USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Congress of Women : held in the Woman's building, World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 : with portraits, biographies and addresses > Part 107
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Mrs. Amanda M. Edwards is a native of Montgomery County, New York. She was born May 16, 1846. Her parents were Isaac Mereness and Sarah Bingham. She was educated at Ames Academy, Whitestown Seminary, and at Utica, N. Y., and has traveled in th United States and Great Britain. She married De Wayne Palmer, Utica, N. Y., 1870, and Ira Edwards, New Hartford, New York, 1878. Mrs. Edwards is engaged in agriculture and stock farming. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her postoffice address is Fremont, Neb.
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dead to the organically living state, and to note the steady resurrection from death to life. He can judge of the adaptation of different sections to the growth of varied soil products, and their resources in the essential elements of fertility. He is able to select the localities and conditions best adapted to the largest growth of farm products and to state where the greatest nutritive value to such growths would be imparted.
Education with the farmer has become a pressing necessity. The claims of agri- culture and of education are co-extensive. The greater the appliances of mind to any department of physical labor the greater the results. Well trained and informed mind can control physical energies quite as it pleases, and never is its power of control of more avail than in the business of husbandry. Brains are brought into use as well as muscle. In order to have any worthy success the agriculturist must carry into his work a fullness of knowledge; not merely a sufficiency, but more than a sufficiency. His success calls for intelligence and observation, and pays a premium on energy and ability. With the naturally sound judgment which his business cultivates, the farmer needs a good education, as well as the lawyer, the physician or the clergyman. The times demand this on considerations quite distinct from mere agricultural skill. The affairs of state and the intimate relations of agriculture to them call our legislators from the intelligent body of agriculturists.
That which is true of the farmer applies to each and all the departments of agri- culture.
Among the many good things which stamp the agriculturist's work as of Divine appointment is its diversity. While it always includes contact with and care of the soil, its wide range allows us to speak of the agriculturist as a farmer or a shepherd, or a grain-grower, or a stock-raiser, or a market-gardener, or a dairyman, or a granger, or a hayseed, all of which vocations are unlimited in their aim and broad in their scope, and are capable of developing a variety of talents or gratifying a wide range of tastes.
It has been said that "Agriculture is a born science." It is full of botany, zoology, geology and entomology. It is full of chemistry from the soil to the growing plant. It gives full employment to the powers of both mind and body. An agriculturist may have the best thought of the vocation which he represents. He may daily find a broader sphere than that prescribed by the dollars invested. Owing to the fact that he is closely associated with nature, he is in close relation with the spirit of all life, and in the immediate presence of the Great Author. The natural tendencies of his aspirations are daily led toward good and toward God. From the day the farmer sows his seed until he harvests his crop, every day of the season, he is dependent upon beneficent Providence for favor and prosperity upon his broad fields, and is intuitively led to look from " Nature up to Nature's God."
The great freedom from excitement, peculiar to the farmer more than any other class of citizens, gives opportunity for cool and undisturbed investigation, and helps to form a character which the clergyman covets most for his hearers and which our judiciary system most needs for the jury box. In no department of work is good judgment more essential than in agriculture.
The farmer is obliged to deal with many things which are entirely beyond his power to control. He can not control the seasons, the weather or the markets, While he may base his calculations upon facts obtained from observation and expe- rience, his own judgment must decide whether the season is late or early, when to plant, when to harvest, and, in fact, the seasonable time for all his work. There is no person engaged in business of any kind who is not dependent upon the prosperity of the agriculturists for his own success. If crops fail the merchants, ministers, doctors and lawyers all suffer from the failure. The welfare of our towns, cities, states and nations is due to the adequate success of agriculture. Failure upon the farm brings financial distress to every business enterprise, while abundant harvests insure great national prosperity.
We as a people realized the value of good crops recently, when Russia needed our corn and we needed their gold.
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The quality and standing of any honorable calling can only be measured by the character of the men and women engaged in it. No occupation affords better oppor- tunity for mental, moral and social advancement than agriculture.
