River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-02-26
TEnlPERHlGE.
The New Chivalry.
FRANCES E. WILLARD.


of the Old World and the New has
been often figured to my fancy by that
between the mystic, melancholy sun
sets behind Rome's sad Campagna,
and their brilliant pageantry as they
light up the west from the prairies of
my own Illinois. see what is noblest
in the manhood OF America rallying
like st. George of old, to fight the
Dragon, while firm and brave rings
Fair play for the weaker" in life's
solemn fight. Do you wonder If this
contrast set me thinking about the
New Worlds chivalryl or il, the more
studied the movements of this match
less age, the more clearly i saw that
it can give Roland for an Oliver, till
history calls off its last heroic names
The knights of the Old Chivalry
gave woman the empty husk of flat
terry; those of the New, offer instead,
the wholesome kernel of just criti-
cism; the Knights of the Old Chivalry
drank our health in flowing bumpers;
those of the New invite us to sit down
beside them at the banquet of truth.
"By my lady's bright eyes, was
the watchword of the Old; Fair play
for the weaker" is the manly war cry
of the Newl Talk about the Chivalry
of Ancient Days! Go to, ye medieval
ages, and learn what that word mean
ETH Behold the sunny afternoon of
this nineteenth century of grace,
wherein we have the spectacle, not of
lances tilted to defend the prestige of
my Gladys beauty" by staggering
knights who could not write their
names, but of the noblest men of the
worlds foremost race, placing upon
the brows of those most dear to them,
beneath the wreath of Venus, the he'll
met of Minerva, and leading into
broader paths of knowledge and
achievement, the fair divinities who
ONCl thCll bOhhOo'
No picture dawns upon me so reful-
gent as this Home that yet shall be
the gift OF this Better Age to the new
America, in which Mreefotd tie shall
bind the husband to his wife, the
father to his daughter, the mother to
her son. Religion and affection-as
heretofore in all true homes-shall
form two of the strands in this magic
threefold tie; the third this age is
weaving, and it is Intellectual synlPd-
thy, than which no purer OF more
enduring bond survived the curse of
Eden!
Whoever has not thought thus far,
has failed to fathom the profoundest
significance, or to rise to the height of
the noblest inspiration which our new
ideas of woman's privilege infallibly
involve.
Those far-off lands made me very
sad. had not known what wide
world it is. and how full of misery.
Walking in the market-place of proud
Berlin, where dogs and women were
fastened side by side to carts laden
with country merchandise; riding
along unfrequented Italian roads
where | encountered at one end of the
plow COW and woman yoked togeth-
er, while at the other end a man pre-
sided, whip in hand; or watching
from the car window as we whirled
along from Alexandria to Cairo,
women building railway embellishments
under the overseer's lash, how often
have tears blurred these grievous
scenes, as felt how helpless one frail
arm must be to right such wrongs.
Sometimes it seemed sweetly mysterl-
Gus to me, but / understand it now,
that always when my heart was
aching over the measureless woes of
women in almost every land beyond
the seas, voice would whisper to
me: mot to these, but to the dear
girls of your home shall you be sent,
and some day the broader channels of
their lives shall send streams of heal
ing even to these far-off shores"
Do not think my purpose idle, in
sketching somber scenes from lands
affair, or evoking in your hearing the
iangle of sweet bells, for the founda-
ton of the faith that is within me
rests on no theory of "rights" OF
'.wrongs," but is a plain deduction
from my contrast of woman's lot il
the Old World and the New. Shall we
not learn a lesson of unutterable graft
tude from this contrast of woman's
lot in the Old World and the New.
Shall we not learn lesson of unutter
able gratitude from this contrast of
our affiuent lives with those which,
under SUMMER skies than ours, and in
more genial climes, are yet SO shad-
owed and dwarfed! Thinking of them
and us, how often do murmur to my
self an adaptation of the Laureate's
noble lines that has sung itself out of
my own heart and brain:
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
Whose thralldom dates from days of yore;
Ring out false laws from shore 10 shore,
Ring in redress to all mankind
Ring out the contest of the twain
Whom thou for noblest love didst make;
Ring in the day that shall awake
Their lfe-hdrp to q sWeeter strdli'