The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-01-08
The WOMEN.
What They Have Accomplished.
A GREAT SILENT REVOLUTION.

We quote the following from an ad-
dress, delivered in the congress hail. in
the Woman's Building at the Atlanta Ex-
position, by Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell,
OF Montana:
but Notwithstanding the united forces
of custom. prejudice. law and the love of
power, little by little. step by step, wO-
man has advanced upon the upward path
of light and learning. She has been
wounded and bruised in the struggle for
just principles, but though her bleeding
feet may mark the way, her eyes are i'm
movably fixed upon that star of her desti-
ny that ever points upward. ever rises to-
ward the meridian of equality.
According to monograph of the Unit
ed States census bureau, in 1870 there
were in the United States but seven wo
men stenographers, twenty-four women
dentists, thirty-five women journalists,
thirteen women craftsmen and inventors,
67 women preachers and 527
women physicians and surgeons. Twen
ty years later, in 1890, when the last CEN
sus was taken, there were in the United
States q, 1,185 women stenOgrapherS, 21
women architects, 337 women dentists,
SSS women journalists, III women sur
veyors and civil engineers, 306 women
craftsmen and inventors, 1895 women
preachers, 110 women lawyers and 4,555
women physicians and surgeons
Undoubtedly the number Of women in
the learned professions has increased
enormously during the past five years,
since the census was taken, and in the
various business walks of life the increase
in numbers has been in greater proper
ton.
THE limits of womans sphere are now
bounded by the dimensions of the earth
itself. She is engaged in almonst every
line of employment, and has made herself
prominent among architects, sculptors,
financiers, scholars, doctors, lawyers and
clergymen. In the language of a bright
woman journalist: She knows no
sphere so long as she is attending to her
business, whatever that may be-
The woman of today is practical and
self-reliant, and evidently intends to de-
velop in her chosen work as natural
and inheretn right. She has high ideals,
but is earnest, thoughtful, and through
her it does not require prophet to fore
see lasting benefits to humanity. AS it
has been truthfully said: The mother
is the level which measures the rate of
progress of the race. What men make
their mothers tOf1ay, they will make their
sons tomorrow. Let woman develop every
faculty she possesses, expand and grow in
the warm sunshine of freedom for her
efforts OF hand. heart and brain, and the
man CT the future from birth will be en-
dowed with a superior intellect living
patriotism, and all of those God-given
qualities that ennoble and make the per-
feet man.
During the past fifty years the great
est revolution of history has been quietly
going on, unnociced by some,
condemned by many. but which
has changed the status of womankind
more than it has been changed in the
years since the Phoen.cians invented the
alphabet. That which was believed i'm
possible, both by the ancient world and by
the fathers of the present century, has
come to pass. Women meet in conven-
tions, hold congresses, address the public
with forensic eloquence, practice the pro-
fessions, engage in business, enjoy the
right of suffrage in some states, and oc-
cupy sets in legislatures and national
political conventions; and yet women re-
mains as womanly as ever, possessing to
a full and high degree the lOvable quail
tiles and graces which ennobled and ele
waited the mothers of the past, notwith
standing the unfavorable conditions with
which they were environed.
A barrister riding his bicycle on
path was caught by a policeman. The
gentleman at once came off the path and
tried to reason with the policeman.
You aren't really going to run me in
for this?" he asked.
Yes, sir: can't help it,
"Well, come in here "a public house
close by, and we will talk about it,
The policeman followed the gentle
man. who ordered two glasses of beer,
one for himself. the other for the police
man, both of which were finished be-
fore he again remarked:
Surely you are not really going to
make a fuss about this?''
81 must, sir: it's my business"
"Ah, then at the same time it will be
my business to report you for drinking
beer while on duty
The policeman's expression suddenly
changed.
You're q lawyer, suppose, sir?"
eyes"
'And sharp one, too," he said, as ne
went out and left the gentleman to con-
tinue his ride.-London Tid-Bits.