The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-05-17

ton. She began by organizing the
wives of the conductors on the street
cars on which she passed to and from
the city. The conductors wives, being
intelligent women, understood the idea
Immediately and entered into the plan
a mothers club was established among
them.
Meantime in San Francisco. Mrs. Kin
caid, an intimate friend of Mrs. Hearst
had an amusing as well as instructive
experience in founding a club among
the mothers of the newsboys. She in
vited them to her own spacious and
splendid home; she fed them on the
dainties that people in Society" prize
most highly. They came to the first
meeting in numbers; after that the at
tendance fell off to almost nothing
What was wrong?
Mrs. Kincaid determined to find out
what would please and interest the
newsboys' mothers, so she asked them
to provide a luncheon for themselves
and get just what they wanted to eat
Result, pink frosted cakes and other
bakers trash redoIent of stale butter.
This luncheon was what the mothers
desired, and they ate of it heartily and
enjoyed it and after that were ready
for any suggestion Mrs. Kincaid made
The moral is plain.
In Washington Mrs. Adlai Stevenson,
wife of the vice president, co-operated
in the work and was one of the organ
ization's first vice presidents. Mrs.
Henry J. Finley, chairman of the press
committee for the new organization,
was the individual through whose eff
forts Columbian university at the ma
tional capital was opened to her sex.
and she herself was the first woman to
be graduated there
A medley of topics, including one or
two hobbies, was brought before the
public at the first Mothers Congress.
Mrs. Cleveland received the mothers.
but President Cleveland did not. like
President Roosevelt, address them.
The author of the now world renowned
expression race suicide" is the first
president of the United states to do
that The congress did not make a
profound impression. It was yet IN the
formative stage. Certain wits even
laughed at it good naturally. because
some of its most active members were
spinsters.
But President G. Stanley Hall gave
one of his learned addresses, and the
mothers also were enlightened on Tx
preston Necessity of Evolution and
on the eternal woman's club topic of "A
Pure Press" There was likewise illu-
mination on the matter of "Uncon-
scious Musical Education" Solemn
horror was expressed at the increasing
disobedience of children nowadays, just
as if that was the chiIdren's fault
Now let US see to what after eight
years work the congress is devoting
itself today The honorary president of
the organization is stin Mrs. Birney.
The present president. reelected at the
recent meeting, is Mrs. Frederick
Schom of Philadelphia. What kind of
a jewel of woman Mrs. Schon is we
may learn from an extract from one of
her speeches, as follows:
acity-talking overmuch-that
is a fault inherent in too many mothers
and too many fathers. too. If you come
to that. Silence is a blessed thing. and
we should cultivate it when We have
nothing to say"
For several years the organized
mothers have been working for the es-
Enlistment in all the states of juve-
nile courts. where child lawbreakers
may be tried quite separate from adult
criminals. Already there are many OF