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 13
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In those far centuries' Tomorrows, Yea! even human sorrows:
Thou art immortal on thy dazzling throne,
Thou wert not meant for Time alone, For Time
Is but a measure in Life's song sublime;
And thou wilt shine-shine on forevermore
Lighting the way to that mysterious door,
That radiant door-starred with the mystic seven
From out the world's high noon to the high noon of Heaven.
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WOMEN IN THE GREEK DRAMA. EXTRACTS FROM JULIA WARD HOWE'S LECTURE.
In some of the comedies of Aristophanes the women's cause is presented in a light intended to provoke ridicule.
MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE.
The great comedian, it is thought, was moved to present these impersonations by those passages in Plato's republic in which the political rights of women arc asserted as precisely similar to those of men, that is, from the point of view of ideal justice.
Barring the indecencies which belong to the com- mon taste of the time, and which are largely omitted in translations, the Greck of Aristophanes docs not appear to me very damaging to our position as advo- cates of the rights of women. In one of these plays, Lysistrata, the women of Athens, weary of the absence of their husbands in the Peloponnesian war, take the negotiation of the peace into their own hands. Lysistrata, the leading spirit among them, has summoned together the women from various parts of Greece, with the view of wresting the man- agement of public affairs from the hands of the men entrusted with them, and of putting an end to the sinuous and devastating war. Whether intentionally or not, Aristophanes puts very sensible reasoning into the mouth of this leader among the women. * *
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Aristophanes, despite his satirical intention, preserves for us pictures of the Athenian women of his own time. Quick witted, public spirited, as far as opportu- nity will allow, devoutly attached to married life, a thrifty domestic worker and cal- culator, this is, or was, the reality. For ideal types we must go to those dramatists who deal with the historic and mythic traditions of the past. I have before me at this moment a vivid picture of two such women shown in startling contrast
The Siege of Troy is over, and the beacons have flashed from one watch tower to another the signal of victory. The watchman, weary with ten years' waiting, thanks you that his long task is ended, and flies to communicate the good news to Agamemnon's Queen, Clytemnestra, who soon appears upon the stage with boastful words of exulta- tion, beneath which she veils her wicked purpose. A herald arrives in haste to confirm the welcome tidings of the fall of Troy. Clytemnestra parleys with the chorus, express- ing the joy she would be expected to feel in her husband's victory and near return. She says: "What light more welcome to a woman's eyes than this? When Heaven sends back her husband from the wars, to open him the gates? Go, tell my lord to come at his best speed, desired by all; so would he find at home a faithful wife, just
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe is a native of New York City. She was born May 27, 1819. Her parents were Samnel and Julia Cntler Ward ; she was educated at private schools in New York, and devoted much time to the study of foreign languages and literature ; has traveled six times to Enrope, once to Egypt and Palestine, and twice to California. She married Dr. Samnel Gridley Howe, the eminent philanthropist and teacher of Laura Bridgman. Her special work has been in the inter- est of literary and philosophical culture, and of woman suffrage and higher education of woman. Her principal literary works are "Words for the Hour," "Trip to Cnba," "Later Lyrics," "Life of Margaret Fuller," " From the Oak to the Olive," "Modern Society," and " Memoir of Dr. Samuel G. Morse." In religious faith she is a Unitarian of the Channing or James Freeman Clarke school. Her postoffice address is 241 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.
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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
as he left her, watch-dog by. his house, to him all kindness, to his foes a foe, and for the rest unaltered."
In the female characters put upon the stage by Sophocles we can trace within the influence of his friend Socrates, or the sympathy of view which may have formed the bond between them. My present limits will only allow me to speak of two of these characters, Electra and Antigone. Both of these women are rebels against authority. In both of them high courage is combined with womanly sweetness and purity. Electra is the unhappy eldest daughter of the murdered Agamemnon, con- demned to live in the daily sight of her mother's contented union with her paramour, the accomplice of her bloody crime. In this crowned triumph of evil Electra does not for one moment acquiesce. Her first act after her father's death had been to con- vey her child brother, Orestes, to a place of safe concealment. Her only hope in life is that he will return to avenge his father's untimely end. In her first appearance upon the scene she bewails the tragedy of her house.
