USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. II > Part 23
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November 15 .- Delegates of W. C. T. U. Convention re- ceived. Remarks by Mrs. Isabella H. Demorest. Song, Mr. W. S. Dickerson. Solo, Mrs. Will Chamberlain. Paper, Mrs. Belle K. Adams. Talk, "Physical Culture," Mrs. Lee Caldwell. Orig- inal poem read by Mrs. Lydia Hoyt Farmer. Talk, "Moses True Brown," Miss Flora Harroff. Reading, Mrs. Tucker.
November 22 .- Recitation, Miss Flora Harroff. Song, Mrs. C. S. Maltbie. Address, Mrs. Chika Sakurai.
December 6 .- Subject of program, "The Drama." Paper on "The Drama of the Sixteenth Century," Rev. Marion Mur- doch. Solo, Mrs. E. C. Kenney. Recitation, Mrs. Moon-Parker. Remarks, Mrs. Tucker. Reading, Miss Harroff. Recitation, Mrs. O. C. Lawrence. Song, Mrs. Glass.
MRS. M. H. BARRETT, Chronologist.
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ARTICLES AND ADDRESSES THE GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS
Article Presented to Sorosis by Mrs. W. G. Rose, May, 1894
The recent Biennial Meeting of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, was held in Philadelphia, the second larg- est city in the United States, and was convened in the largest auditoriums of that city, the Opera House and Academy of Music. Women of national reputation addressed the meeting, and many of the questions for discussion were important.
The railroads gave special rates, and even a special car where the number exceeded twenty-five. Boston sent 125 club members, Chicago 75, and Cleveland 31. As only two delegates can represent a club, no matter what is its size, it was a surprise that so many were willing to bear the expense and give the time to attend.
Our route, by way of Washington, was an extra attraction, and half of us remained over to visit the Capital, Mt. Vernon, and other points of interest. The cars to Mt. Vernon were full. The electric road from Alexandria was over classic ground. Its lawn, shaded with magnificent oaks and elms, stretched back to the old mansion, and no doubt was once the scene of important consultations between Washington and his generals.
The library has some rare books. Those of Lafayette have but recently been added to it, although nearly a century in transit.
Various portraits are in the parlor, one of Washington in his youth, another taken by Gilbert Stuart at the close of the war. Portraits of his generals are also to be seen.
Every room remains as it was when the family occupied the house. Washington is one of whom a nation may be proud. His ancestry, his education, his fortune, his equipage, all speak of a high rank and noble birth.
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The garden is surrounded by a high hedge of boxwood, and divided by a lower one as by a ribbon with loops and folds, in each of which is growing some special flower. From the front verandah of the mansion we can see through the trees the broad Potomac and the steamers which ply back and forth.
To the left are the monuments to the memory of the loved family.
At three o'clock we were at the Capital of our nation. We spent a few minutes in the House and then in the Senate, but enjoyed more the statues of our heroes in the rotunda. When shall we have America's Westminster Abbey, and make the resting-places of our honored dead a spot where our children's children can see them and retain a more vivid memory of their deeds ?
At five o'clock we left on a special car for Philadelphia. The engine that drew us was fed by coke, in order that there should be no dust. The Hotel Metropole was full, and we were provided for in the new and elegant Rittenhouse. Baths and connecting rooms made our stay there very agreeable and delightful.
The Century Club House on Twelfth street was erected but two years ago. The stockholders are all women and members of the club. The club pays a rental of $3,500 yearly, another society pays $800 and another $500.
The drawing-room, or auditorium, will seat six hundred. It was rented more than three hundred times during the year, at twenty dollars per session. The first floor is occupied by offices of the club, a parlor, reception-room and dining-room. It was used for the reception of delegates the first evening of the meeting. Refreshments-strawberry ice, small cakes and lemonade-were served. The drawing-room was thronged with
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club members in full dress, and presented a brilliant picture. Mrs. Brown, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and Mrs. Charles Henrotin received together. Mrs. Sewell, Mrs. Rachel Avery, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and Mrs. Edna C. Cheney were at the entrance of the hall. The Federa- tion heard reports from new clubs in the Federation, and had the election of officers in the club-house. Committee meetings were also held there.
Ohio appointed a committee of five to look after a State Federation.
The questions arose: Shall we meet alternate years of the General Federation? Shall we meet in Columbus as the guests of some club? Shall we take up the subjects of the Federation of the State of Maine, or shall we confine ourselves to the sub- ject of the smallest club of the State? Those of Maine are questions of national importance. Some of them are as follows:
How far shall industrial training be admitted to our schools? Does kindergarten teaching add to the development of the child? Shall we subsidize our merchant marine? Shall we subsidize our theatres, as is done by royalty in Europe, so as to have pure plays only? Shall our natural monopolies be con- ducted by the government?
