USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. I > Part 19
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Besides this ever exacting home work, Miss Duty gave val- uable service to state and national unions.
The kitchen-garden work was presented to Cleveland for the first time by Miss Anna Huidekuper, of Meadville, Pa. She was a room-mate of Evelyn Rose when attending school in Boston and in their latter correspondence Anna had constantly expressed her delight in a kitchen-garden. At her home in Meadville, through the request of Miss Duty, Evelyn Rose in- vited Miss H. to present it to the W. C. T. U. She came at her request and gave it at their headquarters for two weeks.
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The society afterwards sent to New York for a professional to teach a normal class at a price of two hundred dollars. Classes followed at Central Friendly Inn, at Wilson Avenue Reading Room, Work House and other places. Evelyn often attended the classes at Central Friendly Inn and at one time was asked to accompany Miss Duty to the "flats" where she had been called to see a sick girl of the kitchen garden. They found her dying; the room was cold and bare and but filthy rags for her person.
"Will you kindly bring some underlinen in which to lay her out, and be with me at the service." This she did.
MRS. EMMA B. ELLIOT
Mrs. Elliot has a home for working girls at 8906 Euclid Ave. It has two large dining rooms, a kitchen large enough for the girls to prepare their own meals, a cool large room for iron- ing, and plenty of lockers and refrigerator space for each young housekeeper to keep her individual supplies.
Mrs. Elliot was formerly in charge of the Y. W. C. A. home for transients; before that she was president of the Mill Girls Educational and Recreation Club in Preston, England.
She has been a church visitor for the Euclid Ave. and First Baptist churches during her five years in Cleveland. She is a motherly woman whose heart is in her work, who understands girls' nature and whose efforts to build up a real home for a score or more of the city's young workers is meeting with de- served success.
LIGHT FOR THE DARK CONTINENT
Willis R. Hotchkiss, 3504 Cedar avenue, Cleveland, O., is at the home of his widowed mother. When converted to Chris- tianity he asked the Lord to send him to the worst place in the world. He went almost direct to Eastern Africa, to Mombasa, the terminus of the Uganda Railway. Sixty miles further in- land is Lake Victoria Nyanza, the largest fresh water lake in the world, visible from this station in a clear day. The climate is fine, due to the altitude, 7,500 feet above sea level, although it is but 13 miles south of the equator.
The Lumbwa Mission is where the natives slept in low huts with their cattle. It was dark and damp but he showed them the benefit of a home suitable for human beings and soon had the language so he could teach them about the life after death which was dependent on their habits here. He has made several visits home for sympathy in his work and for material to work with. God has blessed his earnest endeavors. The last time he married a wife who has been of great use to him in leading the natives to see the blessedness of a pure home. The writer knew nothing about the man until she heard him at an evening meeting and asked an usher his name and address and said she would give five dollars. The next evening she called on him with it and invited him to come to dine and then tell her family of his wonderful experience. This he did and she has watched his progress ever since. She will now quote again from this "Light of the Dark Continent."
We have two large stations in the most fertile part of the great highlands of East Africa. One of one thousand acres and one of seventeen hundred acres.
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The first is four miles from Lumbwa Station, the second sixteen miles. Three tribes are depending on us for the Gospel. No lazy man can be a Christian and with rare exception the native African is distinctly lazy. They are in a starving con- dition for months of the year; though they have a rich soil but they will not cultivate it. In 1905 we took care of from 200 to 500 a day for five months.
The British Government officials are placing in our care the sons of native chiefs. At this writing, December, 1909, there are ten of these men coming as far as seventy miles. They are committed to us for four years. These are the men who can retard or accelerate the development of their people. How important then that they should be trained so that they may set an example of Christian purity and Christian usefulness. They devote certain hours every day to industrial work. They are learning to break the soil, plow, and plant wheat, grain and vegetables, and in this way have become self-supporting. We ought, in five years, to have an income of ten thousand dollars, but now the grain has to be reaped by hand and also threshed by hand, which is very wasteful. We have grown excellent wheat thirty-two bushels to the acre; it sells for two dollars per bushel for seed purposes where wheat brought $1.50 for consumption. We must have machinery and implements, then we could put in several hundred acres. Our plowing has been done with oxen. It takes a team of fourteen to break up new land, and as much time to turn around at the end of the furrow as to plow the furrow. We need a traction motor engine capa- ble of pulling six plows to replace this slow method. We have three fine streams and a dam 26 feet high and 240 feet long to furnish power for a turbine wheel. This is to drive a saw mill and small brick-making plant and a lighting plant.
