The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-06-25


to whom it may concern In the ma
jority of cases it does no good, but rather
Il harm.
Did you ever have Il teacher with an
armfull of testimonials from whole lot
of district, county and precinct oihcers
and ward politicians and teachers to aco
cost you for position? Did he get 1t!
How long did you need him?
"Why is it that we don't teach our pupils
especially that an honest, strong efficient
man carries with him in his eyes, in his
face, i'll his very walk all the RECON-
mendation he needs, and that it's an evil
dence of weakness to have to have anoth-
er's guarantee of ones right to his own
Just claims?
Now, it sometimes becomes necessary,
of course, to have reliable information
concerning persons we havenot seen. Can
not some means then be devised by which
Il teachers statement of character shall
anywhere and everywhere be taken at
par? If we'll all summon the courage
necessary to write the plain truth, and
nothing more; just what we know about
him, and only that, in concentrations,
will not this of itself bring about the de-
sired reformation? VIII not this restore
our deprecated certificates of character
to solid gold basis? Suppose we try it,,
The next paper was ''The Place OF
lHp SOlltSc Ill II SttIi u i<tu
cation" by Mrs. Ellen Richardson OF
Paris She was absent and the paper
was read by Mrs. Stoval.
Mrs. Richardson strongly advocates
the female college. separate and distinct.
Along this line she said
Just what the practical effects of
co-educatiOn and its root idea of equal
rights will be. it is, perhaps, too early to
state. Would it be quite fair to sug-
gest that the new woman of the comic
papers, with all her eccentricities clus-
Aphrodite, from this yeasty ferment of
thought? Is it positively wicked to in
sinuate that theories of equality must
| find their expression even in dress, and
that 'bloomers' are the sadly Intellectual
effort at equality in outward appear
ance? All this seems trivial until we
remember the blighting effect on woman
hood of the least suggestion of coarse
ness. Oliver Wendell Holmes advice
that on the slightest suspicion she be
| gently chloroformed into better
world would apply as well to this case
as 10 that which he mentions.
There can be no doubt that the de-
mand for female suffrage is logical re,
suit of the theory of equality. Identical
education presupposes identical powers.
identical needs, identical rights. To
withhold the suffrage under these condi-
tons is a gross injustice, and it is only
the eternal womanly' in woman that
makes her so generally Indifferent to
this claim. That universal suffrage will
be an unmiXed evil | dare not say. That
it will be an unmiXed good is a ground
less hope. The rush of an express train
is always an interesting spectacle.
though one would prefer to know that it
is not entering an open switch. Our
only refuge from anxiety in such case
lies in the thought that Il Power that
makes for righteousness holds the
throttle.
what did Thomas Jefferson mean
anyhow by his declaration that all men
are created equal?' Did he ever as he
sat studying the works of the French
encyclopedias, look out of his windows
ON his Virginia plantation? The obvious
| falsity of the statement prOvokes the
inquiry. That all men have like claims
on the divine love and pity no one cares
to deny. That the New Testament
teaches any other idea of equality than
this no one will dare to assert. The
startling precept whatsoever will be
chief among you, let him be your serv-
ant seems to have no reference to the
secular c, struggle for equal right, 1t
rather embodies the distinctvely Chris
tan idea, that most original, that most
divine idea: Not rights, but duties are
worth the thought of man. SO Jeffer-
sons 'inalenable right to life is met by
| the superb audacity of the declaration:
he that saveth his life shall lose it. and
the pursuit of happiness in the Jeffer-
sonian sense, receives little encourage
| ment from the beatitudes.''
She contended that morally and intel
| lectually woman is mans equal, and that
she does not occupy Il secondary place
| in Gods cosmos. Science" she says,
has come to the aid of Christianity in
| establishing her rightful claims. The
| Christianity of Christ would never have
! sary to the half pagan institutions which
we call our Christian civilization. This
Christian civilization still denies legal ex-
istence to the wife. still permits her to be
robbed of her poor earnings, still tears
| from the mother her young child. in the
| name Of lava crime, the most impious
| of those once ascribed to slavery These
things are excused on the ground that
| woman is the weaker vessel and in
stead OF being proundly and tenderly
shielded by the manhood that God has
honored with the care of her. she is
to be scorned and sighted by legal
| enactments."
| Her paper, very strong and inter
estng one. closes by saying, make the
female college what it ought to be- For
ever free it from the idle vanities and
trivial ambitions that have eaten into
its spiritual life. Make it the holy of
HOLES where the virgin soul expands to
meet its lofty destiny. Let it be worthy
that the angel of the annunciation should
descend among it's lily-crowned maidens.
| Make the woman's college what it
ought to be, and then there will issue
from it's portals women like those who
have in all ages guided and inspired hui /.
mainly. and who have been in almost
every instance the product of separate
education or of none at ALL They will
need no suffrage to give them the power
to mould affairs, they will make the
family and the social circle stronger than
caucuses and rings. They will be fitted
for usefulness in every field which God
sends them to cultivate. and they will
go in the spirit of Him who said: "The
Son of Man came not to be minstered
unto, but to minister"
The committee on the constitution re-
ported recommending that the trans
portation secretary, if possible, arrange
for the collection of the annual fee by
the railroad agents. also that the eXecu-
tive committee have authority, in case
OF an emergency, to change the time and
place of meeting; also that fees be 81
instead OF 80 cents as now.
State Superintendent Carlisle offered