Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-02-25
CHAPTER XII.

The woman who sits on platform at
a public meeting for the first time under
goes a peculiar exhilaration. The rows
upon rows of faces, a curious sense of
isolation, with the consciousness of being
in the public eye, combine to produce a
psychological change in the woman, lift
ing her out of herself into rarer atmos-
phere of calm or throwing her into the
terrible alternative of stage fright.
cannot remember that | ever was afraid
of anything, and so l fell under the spell
of the first condition. l forgot my per
pleXities, forgot my home and my babies,
forgot my irate husband and his telc-
gram; | saw only a packed auditorium
tluttering with fans and flowers and
dainty gowns and bonnets; / saw only
the stimulating sea of sweet faces and
heard only the hum of a thousand wom-
ems voices. My senses were never more
keen than when the chairman of the
afternoon raped for order and | saw
the fluttering garden before me settle into
silence as with the subsistence of a WOO
ing wind
1t was with the utmost complacence
that / responded to the chairman's intro
duction of me, halfway down the pro-
gramme. | had been we'll advertised,
thanks TO Minnie Morrison's friendship
and knowledge of what she termed the
ropes" | was becomingly gowned, too,
and knew | need not fear the batteries
of critical eyes before me, and. what was
more, | knew l had brilliant paper.
l recalled what bright writer has said
Somebody else may write a paper and
you may read it; you may write "A paper
and somebody else may read it; but if
you both write and read paper then you
give a paper" No one in all that great
audience knew that l was not to give my
paper; and it was brilliant one
The club woman of the future, the
ideal club woman" began, will have
nothing to do with her house except to
let herself out in the morning and into
it again at night with her own latch key"
I could feel my audience gasp and
tighten and brace itself. The idea that
home is sacred because the dinner is
cooked there should be exploded, and will
be some day. Home is sacred only be-
cause love and congeniality and real com
panion3hip are there. The club woman's
ideal home will be one where she is as
free as the man who calls himself the
head of it. Her food will be prepared
by specialists, and her household drudg-
cry Will be done by trained assistants.
A whole street will be cared for by one
set of servants who know their business;
and the consequence will be that the cost
of living will be reduced two-thirds, time
will be economical, and self reliance and
individualism will be truly developed
Man idealizes his home under present con-
ditions, but put him into it and make him
stay there a whole week. as many women
must under present conditions. and he
will be the maddest and most unreason-
able eature that walks the earth. Yet
he believes with all his medieval soul
that home is the only place for women"
From this | went on to prater of the
time when woman should be wholly
emancipated; when she should stand side
by side with man in the industrial and
financial world, still retaining her woman
" qualities and feminine charm
Miss Morrison had given utterance to
her most ultra views on the woman ques-
ton, and ] could feel my audience chafe
and rustic under them But read calm
Iy on to the end. frequently interrupted
bv applause When / sat down there
was vigorous hand-clapping and far
away in the gallery faint, sibilant hiss.
/ had dropped bomb into a peaceful
camp, and an explosion was imminent.
But the chairman was wise and knew
how to keep her audience well in hand.
A discussion Of my paper was down on
the programme, but the woman who was
to lead it was absent. To my surprise
and discontinue, Mrs. Henry of Chicago
was called upon to fill the place of the
absent one.
after the very clever paper we have