The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-01-12
The Woman of Yesterday.

Gnu WOludn III ZIG
Georgia delegation at the biennial of
9Vomen's Clubs, made the feature ad-
Y dress at the home economics dinner
given at the Hotel Astor by the home
economics department of the general
federation. She represents the Chero-
gkkee Club of Gainesville, Ga, and is
recognized as the foremost southern
woman writer, and second to none of
any other section.
Mrs Harris is a handsome woman.
q of charming and impressive presence.
lHer voice is low and sweet, and she
was accorded an enthusiastic ovation
Her subject was, THE Woman of Yes
terday." She said:
Women of today. | have the honor
to bring to your remembrance the one
woman whom we really know and con-
W corning whose future there can be no
reasonable doubt-the Woman of Yes
terday.
She is the fanciful heroine of bal
lads and rOmances because only one
half the history of this country has
been written. If her services and sac
rifices to this civilization had been re-
corded they would be different, but
they would not be less important than
the brave deeds of her bravest men,
and we should discover in her some
thing more than a figure of speech in
poetry and fiction. She accomplished
some of the best and sternest scip-
lures of American life. She was in
telligent She had the courage of a
pioneer and the patience of a saint,
and she was no less progressive than
the woman of today. She started fur
Their back in time and had further to
go. This Is the only difference. She
was pioneer who faced a wilderness
and wrought with faith and infinite
labor to establish the ideals of liberty
and righteousness upon which this civ
iE<sation was founded. If the women
of oday run with the same courage
the race that is set before them, if
they preserve. these ideals with the
same fortitude they will do well, but
not better than she has done.
she is a gentle woman who prac-
ticed her virtue delicately and in Sc
cret as if these were the ritual of
h faith
. she was domestic economist who
never wrote paper nor addressed a
;, club on this subject. But she literally
practiced these arts of the home about
which we agitate more than we
achieve She was that woman of the
proverbs who looketh well to the way
of her household and eateth not the
bread of idleness. She made the things
which we buy, and she knew how to
spend. All the doors of industrial and
! professional life were closed to her.
Nevertheless she was, strictly speak
ing a producer, not a consumer She
founded the best and most stable
American home that has ever existed
and she maintained with a dignity
and intelligence which the woman of
today cannot surpass
she produced great men. not great
issues, and she did not produce herself
at all. She was only the blessed me-
dunn through which all life flowed,
receiving from her certain fneness,
d color of the spirit, vague and gen.
tie effulgence. She was not the epo-
chal woman. She was the mother and
patient prophet OF that woman.
They who fail to comprehend that
the woman of today is the product
as well as the descendant of the WON
en- of yesterday do not know her his
tory. She led no movements, but she
herself moved ever forward in the
sweeter grace of silence.
She was the most truly and wisely
progressive woman this country has
yet produced. She failed of recogni-
tion deliberately. She had not adj
vanced so far as organization and at
tendant publicity. But she deserves no
less praise for that which she accom-
plished. There is not single righte-
Gus issue advocated by the women of
today which cannot be traced back to
t6ax silent. dilligenr, thoughtful wom-
AN1of yesterday. 1t was Frances Will
la d, woman of yesterday, who first
proclaimed TIE cause OF temperance
= The idea of suffrage for women is old
ss<r than Susan B. Anthony Frau
<.Ower was the Grand Old Woman of
u Germany. She gave sixty Of her
] eighyty-siX years TO those reforms
which have resulted in wider oppor-
tunities for German women. She was
working for this long before there