The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-26

rhI,arKest Audience Of the Season Heard
the Rc,. Anna Howard shaw Lecture
on"PoilticaI EGuaiity''-The GentIencss
or the Charleston "ScWs and Courier"
Toward WOnen--d:rOwth OF the Ne
braska state suffrage Association.
he past week at the great New York
Cautauqua has been largely given over
women, although they may In fact claim
te lions share OF every week 80 far as tho
adicNcrs are concerned. The fine address of
ny. La Toilette Of Wisconsin, on July 10,
II Representative Government" il is true :,
,roughl ont an audience of men from all
nn surrounding country, but naturally
women would feel that they are mot in it"
when subject of this nature Is discussed.
Women. however, are very much in evil
dance at Chautauqua, and they are found
I'm great numbers in all the teaching depart
mrnts and classes, on the programme and
in the half dozen big audiences that assem-
bic every day during the season. Indeed,
Chautauqua and its numerous branches
have been among the chief agencies in tie
remarkable development of women during
the last quarter Of n century. And SO,
whether it is Civic W Eek or Mission week
ar Liuuor Problem week or Anniversary
week they seem to be about equally repre-
s,nted Tie past week was their very
own in name az well as in fact. and yet it
cannot be said that they monopolized the
platform, for there were more than women
on the programme. But then men do so
love to speak in public on the stage" and
rather than lose an opportunity they will
gladly Talk on home decoration, domestic
science and the training of children The
only day last week on which they did not
get a chance was the one devoted to the
Federation Of Women's Clubs, but there
were a large number on the waiting list
who would have been only too happy to
give the women the benefit of their ac-
cumulated wisdom and experience.
Among the notable addresses were those
of the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice.
president-at-arge of the National Woman
Suffrage Association, on Political Equality"
and of DR.. Earl Barnes, formerly OF Stan
ford University and later OF Cambridge,
England, on "Co-education and Woman
Teachers The significant feature OF Dr.
ohaw's address was that $500 people, the
largest lecture audience Of the season thus
far, should assemble in the midst of a ter
rife thunder storm, the lightning striking
only short distance from the amphi-
theatre. 1t was a tribute to the speaker
and to her subject. The Chautauqua audi
enee is the most cosmopolitan that can
be gathered and the present one, like it's
predecessors of many years, left no doubt
as to its attitude on the acknowledgements
Of woman From the opening sentence,
1T is fitting that the first day Of Woman's
week should be devoted to the suffrage,
as it is the foundation of every work she
is trying to accomplish, to the magnifi-
cent peroration on "the true republic of
the future" there was the most sylnpa-
thetic attention. Round after round OF
applause greeted the keen logic the spark
ling wit and the eloquent appeal In which
DR. Shaw has few equals.
The vast majority OF women who do
not want to vote" apparently had no
representatives on hand. They seem never
to have in any audience, for the mention of
woman suffrage before any general as
semblage from New York TO San Francisco
never fails to call forth enthusiastic mani
festations of approval. If the public
sentiment which unquestionably exists
could be compactly organized and freed
from the corrupt influences which every
where dominate politics, this question
could be carried in the affirmative in many
States
Dr. Barnes s presentation OF the status
OF women in education was of equal in
,erest and vitality. Women, like the
poor, We have always with u.s." he began
hv saying "All the really vital concerns
Of life gather around them; compared with
them man is most uninteresting animal;
and so any question connected with them
assumes very great importance
Historically we have no precedent for our
present conditions. In savagery woman
Is a desirable possession; like n COW, she is
to be stolen or bought, and then she is to
work and bear young. In primitive
nomadic life she is co-worker. with a
definite task to do, but with freedom that
enables her constantly to take n leading
pacein council and action. Homeric Greece,
nomadic Judea, the Germany Of Ticitus
gave her an envis bic place as first lieuten-
ant 10 man, with power in emergency to
take up the whole range of worshipping,
governing, fighting or the industrial acti-
rties. With settled civilizatio and the
growth of security and wealth, she has
always become luxury loving plaything
ana parasite. In'S, aOded TO Qtner causes,
has brought about the deterioration and
then the destruction of civiliza ton
The higher civilization of Greece continued
long enough for fourth stage to begin TO
appear Aspasia and Sappho represented
stage beyond the luxury-loving parasite
when men recognized thet women could
he spiritual comrades, vital inspirations,
independent thinkers and valuable units
There we're similar women in later Rome,
but institutions could not adjust themselves
and the Germanic and Celtic stocks came
into possession of the world.
our women have passed through the
preliminary stages In the old Germanic
ages We stole or bought them. Through
the long Middle Ages we shut them up in
converts or worked with them as first
lertenon's. Beginning with lster chivalry
through the Italian Renaissance, and es-
peclelIy in the eighteenth century in France
and Englond, they went through the para
site reriod In the nineteenth century
they entered new phase which, Ibelieve,
never existed before. We had lth
enough to relieve large numbers of them
from drudgerv; we had democratic ideals
brood enough to recognize their individual
rights End we hid biological intelligence
s"f1olentIv developed to prevent our keep
ing them in harems. Thus they entered a
nov St ge for which there was no historical
prNcNlnrt
DR.. Barnes then traced the causes which
lad . i. ..