The record-union., 1895-05-23
THE woMEN's CONGRESS ON THE
HOME.

The ladies who are holding congress
in the city OF San Francisco. apparently
conscious that the strongest Indictment
brought against the new woman is that
she Is less domestic than her grand
mother, evidently concluded to hedge by
giving the home its earliest consideration.
The majority of the participants in the
discussion relating to the home were
either old maids or home wreckers. The
most exhaustive, profound and far-reach-
ing essays on the government, education
and rearing of children were written by
old maids, and careful reading of the
enlightenment they have kindly con-
ferred upon the world in this relation
leads one to reverently thank God that,
committed the rearing of children to
mothers who love them.
The climate of maternal affection has
uniformly been denounced by barren
women as unsuited to the rearing of chill
dren. The cold, loveless deductions, ap-
plicable only to the frigid atmosphere of
the orphan asylum or the county in
firmary, are the sentiments which meet
with applause in women's congresses.
The Indulgence of maternal affection is
forever under the condemnation of old
maids and old bachelors. In the econ
omy of His universe, God has ordained,
In the kindness of His Providence. that
in it's infancy the human family shall
know the indulgence of mothers love
In its training and direction. The AL
mighty himself has decreed that in the
natural order the human family shall pass
its infancy in the indulgent atmosphere of
blind but loving partiality. A mothers
love may be inconsistent with methodical
discipline, but again we reverently thank
God that the rearing of children is COM
mitted to mothers who love them. The
love of a mother may modify the rigor of
her discipline; it may withhold needed
rebuke Or chastisement; it may be patient
with infantile waywardness; it may be
long suffering as to childish willfulness;
it may be lndulgent with youthful in
dolence; it may be devoid Of all severity
OF discipline and yet a mothers love IS
worth more in the formation of human
character than all the mathematical,
methodicsl theories ever generated in the
mind of woman's sterility.
An essay proceeding from an old maid
school teacher, or an old bachelor educa-
tor, on the subject of 1.-THE Home in
Education" may be plausible, and from
its purely intellectual standpoint its
fallacy may be unaswerable. But home
of love is the natural climate of the in
fants of our race, and if such a home is
mistake. we are glad to know it is Gods
mistake.
There are elements of human character
which lie dormant until they are brought
into being by the consciousness of pa
rentage. No old maid is perfect
woman, since maternity alone can per-
feet the female character. The nature of
this perfection is undefnable. 1t is like
''ths peace which passeth understand
ingp; it is a sentiment of the mind, an
emotion of the heart, an attribute of the
character which does not yield to intel
lectual analysis. This is what the
apostle meant when he used that i'm
mortal, far-reaching expression. Every
germ of life in the physical world is sur
rounded by an assimilable nutriment,
upon which 1t lives, until the plant has
growth to take its sustenance from the
ground and the air; and the nutrim ent
which the All Father hath prepared for
the infantile mind is paternal love- This
is a world into which the childless woman
has no capacity for entrance. She has no
ticket of admission. It is a climate of
which she can have no personal expert
ence, and it is, in short, an element of
life comprehended by experience alone.
The divine wisdom of the mother which
comes to her with the full rounded ma
turity of nature, due alone to maternity,
makes foolish all the assumed wisdom Of
the childless woman.
The congress wrestled valiantly with
the sacred subject of the home, but un
fortunately 1t committed the most i'm
portant considerations relating to this
great subject to the hands of old maids
and home-wreckers. Against the dis
subjects we enter no protests. In fact, as
to anything woman wishes TO do in an
individual or associated relation we offer
no objection whatever. The time has
come-is here now-when the best minds
among men and women have ceased to
discuss the woman question as a Ques-
tion separate and apart from subjects re-
lating to our common humanity. All
such congresses and all such discussions
tend only to emphasize the division of
the human race on the alie enment of sex.
Sensible people simply close their ears to
learned disquisitions on Woman in
journalism" j" woman in Art, Woman
in Commerce" They prefer that broader
humanity inieverything which knows no
sex.
The presiding deity of the congress in
San Francisco is Susan B. Anthony. She
is serviceable as affording a fixed and
immovable monument, by which it is