The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-04-03

/ housekeeping of today never stop!
with the four walls of ones house
We were impressed by the alert
ness of the newspapers of Havana
One of the dailies sent out a man &C
companied by the ubiquitous photo
grapher, and although he spoke lit
/ tie English, and we, alas, no Spanish
the interview covered several col
umns and more nearly portrayed the
spirit of the federation than some OF
our own American journals. To be
sure, he made us say some things that
VIC had never dreamed of, on the
whole we Jared well. The one thing
that seemed the greatest puzzle to
| him was that We women of individ-
ual, state and national club life
work in season and out of season
without receiving remuneration. Evil
IDENTIFY he was imbued with the idea
that the American women, as well as
the American man, was commercial.
The next day there came beautiful
, girl, the daughter of the editor of
the Figaro, the leading weekly
periodical. She had her plans so we'll
mapped out, her questions so intel
ligently arranged that | shall rank
her as among the very best inter-
viewers it has been my privilege to
meet Although she arrived at 8
o'clock in the morning, in a quiet
residential portion of Havana, she
was accompanied by her mother. 1t
would have been extremely improper
for her to have been found on the
street alone, or for her to have
called upon me without proper es-
cort.
We are told that the Cuban wom-
an is tremendously strong in her
patriotism and in her individual
work, but that she needs training in
the joy and the efficiency of co-opera-
ton. That is just what club life
will do for her. There isno reason
whwy the day should not soon come
when well organized women's clubs
shall exist throughout the island,
and whwen the Cuban federation
shall join with us in our biennial
conference. We have much to learn
from these gracious women of the
South. Their intense love of home
their constant devotion to children
their self-sacrifice, their soft voices
their exquisite courtesy-all these
are traits that we admire.
A Vision
I spoke in the afternoon to the
Woman's club and their guests in
the American club rooms. At night
it was my privilege to address the
Atheneaum, an organization of dis
tinguished men in the Academy Of
Science. Here, for the first time,
had the novel experience of standing
in a tribunal and speaking to ar
audience made up for the most par
of Latin Americans. At the close, a.
l looked into their kind and thought
full faces, vision came to me and
found courage to tell them tn,
thoughts that filled my heart. Cub;
Libre, is in reality the key to tn
pan-American question among WON
en-. Gracious as a young queen sh
stands with the blue sea at her fee
and the still bluer sky over her head
her dark hair, crowned with her owl
native laurel, her soft brown eye
looking kindly upon the women @
the world. BY tradition, by inherit
ance, she is more sympathetic in he
understanding of the women of Cen
trail and South America than we are
she speaks with them commo
tongue. Yet on the other hand sh
sends her children to us to be edit
Gated, hundreds of her people spea
our language and spend the heate
term with us; she claims us as hi
older sister. Then why should n,
, Cuba, beautiful Cuba, stretch fort
her right hand to the sisters of Il
South, her left to the sisters of II
North. saying to one and all: Com
women of the Americas, come to H
vana, and let us reason together
= Let us study the problems that co
front our lands. Let us inform ou
selves of the needs, the condition
the aspiration of women; let us he
, in the youngest of the American r
. publics discuss how each may he
the other. Let us with consecrat
hearts meet in a pan-American CO
gress that shall go down in histo
as the first assembling of the mot
ers of the three Americas"
Ever sincerely,
ANNA ]. H. PENlNYBACKER.
Austin, Tex, March, 1916.
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