The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-19
WOMAN, WHITHERSO HIGH
RESPONSE OF MRS. NAY WRIGHT
sEwALL TO THE ABOVE TOAST.
Fart of Programme Last Night Mt the
Thirty-FirDt Anniversary BAN
quet of Sorosis.

HCii-hlVNn NOUleH ; ClQD OF lnlS city Cti'-
brated its thirty-first anniversary to-night
by giving a banquet at the Waldorf-As-
toria. Among the speakers of the evening
was Mrs. May Wright Sewall. Of Indian
apolis. who responded TO the toast "Wo-
tcria. On the programme for the evening
was the name OF Mrs. May Wright Sewali,
who was assigned to respond TO the toast.
Woman, Whittier SO High?" Mrs. Sewall
was unable 10 be present. but forwarded
her response, which was read in her abb
sence. She said:
Woman, whittier so high?" In our nurs-
cry days, when Mother Goose was our most
priced classic. we little dreamed that the
answer, which seemed to have been devised
Soiely because sky would rhyme with
hish' contained the philosophy destined
10 De developed in the latter half of the
nineteenth century, and TO be demonstrated
In the twentieth. 1t was George Herbert
who found that
she who sweeps a room according to
Makes that and the action fine"
The broom has been associated with
women IN the minds OF poets as well as III
the minds OF the seveTest critics of wo-
mans domestic function. The broom in
~oman's hands has not always been merely
'he symooi or the domestic Drudge; ii has
sometimes been woman's weapon, AMI,
AGAIN, II has been her steed. No doubt.
tAAC AAlOO IlC Ollld WIN
frankly confesses that she is sweeping the
cobwebs from the sky is quite as really
a witch as she who, having used her broom
In the Friday house-cleaning. employed il
Tor her S~aturday-nigh screenings among
ana between the quiet New England towns,
"nich, but for her escapades. would nave
romanticism.
viewing the broom as a symbol of that
Greatness which is next TO goodness, we
may say, indeed. that the stages in the
GXalnnn0an 90 -
been marked by the uses to which she has
applied ner broom. In the good old times
Wheh woman recognized that Milton had
comprehended the final cause of her being
ana confessed that she had been nodded
Tor 'softness and sweet domestic grace.
ana Tor that only, one could say that the
broom measured the radius of a woman's
sphere III woman had been as weak ana
incompetent physically as both her wor-
shlpers and her oppressors tried to con-
vince themselves that she was, the brush
ltsel1 should not have been more than a
featherweight, and the handle should have
varied with the size of the room i'm which
the woman was supposed TO live and move
ana nave her being, so that she, at its Gen.
ter, could reach, without moving, the bor-
ders of her domain.
THE BROOM AS A SYMBOL.
l am quite willing to take the broom as
woman's symbol. TO so many good pur-
poses can it be applied, We must never
forget that the first function of a broom in
cleansing, whether it be house, municipal
ity or sky, is to raise a dust. We have
many reasons-reasons accumulated from
tradition. experience and Disqualification
believing that there always have been, and
yet be, many men incapable of seeing that
any need of cleansing exists until, by the
energetic application of their brooms,
women nave raised a dust which. by first
putting out mems eyes. has next ODene1
them to a knowledge of the surrounding
dirt. Is not this the testimony of all vigl-
liant housewives? Have they not all ex-
perienced what Janet WEIGH Carlyle has
graphically told - namely, that Thomas
never sees the dust until it has been set in
motion by its enemy and Destroyer
Again, l repeat: One is quite willing 10
take the broom as the symbol of Woman's
activity; il stands for cleanliness; il should
be welded by the one who has the quick
est perception of uncleanlineSs whose acute
senses unite in warning her when and
where the conditions exist which demand
the use of her broom. One is still quite
willing that the broom shall continue to be
accepted AS the right measure of the ra-
dius of woman's sphere, because we per-
ceive that every advanced step In her edl-
cation has added length to its handle an
breadth and nneneSS to its brush.
The organization of Sorosis meant a new
joint, an added section, in the broom nam
die; it meant the application of the broom
to a new field. In the Vigilant guard which
they had kept over their material possess
sions lest some dust should settle on book
or picture frame, OF mirror or utensil.
women had not realized that they them
selves had stood so still mentally that dust
was beginning TO settle over them. The
SOrOSiS broom set women to brushing UP
their minds, to tidying up social conditions.
One process that always either accompanies
or follows good sweeping is thorough air.
ing. The extended use of her broom in
lifting the dust from usages that. thus hid
den in the accretions of ages, had not been
recognized resulted in exposing them in
their true character of grievances. When
ever, following the wake of the early Soro-
san, women have set about founding a club
they have been obliged to WELD what may
from this day be called the Sorosis broom.
They have swept the dust from conditions
which thus draped seemed not only we'll
enough. but beautiful and harmonious, only
to discover in them unsupported i~nequali-
ties of opportunity and consequent inequali-
ties of outlook.
THE MUNICIPAL BROOM.
This application of the broom. followed
by the airing which every well-kept house
knows on recurring Fridays. has been one
of the causes of the present common per-
ception of the common need. 1t is one OF
the agencies by which men have been
aroused to see that the long absence of the
wielder of a broom from what they had
considered their own domain has resulted
in an accumulation of dirt quite upper
ceived by them. We may well say that
municipal organizations among women
such as civic eagues. sanitary societies
| health protective unions and the almost
| interminable etc. have each in turn length
| ened the handle of woman legitimate in
strument. the broom, and modified its
brush. either narrowing il so as to adapt
IL to enter tiny and remote corners so filled
and packed with dust that they had ceased
to be recognized as corners at all and haC
long been considered as part of the wal
of society's fabric or broadening it so as tC
dust from Obsolescent customs, the fOunda-
4 lions of which, simply because obsoleScent
had long remained invisible and their OBJ
nervousness not realized until exposed by
| the active use of the broom. when Their
| inharmony with the prevailing thought anc
with the accepted practice or this day has
been revealed.
Woman has not been oblivious to the cur.
rent skepticism in regard to her ability
10 sustain the strain upon herself of max.
ing this novel application of her extension
broom. Far from experiencing any i'll eff
fects. however. she has found herself
strengthened by this exercise. If here anC
again she has recognized that her arm il
TOO weak to WELD successfully the nine.
teenth century renovating broom this dis.
covery has resulted in the organization OF
athletic clubs: and the steady airing OF
| evils which has followed upon her remova
of the dust of ages from them has not ex.
hausted but has expanded her lungs. En-.
outraged by her successful demonstration
| that here. as elsewhere, the law of actor
and reaction obtains and that her activi
ties have reacted upon herself TO her per.
sonal advantage she has ventured TO carry
her cleansing enterprises beyond the mu.
nicipality into the national domain. The
modification of the broom requisite To sucl
| adventures has compelled her to readjus'