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We will have no difficulty in disposing of the output of the saw mill and brick plant because of the new settlers in this region. We should have a School of Agriculture where the sim- plest methods of farming could be given boys who would take positions as head boys on estates. There can be no question of what is the supreme thing. The devils of lust and lying and dishonesty must be cast out; civilization only veneers savagery. They need a change of heart. Eight of the ten chiefs' sons have made a public confession of Christ and are conforming their living to his teaching. The naked man must be clothed; the lazy man must be induced to work and the improvident man to provide for his own family. You cannot expect him to with- stand the awful pall of the old life of sensual gratification if you fail to give him the means of occupying his time. One old man said, "When I am tempted I go and dig in the fields." We need also a medical mission for natives and Europeans, then follows a list of what is needed, almost all of which have been stated heretofore. There is an office at 541 Lexington avenue, New York City, Rev. C. B. Rutenger or the treasurer, Dr. W. J. Hoag, 541 Lexington avenue, New York. Every cent given goes to the field missionary for Willis R. Hotchkiss.
THE POWER OF KINDNESS
On Christmas day after dining we gathered in a circle and indulged in reminiscences.
L. S. said this: "When a young girl I was in a family where all the children had left home. It was a large house with a fireplace in the sitting room usually aglow from blazing logs. There were plenty of servants and I had nothing to do. Mother was to be found in the kitchen preparing for company of which there was a great many. I said, 'Mother, cannot I take a walk so as to have something to do?" Mother said, 'Go and talk to the horses, and sing with the birds, and feed the chickens; and the horses love sugar.' I gave them some each day, and I climbed the trees and sang with the birds.
"One morning a gentleman guest stood on the porch and said, 'Little girl, what are you doing in that tree?' I said, 'Singing to the birds.' 'Well, be careful or you will fall and hurt yourself.'
"One day a new horse was put in the stable. It was a roan and had a queer eye. I gave it some sugar, and began to pat it, and it would move away. I saw it did not want me to touch it, so I only gave it sugar and talked to it. After a few days I put on a bridle and a saddle which did not fit verv well, and led it out and rode around the yard. This I did several days. Mother noticed it, and she said, 'I want to make some purchases at the store,' and when I said, 'There is no horse but that new one,' she said use that. So I put it in the buggy with some difficulty and we rode to the store. The proprietor came out and at once got on a horse and went to the factory where my
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father was, and said, 'General, your family are at my store with that circus horse. It was never in a buggy before; they will never get home alive.' So both came hurrying back. We were just through our purchases and they said that horse is dangerous, but mother said, 'We came all right. You can ride near to us, but we will go back as we came.' And we did, and the horse was used in the buggy always after that.
"I was sent to the Berg to school, and the teacher said, 'You can never be a good scholar unless you teach. A good teacher is a good scholar.'
"I told mother this and said, 'Can I teach school?' She said, "If you want to, you can.' I had found the names of some directors, so I took the horse and called on one. He said, 'Three of our teachers have left before the term was out. We are in need of a teacher. I will give your name to the Board, which meets tomorrow.' He came to say it was unnecessary as he had seen how I had driven horses that would rear up on their hind feet and then rush ahead at breakneck speed. Then father said, 'I will ask mother.' He consulted her in most things. Then he said, 'Your mother said, "Let her teach."'
"The director offered to be there on the opening of the school, but I said, 'You may introduce me, but I want to try to manage the school myself.'