" And thou, my father, hast no pity gained, Though thou a death hast died so grevious and so foul; But I, at least, will never, while I live, Refrain mine eyes from tears, Nor get my voice from wailings sad and sore; But, like a nightingale of brood bereaved, Before the gates, I speak them forth to all."
In the Clytemnestra of Æschylus we are shown the full, fiery sweep of feminine passion, in the height and boast of its rebellion redeemed from vileness by the dread- ful antecedent of Iphigenia's sacrifice, and the unquenchable anger sternly kindled in the mother's breast. In his Cassandra we have the wild sibyl, gifted with superhuman insight and touched with divine fire, but all unable to avert the doom which she fore- sees.
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And in these gracious and more purely feminine types presented by Sophocles, we admire the union of womanly tenderness with womanly courage.
NEEDLEWORK AS TAUGHT IN STOCKHOLM.
By MLLE. HULDA LUNDIN.
Educational methods of the present day demand that instruction in general shall be given according to a carefully considered plan, which shall be at the same time simple, logical and progressive. It is not sufficient to give out lessons to be committed to memory; these must also be thoroughly explained and illustrated by the teacher. Suitable mediums of instruction must be sought and class-teaching maintained in order to insure thoroughness and inspire interest. It is a mat- ter of great satisfaction that these principles have been adopted in all instruction from books; but if one examines the methods heretofore employed in manual teaching of needlework training whose educational value can hardly be overrated, the strange fact is dis- covered, that as a rule not one trace of the intelligent principles governing instruction in other subjects is to be found here. Therefore, while instruction in all other branches has developed, that in manual training has remained in its old, elementary condition. Man- ual training has been regarded as an outside branch, not subject to the same laws as other educational branches, whereas it ought to stand side by side with them, because it has the same educational aim to ful- fill. The aim of the instruction in Girls' Sloyd (this MILLE. HULDA LUNDIN. term embraces in Sweden all kinds of handiwork) is : First, to exercise hand and eye; second, to quicken the power of thought; third, to strengthen love of order; fourth, to develop independence; fifth, to inspire respect for carefully and intelligently executed work, and at the same time to prepare girls for the execution of their domestic duties.
The instruction has two objects in view: (a) It shall be an educational medium; (6) It shall fit the girls for practical life. But if the desired aim is to be reached, the fundamental principles of pedagogics must be applied to manual training.
Formerly, satisfaction was felt with purely mechanical skill in manual training, when the only thought was to procure even, beautiful stitches in sewing; while the practical skill required in measure-taking, cutting-out and planning a piece of work, was wholly neglected. The introduction of the sewing machine has developed entirely new conditions. We must now tell our pupils something the machine cannot perform, namely: To take measures, to draft patterns, to cut out, to put together and to arrange garments; also to train them to skill in darning, mending and marking at the same time that we teach them to take correct stitches. This desired result is not easily attained, but experience has proved that it is best reached by, first, practical
Mlle. Hulda Lundin is a native of Christianstad (Skåne), Sweden. She was born in 1847. She was educated at various Swedish schools in her native town and at Stockholm. She has traveled in England, Scotland, Italy, Germany, France, Bel- gium, Denmark, Norway, Ireland and America. As one of the leading educators of today she has an established position. Her principal literary works are "Dressmaking" (for schools), "Female Sloyd," and "French Schools." She is at present superintendent of needlework in the public schools of Stockholm, and there has introduced many new and excellent methods of training. In religious faith she is a Lutheran. Belongs to Idun (Woman's Club), Woman's Suffrage League, and varions educational societies. Her permanent postoffice address is Brunkevrgs Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden.
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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
demonstration on the subject; second, progressive order with regard to the exercises; third, class instruction.
