The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-27
DIR. ALDERMAN LECTURES.
On Two Great Achievements Of the
10Th Century.

President E. A. Alderman. OF the State
University, lcctured at st. Mary's School
yesterday evening on Two Greal
Achievements of the Nna5crnth Century
the Discovery of Childhood and the
Freedom Of Womanhood." In facility OF
expression, felicity of diction and lucidi-
ty of thought Prof. Alderman has no SUI
perior ON the Southern lecture platform
and he added to his laurels yesterday
evening. THE closing year of the 10Th
century sees one great advance said he.
.'At the close of the 1th century the
child made it's appearance i'll literature;
one of the great thoughts of this CEN
fury is that the child, any child has the
same right to education that il has to be
free. This right the State feels itself
bound to guarantee. Everybody is in
terested in the child. The scie1tist stu
dies HIM as he does any other animal
There is one great university given W
entirely to child-stlldy. The statute
books are filed with laws relating to the
child where once the name was hardly
mentioned. The politician knows this
and cherishes the figure of the 'tow-head
ed boy as one to conjure with. The in
dividual man has come to regard it as
the business of his life to make his child
an Improvement on himself. This means
that the world is growing better. / do
not believe there was q spirit in the world
until man began to see the potentially of
childhood.
THE next great test of a civilization
is the estimate it places on the element
Of womanhood. 1t has been reserved fo1
this century to solve many Of the details
of the problem. History shows no other
such phenomenon as this freeing whole
sex in a century. The usual simile about
woman used to be that she was a vine
She chung, she was Ginger, nearly al
literature once had that figure of speech
You say there We're great women il
those days? There have always beer
great women-but that does not prove
that there were not uncourted thousands
whose intellectual life was stunted.
SIN 1880 the public schools of Boston
opened their doors to women. Boston
was frightened at its own progressive
ness when the girls flocked to the schools
Here in North Carolina we had one OF
the first schools for women. 1T has been
our fate to have the first thing, from the
first white child born in America down
L ne trouble Is we uOD KEEP ~ up. Il "
day the school that does not open its
doors to woman is the exception.
"Plain old Mathew Vassar said when
he gave his millions to found woman's
college: 1t occurred to me that woman
having received the same intellectual
character has right to the same intel
lectual culture as man.. He was not
wrong in believing that the time would
come when that sentiment would prevail
''The note of the modern woman is self
reliance. Is she masculinized? There IS
perhaps a subtle change in mans attitude.
y new type of woman has appeared. In
Homer's time woman was a slave; she
was a slave to the imperial intellect OF
Aristotle, and Plato in the time of Don
QuiXote she was a foolish goddess; ID
Chesterfield she was an Infamous Toy.
In America she is become a member Oh
human society and has taken up the du-
ties Of the world On her rests the 1a ~
est hope and brightest promise OF clvlh-
zation'|