The Portland daily press., 1897-11-23
EVENING SESSION.

The evening meeting of the Women's
Council was opened by trio, Lift
Thine Eyes, by Mrs. Payson, Miss King
and Miss Foster. followed by reading
from Scripture and prayer by Mrs. W. S.
Fem.
The ladies gave another delightful trio,
an Ave Maria, by Marchetti, which gave
great pleasure to the audience.
Mrs. Hunt introducing the speaker Of
the evening, Mrs Isabella G. Davis, re-
ferred also to the presence of Mrs. L. M.
N. Stevens, and Mrs. H. j. Bailey,
and said that the person.
al work which each had accomplished,
was sufficient guarantee of the success
of the united effort. Mrs. Davis said
she was very glad to meet the women of
Maine, in connection with this uplifting
| work, and in quoting from DIR. Strong's
book, emphasized the fact that at present
we were living in one of the greatest
centuries of the world, and therefore the
responsibilities were in accordance.
The question of these responsibilities,
the women of this day are trying to meet.
and to do this we must be intelligent
and not think that our duty stops at the
| four walls of home for the kinship of
the race Is one of the great moving pow
ers of our day. This power of kinship is
such binding power now between Cana
ian and American women that there
could never be any serious difficulty be-
tween the two nations. 'We, the women
of the United States, sincerely believing
that the best good of our homes and ma
ton will be our own greater unity of
thought, sympathy and purpose, and that
an organized movement of women will
best conserve the highest good of the
family and the state, do hereby band our
selves together to further the application
of the golden rule to society, custom and
law is the preamble of the constitution
which shows the breadth Of the idea for
which the work stands. A Maine minis
ter spoke ola certain organization as The
church in action" and SO might the
Women's Council be regarded.
Mrs. Davis spoke of the wonderful force
of the women in the National Council,
that its president was the head of the
largest association of women in the
world. The spirit of cooperation is SO
broadening, because in the council they
take time to find out what other societies
are doing andsdo. not work In their own
circle exclusively. The speaker dwell
upon the wonderful meeting of the Trien-
NAL at Washington, when all societies
met, Jewish and Christian, and the spirit
of kinship grew. This does not mean
lack of loyaltytto our own society, but it
does mean that the age of liberation has
come 1t means that the age of hospi-
| tality has dawned, and it means that we
are willing to receive and listen to the
views of others. There were women of
the missionary societies, women of the
temperance, peace and suffrage societies,
all interested in the betterment of the
race. The lesson of today which we are
learning is the conservation of force,
but still we are prodigal because in our
work we are inclined to overleap. In New
York ten millions is spent for charity
and twenty millions in London which,
II rightly spent, if our best intelligence
We're brought to it, we would find that
much better results could be brought
| about, by more conservatism and more
cooperation. The speaker dwelt with
great emphasis upon the wonderful pow
er Of this cooperation of the various ma
tional societies forming the international