First: Practical demonstration in sewing is accomplished by means of a sewing frame, and in knitting by means of large wooden needles and colored balls of yarn; at the same time blackboard drawings are constantly being made. "With a piece of chalk and a blackboard a teacher can work wonders," I once heard a clever teacher say. Even if this were somewhat overstated, as I readily admit, it is nevertheless true that a teacher who understands the value of these media can, by their help, reach remarkably good results. French schools furnish fine proof of this. As no one is born a master, and as we cannot afford to cast away material at hand, it is necessary, until skill is obtained, to make use of preparatory exercises, but much judgment must be exercised in their use. I consider it to be a great mistake to keep pupils engaged term after term with preparatory exercises which they may not put into practice till long after, and by the time they are needed have perhaps forgotten. As soon as an exercise is well learned it should be applied to something useful, either in the school or at home. In this way the pupil's interest is awakened and strengthened. The child will, in such a case, see a result of its work such as it can understand. And, moreover, the parents' sympathy with the instruction is won.
Second. Progressive order with regard to the exercises: The exercises are planned and carried out in the most strictly progressive order, so as to enable the pupils to execute well the work required of them. Nothing is more discouraging to see than a badly executed piece of work. "One cannot expect more of a child" is given as a kind of excuse. This may sometimes be true, but one can expect that a teacher will not give a child exercises beyond its capabilities and before which it must fail. To fail continually has an injurious effect on a child's character. No; let us take simple exercises; let us execute them well, have our aim well in view and not be dis- couraged even if the result looks plain and simple. In other words, in manual train- ing, as in other subjects, there should be a systematic plan, which is simple, logical and progressive.
Third. Class instruction: When instruction became obligatory in our schools, and it was necessary to have from thirty to forty pupils, and sometimes more, in one class, class instruction became an absolute necessity, and it was soon found that develop- ment of the individual was better secured through its means than when each pupil received instruction by herself. Strangely enough, one subject-manual training- remained unreformed, to the great injury of the subject; for, by appealing to the whole class at once, a teacher can secure the attention of her pupils and awaken a lively interest in the work. Her teaching can then be deep and interesting. The teacher finds time to talk about form, size, and reasons for doing this or that. Yes, the pupils even find time to think out why things shall be so and not so, and discover the best way to carry out an exercise. In this way the instruction becomes both developing and educating, and the pupils lay a firm foundation on which to build further in the future. But class teaching is only an effect, and should not be an aim. One must not have the mistaken idea that the teacher is to guide every step. Far from it. It is only the new in every exercise which should be explained to the whole class. After the pupils have learned through explanation and illustration what they must do, and how they shall do it, they should work independently of each other. Meanwhile, the teacher should go around the class, and notice whether all the pupils are performing correctly the required exercises. She should at the same time observe the position of hand and body, also whether the pupils hold their work at a proper distance from their eyes, so that they may not gain skill at the expense of their eyesight. The teacher of manual work should not only instruct, but also educate the pupils as well. Therefore the choosing of teachers is not an insignificant matter. Besides manual dexterity, teachers ought to be possessed of pedagogical skill. Therefore, for the training of teachers in manual training either special normal schools should be estab- lished, or-what without doubt is better-existing normal schools should place man-
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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
ual training in their curriculum on an equal footing with other branches of education. That is now done in Sweden and in several other countries in Europe. Not only girls, but the younger boys, should be instructed in girls' sloyd. The boys should be taught this because it introduces variety and interest, trains the hand and eye, and renders them able, in case of necessity, to darn their stockings and mend their garments. From the foregoing we deduce the following:
First-Practical demonstration in sewing is accomplished by means of a sewing frame, and in knitting by means of large wooden needles and colored balls of yarn. At the same time blackboard drawings are constantly being made.
Second .- The exercises are planned and carried out in the most strictly pro- gressive order, so as to enable the pupils to execute well the work required of them.
Third .- The instruction in sloyd should -- like that in other branches-be given to the whole class at the same time, otherwise the time which the teacher could devote to cach pupil separately would be insufficient to secure the desired results.
In order to illustrate the progress from the simple to the more complex in the teaching of sloyd, we give the following class divisions of the subjects which are in use at the present time in the public schools of Stockholm:
School age, seven to fourteen for both girls and boys.
