scandal She said:
1.-THE chief significance Of Parnell's
present discrowned estate has been but
little emphasized as yet in public minds,
but to my thinking the woman ques
ton has had no triumph as signal in
our generation. AS a hero Parnel
stood for what the world knew
Of him in his relations to the
world, but as a man, IN his rela-
tions to women, he was altogether
o different personality, with whom
the public had nothing whatever to
do, and, no matter how basely he might
conduct himself, 1t was no concern Of
theirs, because of the estimate of woman
was so much beneath that which she
now held. She was but an adjunct Of
s,,o- o,1 an11a5 I,rzr ~ he or,.ao tact
men a necessary evil So it has been
women, good, gifted, undaunted, have
added themselves by Thousands and
tens of thousands in the home, school,
the church, the state, to the popular
conception of womanhood, 80 that
when Parnell, great hero that he
is, ruins one woman and de-
spoils one home, his features as hero
are so blurred and distorted to the eye
of nations that he must step down and
out. Nor would I in the least forget
that Mrs. O'Shea has blurred, so far as
her poor little individuality could, the
composite photograph of womankind.
But, then, there has not been one word
spoken in her favor. She was nothing
to anybody but Captain o'Shea and the
once great Irish hero. Her penalty Is
heavy enough in the nature Of the case.
"But God be thanked that we live in
an age when men as class have arisen
to such an appreciation Of woman as
GLASS that the mighty tide of their pub
lie sentiment will drown out any mans
reputation who Is false to woman and
the home. And this which Is true now
in large degree throughout the world
will be a thousand times more true in a
century from now."
Miss Willard paid compliment to
Gen. Spinner who, she said, just thirty
years ago proposed the admission Of
women to employment in the United
States treasury department She criti-
cised the present style of dress worn by
women, maintaining that it prevented
physical development Woman" she
said, sis a creature born to the beauty
and freedom of Diana, but
she is swathed in skirts, splin-
tered by her stays, bandagsd by her
tight waist and pinioned by her sleeves
until-alas, that she should live to see
it-a trussed turkey or spitted goose
are her most appropriate emblems-"
She criticised ex-President Cleveland
for the use Of the word '4emals" by
him in a recent speech, as being obnox-
ious to women, who she said were
women and wished to be designated as
such.
Al Strain, q well known Atehison
Young man. was killed by a freight