The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-01
"PLACE AUX DANES"
GROOM FOR THE LADIES" THE
THEME OF GRAVES LECTURE.
ELoQUENCEs, PATHoS, WIT,
BLENDED IN FORCEFUL ADVOCACY
OF THE RIGHTS OF THE SEX. +

Il
Brilliant Audience Listened to Gift
ed Speaker-WOrd Picture of the
First Gentleman of His Time, Amid
the GIOries of the New-Created
Eden-Mr. Graves Distinction Be-
tween the New Woman and the
Hybrid MORstrOsity Who Masque-
rades Under Her Namc-He Wants
the Day to Dawn When woman
Has the Right to Vote.
Hon. John Temple Graves delivered
his lecture on THE Twentieth Cen
fury Woman" at the theater last night.
Mr.. Graves spoke to a large audience,
in support of a measure of policy
roundly opposed by many of his hear
ers, and yet so earnestly, so eloquent
ly and withal so winningly that he
left few, if any, less than half con-
WINGED.
The speaker was introduced by Mr..
Pleasant A. Stovall of the Board of
Education, whose brief Introductory
remarks gave expression to a happy
smile. Mr.. Stovall recalled the old
legend of the King of Cyprus, in love
with the marble creation of his own
fancy, who so besought the goddess
of love that life itself was breathed
into the statue and Pygmalion made
happy by the animation of his Gala
tea. So the audience, Mr.. Stovall said,
would be privileged to listen while the
orator of the evening, with the magic
of his eloquence, made his concept
of The Twentieth Century Woman"
a living and breathing reality, in
form and lineaments and attributes a
composite, animate picture of the wo-
men of to-day.
1t was a brilliant lecture Mr.. Graves
delivered; sparkling with wit and hu-
NOR rising to highest eloquence, re-
plete with the pathos of woman's his
tory through the ages, tracing the an
nails of her demand for recognition and
justice-too tardily bestowed, voicing
at last her aspirations and espousing
her cause with the chivalric and utter
devotion of the knight of old.
First Gentleman of His Age.
He began with a word-picture of
Adam, the first gentleman of his time,
as he surveyed the beatitudes of his
condition and, the single monarch of
slnless world" looking about him
the Eden that was his own. He told
of Adams longing for something of
which he knew nothing-the woman
who was to be the complement of him
self, of Adams unsatisfied yearnngS
for the uncreated Eve.
His picture of the scene when the
first sight of Eve burst upon the
startled vision of the first man was a
model of eloquent description And he
led on to the result of Ewes contrari-
ness and curiosity and to Adams fault
and fall.
Let me tell you, gentlemen" he
said, our sex has nothing to boast of
in the conduct of Adam. There was
something noble and lcvable in the
fault of Eve, but Adam-Adam was a
coward and a shirk. l am ashamed
of Adam. My family pride is wounded
by his fault. l am glad l am no nearer
akin to him than l am and 1 could
almost wish 1 belonged to the other
branch of the family"
Tribute to the New Woman"
Rather abruptly, at this point, Mr.
Graves skipped some 5000 years to pay
his very respectful attention to the
New Woman"
wish you to understand I do not mean
the radical hybrid who masquerades in
her name"
Evidently he did not, for there was
little of compliment for the flannel
mouthed and bloomer- adorned advo-
cate of woman's rights in what he had
to say. Indeed, Mr.. Graves said this
female monstrosity was wont to de-
clare her scorn of man, while she aped
his attire and derided his habits
while she cultivated his meaner attri-
butes.
Nor had he much more of admira-
ton for the soulless and heartless crea-
ture who lured men on to destruction,
by appeals to his baser nature eX-
pressed in the wholesale expansion of
the decollette style of gown. He put
her in the same class with the wearer
of the boomers.
THE woman with the shoulders" he
said, lis responsible for the woman in
the boomers, for the woman without
shoulders felt that she was losing
ground and started to meet her sister
from the other end"
For the woman of yesterday, the wo-
man of the centuries that have past
into history, he had a tender and elo-
quent tribute of admiration and rev.
erence. God bless the old fashioned
woman-the woman of our dreams and
sentiment and may our right hands
wither when we forget our mothers. >"
A ProbIcn-Not n Sentiment.
1t had been the theory of the ages
declared Mr.. Graves, that woman was
a sentiment, and that the fondest priv
ilege of man was to embrace her. This
is true no longer. She has become
a problem, and it is our unhappy mis-
sion to grapple with her or surrender"
Woman is claiming her rights to-day,
and more than that, she is having
them allowed her. place aux danes"
was the cry of the Middle Ages and
Room for the ladies" has become slo-
gan of to-day. She has claimed her right
to higher education, and it is hers. She
has demanded that she be given an OPP
portunity to earn her living and nearly
thousand professions, trades and
other occupations are filled with the
| representatives of her sex. In every