After the director left I said, "Let us sing. I have books; one and all sing who can. She who had sung alone for years did not need any help. They sang three pieces, and then she said, "It is a law for school teachers to board around among the scholars. I will go to the nearest place tonight," when some one said, "Our teachers only boarded with rich people." But she answered, "It will help me to know your difficulties. I can help you better if I know your parents." One
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place they had for breakfast only bread and molasses and very poor coffee. She wrote a note to mother to send some of her good bread and pies, and she sent two baskets full .. The woman said, "We are poor and cannot give you good food." But I said, "Mother does this all the time. Last month she sent me to a sick family with clean clothes and a basket of food. When I got there I found the father sick in bed with fever, and six children under the age of twelve.
"The mother sat down and was very soon asleep. I washed the baby and put on clean clothes and fed it, and it went to sleep. Then I washed the girl of 12. She was so dirty I hated to touch her. It was growing dark, so I stayed all night. Mother said, 'She will get home in the morning.' That family got well and own fifty acres of land there."
The boys used so much tobacco that they spit great pools on the floor. I said to the school, "We have some boxes at the factory and I will have some put where you spit. Then the sawdust can be emptied."
I went around to help the scholars in their lessons, and had to hold my dress from the spittal. One day a boy said to me, "We are going to stop using tobacco."
"Oh, you cannot. You have used it so long."
"Yes, we are," he said, and one boy was sick in bed for a week in consequence.
The boys had not tried to spit in the boxes, but would see how far they could throw it, and she had moved the boxes sev- eral times so they would use them.
Another boy came and said, "Miss B., you are the first teacher that's tried to help us get our lessons. They would help the rich children but not the poor ones. We want to help you keep the school."
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The director came to say they would hire her for two months more, and would like me next year. Unfortunately the General had sold his factory and they would move to the city. "Did you hear from the scholars?" was asked.
"Yes, I got a letter from one in the West, who said, 'I owe all that I am to you.' Another became a music teacher, I have not told you."
How, when I drove the General to the car at five, he said, "Do not be afraid of highwaymen. The horses will help you to escape." As I got into the ravine a man's hand was laid on the door of the carriage. I brought the whip down on it with all my might. It must have touched the horses, for they reared on their hind feet and then rushed forward up the hill at a furious rate. I did not see the man, but I had noticed one on the top of the hill. Both had disappeared; but I was tired when I got home.
Yes; horses can be taught by kindness to take care of you, and boys can be led to do right if we are just toward them.
CHAUTAUQUA LETTER
The Amphitheater that seats five thousand people, is the center of attraction for all Chautauquans. The air is perfect, for the sides are open and the foliage of giant oaks and beeches seems to shut it in. Various denominations have built head- quarters on streets that surround it. There the music of the choir and the orchestra can be enjoyed.
President Roosevelt's day was the most crowded of any since this great institution was formed, but quiet and order prevailed.
Five arches were built between the men's club house and the Amphitheater. The boys' and girls' clubs joined the parade at this point, scattering flowers in his path and lining the walk. The choir and audience had been drilled to sing the "Star Span- gled Banner" and "America."
The speech of the President was to be at 11 o'clock, but at 8 every seat was filled. After one hour's waiting some one started songs, "The Old Kentucky Home," "Dixie's Land," "The Red, White and Blue," and others. At 10:30, the one hundred gentle- men that had had breakfast with him at Higgin's Hall, came in and filled the rostrum. Among them was Jacob A. Riis and Kermet, the President's son, a bright lad of fourteen years.
The Chautauqua salute of white handkerchiefs hid the audience from view for a moment, then the choir sang "Dixie," by special request of the President, and the "Star Spangled Banner" was sung by the audience. Enthusiasm was at its height as never before. Hundreds packed the aisles, and the sides were filled with wet umbrellas of those who stood outside in the pouring rain.
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The President, with a loud clear voice and few gestures, began at once to tell us of the condition of Cuba and Porto Rico and the duties of the United States to those who yet need our care. He explained the arduous task of Congress to administer justice to all when trusts with laws of their own were opposed to any change.
The subject was too serious for applause. We listened to hear the subject from one who has an inside view. "Put your- self in his place," is the motto we ought to follow in order to do perfect justice. He had seen the greed of the millionaire, has felt the serious delay to business by strikes, and said in closing, "The great American Republic will go down as others have in the past, if good laws cannot be enforced. Justice is the founda- tion of life."