CLASS I .- Plain knitting with two needles-a pair of garters. Plain knitting-a pair of warm wristers.
CLASS II .- Plain knitting-a towel. Practice in the different kind of stitches: running, stitching, hemming and overcasting-a lamp mat. The application of the already named stitches -- one small and one large needle workbag.
CLASS III .--- A needlework case. Simple darning on canvas-a mat for a candle- stick. An apron.
CLASS IV .- Girls. Plain and purl knitting -- slate eraser and a pair of mittens. A plain chemisc.
CLASS V .-- Knitting-a pair of stockings. Drawing the pattern, cutting out and making a chemisc.
CLASS VI .- Patching on colored material. Plain stocking darning; buttonholes. Buttons made of thread. Sewing on tapes, hooks and eyes. Drawing the pattern, cutting out and making a shirt or a pair of drawers.
CLASS VII .- Fine darning and marking. Drawing the pattern for a dress. Cut- ting out articles such as are required in Standards II-IV. Drawing the pattern, cut- ting out and making a dress.
The time given to needlework: Class I, two hours a week; Classes II, III and IV, four hours a week; Classes V and VI, five hours a week; Class VII, six hours a week.
COMPLETE FREEDOM FOR WOMEN. By MISS AGNES M. MANNING.
I advocate freedom for the woman because it will elevate her politically, socially, financially and morally. It has been well said that without it, on the roll of her country she has no recognized status. She is classified with minors, idiots, Indians and criminals.
Man has followed the words liberty and equality through seas of blood in his attempts to wrest their meaning to apply to himself. The woman, however, who stood by his side, who endured his hardships and followed him into all his dangers, who was his patient slave, his uncomplaining victim, for six thousand years, he has never allowed to share either his liberty or equality. In the earlier ages he made no explanation for this wrong. He did what the Sioux and the Apache does today-he condemned her to be a mere beast of burden, performing the menial task he con- sidered beneath himself.
Among the Hebrews, a woman who had given birth to a child was excluded from the sanctuary for forty days if it were a son, but if it were a daughter she must remain away eighty days. In Athens the father of a girl ordered in disgust that a distaff should be suspended outside of his door, instead of the garland of olive with which he had hoped to announce the birth of a boy. In Sparta, of every ten children abandoned because the state did not choose to rear them seven were girls. In Rome every newly born child was placed at its father's feet. If he took it up it was the signal of life and care. When too many daughters came, he turned away, and the unwelcome girl was condemned to death.
Under the Feudal system, the birth of a girl was considered a misfortune. When Jeanne de Valois was presented to her father, Louis XI., being his first child, he would not even look at her, and forbade all public rejoicing.
We know how the Salic law of France came to shut a daughter out from the throne. It was an old barbaric law that had not been enforced since the Franks were converted to Christianity. It was suddenly sprung upon the legitimate heir, a defense- less baby girl. She was defrauded by the relative that should have been the first to protect her. Nature, as if in revenge, gave him only a daughter, and by his own decreed law she could not succeed him. Napoleon divorced the faithful Josephine, but the son he coveted never reigned in France. Fate here, too, placed the grand- child of the wronged Josephine, by her first marriage, on the temporary throne.
In England, in every entailed estate, great is the disappointment at the birth of a girl instead of a boy and heir.
" In France," says a well-known writer, " If you ask a peasant about his family, he answers: 'I have no children; I have only daughters."" The Breton farmer says to this day when a daughter is born, " My wife has had a miscarriage."
The old religion of our Bible, while it lifted women to the level of the prophets with one hand, branded her as inferior with the other. The harem began with the Patriarchs. They took the vile institution from Babylon. ' The early kings added to their wives as a man adds to his acres. They were the visible signs of his wealth.