In the primitive days crude implements and primitive methods were used in culti- vating the soil. The exhibit here at Jackson Park, of agricultural machinery, in qual- ity, in artistic presentation and in infinite variety, proves that we live in an age of invention and of application of ideas to the interests of humanity, whereby agricul- ture is made less laborious, more pleasant, more refined and remunerative. Progress is illustrated. The bent stick and wooden plow is replaced by magnificent steel plows; the sickle by the powerful reapers and binders, and we are led to believe that in the near future electricity will be used to draw agriculture onward. With the progress before us may we not expect, in the world's tomorrow, to see the golden era in which the alchemist's dream is more than realized, and some of the latent forces of nature utilized in the fertilization of the soil, and that our statesmen will see the air turned into gold and silver.
MASTER WILLIE K. DOTY.
MISS CLARIBEL THATCHER.
MISS FLORENCE THATCHER.
MISS ADA PIERCE.
PAGES OF THE CONGRESSES HELD IN THE WOMAN'S BUILDING.
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SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE ON MARGARET FULLER. By MRS. CELIA PARKER WOOLLEY.
Margaret Fuller belonged to the most brilliant era in the intellectual growth of America, whose highwater mark was reached in Emerson, and whose lesser waves are counted in the names of Alcott, Thoreau, Ripley, Theodore Parker and others of almost equal fame- with one woman among the rest, the acknowledged peer of the best, a thinker and scholar, and a woman of passionate moral conviction besides.
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MRS. CELIA PARKER WOOLLEY.
Margaret Fuller was the typical woman of her age, because she embodied, so far in advance of their more general recognition and demand, those qualities of mental courage, industry and devotion which alone can bring about that new state and ideal of woman- hood so much talked of in the present day. Margaret Fuller was, in culture, in character, in influence and in the permanent quality of her work what the women of a later age are eagerly contending in their clubs and conventions women might, could and should be. What we in the last half of the nineteenth century are declaring women ought to do and ought to be allowed to do, Margaret Fuller, back there in the first half of the century, did; and that at a time when the obsta- cles to woman's progress were tenfold as numerous and difficult as now.
Margaret Fuller was the typical woman, not only of her age, but of her country. Through toil and talent she became the possessor of a rich and varied culture that linked her with the older civilizations of the past, but she always remained true to those principles of individual worth and freedom on which our republic is based. She was thoroughly American, an enthusiastic believer in our national standards and ideas. She loved and believed in her kind. She lived before the day when the advocates of higher culture tried to demonstrate themselves such by decrying all that pertains to their own age or country in favor of the time-worn systems of the past. Culture was to her a means of clearer understanding of the prac- tical problems of life; she wished to know more in order to be more. Pettiness of all kinds was far removed from her. Her faults were those of a rich and ardent nature; they were her virtues run to excess.
It was Margaret Fuller's fortune to live at a time when the highest exponents of the intellectual life were also the known champions of the most unpopular reforms. She was one of the reformers not in any perfunctory sense; her name was identified with no particular movement or cause, but her sympathies for all forms of human suf- fering and wrong were active and deep. She was always a strong friend of her own sex and employed her talents in practical efforts for the improvement of the condition of women. The lesson of this woman's life lies in the thoroughness of her work. She was fully equipped for every task she undertook. She will also always be gratefully remembered for the nobility of her aim, her unworldliness and constancy to high prin- ciple, a moral activity which found outlet in many directions Her attainments and her character will remain an inspiring example to the world for all time to come.
Mrs. Celia Parker Woolley is a native of Toledo, Ohio. She was born June 17, 1848. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. M. H. Parker, of Coldwater, Mich. She was educated at Coldwater, Mich., and Painesville, Ohio (Lake Erie Seminary). She married J. H. Woolley, Esq., in 1868. Her principal literary works are three novels: "Love and Theology," "A Girl Gradu- ate," and "Roger Hunt." Mrs. Woolley was formerly a writer, and is now a minister. In religious faith she is a Unitarian. and a minister of the society at Geneva, Ill. Her postoffice address is Chicago, Ill.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MODERN WOMAN.
