Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-06-24

astery of you will" she said, though
she disclaimed the conventual character
for her college because no VOWS were
taken.
Her organization, however, included
daily service on cathedral lines; and
1t was, as we have seen designed rath-
er to take women out of the world than
to help them to play their part in it.
On the whole then the New Woman
would be unwilling to take Mary As
tell as her prototype in the way of
organization One would be sorry to
join the Taller in vituperating Mary,
even though those who tattled included
such respectable names as Swift and
Addison. But looked at in the light
of nineteenth-almost twentieth-cen-
fury organization we can only regard
Mary Astell as beacon Of warning
how not to do it.
There are many prominent women on
both sides of the Atlantic who could be
cited as model organizers; but, speak
ing for myself, l shrink from person
altiets in this respect as much as | do
from the perpendicular pronoun afore-
said. Nothing, in my opinion, would be
so fatal to the interests of Progressive
Women Ga better term than New Wom-
EN- than having their methods tackled
on to the name of some one leader and
SO being dwarfed down to the dimen-
sions of an ism" Lady Jeune has re-
Gently written an exhaustive paper in
the Anglo-Saxon Review under the IL
tie of "A Century of Women" and l
myself contributed one of a similar
character to the Christmas number of
The Queen. But repeat most empha-
tlcally that nothing, in my opinion
could be more
Determined to the Organization
of the Woman's movement than being
pinned to the apron strings of any indi-.
vidual leader, however capable that
leader may be. The very essence of the
new organization is originality; and
that will never be realized if aspirants
elect to stretch themselves on a bed of
Procrustes.
1t is of course, impossible to deal ex-
haustiyely with such a subject as this in
the necessarily circumscribed space at
ones command l. have not tried this
hopeless experiment What l have tired
10 do is to give one practical hint-sug-
gested by pretty long experience-so
that any woman who really wants to de-
velop her own faculties can help those
who are like minded ,My advice would
go into two words: Be yourself, or be
original. That reminds me of story
once told me by successful student, and
with 1t l will close my remarks That
student was suddenly brought face to
face with an entirely new and somewhat
abstruse subject and was scared by IT.
In dismay the student sought the pro-
fessor, and told him he must abandon the
honor course at college because that
subject barred the way. Il have read
every. commentator l can lay hands on
he said, land l am none the wiser"
shut up your commentaries, replied
the professor, take your bare text; read
that over and over again, and
Think the Matter Ont for Yourself.
Lock yourself in your room and make
up your mind you WILL master the sub
ject.' The student took the advice; and
that subject became the favorite one in
his curriculum gaining him a high po-
sition ron the class list when he gradu-
ated That was how he organized his
mental faculties.
What man has done woman can DO;
and l believe that one word originality
is the master key to all organization, in
dividual and social alike.
FRANCES EVELYN WARWICK.