Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-28
A W0MAN'S VIEW
WHAT THE FOURTH OF JULY
MEANS TO HER.
Bears All the Noise for Love of Coun-
try and Its Lib
erty.

Written for The Erening Star by Harriet p.
Spoaord.
The day which we make our national fes-
tival is not a very happy one. except in
theory. to the greater number of American
women. In spite of all their patriotism,
they are obliged to dread 1t before It ar
rives. and to be glad when il has become
yesterday. AS general thing Il brings
them only work, anxiety and crashing
headaches. The preparation of picnic bas-
kets. the additions to the dinner IL at home
the making ready of the pretty clothes
that are expected to be worn on the day
of all that they seldom complain. But
what they do object to is the barbarous
manner in which boys and men are allow
ed to make merry, which would be dis
graceful to a Fill Islander, which destroys
sleep and peace and health, the perpetual
shocks of the explosions keeping the nerves
on the rack. Added to this is the fear that
the house will be reduced to ashes by the
silly trecrackers, or child will be brought
home to have the gunpowder picked out OF
his face, or with fewer fingers, ears. or
eyes, than those he had when he left for
his raid.
Perhaps one day we shall abolish much
of this exciting cause of trouble. People
may come to perceive that the symbols of
battle and bloodshed give poor and wrong
expression to the love of that country In
whose existence is the hope of humanity
and under whose fostering influence the
peace and well-being of the world shall in
time be assured. Then other and finer ways
of showing patriotism will be found, ways
OF expressing JOY that shall be quite as
satisfactory the noisy and savage meth
DDS Of the present-methods Of the same
nature as those OF the ghost dance of the
Indian tribes, or as the mad. rude way in
which the Dahomey chiefs rejoice.
The Fourth of .IlllV bplpSS fS a
day that has peculiar interest and sig
nlfcance for women; and they are fain to
Joln IN It's celebration, whether they like
the manner of it or not For in no country
OF Christendom do women receive the recog-
milton that they have in this one What
ever may still be lacking to them in meas
ure OF justice here, yet nowhere else do
they have the protection to their persons
and their possessions that is given to them
under the American flag. In Europe where
you see the women yoked with the dog or
the cow; in China, where their feet are
crippled; in polygamOus countries where
they are the slaves of the harem. women
are often merely an appanage. an object of
utility or pleasure. In the United States
they receive their measure of justice and
right, such as it is, not for their beauty
or grace or charm or sex. but as individuals
with a stake in the country.
Should Share Alike.
Men and women being together, really
1AAS uiiAI VI tiIS IdCt, llle measure OF right
that benefits one cannot but benefit the
other; and in as far as men have risen
under the great sky of our liberty, women
have risen with them. and not anywhere
else on earth has there been such an achieve
ment in the advancing of the whole genera
ton of women as under this flag that today,
more than ever, seems beautiful as great
bountiful flower when waving against the
sky, and beneath whose starry folds women
have larger outlook. a higher reach, a
surer grasp, a greater security, a nobler
honor, firmer future. Here the genius of
the country has taught the boy to respect
his mother as the boy of old-loYe her
though he might with all his heart-never
dreamed of doing; to regard his sister as on
plane Of equality; to despise no woman
because she is woman. And she knows
that she owes all this to the independence
of this country from the old world influence
and greed which has opened to every one
all the avenues Of freedom. charging the
borders of thought and feeling and conse-
quent action and all the possibilities of
growth.
The flag, then, means more to American
women than the flag of any other country
can mean to the women beneath it. And
they endure for the sake of it all the hor-
rors of the volleying Fourth, saying to
themselves of the flag, whenever and
wherever they see it: 1T is my safeguard.
my glory and my shield; and feeling as
Browning did when he saw his own nation
al ensign off Cape st. Vincent, Trafalgar and
Gibraltar: Here, and here, did England
help mellow can L help England. say!"