By MRS. CAROLINE K SHERMAN.
It is well known that the condition of woman in the early periods of the world's history was inferior to that of man. During the Middle Ages the tendency was to treat her as a being "enskied and sainted, and to be dealt with in sincerity as with a saint." The disposi- tion in this modern time is to treat her neither as an inferior nor superior to man, but as a being having a status of her own, and not necessarily to be judged in comparison with man. In this paper I speak, there- fore, of the condition of woman at the present time, the causes which led to that position, and the possi- bilities which may result from it.
So long as the political conditions of a country are insecure and its resources limited, woman is obliged to accept the position allotted her, whether it be the low position assigned her by the Orien- tals and Greeks, or the higher one granted in the Middle Ages. In either case what privilege she en- joyed was not granted as a right, but conceded as a favor. As civilization advances, however, and politi- cal conditions become more stable, material resources at the same time being easier of access, woman nat- urally occupies a place quite different from any she has known hitherto. Those manifold events which MRS. CAROLINE K. SHERMAN. mark the change from the mediæval to the modern era, necessarily affected the status of woman. The invention of printing, and with it the diffusion of learning, the discovery of gunpowder, and the changed modes of war- fare, the Reformation and its emphasis on the rights of the individual-cach of these
was significant in opening larger and freer opportunities to woman. The invention of printing meant liberal means of culture for all, woman as well as man, greater range and freedom of thought and, naturally, greater freedom of expression. The discov- ery of gunpowder meant a death-blow to feudalism-to that system of helpless dependence by which the masses were held as serfs and servants because of the neces- sity for military protection. The improved modes of warfare gave to the lower as well as to the upper classes opportunity for other occupations, while at the same time the peculiar sentiment of chivalry, as it prevailed in the Middle Ages, died a nat- ural death, since women were no longer to be protected by the right arm of valiant knight, but by the cannon, the musket, and the shell.
The influence of the Reformation was to set a higher value on the good things of the world. Hence the impetus to modern science and the fruitful discoveries and
Mrs. Caroline K. Sherman was born in Massachusetts. Her parents were Silas Swift and Lydia Davis Kempton Swift. She graduated from the New Bedford High School, and later from Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Mass. Also was instructed by private tutor, who was a theological graduate of Andover. She was early grounded in sound orthodox theology, and under the direction of her private tntor went forward with the study of theology as well as philosophy. She married Mr. Jonathan Sherman Jr., of Boston, Mass. She is vice-president of the Aristotelian Society, an organization of scholarly people who (levote themselves to the study of Aristotle. She was chairman of the Woman's Branch Department of Philosophy and Science, World's Congress Auxiliary World's Columbian Exposition, and is at present a member of the Chicago Board of Education. She was a member of the Concord School of Philosophy, and delivered a lecture there in 1885. Her postoffice address is No. 225 South Leavitt Street, Chicago, Il1.
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inventions resulting from it, which, perhaps more than anything else, have contributed to the freer and, as we hope, better condition of woman. While, to the praise of the Mediaval Church, it recognized the fact that we must look to spiritual rather than to material discoveries for the highest welfare and happiness, it sometimes neglected the other important fact that spiritual well-being is dependent on physical and intel- lectual agencies, and that only by the proper use of these can the desired spiritual attainment be made. Protestantism recognized this neglect and directed itself at once to these forces which have reference to the physical side of life, to whatever would increase the sum total of human pleasure and decrease the amount of pain, and the results are, as we all know, marvelous beyond expectation. It is true that in avoiding the mistake which the Medieval Church had made, Protestantism incurred the danger of going to the opposite extreme, and of regarding physical and intel- lectual comforts as most important so far as this world goes, while spirituality too often is thought desirable only as a preparation for death.
