Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-01-25

| what made it worth their effort to clear
away forests. dig stumps, pile rocks shoot
| IIessians and duck meddlesome gentlemen
| from New York; What made life worth
| living in those inhosptabe regions, Why,
| the same thing which makes this dinner i'm
measurably superior TO any dinner of the New
England Society of Brooklyn. namely, the
| presence of Green Mountain girls. And again,
we must not forget that the women of Yer
mont ha We done what Burgoyne could not do
at bennington or Saratoga what Provost
and Downie could not do at Plattsburg, and
what Lee could not do at Gettysburg. they
have repeatedly whipped the Green Noun
tain boys And the superiority of these fair
conqucrors is evidenced by the kind of weap-
on with which they did it. If anything
could make one believe in the literal rcsur
rection of the body it would be the ministry
of mothers hand. There is nothing of
| fcnsive in the thought that hand which
had consumed its own beauty and strength
| in service for others ought to be made in
| corruptble and live forever. Fame and for
| tune await the person who shall write II
| book that shall do practical and poctcal
| justice to the women of Vermont. Accord
| ing to widely accepted doctrine the great
cities rule the nation and the political bosses
rule the cities According to another doc
trinc the influx of country life is the strength
and salvation of the city and the rural home
is the controlling force in country life. What
! comfort it would lay to our souls if we could
! only believe that the country home is II
| greater power than the city boss in shaping
the real deStinies of the nation. BE this as
it may, if any man will make list of the
| hundred greatest Americans selecting them
according to his own judgment. and will
| lp of hp
fore he reaches the end of the list he will he
thanking tod for the country home and for
woman. its guardian angel.
| | may be permitted to say that ] have
been under the uninterrupted influence of
| the Vermont schoOlma am since was five
| years old She taught inspired and chas-
tsed me in childhood Later | went coast
| ing, sleigh riding and skating with her,
| corted her to picnicS donation parties and
singing schools, aud climbed some of the
| Green Mountains with her. | had the honor
of being superintendent of schools in two
| Vermont towns, visited every school as often
as the law allowed and was paid by the State
| for those attentions to schoohna ans. Nor
| is that all: | had the good sense to WOO Il
Vermont schoolma am several years and the
good fortune to marry her at last, and have
been under her genial sway for lS summers
|
december is as pleasant a. May"
If any man is prepared to render Just
verdict upon the schoolma am | am, and |
pronounce her to be the handsomcst
| brightest wittiest. sauciest. wisest. iirmest
provokingest, bcwitChingest. kindest. purest
nobeSt gift ever bestowed uTon man. She
is not yet extinct am happy to say. EVo-
luton stands aghast when it encounters n
| Vermont sChOOlma am. II may be possible
TO evolve something better but the thing
has not yet been done. She is equal TO all
| labors and emergencies. She can board
around, and not only survive but grow in
grace every day. She can arise in the
morning in a room where the temperature
is 30 degrees below zero. If the best type
of Vermont women could be made universal
throughout the country, and perpetuated to
the end Of time, our future would be safe.
Anarchism would die, socialism would be
born again, and even the tariff would be
adjusted to the needs of the people rather
than of the politicians
We are happy in the faith that the women
of Vermont are holding their own. While
visiting the State last summer | remarked
to physician on the east side: The char
acter of the population is changing, | I'M
derstand. Quite a large foreign element
coming in is there not - ''Wcll, yes, " he
replied. some foreigners coming in. but
upon the whole tue character of the people is
improving. That puzzled me at first but
| after a month of observation | had read the
secret. While it is true that many of the
bright boys leave the State, most of the
girls stay That accounts for the fact that
Vermont can give to other States the cream
of their population without depicting the
energies of the home stock. Although a
pretty cheap fellow may come from Canada
or Massachusetts and marry Vermont
girl, the average of the new family is higher
than the family average of any other State
in the Union. The bride brings it up. She
brings the bridegroom up. too. She eXer-
ciseS over him an influence like that OF Loo
reno Dow upon a musician at country
dance. 1t appears that the eccentric preach
er had stopped for the night at rural
tavern where a dance was to be held. He
was invited TO participate and consented,
but just as the exercise was about to begin
begged the privilege of saying II few words,
told the company that it was his custom tC
begin all new undertakings with prayer,
dropped to his knees and began to pray.
After some general supplication for the
company he concentrated his attention upon
the fiddler He depicted that persons sir
and danger, and finally cried Convert
him, Lord, convert him or kill him Not
being prepared to die, the fiddler accepted
the other alternative.
Now. when Vermont damsel malries al
ordinary individual from some other region
she either converts him into n creditabl,
Nermontcr, ol'-the survival of the fittes
adds another person to the list of charming
widows The women of communicating
is too good good for them. They could safe
" be trusted with anything that man hold
dear even with the ballot. But of how
small importance is woman suffrage one wa,
or the other in comparison with woman
hood. To barter the bloom of the latter fo
the politics of the former would be ba'
aesthetics worse economics and more mis-
cradle bargain in every way than Yankee
have Vet made. But may dismiss al
fears on that score. Such bargain neve
will be made for the simple reason tina
American women never can be persuaded t,
cOnsumnate their part of il. They neeC
neither to be patronized nor regulated by
| men. The man who eNerts himself to keel