The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-26
THE REAL NEW WOMAN,
Miriam Nicholson Likens Her to
a Pleasant Dream, Not
Nightmare

l went to the Woman's Congress expect
ing to be bored. From what I had heard
and seen OF the new woman | had come to
the conclusion that new womanhood was
in so crude a condition that its friends
would only be panied by its premature ex-
hibition. | anticipated hearing women
make fools" of themselves. I expected
to have my sympathies alienated by hard
faced, hard-voiced, soft-headed women,
whose only excuse for addressing an
audience is the possession of a tongue and
quantities of assurance. l expected to be
repealed by the undignifed effort woman
must make to be heard in large hall and
1 imagined myself straining to catch the
speakers words only to find that they were
not worth listening to.
l wasn't wholly disappointed. The
women whose names are a pestilence flag
to warn healthy minded people to stay
away and whose presence insures the alb
sence of men and women of brains were
there. But, after all, the close of the con-
gress finds me with greater respect for
women's abilities, and consequently in a
more hopeful frame of mind as to woman
suffrage and the effect it will have upon
women.
Judged solely by comparison with any
similar association OF men, the Woman's
Congress has been, on the whole, worthy,
interesting, creditable session.
have seen Miss Shaw set her teeth and
hide her open, expressive face behind her
programme so that the audience should
not see her impatient scorn for some
mindless, meddling woman, with neither
good taste nor common sense enough 10
know that she was offending, Just as
have seen politician of tact and brains
writhe under the sense of good work un-
done by the male blunderers and knayes
and fools.
There have been sessions of the congress
when the great crowd at the church sat or
stood and listened to papers and addresses
which were uninteresting, badly delivered
and altogether purposeless; when the
meeting became a dreary kind of com
mencement day exercises with the only
redeeming feature-the youth and beauty
and grace of the graduates-left out But
there have been many sessions when
women of brains and heart and sense have
talked logically, honestly, excellently upon
subjects of wide range and universal in
terest.
business-like way. A little more expert
ence and less consideration will be neces-
sary, however, before the bores and the
busy-bodies can be made to realize their
insignificance. A curious feature has been
the persistence with which women cling to
the idea that poetry is always welcome
Many of them begin their discussions
with II want to say" and conclude. or
hope to conclude, with an appropriate
verse. But the president, with Iaudable
insensibility to the flowers of speech, has
often spared the audience and economical
time. The discussions, however, have
shown degree of practical knowledge, a
widespread interest and an enthusiasm
which are significant of the change in
women. Many of the women in the audi
ence spoke ungrammatically, some of
them betrayed an hysterical inclination to
preach, some of them made short speeches,
remarkable only in being utterly foreign to
the topic under discussion; but the general
effect was to disclose a common sense
point of view, thoroughness of practice
and a surprising activity in affairs.
The temperance of the superannuated,
out-of-date woman suffragists has been
both pathetic and ridiculous. These
women have been galvanized back into
public life by the approaching triumph OF
the cause, the advocacy of which formerly