The Portland daily press., 1893-01-12
WORK OF WOMEN.
They Will Be First in Readiness for the
Opening of the Worlds Fair.
TSpecial Correspondence1
OLIVE HARPER.

| Opening of the Worlds Fair.
Especial Correspondence
| CHICAGO, Jan. 5.-The women man
ayers of the Worlds fair still hold un
disputed sway in the big Rand cNally
building on Adams street. Many Of the
other important departments controlled
| by the dominant sex have been removed
to jackson park, and during the zero
weather that has been prevailing Of late
Director General George R. Davis, Pro.
I moter Moses P. Handy, Chief of Con.
struction Daniel Fl. Durham and others
of the heads of departments, with the
rank and file of the army of attaches
that are subject to their direction and
control, have found it necessary to put
on an extra comforter, equip themselves
with ear muffs and respirators and give
the collars of their overcoats pull up
ward about their necks before starting
for Jackson park, where, unobstructed
by the labyrinth of skyscraping build
ings that help to protect the pedestrians
in the center of the city, the chilling
blasts from the northern peninsula, rush
ing down Lake Michigan, strike land
just thereabouts and are free to carom
around at their own sweet will.
And so it is that with headquarters in
the center of the city, with steam heat,
electric lights and a restaurant on the
floor below, and all the other adjuncts of
modern Office building, the ladies-or
rather, as they prefer to call themselves,
the women-of the Worlds fair are en-
joying just now something of a more
comfortable time of it than their male
associates. And here they will continue
to hold court until the frost and the
snow have given way before the balmy
winds of gentle spring and the ice has
disappeared from the placid bosom of
Lake Michigan. Then the ladies will
make dicker with the captain Of one of
the numerous boats that will be plying
between the Lake park and the White
City, and their morning and evening
trips upon the water, to the tuneful mu-
sic Of the lutte, and the harp, and maybe
a piano, if room can be found for one in
the cabin, will tinge the daily coming
and going with the fragrance of a ro-
nance on the Venetian canals. Fortu-
nate indeed will be those of the mascu-
line gender, should there be any, that
are privileged to accompany them.
And a busy hive of women it Isl We
are rapidly drifting away from the fos-
SLICED idea that women are not fitted for
any part or parcel Of business affairs;
that they are of the household, and that
their place should be in the household. If
only the scenes and doings day by day of
the suite of Offices within which the bust
ness of this department. is conducted could
be uncovered and held up before the gaze
Of the civilized world the drifting would
be still more rapid.
The national legislature made no mis-
take when it endowed the women with
supreme authority to manage their own
affairs, and the women propose to vindi-
cate the confidence that was thus reposed
in them and to justify the most signal
recognition of their sex that has yet been
given by any nation or people. Just as
the Woman's building was the first of
all the structures at the White City to
receive its roof and to be prepared for
it's contents, so the women will be the
first in the van in all the detail and ram
iications of the receiving and installing
of exhibits and the first to announce
that, so far as they are concerned, every
thing is in decency and good order for
that bright May morning when Grover
Cleveland, by the grace of God, will
touch the electric button, the wheels of
the machinery will begin to revolve. and
the Columbian exposition will have
passed through all its preparatory stages
into fixed and actual existence.
The women Of nearly every state and
territory in the Union and of nearly
every foreign monarchy and republic
are in constant communication with this
unobtrusive department. = unobtrusive
because it is doing great work and
making little noise about it. 1t has only
three rooms, furnished with nine desks,
presided over by nine women from as
many states, but it is the center around
which is just now revolving the patriotic
impulses of the women of many lands.
Here in the daily mails come reports
from American queens and foreign
queens-queens of the republic and
queens of nations by virtue, of their
royal lineage. Every envelope has it's
story of success; every visitor-and Sec
rotary Susan G. Cooke is sometimes
called upon to give audience to hundreds
Of them in a single days brimful Of
enthusiasm.
Around the secretary's den are ar
ranged over two score specimens of the
most artistic carvings in wood that per
haps have ever been gathered together
Each one represents commonwealth
each it's respective forestry, each is the
handiwork of a woman. One that at
tracts the most attention testifes to the
genius of girl who is hardly yet out of
short skirts. These are to form the
wainscoting of the assembly room Of the
Womans building, and no matter how
numerous or valuable or ingenious the
collective exhibits on the floor below
the American woman will be able to
point to the wainscoting above and to
say to her foreign sisters with exulta-