If President Roosevelt does nothing more than to impress the minds of the youth of the next generation that "To live and let live" is the only true policy, and on that we can ask the bless- ing of the Eternal Father, he will have been the author of an American Revolution equal to that of the French Republic.
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PREPARED FOR CHAUTAUQUA COURSE, A GRADU- ATE IN 1905
Frances Peter William Guizot was born October 4, 1787, in the south of France. He died in 1874. He first learned the carpenter's trade, then was a college student and journalist. At 25 he was a teacher in the University of France.
Two years later he was Secretary of Interior under Louis XVIII and ambassador to England in 1840 when 53 years of age. He desired to be known as a statesman. He introduced in his History of the Civilization of France and England a new and broader view of the facts of history which are now accepted.
In politics he believed in a property qualification in the elector or voter. This satisfied neither people nor the nobility. He was suspended as a teacher in the university for three years. Then he wrote histories of science and was assisted by his wife in these papers.
The French Review of the World, "Memoires of French History," "Memoires of the English Revolution," and reviewed Shakespeare and Voltaire.
He reorganized the system of education, knew Thiers, who succeeded him to the presidency of the French republic; both had been journalists. Guizot searched records and old files of papers. Thiers talked with the old for his ideas.
Guizot wrote the life of George Washington, the ideal pat- riot. Guizot was secretary of state after his ambassadorship to England and was the leader of the cabinet. He believed dep- uties should be salaried officers. He saw no peril in it. He said
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they were better able to act because of their knowledge of af- fairs, but they confounded the interests of the state with their own interests, and were blind to the general interest of all.
In 1848 he was a fugitive with the king. The universal suffragists considered him their worst enemy. The contempt of the literary circle for that of the commercial is still to be seen as a result of Guizot's teaching.
He returned to Paris to lecture before the Academy of Science. His first wife had a literary reputation and was a strong character. She died in 1827. His second wife was her niece and died in 1833. Four years later he founded the French Historical Society to preserve all records, which is still in ex- istence.
He increased the public schools and had them controlled by a Board of Education. He said the strong minds came from college, the distance between the intellectual and the real world was too great. He would not concentrate the schools in Paris, but have four universities.
He said, "Old age has no hold on men who follow ideal pur- suits." The middle class seeking to advance itself gives prog- ress. The middle class gone, there was nothing to withstand the enemy.
Freedom of investigation has constantly clashed with cen- tralization of power.
For Chautauqua Examinations
Louis Adolphus Thiers was born at Marseilles in 1797. He studied by means of a scholarship, for his parents were not prosperous. At 18 years he went to Aix to study law and had a friend in the historian Marquet.
He won three prizes for essays. One purported to come from Paris and so received the reward. He and Migut went
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to Pons in 1821 and he was on the editorial staff of the daily called "The Constitution."
It took the side of the people. He also tried art criticism. He wrote a book called "The Pryenees and South France." It was a political pamphlet. He wrote "The French Revolution" in ten volumes, collecting reports from the people, as he did for newspaper work and it was full of life and very popular, though perhaps not accurate.
He belonged to the Third Estate. It made him the leader of a party, for he wished his own social class should have a part in public affairs.
In appearance he was short and ugly looking. His first speech was a failure; his second speech was witty, logical and clear and made him so popular he was made Secretary of the Interior by Napoleon III.
He added to his reputation by his "History of the Con- sulate and the Empire" and taken from the files of the govern- ment, it is of great value. Its clear style and rapid narration of events made it popular with the people. He would prize success and blame failure.
He entered the legislature as deputy from Paris. He asked for what he called "necessary liberties" that of the press and the individual and of ministerial responsibility and said there was danger in refusing them.
France desired fame and therefore he favored the Crimean War against Austria for Italy and of Mexico. Thiers accepted the republic to preserve the fruits of the Revolution but when the emperor was deposed, Thiers would not consent to be part of the third republic that believed in universal suffrage.
His lack of decision and thoroughness alienated some peo- ple. The liberal constitution was left to the vote of the people
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and was ratified. He was blamed for his military interference with Prussia and the war France declared against Germany, still he said France was in no condition to resist Von Moltke's disciplined army and went to London and Vienna to intercede and thus prevent the war.
