The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-06
INFLUENCE OF WOMEN.
ON WIFE AND MOTHER RESTS MANS
RESPECT FOR WOMEN.

A Comprehensive and Interesting Leet.
ure on "women's Work for Women"
Value Of Home In . Busy Mans Life.
The Early Training of Children.
The New Haven papers give an extended
report of the visitation of the grand chap
lain OF the Daughters of the King, the Rev
Ralph W. Kenyon, Of st. AIMS church, OF
Brooklyn, to St. Paurs church, New Ha-
ven. Upward of 300 women. representing
the ten chapters OF the Daughters OF the
King in New Haven, " IRE assembled when
Mr.. Kenyon appeared
Rev. Mr.. Lines, rector OF St. PauFs,
opened the meeting and then introduced
the speaker, whose subject was "Women's
Work for Women" Among other things
Mr.. Kenyon said:
Allowing for local differences, conditions
are quite the same in this city as in that
from which have JUS come. What ap-
plies, therefore, to one may apply 10 the
other, and today my task, which is my
great pleasure, lies not alone in giving you
greeting. not alone in telling you Of the
warm bond of sympathy between the chap
tiers far away and your own warm hearted
selves and work, but in placing before you,
as well as can, one or two of the problems
which are forcing themselves into promi-
nence and which may be included in the
subject, "Women's work for women"
Somehow or other my attention has been
called to curious coincidence. More and
more frequently there has been pressed
upon our attention the growing laxity OF
integrity of family life. And the most famil-
lar way in which the subject is presented
is the woman who, with tear just ready to
start from quivering eyelid, asks, How
can keep my husband at home from the
clubi" ! am convinced that the answer,
"By making home attractive" in its usual
ly accepted sense is passing shallow.
THE HOME.
Home, understood as the four walls of .
house, as gathering place for friends, as
merely center Of diversion, is not sut1i-
cient; yet this is generally accepted. A
home is not home without the subtle in
fuence of womanly nature. The terms
are used advisedly-a womanly nature. The
club houses are attractive. as attractive as
any house can be made. They answer as a
gathering place for friends and they are
centers of diversion, and, besides, business
is sometimes done in them. A home must
be more than this. The influence Of the
womanly nature must be pervading.
Here, then, is our first great work for wo-
men. For the influence TO be felt must
emanate from the woman herself and then
to emanate it must be founded upon inner
ent character. In other words, the womanly
nature must be such that the man recog-
nizes at once it's power and reverences it.
Now, I am the last man to deny that
woman should have part in higher edu-
cation. am further still from saying that
she should not exercise the right of suff-
rage. l am furthest of all from saying
that she should not have full chance and
| right to make her living in any field of
honest industry; but, somehow, the coin
cidence enforces itself that with the prom
| inence of the the struggling
and assumption and crowding and pushing
of the women with the men has come the
| prominence of the club evil among men.
We are compelled to admit that rever-
| ence is not product of familiarity-that
the tendency of familiarity is to induce
| contempt. 1t is merely coincidence, but
| l ask you to think if the reverence which
/ men should feel for womanhood is en-
HANGED by seeing that womanhood indulg-
| ing in all the methods which men them
selves employ and for which oftimes men
despise themselves.
THE WORK.
This is our great theme, how to renew
the reverence of man for woman, and there
can be no better work done for woman than
this. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said
| that "the education of the child should be-
| gin one hundred years before he was born. +"
| OF course, with one hundred years ago we
have nothing to do, but we have vital
| responsibility for one hundred years hence,
and a more vital responsibility for twenty
wears hence. The child which today lies
| sleeping peacefully in his cradle twenty
wears from now will reverence or despise
woman.
| Which shall it be2 There is absolutely
no middle ground. The Jesuit who said,
Give me the child until he is seven years
old, then whoever will may have him to
educate" was largely right. The child be-
fore ne is seven has imbibed the principle
Of reverence or the principle of contempt,
and one day he will certainly show which.
| Therefore, you mothers, teach your boy
reverence. Always let him feel the sane
tity of your womanhood. Above all, he
thoughtful in little things.
Mothers, you must begin your work at
the cradle, and your work must be truth
full. If you teach your children as you
ought they will never cease TO regard
women as the hottest OF created beings, and
their home as the earthly shrine, second
| only to their church. To you, myyounger
sisters, l say, look well 10 the mothers OF
| the men who come TO your houses and
| whom you meet. See if the mothers have
taught these men reverence for woman
| hood, and, take my word for 1t, If they
| have not. if the men are not imbued with a
| high ideal, If they ever fail TO riDg per-
| fectly true in ali their mention of women,
| think not for single moment that your
| entire lives Will suffice TO change their ma
| lures.
That which mother taught or failed "a
teach no other woman need attempt. The
most loyal wife can only develop mans
nature-the seed time and planting are
gone forever Il passed away back there
| in the cradle, and the atmosphere OF the
nursery can never be brought around the
hardy tree Here, then, Is wonan's great
work for woman-a wgk that reaches into
/ the happiness, into the life, into the honor
| itself, OF womaDhood.
Africa Rxraged By smallpox