If this were the necessary and veritable outcome of modern science, we might well question whether the loss were not greater than the gain, especially to the women who partook so fully of the best which the medieval life had to offer; but every thoughtful person knows that the largest means are best for the highest ends, and that it is only irrational souls who lose sight of final purposes to rest satisfied with what are only means to an end. As it is, all these developments of physical science will, in our opinion, eventually lead to the best results. This being admitted, women can look upon the achievements of science as the important factor which has brought about for them the great changes from a state of helpless dependence to one of desirable self-reliance and more efficient activity. So long as women were compelled by neces- sity to spin, weave, sew, care for their households and attend the sick, so long their time and hands were fully occupied, leaving little opportunity or strength for other pursuits. This certainly was the case with wives and mothers, while the condition of unmarried women was even less desirable, compelled, as they often were, to suffer the humiliation of receiving a precarious living from strangers, or possibly worse yet, of accepting a humble seat at the table of kindred, for Protestantism did not, as Cathol- icism did, offer a refuge and a vocation to unmarried women.
The various organizations at the present time afford splendid opportunity for the wise use of surplus time secured by the introduction of machinery, and women are not slow of availing themselves of it since they have learned, what it was not possible for them to know before, the value of organized effort. The worth of organized activity is seen in the various reformatory methods introduced into our hospitals and prisons, by which more humane and refined influences are brought to bear in the treat- ment of criminals and the insane. It is seen in educational matters where women occupy positions of trust, not simply because of the desirability of having women to co-operate with men in public affairs, but because in many cases these women repre- sent the sentiment of a large body of thoughtful women whose opinions it would not be politic to ignore. Nor is it only among the so-called leisure class that there is the disposition for self-improvement and for these advantages that come from wisely- organized effort. I have been surprised as I have talked with members of the Knights. of Labor, and others of the wage-earning class, women of comparatively little culture, perhaps, but with an earnest purpose to make the absolute best of themselves and of the circumstances which too often dwarf rather than develop them. They, too, are disposed to let the old routine of personal matters and petty gossip give place to questions of wider scope. They, too, are taking an interest in public matters, knowing by painful experience how closely the decision of these questions may affect them, their homes and especially their children. And already their interest in these broader affairs has obtained results in a practical way. Their demand that children born of the abject poor shall not be defrauded of their childhood, but that they shall have opportunity for education, is meeting a response all over this country, not only from public sentiment, but from public sentiment as expressed by law. In these, as in so
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many other philanthropic aims and purposes, intelligent women of all classes are heartily engaged, and the unity of aim, the common purpose in public matters, espe- cially in matters which bear directly on the home, is one of the happiest results of the enlarged opportunity which this modern time affords. It not only promises benefit to all classes of women by giving to each the moral support of the other, but it tends also to do away with the artificial system of caste among women, which is alnost inevitable where there is a division of interests, and an inability to recognize the prin- ciple that the good of each is bound up in the good of all.
The strength which comes and shall come from this wider union of interests and influences can hardly be estimated. We know that the power of woman's influence has been acknowledged in all times; that poets have sung it, and men have delighted to echo the song. Again and again the refrain comes: " The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that moves the world," but that was the influence of individual women and of woman in the abstract. It was very intangible, very indefinite, limited in the main to a narrow circle, or affected a wide range only through narrower, naturally losing force, as all power does, by the greater number of media through which it is transmit- ted before reaching the desired end. Now for the first time that influence is taking on a more definite form, is more surely felt. That it will increase instead of decreasing is but natural, since " it is not the genius of civilized institutions to take away social or political rights that have once been granted." That woman's influence will radically change the character of public affairs is not to be anticipated, since the intellect of woman does not differ essentially from that of man, and it is these two forces, the intel- lectual and the moral, which are to be the controlling forces in the future. The greatest changes and the greatest advantage arising from the new order of things will be to woman herself. The enlarged opportunity of the present time means for her, first of all, the privilege of gaining an independent livelihood, or, in other words, of deciding for herself the direction of her life. How much this signifies, and what a unique privi- lege this has been hitherto, they know best who are most familiar with the social con- dition of woman from barbaric times to the present. There was no choice, so to speak. Marriage was almost the sole opportunity of gaining or obtaining a desirable living, and even then the decision was usually made by parents, brothers or near kindred, and not by the person whose fate was the most concerned. If, as in more recent times, the woman was allowed the choice, it was often necessity rather than free choice which directed her, and too often she was compelled to be governed by motives of prudence rather than inclination.
