The Topeka state journal., 1902-01-28
WOMAN'S DAY.
Exercises Held i'm Senate Cham
ber This Afternoon.
Mrs. Margaret Hill McCarter's
Address of Welcome.
AN ELOQUENT TRIBUTE
What Women Have Accom-.
plished in Kansas.
Many Bright Papers by the Club
Women of the State.

The senate chamber was filled this
afternoon with bright representative
women from all over Kansas. The occa-
sion was the Woman's Day exercises
which have been looked forward to with
the greatest of interest for several
weeks. The exercises were under the
auspices of the Topeka Federation, and
Mrs. A. H. Thompson, the president,
was in the chair.
The meeting opened shortly after 1
O'Clock with piano solo by Mrs. Chas.
kiefnhanS, after which Mrs. Margaret
Hill McCarter, of Topeka, delivered the
address of welcome. Mrs McCarter has
wide reputation as writer and club
woman, and in her address she voiced
the sentiment of the women of Topeka,
IN her own gracious manner. Her
speech was as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen:-I stand today
in the open doorway of our city to hold
out to you a welcoming hand and to
give to you a word of greeting as you
enter in. over our lintelS we have writ
ten the word, welcome because it is
the symbol of what is in our hearts this
afternoon 1t is not often permitted TO
one in lifetime to stand for the mo-
ment as the hostess of so great a city as
this and to receive into it as guests SO
distinguished group of people as the
one see before me, and cannot help
feeling thrill of pride and pleaSUae
that, at the hand of our worthy presid-
ing officer, this honor was bestowed up
me.
In the name of the city of Topeka
then and of its Federation of Women's
clubs l welcome here the women who
today stand for the great body of Kan
sas womanhood in its varied activity
and progress.
women; secondly, because of the things
you represent, and thirdly, because of
the thing that brought you here.
In the great bond of common sister
hood we need no symbols nor pass
words nor grips nor 33d degrees for a
woman Ito recognize a woman. We
come at these things by that quick
instinct which the giver of good and
perfect gifts bestowed upon us when he
forgot to make US calculating and far
seeing and full of careful judgment. The
heart of our federation goes out to you
because you are women
Again, 1 welcome you for that your
hands guide the great interests of our
state. Through the organizations you
represent Kansas is made noble COM
mOnWea1th.
You stand for history. Some of you
here are builders of empire, old and
graE.-halred pioneer women whose lives
ran parallel with the tumultuous epoch
making records of Kansas, who have
seen the waste places become inhabited,
the sand change to loam the low shrubs
to bloSSoming orchards, and the wild
prairie grass to bursting sheaves of yell
low wheat. However serene for you
life's sunset may be, its morning was
Do we welcome you? Aye, reverently
with bowed heads would we ask your
blessing US.
Again you stand for the education of
the state in its libraries and its press.
Through it's president we receive here
those bright intelligent women who are,
with printers ink, the makers of public
opinion, and through the state librarian
who among all the women of Kansas
is without peer in her broad-minded
knowledge and gracious womanhood, do
we greet that company who guard the
interests and dispense the bounty of the
estate of books.
We welcome the chosen leader of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Along with the champions of equal Suf-
frage has this union been a pioneer
force for woman's progress Against a
storm OF cenSure or With the huzzaS OF
the admiring crowd 1t has steadily
through evil and good report, forged on
in its efforts to lift humanity above base
appetites; that the fruits of the spirit
might prevail over the works of the
flesh.
We welcome, and graciously would
we welcome, the Woman's Relief
Corps, whose avowed aim is charity.
By all its efforts to relieve bodily pain
by all its words of comfort, does il
stand in the forefront of those institu-
tions where womans hand carries
in it benediction.
In the name of common justice and
wise and righteous government, we
welcome the representatives of equal
suffrage The time will come when
sons will blush for their fathers ig-
norance that ever such an organiza-
ton had need to exist and among the
wonders of the world will be the colos-
sal injustice and selfishness that for
more than half a century barred women
from voice in that which ought never
to have been a question of sex but of
sense.
Right tenderly would we give greet
ing to her who comes in the name of
he A Tea ND 10
welfare of the home 1t is through
motherhood, the one touch of nature
that makes us all akin. that we come
into our highest kingdom.
"Madonnas hallow every hone.
Ger every roof where babies are
Shines high and clear a guiding star.
And mother-heart do always hear
Divinest music ringing clear;
And peace and love good will on earth,
Are born with every baby's birth''
We would receive as royal guests the
women who in purpose stand above the
home, and under the shadow of the
stars and stripes feed the altar fires of
patriotism. Yours is the common cause
that Stirs within US the high love of
loyalty and freedom. whether you come
as the Daughters of the American Rev
olution. whose grandsires fought for
American liberty, or with the insignia
of the Grand Army of the Republic,
whose husbands and fathers held life
less dear than their country'S flag, and
blood-stained hands more worthy than
the dishonored folds of the red, white
and blue trailed in the dust by rebels.
And last of all, would give hearty
greeting to the women of the Kansas
Social Science Federation of Clubs
Within its borders history and educa-
ton. and temperance and charity and
good governn ent, and home and pa
triotism all combine for the rounding
out of the intelligent mind and brain