River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-02-25

woman a human life is something
specially and peculiarly sacred. A
pioneer in this movement s
Florence Nightingale, not as Long
fellow portrays her in his LADY
of the Lamp" but sensible,
cool, calculating woman, referred
to by Sir Edw. Cooke, editor Of the
'English Review" as one Of the
ablest wire pullers in England.
She forced her men into the Eng
lish cabinet and intrigued against
those who were opposed Q h e r
schemes; SO that today England,
India and many foreign govern
ments owe to her their hospital
and sanitary reforms. She did for
Crimea what Elizabeth Fry did for
Italy. what Helen Gibson and Clara
Barton did for America, and what
the Red Cross Heroines are doing
for Europe today. Florence Night
engale's first request from Crimea
was for two hundred scrub brush
es so that one amused military
officer wrote. GAS to their idea
Of. nursing, some of the ladies
actually took to scrubbing floors"
In Mrs. Hale's book. "Woman's
Record" one may find a long list
Of missionaries, sent out by all
the churches. Creeds may differ
as truly as various roads may lead
to the same destination, but
nobler women than many Of those
foreign missionaries were never
known.
Some Of the most successful, and
some Of the most powerful rulers
Of nations have been women.
Among these may be mentioned
Catherine the Great, Maria Their
esia, Elizabeth, Christina Of Swed
en-. and Victoria, a world favor
tie.
Among the women Of yesterday.
we find as today, scientists, art
lists. lecturers, historians. in fact
women taking up new work daily.
usually with service ringing note.
In writing Of the women of to-
day. can tell only in a brief way
what they are doing and what they
want. Some one has said that it
is impossible to determine with
accuracy what one woman wants,
much less what any number Of
women want In answer to this,
Rheta Childe Dorr says that the
individual is complex and prone to
variation, but the mass alone S
constant; so she finds it much
easier to ascertain what eight mil
lion women want, than what one
woman wants.
To take up the first part, what
women are doing; we might give
this first reply: They are making
themselves felt everywhere, they
have conducted themselves IN
such way that every public
movement, - reformatory, educa-
tional sanitary hilanthropic,-
now asks the cooperation Of
Women's organizations.
Women Of today are carrying on
the work begun by the women Of
yesterday and adding to it where
opportunity offers. Women now
realize tn at in union there is
strength, and the clubs-many Of
them at first organized for Gull
tural purposes, and dating per-
haps from Colonial times. have add
ed service to the pursuit Of Gull
ture or have changed to civic clubs
entirely. The study clubs that re-
NAMED in 1904 were almost all
laughed out of existence by Mrs.
Sarah Plat Decker. At the BIZ
ennial meeting at that time h e
told the ladies that Dante died
several centuries ago and many
things had happened since his
time. She suggested that we drop
the study Of the Inferno and con-
l0uu D1dlS Ouc OWN SOCIAL OrO0r.
AS soon as a club takes up any
civic problem it ceases to be a
private association. This is il
Illustrated by a club of Dallas,
Texas. One spring day, after one
member had read a paper on the
flake Poets" and another h a d
rendered Chopin Etude on the
piano, they began to talk about
the mosquito land you know he
menace the mosquito has been in
the SouthO. Pools of water all
over the town. were simply swarm
ing With little wiggling things,
soon to emerge as full fledged
mosquitoes. merely because tn e
city said it had not sufficient
money to cover the nOOIS with I'll