Miss Agnes M. Manning is principal of the Webster School, San Francisco, Cal. She has lived so long in the Golden State that, although not a native daughter, she calls herself a Californian. Her first signed literary work was for the "Oak- land Monthly," when Bret Harte was editor. Some of her poems have been published in a volume of " Californian Writers." She has written sketches of travel, essays, various poems and short stories. She is a member of the Century Club, one of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Coast Woman's Press Association, and also member of the California Botanical Club. Her postoffice address is 1215 Sutter street, San Francisco, Cal.
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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
No polygamist ever rose above a contempt for woman. Every libertine has it. You are safe in estimating a man's character by his valuation of your sex.
In these old days, and for long generations after, no woman's consent to her own marriage was asked. Look at the story of Leah and Rachel. Leah is forced upon Jacob as an extra animal might be, and accepted in the same manner. A woman was only valued for the children she produced. We have a graphic picture of the agony and despair of Rachel, because she knew if she were childless she must descend to a lower social level than her unloved sister.
All the progress of civilization has been retarded through unfairness to women. No person, people or race that is discriminated against ever attains the highest possible development. If woman, through her servitude, ignorance and subordination did not help to raise man, she yet had power to often drag him down to her own low standard. She was a clog in his advancement, and he knew it. All literature is full of the biting scorn for the poor creature who was content to take the role he gave her. No man respects the woman that willingly accepts a slavish subordination. No man ever did respect her, and when he enacted such brutalities as that a husband might chastise his wife with a stick of a certain thickness, or appropriate her fortune or her earnings, she was his slave and not his equal.
Time, and a certain enlightenment, have made him ashamed of these old savage- ries. In later years he has dropped the tone of the tyrant and taken up that of the hypocrite. He now pretends that he allows her no voice in the making of her own laws, and keeps her in childish subjection for her own good. Fancy any man allow- ing another man to openly defraud him of all real liberty under any such flimsy pre- tence. The theory would be blown to the winds, and men would rise in revolution against it. Yet this is what many men expect women not only to accept-they have forced them to do that-but also to believe.
Man likes a willing slave, and so for all the ages he has taken care to have her taught that her highest happiness lies in belonging to him. His needs, his comforts, his pleasures, his surroundings, his ambitions, his hopes and joys are her chief con- cern. He has taken good care to teach her that her prize in life is the chance of min- istering unto him. He has implanted in her mind that her greatest good fortune is to be chosen by him. He has heaped ridicule through the ages on every woman that escaped him. He has taught girls to look on a woman's single life as a waste of herself because he was excluded from it. The highest aim of a woman is to be a wife and mother. He never allowed that the highest aim of a man is to be a husband and a father. Yet all that is high, sacred and beautiful in wifehood and motherhood was meant by a just Lord to be equally high, sacred and beautiful in husbandhood and fatherhood. He has, moreover, denied her any other means of earning her bread. For long centuries he gave her matrimony or starvation to choose between; often she discovered this to be a choice between evils.
There have always been in all ages small minorities of men who have opposed the degradation of women. True religion has always opposed it. The Divine Com- mandments were not given to a woman. They were given to Moses to be kept by men. In Christianity you find no doctrine that makes one color of a sin for a woman and another for a man. On the contrary their sins are equal, and must be expiated the same way. "With us," cries the great St. Jerome, " what is commanded of woman is commanded of man." The laws of Christ and the laws of emperors are not the same. The old law stoned a woman to death for betraying her husband; or it con- demned her to be expelled with a whip from under the conjugal roof and chased naked through the town, or exposed on a pillar in the public square. On all sides curses and blows were flung at her by men, who called her sin a " fault" only when it was com- mitted by themselves.
Among such laws appeared the Master, and, lo! the unfortunate is dragged before him. His answer tore the veil from hypocrisy, and was the first wedge in breaking the heavy chains of woman's bondage.
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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
God does not send sons into one family and daughters into another. He sends them together to grow up in peace and love around one hearth, and to help, not to defraud, each other in after life. Society, however, as man has made it, consistently tries to forget the lessons of Christianity. It deals out very different punishments for the sister and the brother. His sins are " wild oats," errors of youth, and, if continued into age, a man's mistakes; but hers are crimes from the first, and no life of penitence can ever wash away the stain.
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