The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1908-12-29
Purity Crusader and Members
Have Lively Tilt Over Vari-
Gus Phases of the Woman
Question at Cafe Boulevard
Dinner.
VIEWS OF ROOSEVELT
AND DIR. ABBOTT HIT.
Their Ideas as to Woman's
Place Called Primitive-Di-
vorce Defended and Mar
riage Called Disease. AL

:.
Members Of the Sunrise Club who
have long boosted that nothing could
shock them were willing to admit to-
day that Mrs. Elizabeth b. Grannis
gave them quite Jolt at the Clubs
dinner at the Cafe Boulevard last
night.
The promoter of social purity ad-
mitted right at the start that she
had been told that such company
was no place for her. Then she
waded right In to the onslaught, and
the Sunrisers came right hack at her
until almost anything the doughty,
outspoken little woman might have
! said would have sounded mild and
out of date.
1t was a pretty fervid sort Of evening.
even for Sunrisers. for Charming Pollock
was there, and It is reported was SO
.
Jar The enemy he is going to dramatic
her.
In discussing Marriage and Divorce"
Mrs. Grannis handed them \ hot one
in the beginning nv opinlng that the
majority of her hearers did not believe
marriage necessary at all. She credited
I them with some idea Of it, though the
form might differ from her own ideas.
Praises lntideIity Law.
Mrs. Grannis thought the subjusation
OF woman was at the bottom OF the
divorce evil. She assumed that mar
riage was the evangelical command. But
when she declared that Christianity was
| the foundation for the best things In
our civilization there was almost as
much excitement as when the hose
bursts at three alarm fire.
Then she dweit on the claim that
there was no man or woman who has
attained great achievements unmarried
but would have done greater things
had he or she been mated.
Calling attention to the similarity Of
the sexes In aspirations and abilities.
she said II woman should DO placed on
an equal footing with men most OF the
evils that now harass the nation would
vanish.
| She took an avowed delight in the
New York law which makes infidelity in
wedlock misdemeanor. and which she
had great deal TO do with having
placed In the statute books. She said
IL had done much to reduce the number
of divorces, and went on to analyze the
divorce laws of a number OF States.
Then she sailed into tho arguments of
the Anti-Suffragists. including President
Roosevelt, and said DR.. Lyman Abbott
was "on the level with the most UNI
enlightened priest in regard to the sub
jugation of women TO men,"
Not as Mothers Only.
"If woman were meant only to re-
plenish the earth, and II she were in
tended only of use for this one service,
why should she be endowed with equal
intelligence with men?' she asked. II
never heard any one commencing men
from a public platform because they
were competent to be fathers"
Tho mare. she said. performs the same
service as the horse In addition to ma
ternal duties. so why not apply the
Dr. Parkhurst because In his coinage
Of tho word "Andromaniac." referring
to the aspiring woman. he fiippantly
asked how 1t would have seemed If the
Virgin Mary had left the infant Jesus
lin the clumsy care of Joseph while she
skipped out to vote.
The women were coming out of the
lchurches. said Mrs. Grannis. because
the Church has not kept pace with the
advance OF woman.
They are not all coming to the Sun
rise Club. though she added grimly
Sunrise arose unanimously TO "sass''
back. and made her advanced Ideas look
puny for time
Disease and Cure.
From the point OF view OF James
Morton Jr., evangelical teaching was
the whole cause OF the trouble. /,
preached the doctrine Of the destruc,
ton OF vitality, individuality and all
kinds of suffering, Mrs, Grannis, lie
said, was the only evangelical believer
who had ever come 10 talk TO them
and he allowed her credit for her cour.
age, but for one Mrs. Grannis there
are ten thousand Cardinal Gihbonses IL
the Church." he said. He commended
that there Were as many ideals oil
marriage as there were individuals.
Raymond 81. james Perrin defined
the difference Between them by saying