The narrow means and necessarily contracted habits of the woman who remained unmarried made her an object of silent contempt, not from any fault of her own, but because outside of wedded life and the interests of rearing a family there was no indus- try that offered a worthy compensation for her work, and her whole thought was neces- sarily bent on a narrow economy that could save where it could not earn. The manifold employments that are now open to women, employments that are rapidly increasing year by year, offer for the first time the glad opportunity of avocations that in their way command respect as marriage commands respect. We have only to call the names of Harriet Hosmer, Clara Barton, and others, and proof is at once given. Many less widely known testify to the same effect, and the day is fast passing away when women will be obliged to accept marriage either for the sake of support or to avoid the con- tempt once attached to the unmarried. This freedom of choice naturally increases the respect given to woman, whether the choice she makes is in favor of marriage, or whether she decides to follow a profession. The woman who accepts a husband out of pure and free inclination, conscious that this union is for her the surest opportunity for happiness and usefulness, must stand much higher in the estimation of the husband than the one who marries simply because there is for her no other alternative, while the woman who is wedded to her profession in the thought of bettering her own and the world's condition must gain the respect which is naturally accorded to those who have an earnest purpose in life and steadfastly adhere to it.
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I know it may be said that this large opportunity for women does not necessarily imply greater improvement on their part. It may be said that women in the future, as in the past, will still continue to live in the narrow routine of a circumscribed life; or, if their ambition takes a wider range, it is in the direction of richer apparel, daintier food and costlier living. It may be claimed, too, that in many cases the great advantage offered by the so-called modern improvements have only led to greater complexity of living and still greater perplexity, and that the added leisure furnishes opportunity for added frivolities. The justice of the claim is admitted, but at the same time I am right in refusing to admit that the latter class of women are the representative women of our time. On the contrary, it is the women who are making the absolute best of themselves and of their fortunate surroundings who are the truly representative women of our time. These evince the latent bent, the tendency of the masses, and the success possible to all. A tree is to be judged not alone by its fruits, but by its fairest fruits, because these show its possibilities, these show what the others might have been if earth and air and sunshine had been graciously disposed, and the noble-minded women who are availing themselves of the glad privileges of the present time are the truly representative women because they are those who are shaping the influences which are affecting the masses beneath them, and they are representative women also because all other women would desire the higher rational life if they only had a consciousness of the joy which the rational life alone can give.
If there be any fear lest this higher life, as we are pleased to term it, and these broader opportunities for women may lead them in time to the extreme of ignoring limitations of family life, and of preferring the more public career of business or a profession, so that family life would become distasteful to the extent that the welfare and perhaps even the existence of the race would be in danger, we can reassure ourselves with the fact that nature will take care of all that without any anxiety on our part, for " nowhere is she so sensitive to encroachments as in those matters which lie at the foundation of life." We may cheat, distort and circumvent her in other respects, but nowhere is she so keen, cunning, so absolute and imperative as in this determination for life, this will to live, as Schopenhauer expresses it. Nor need there be any fear lest these higher opportunities open to women shall take away their tenderness, their confiding trust, or any of these finer qualities which are usually termed "womanly;" for the grace which comes from strength is far more graceful than that which comes from languor; the tenderness which comes from efficient sympathy is no less tender because of its efficiency, and the trust which is based on a full recognition of all that love and trust and self-surrender imply is certain to be more permanent than the trust that is based on ignorance.
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