The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-03-07
Madame Friedland Gives the First OF
a Series OF Lectures Before the
Members of W0man's Club.
TIE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Talented Russian woman Tells in a
Graphic Manner of the Life of
Women in Russia.

+ The lecture by Madame Friedland, a
native Russian, Monday night at the
assembly room of the Gilbert M. Sim
mons library, under the auspices of the
Woman's club, on the Historical De-
ve1opment of the Russian Woman, +"
was listened to with the most absorbed
interest and keenest enjoyment by a
large audience. Madame Friedland is
not only charming speaker, widely
read and travelled woman, but her
heart is in her work, and on the sub
ject of Russia she talks with graceful
fuency and sincere enthusiasm. To
be sure, she has a wonderful subject.
It is but two hundred years since the
imperial mandate of Peter the Great
released the women of his country
from harem-like exclusion and con-
dition of slavery, except those of the
peasant class, who, being obliged to
labor in the fields, were not so re-
strained. Their condition, however,
was one of hopeless poverty and mis-
cry and unremitting labor, and this
class, Madame Fried1and says, have
changed very little. Their lives are
still laborious, dull and sorrowful.
With the others, however, the years
have wrought wonderful changes, UNI
til today prominent writer says the
American woman is the only one with
whom the Russian may be compared.
In some respects the Russian woman
enjoys advantages superior to ours.
She is the sole manager of her own es-
tates: on the death of her husband she
becomes the head of the family, and
this is one of Russia's strongest tradi-
lions; she has the right of suffrage,
which means that she may vote for To-
cal officers, mayor, aldermen, etc.. and
all elective positions. Institutions Of
learning in all the sciences and profess
has a nob1er list of women who are
achieving fame along these lines.
During the reign of Catherine the
Great and until within the century
just closed French was the universal
language of the polite world, Russian
literature waned, and many of the no.
bi1ity could scarcely write in Russian.
Pushkin, the poet, was never addressed
by his parents except in French, and
says he owes his love of country and
her poetry to his old peasant nurse.
! Catherine was in advance of her time.
| and founded institutes for educating
the children from the age of five or SIX
to eighteen, during which time their
parents saw them but twice weekly and
abrogated their authority completely
to the school management. This sys
tenn was of inca1cu1able value, an6
laid the foundation for the liberal edu
cationa1 advantages of today. Cath
crime wrote to Voltaire that she was III
favor Of co-education, but believed the
nobility to be opposed to it.
OF course there was an abuse of the
privileges SO suddenly given to women
which resulted in communist and
other u1tva demonstrate and caused
reaction for a time, but the tide OF
progress is flowing smoothly through
Russia now and her ambitious, ener-
getic women of genius have all the en-
enlargement they can wish.
Madame Fried1and related some
striking incidents of the heroisn1 of
Russian women, many of whom left
palaces to follow their husbands into
Siberian exile. There are many names
that to the Russian mind stand for
what Florence Nightingale and Clara
Barton do with us.
Madame Fried1and's address seemed
but begun when the time came for her
to close, and ev cry one departed thor
ough1y interested in this remarka bic
woman and her lectures, anticipating
another treat in her lecture on Satur-
day night next on Russian Litera-
ture."
Anrrrx uHc IN MI II M nmrp