Gambetta did not wish an inglorious peace and as the siege dragged on he went in a balloon across the fields to solicit men and means. Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to Germany, as Bismarck would accept nothing less, and also a sum of one bil- lion dollars.
The Germans were to be withdrawn in proportion as the impact was paid. In 1893 the last dollar was given and Gam- betta cried out, "The credit is due to our President Thiers."
The army was brought from Bordeaux to Versailles. Some of the public buildings were burned; both royalists and Jocobins were alarmed. Thiers was nominated to stand for Paris in the third republic, but a stroke of apoplexy caused his death before he was elected, September 3, 1877, at 80 years of age.
His will revealed he had bequeathed his collection of pic- tures and statues to the nation and his prize essay money to es- tablish the French Academy, and his widow left five prizes for the scientific associations to give scholars.
Gambetta, born April, 1838, his father a grocer. He was educated at the high school of Cohoes in Southern France. He lost one eye at 18 years of age, but was a fairly good student.
He came to Paris at 19 years of age and took lodgings in the Latin quarter. He spent his evenings in cafes where litera- ture, politics and philosophy were discussed. He spoke a great deal and used every opportunity with a voice that cut off phrases like a pendulum and stamped words like a medallion. He as- similated everything, had an enormous supply of facts and was ready to direct a country in time of storm.
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Gambetta knew the secret of making men useful by win- ning their affection. He was careless in dress, thereby disarm- ing envy. His voice overwhelmed all others. The flow of words; swept away criticism. Lawyers admired his eloquence.
He ridiculed what had been accomplished and it was heard in every part of France. It provided for a senate and chamber of deputies and they could elect a president to hold office for seven years. He was not for an electoral college, but by adopt- ing it he saved a return to monarchy.
MacMahon, not elected by the people, made his cabinet too conservative to suit Gambetta. At the next election Gambetta caught the popular ear and MacMahon resigned and Gambetta was famed for his newspaper articles. He asked for the sup- pression of clerical schools, unauthorized by government, and the discharge of officers not Republican.
James Grevy took the place of MacMahon. Gambetta pre- sided over the chamber. He was for uniting several deputies in a department, but it offended many who had their impor- tance thus diminished.
It met with little response and he returned to the house where Balzac had lived. He was accidentally wounded by a pistol shot, which resulted in appendicitis, and died December 1, 1882.
His statue is in the square of the Louvre and part of the epitaph is :
"It depends on you to show to the universe what a great people who will not perish, is."
Letter from Mrs. W. G. Rose, delegate of The Chautauqua Woman's Club, to the National Woman's Clubs at their meet- ing in Los Angeles, 1903.
LETTER FROM MR.SW. G. ROSE
San Francisco of 300,000 inhabitants has the business of a much larger city. The stores are artistic and well stocked. The people seem preoccupied and are bronzed by the sun. We took the steam cars to the Cliff house and watched the great seals as they raised their heads, with each dash of the waves. Most of them were stretched on the rocks, basking in the sunshine, but two, which they call Ben Butler and his wife, were very playful.
We passed through Golden Gate Park, which is laid out with sidewalks or drives, but few flowers. The field daisy made a white border to Palm avenue. Statues of Goethe and others stood, at the side. In the evening Mrs. Harris of Japan showed us the Japanese school. It is divided into about ten classes of fifteen each. Some were writing English from dictation; others translating sentences and others reading from a second reader. It is a tedious process, and if done when children the drudgery would not seem so great. These all expect to return to Japan and will carry with them many of the American customs. There is a large chapel with cabinet organ, and a native who spoke English perfectly, sang for us "America," "Star Spangled Ban- ner" and the Japanese national hymn, which is very beautiful. Mrs. Harris translated the words. Mr. Harris is presiding elder and has charge of numerous stations on the Pacific coast. The Japanese minister in charge is very successful in his efforts and has service week days and Sundays. They have a weekly re- ligious paper, also a daily, printed in Japanese, with home and foreign news. They desire a larger library, their only one is that of Rev. Mr. Harris.
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