The San Francisco call., 1896-05-07
EVENING SESSION.
The Largest Assemblage of Women
Ever Seen in the History of
the Pacific Coast.

81 come to you tonight Victorious'
% This was the Rev. Anna Shaw's greeting
to the thousands who crowded every nook
and Granny of Native Sons Hall last night
at the evening session OF the woman's con-
gress.
Ladies' and gentlemen" continued
Miss Shaw-''or should say, gentlemen
and ladies, since that is the way in which
our chief, Miss Anthony, says ladies should
address mixed audience--the men OF
California have made US the happiest
women on earth. By indorsing woman
suffrage they have earned the gratitude OF
every true woman's heart"
Cheer after cheer greeted this announce
ment. Ladies of high social standing rose
to their feet and hurrahed themselves
hoarse, waving handkerchiefs the while,
until the hall seemed to have been in
vaded by huttering of snow-white doves,
but for the mighty volume of sound.
Never since the opening of the congress
have so many been turned away from the
hall on account of its being physically i'm
possible for them to effect an entrance.
According to the unanimous assertion of
the leading spirits OF the congress last
nights session was the largest gathering
of women ever seen on the Pacific Coast.
Woman as She Was and as She Isl
was the topic considered in the first paper,
".
with other good things he said:
A little over year ago few innocent remarks
of mine on the su biect of woman's present status
in society procuced quite a tempest in the teapot
OF the Women's Press Association
Somewhere-I cannot recall the publications.
have seen q suggestive caricature OF the woman OF
respects the opposite OF the woman of the past.
Her position and her relations 10 man are COM
feminine. She assumes the responsibilities of ife
he is the clinging creature who inspires sense Of
protection.
She determines the relations of society, the
weighty affairs Of State, the ponderous intricacies
OF business and economy, while he is reduced to
Lhe low status OF piece OF baggage-that differs
from other chattels only in the fact that IL will be
ditncult 70 raise mortgage upon him. Now, this
picture Is what Is commonly called caricature.
\ caricature is a reduction ad absurdum OF a large
number OF facts oddly put together but each of i'm
portance sufficient to cause speculation.
The new woman, as she is called, is caricatured
but there is no carcature ever conceived that is not
based upon some tacts that deserve and demand
treatment, and that in themselves, standing upon
the single merit of being facts indicate the neces-
And that is virtually the story of the new woman's
birth, The new woman is symptom of coming
Changes in society; he who disregards it is OBJ
livious to the After all she will be the mother
OF coming races and as such deserves the most
The main sentiment of woman'to-day is of dissat-
isfactlon. When cold history occupies the rostrun
and poetry and Imagination have adjourned the
while, it will be that the two conditions abso
lutte violated in ancient civilization. Equality
was the expression of manly courtesy, but at no
time fact. The woman was the domestic genius
the minister sacred priestess of the lares and
penates, the mother of men. to whom pertained
love and loyalty, respect and obedience. But she
was not strictly the equal of man. There must be
no disparity in the relations of man TO woman.
There must not be law for the one and license
with the other-a standard OF morality for man
and another for woman.
To-day the women speak out in meeting and
they telling the old story in new words. 1t is
the story Of inequality and violation of the law Of
mutually. Who can honestly say they are in the
wrong? Who dares to say that when sensible,
educated woman puts her wrongs II she nave any
In that light she is either crank or an anarchist?
Ihey are right enough, God knows. If there he
wrong in society it may be TO the interest of the
one sex TO peTpetuate 1t, but nowadays the other
need not remain silent on that account. And the
wrongs done to womanhood palpabe enough.
\ ou know with what easy confidence men JUS
tfy extra-matrimonal relations exacting from
women the most rigid unsullied purity OF act and
sentiment and thought. You know that men JUS
tify their seeking of social entertainment else
where, leaving the cares and burdens of the DO
mestic establishment TO their wives. You know
that men will gamble away the very substance of
their children without so much as afYording
against plunging headong into the pool
of speculation, You know that when q man
lavishes his gold upon woman he merely INDUCES
her. but in his heart of hearts he does not believe
her to be his equal in all things.
Women know this and they begin to clamor for
the equilibrium OF conditions. They are right,
new woman exists because man has not kept his
vows his pledges. his contracts
"The proper study of mankind is
womau," began Miss Elizabeth u. Yates
of Maine, who delivered the second ad.
dress, ready, exremporaneous effort, on
"Woman as She Is Said to Be-" She said
in part:
Poets, philosophers. sages, saints and prophets
have said and written much about women. The
much-marEied Solomon and the unmarried Paul