St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-07-19
WOMAN AND INDEPENDENCE.

WOMAN AND INDEPENDENCE.
A Milwaukee paper of recent date
continued the following synopsis of
a paper read at a public gathering
there by Mrs. George H. Ide, who is
pleasantly remembered by many
persons in this section:
Mrs. Ide said, at the commence
ment of her paper: 1T is borne in
upon me most forcibly that, in brief
discussion, one can but wade on the
shore of this oceanic subject. Ocean
ic, because it bears on its crested
surface the whole human race, while
underneath are sharks, whales and
other spouting and rapacious fell
lows" Then she pictured the crea-
ton of woman, the equal of man, the
home in Eden and the exile. The
Edenic dream has dissolved and we
face the home of to-day, the selt-sup-
porting, self-reliant, independent
woman. And what is home? The
answer is found in this acrostic;
House is not the sacred refuge of life,
Or is house matter all in all:
Mind, soul, husband and wife
Embody refuge, since the fall.'
Mrs. Ide spoke of the homes made
by men and women working to-
gether-"Barak and Deborah, Aquila
and Priscilla, Ferdinand and Isa-
bella, Christopher and Felipa Col
umbus, George and Martha Wash
ington, John and Abigail Adams,
Robert and Elizabeth Browning,
Henry and Millicent Fawcett, Will
lam and Catherine Booth, Leon and
Madame Bertans. Rousseau says,
men will always be what women
make them He should have said
what women and men made
them as all women are daughters of
men, as we'll as mothers, wives and
sisters"
THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL.
In contradicting George Eber's
theory that the best motherly in
stincts came from overho wing love
and not from intelligence, she said:
IF Miss Bascom WISCONSIN women
are proud of her), who left John
Hopkins with honor, and Philippa
Fawcett, the young and famous
prize as senior Wrangler.' never
marry, they will still make home and
homes better by some practical ap-
plea ton of the onomic, ologies and
les of the dead and live languages
In these panicky times, when
hard problems in household econom-
les face both sexes, applied mathma-
tics are especially needed" In
speaking of race producing mo-
ther,' who died at the age Of AZ
literally tired out, having given birth
to twelve Children Mrs. Ide said:
"She was one of those mothers bur
led alive with exclusive attention to
children's physical wants. Her
daughter, left an orphan at 4, tells
me. L have wanted mother all my
life Orphaned, sinful and forlorn
humanity wants home. So there
must needs be altruistic and far
sighted motherliness.
The speaker instanced the woman,
Margaret OF New Orleans, who by
the exercise of her trade as baker,
earned 100000 which she bequeath-
ed the city for an orphan asylum
Elizabeth Peabody, with cher Amer
lean pioneer kindergarten ideas, and
Mother Bickerdyke, the army nurse,
and contrasted the effects of their
lives with that of the Exclusive mo-
Their, who walks in and out of her
exclusive home, rides in ner exclusive
coupe, entertains her exclusive lord
with her exclusive songs and toilets,
and children exclusively managed by
FL,
ticipates in the exclusive disdainful
dinner table talk on the growing in
dustrial independence of women"
COULD BE BRILLIANT IN BOTH.
Caroline Hershet, Mrs. Somerville
and George Eliot were mentioned as
illustrating the fact that women
could attain intellectual eminence
and yet remain good housekeepers
Ferrero's reasons for wishing wo-
men kept out Of the thinking, work
ing world were combated. In ans
wering the question How does the
entrance of women into the law and
the ministry affect the homer" Mrs.
Ide made the remark, which was
characterized as witty, that per
haps a woman, the same as a man,
finds it easier. to preach in the pulpit
than to practice in the home" Lat
er the lecturer said: Again you
suggest that political is fast follow
ing woman's Industrial independ-
ence. True, and it is around this
part of the oceanic subject that
whales spout the highest and sharks
snap their teeth the loudest, declar-
ing women who wish to be free to
vote, amazons, viragoes, home