The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-04-28
VICTORIA Woodruff IN LONDON.

The prejudice in favor of the stage
coach was SO deep-seated that the out.
cry against steam transportation could
scarcely have been overcome by any
thing less weighty than a locomotive in
motion. The man who sneered at the
electric telegraph and denounced it as
an impossibility still lives to see that il
has revolutionized the world.
In like manner the skeptics concern.
ing the telephone and the electric light
are now convinced. Even the younger
generation remember how at its incep-
ton the electric light was only a toy
possessing no other use than to amuse a
studious inventor; and row it is used all
over the civilized world as Familiarity as
was ever the candle or lamp, excelling
both as an artificial light, and possessing
none of the disadvantages of either.
In morals no such luminous progress
has been made, and these observations
are suggested by the perusal of a lecture
in London by the famous American
woman, Victoria Woodruff (now Mrs.
Martini. This lecture was entitled
1.-THE Human Body the Temple of God"
and was published in the London Citi-
zen, a copy Of which has reached this
office. in view Of the prosecutions
heaped upon Mrs. Woodruff in her own
country when she attempted to speak
plainly of the moral obliquity of this
age. the following comment of the editor
is decidedly interesting:
One woman's voice has set free 5000
tongues to talk of what their minds had
long been dwelling on. We have seen
Mrs. Victoria G. Woodruff and Miss
Tennie G. Claim (now Lady Cook in
their New World homes. We have seen
thsm as successful editors and bankers.
We saw them take up the cudgels on
behalf of their sex. We saw them re-
viled, arr rested, and imprisoned for ho.d-
ing up truth and exposing immortality.
Again we saw them-broken in health,
but strong and triumphant in conscious
rectitude-arrive upon our shores. We
watched them enter English homes,
and now we have seen an
English audience appreciative de-
delighted, and enthusiastic-burl back
American prejudice and persecution in
the warmth Of their approval and the
vehemence OF their applause. Theirs is
no light NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. 10y riches
nor power, neither by artiiice nor alche-
my-to cleanse our vast Augean stables.
but by fearless proclamation of the naked
truth to create a flood Of opinion which
Shall wipe out the ignorance and incon-
sistency Of the prejudices of today. Ours
is IA lighter task-williugly to acknow-
ledge the truth Of all that was spoken.
ana to conjure others to follow in their
train land learn the luxury Of doing
good"
OF the attendance at ST. james hall,
one oil the great auditoriums of },e Eng
fish metropolis, tho Citizen says.
The great meeting at st. James hall
on the oath ult. reopened a half-forgot
ten page of American history, the inter
est in which, however, was evidenced by
the closely packed attendance, and still
more so by the continual stream of car
returning with disappointed oc-
cupants who could not gain admission
lack of room. Women outnumbered
men, and the characteristics of the au-
d~lence-cold, curious, and critical-were
intensified by the arrangements, which
were frigid in their simplicity. No chair
man was provided; no reporters were ar
ranged for; not a supporter appeared on
the platform, where not even a seat was
to be seen.
In her earliest work Victoria Wood
hull held that men ought to be as care
of their morals as women. This has
popular ground now and all the
writer's of the day are defending
It. Some of the more advanced among
men have also taken up the cudgels
the old notion that it was quite
for young men to be libertlnes
With the possibility largely in favor of
continuing to be so after marriage.
In this London lecture Mrs. Woodruff
spoke very plainly on every question she
Speaking of marriage, she de-
weakly and ignorant, as we'll as
and improvident alliances. The
families of the cultured classes
we're compared with the rapid multiplied
ion of the unfit. which annually goes on
things which run to seed and null
iply in impoverished soil, filling asylums,
hospitals, and warehouses;, creating a
burden for healthy and provident tax
and gradually deteriorating the
ace. She said it should be a crime for
UGH people to marry, and a criminal
Iction on the part of d minister
o unite them with the church's
She implored the mothers
o rear their children on terms of the
confidence and intimacy, and
warned them that matters tabooed in
he sacred society of a mother are learnt
~ stealth and gloated over with I'M
'ealthy feelings of curiosity engendered
" secret communications of schoolfel-
ows or companions. She urged them
o teach the boys and girls as early as
PRACTICAL, all about themselves. Women,
8 architects of a nation, should not
ontentedly remain ignorant artists of
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