The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-14
WOman'S Mission and WOman'S Clubs
al am Persuaded That There Are Woman's Clubs Whose
Objects and ntents Are Not Only Harmful, But
Harmful in Way That Directly Menaces the
Integrity of Our Homes"
ladies Home Journal.)

ldIi6n upon udyS WIl6n HOElu anu eA-
aggerated optimism is exceedingly
fashionable among the American peo-
pie. Conservatism seems to be at a
discount, and those who seek to win
popular approval or support are
shrewdly apt to confidently insist that
our political, economic and social con-
ditions have advanced to point from
which the highest human achiev-
ments are easily in sight.
Great latitude may harmlesSly be
allowed to this sort of congratulatory
optimism and it is certainly an easy
thing to float with the current of prev
alent inclination by asserting to the
jaunty suggestion heard on every size
that old things have passed away and
all things have become new. This con-
cesson to the substitution of new
things for old should, however, be
modified by the proviso that such
substitution means not merely change,
but substantial and benefcent pro-
gress. Nor should the least liberation
be awarded to the assumtion that
moral traits or the relationships IN
terwoven with all that ennobles and
dignffes civilized humanity are within
the range of useful change or recon-
struction. Honesty, good faith, char
ity, patriotism and belief in God are
among the things that can never,
without defiance of Divine purposes,
be submerged by human progress, or
supplanted by any substitutes contriv-
ed by the wit of man. So, also. love
and affection We're planted by the
hand of God, and endued by Him with
eternal ife; and they bear their sweet
est and most wholesome fruit when
undsturbed by blind and blighting
efforts to unnaturally stimulate their
growth in the soil and and atmosphere
of mans material advancement. They
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they create the relationships that UNI
derlie the foundations of organized
society.
The Scope and Character of Woman'S
Mission.
Among these relationships none
compares in importance and vital in
fiuence with those of wife and mother.
This proposition should be so clearly
recognized and so apparent i'm the
light of our instructive perception as
to need no other support; and, more
than this. it's mere statement should
suggest TO every well-regulated mind
the sacred mission of womanhood.
At first blush it would appear easy
to deal with the topic we have in hand.
one who can remember a mothers
love and q mothers care in childhood.
or who has known in later days the
joys a devoted wife brings to the life
of man, OUGHT to be able to calculate
upon general experience SO largely
tallying with his own that he need not
fear protest or dissent in treating of
the scope and character OF woman's
mission. 1t is a melancholy fact how
ever, that our subject is actually one
ancholyeveu liwlo f.. s osm IN mm m
of difficult approach; and it is a more
melancholy fact tht is made difficult
by dislocation and by false prospec-
tiVeS on the part of women them
selves To those of us who suffer
perionds of social pessimism, but who,
i'm the midst of it ALL cling to our faith
in the saving grace of simple ana
adulterated Womanhood, any dscon-
tent on the part of woman with her
ordained lot, or restless desire on
her part to be and to do something not
within the sphere of her appointed
ministrations, cannot appear otherwise
than as perverSions of a gift of God
TO the human race. These perversions
have made their appearance; and
they differ in direction and degree as
greatly as the temper accompanying
them changest with the extent of their
threatened departure from the path of
Gods beneficence.
Those who, seeking to protect the
old and natural order of things as they
relate to women, reverently appeal to
shown when Adam was put in the
Garden of Eden to dress it and keep
IT, and Eve was given to him as q help
meet and because it was not good that
man should be alone. are apt to en-
counter the Multiplying scorn of GER
tain Successors of this hepmeet: and
If they attempt to fortify their po-
sition by referring to the fact that, as
part of the punishment visited upon
our first parents for their diSobedi-
ence, it was decreed that in the sweat
of his face should the man eat bread,
and in sorrow should the woman
bring bring forth children, they must
not be surprised if they are met by
the indignant outburSt: "And so you
think a woman's only use is to bear
childreni" 1t must be confessed the
inclination is very strong to meet this
in like temper, by retorting that no
woman who estimates motherhood as
less than her highest, hottest function
and privilege is fit to be mother
The following dispatch from Berlin,
recently published. is most refreshing
and ought to teach a salutary lesson:
The little Princess Victoria daugh-
ter of the Emperor and Empress, is
suffering from a severe attack of in
fiuenZa, which the Empress also con-
tracted while nursing the child Her
Majesty has been obliged to cancel
NdltOuS puDllC etlSdS6Hl6nlS.
The Question of Woman's Vote.
The restlessness and discomfort to
which | have referred is most strongly
manifested in movement which has
for a long time been on foot for Sc
curing to women the right to vote and
otherwise participate in public affairs.
Let it here be distinctly understood
that no sensible man has fears of
INJURY to the country on account of
such participation. 1t is its danger
Gus. undermining effect on the char
acters of the wives and mothers of
our land that we fear This particu-
lar movement is so aggressive, and
so extreme in its insistence, that those
whom 1T has fully enlisted may well
be considered as incorrigible. At a
very recent meeting of these radicals
a high priestess of the faith declared.
mo matter how bad the crime a wo-
man commits. if she can't vote. and is
classed with idiots and criminals and
lunatics. she should not be punished
by the same laws as those who vote
obey. This was said when advocating
united action on the part of the as
Sembled body to prevent the execution
of woman proved guilty of the de-
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