The herald., 1895-05-28
The Effect of the New Woman
in San Francisco
CRIME YIELDS TO ALTRUISM
Interesting Features of the Recent
Woman's Congress
Utteranees of Susan Anthony, Anna Shaw
and Other Feminine Humans on
.a the Tyrant rian
Special Correspondence to The HernId:

wave OF crime an u SulclTe Wn1cn mas tel-
uged us for weeks and months past seems
to have subsidized before the triumr rhal
oncoming of the new woman. Golden
Gate hall with its ssating capacity OF 1909
proved totally inadequate for the needs of
the congress of 1885, though that OF last
year found the building amply sufficient.
From the opening session last Mond ay
morning the hall was packed. and be-
fore the hour for opening the evening
meetings the stream o. people pouring
toward the building was met by an
equal stream of people who were unable
to get in. Later the First Congrega-
tional church was generously placed at
the disposal of the congress and though
the number OF people unable to gain an
entrance seemed unabated, vast au
dince was accomm odated at all the ses-
sons.
All shades and breadths of opinions
have beeh tolerated, from the early fire.
brand which Saint Susan B. Anthony
threw into the convention to the conserv-
alive utterances of David Starr jordan.
"Any woman quoth Susan, (she is
'Susan" to all the great admiring sister
hood "any woman who has SO little
intelligence so little selt-rcspect as to
swear away the legal right to ownership
of her own body to surrepCec the legal
right to the earnings OF her own hands,
to enter into relation in which il child
rem are born to her she has no legal right
to their guardianship any Woman, | say.
who has so little self-respcrt as to do
that is unfit to teach any boy or girl any
thing"
This was the summing up of Miss An
thongs opinion upon tie subject OF child
culture. to which the congess gave its at
tention first of all AS all roads lead to
Rome. so all questions upon which the
uncomp promising Miss Anthony is asked
to speak. lead without ceremony or apol-
ogy to womans rights. No one laughs
sooner at this popularity than Susan her.
SELF who relates how Mrs. Stanton and
others, who have gone about with her,
have trembled before her readiness to
mount the platform to discuss matters
about which she had never heard nor
read. 81 have never been at Il loss, never
theless.' she continues, for something
to say
And if by any possible complication of
circum stances Miss Anthony should be
unable to talk. she has a lady by her side
who is perfectly com ietent 10 I'LL all de
tcencies. This is the Rev. Anna B.
Shaw of Massachusetts, who came to the
coast she says, to hold Susans bonnet.
and whom that lady, has been pleased to
introduce from the platform as IAN orth-
odox minister and my right bower.
Miss Shaw. is the most delightful
convincing. Only to listen to her won
derful voice is revelation as to the
future of oratory. She sweet full tunes
roll out and fill the building like the
notes of "a great organ. The cadences
seem to keep all that is best in woman d
voice and to add to that all that is COOS
in the tones called masculine.
Wednesday evening, when Miss Shaw
was assigned place to the German
pessimistic. philosopher. Schiller, from
whose arraignment of woman, President
Jordan had quoted literally she inquired:
What sort of son to what sort OF
mother could Scltopenhauer be?''
A lady in the audienc replied: "Scho-
fenhaur never spoke to his mother for
fifteen years. as President Jordan
stantly: What happy time for the
m otherW
A suffrage argument impossible to an
swer was administered to the unsuspect-
ing audience in most amusing account
o. the labors of several splnsters Of Massa-
chusetts to get a bill through the legsla-
ture of that state permitting the married
women to own their own clothes. I'VE
struggled for three years" said Miss
Shaw, land then came great day when
At last the married women of Massachu-
sstts dressed themselves in their own
clothes instead of their husbands. Think
of it"'
Another amusing story told of the strug-
gle ten years long for "a bill to bury
widows" ''It was accidentally discov-
ered." We are told. that all the widows
buried in the state had been buried il
legally. A widow held one third inter-
est in her husba nd S real estate during
life only. and she could not be bur led in
his cemetery lot legally unless she was
buried alive!'
household kitchen has been hot one
and an interesting feature of it was the
evident interest taken in the matter by
Tyrant Man.
Tyrant Man, by the way has been con-
slant attendant at the meetings and he
has stood for hours in the packed aisles
listening to the speakers as if his life de-
pended upon not missing a word. And
when radical reforms such as the abate-
ment of the sacred family wash-tub or the
reconsideration of the holy..pie crust have
been advocated Tyrant Man has ap-
plauded with gleam of hope in his eye.
Even the advanced opinion of Phoebe
Couzins, that men have already given con-
vincing proof of being divinely called to
be the cooks of the world. was laughingly
looked at each other doubtingly-th is
the unemancipated ones. VIII came only
to listen, and perhaps to scott.
1t is true that one misguided but
courageous man. Lee Fairchild by name,
did mount chair in the midst of the
OF the popular disapproval of the work
shop kitchen as feature of the modern
home. He asserted that it would degrade
the dishwashing industry to the level of
commerce to throw it out of the home,
and that commerce in San Francisco is a
failure.
IT gaze in admiration. ''said the gentle
man. lat the vender of shoe strings on
yonder corner. VINO is. I am reliably m
formed, one of the five successful mer-
chants in this city,
But Mr.. Fairchld's s defense of the time
honored family mop and dishcloth earned
nothing but Kisses, and he sat down in
esponse to noisy reminder that 'this
a ladies meeting
Charlotte Perkins Stetson's discussion
OF Art in Decoration was vary much
liked, and her humorous description of
what woman's hand has accomplished in
the way of decoration created laughter
Decoration. said she. means spe-
officially that which belongs. We should
not decorate construction, but construct
decoration. But woman seWs on pins
on, pastes on. nails on, ties on, to her
house. her furniture. her Clothes what
she believes to be decoration. and that
which does not belong"
Miss Tessa kelso's paper on The Place
OF til. Parent in Modern Education was
well received. 1t was set forth that the
students ofs pedagogical psychology
were teachers where they should be pa
rents. and schools for parents were de-