The meetings in the Academy of Music were by representa- tive women, and by States. Mrs. Benjamin F. Taylor was heartily applauded in the midst of her address. She spoke of the Sanitary Commission and the Women's Christian Temper- ance Union as great educators of women and as preparatory to club work. Mrs. Henrotin closed the exercises by foretelling the possibilities of clubs in the work of the world.
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CORALS
Paper Read by Mrs. S. M. Perkins, at Meeting of Sorosis, June 15, 1893
In the study of geology, we sometimes feel a little wearied with the difference of opinion of the learned ones who seek to instruct us. When one scientific man tells us that the world is fifty millions of years old, another that it is thirty millions, another twenty millions, we wonder which one is right.
We lay aside our books and turn reverently to the Book, and we read that in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. Did he really intend that we should find out that beginning? Well, we are seeking to do this, and we do find a great deal to interest us in learning all about the formation of soils and rocks, the earthquakes and the volcanoes, the rivers and the oceans, the icebergs and the glaciers.
But, when we come to corals, the wonderful creations of the little, insignificant animals that have builded the beautiful isles of the tropics, we exclaim with one of old, "In wisdom hast thou made them all."
The corals are truly a revelation to us that God is infinite in little things as well as in great things.
The little animals that do this work are soft, like jelly, but draw lime from the salt waters till ninety-five per cent of their bodies are lime. Generations of these bodies form a funeral pile that harden into land. Thus the whole state of Florida, south of St. Augustine, was made from these coral deposits. New reefs form after the old ones become solid land, making the Florida coast dangerous to ships. The whole town of Key West is dependent upon the wrecking business for its existence.
Corals reproduce by budding, branching and also by eggs.
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The eggs have the power of locomotion. As soon as they are extruded they swim away, not below one hundred feet, how- ever, and there, if they can find a lodging place, they soon form a coral tree or a coral head, then this spreads in every direction till a coral forest appears, where the conditions are favorable.
Finally these limestone formations of thousands of gener- ations of coral forests, living and dying upon the same spot, together with shells and fish bones, and living accumulations, constitute a coral reef. These reefs represent so much hardness taken from the sea waters. The living corals thrive upon the ancestral piles of their ancestors.
Before I ever studied geology, I used to think that some- how these little animals made the coral isles and coral reefs, but I did not know that they gave their own little bodies, their own little lives as an offering. They give all that they have, themselves. This sacrifice has now become the poetry of nature.
Travelers wonder at the beauty of these tropical coral islands of the sea.
The most beautiful coral fringes are around some of these islands. Sometimes these fringes become detached from the land and form circular reefs at a little distance. Openings in these reefs allow ships to pass in and remain secure during the winds and tornadoes. They are harbors of refuge to the sailors during the tropical storms. At other places in the tropical seas, lagoons are formed with the circular coral reels around them. The white foam of the ocean mingles with the beauty, till the scene resembles the work of fairy fingers, and the de- scription reads like a chapter from the "Arabian Nights'" entertainment.
Those of our science class who have seen the various specimens of coral to be found in our own Western Reserve
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College and also in the Case School of Applied Science, know very well about the extreme beauty of the Madupul coral, the brain coral, the coral heads and also the petrified coral that comes to us from the northern part of Lake Superior, showing us that our interesting chain of lakes was once salt water.
A few summers ago, a party of scientific men from the Johns Hopkins University chartered a ship and sailed away to explore some of the coral islands of the Bahama group. They reached the little island, where they intended to remain six weeks, reached there on the Sabbath, but they found a religious people there who would not let them land on the Sabbath day. On Monday, bright and early the natives came to help them off. There were no horses on the island, hence the men, women and children loaded themselves with their goods and scientific in- struments, and helped them to settle a temporary home. The people showed them every kindness, imparted all the informa- tion they could regarding the formation of their island, and every day brought them coral and other interesting specimens.
It was a most delightful summer's rest to the party, and they returned enriched in coral lore.
But the question comes to scientific people, how do the animals find a starting point when they can not live lower in the sea water than one hundred feet? On what do they lay the foundation of a circle around a lagoon, for instance?
Some suppose that circular coral reefs were builded upon the crater of some extinct volcano.
In the Mediterranean sea, in 1831, a volcano burst forth and quickly formed an island of ashes and cinders, and they named it Graham's Land. In a few months this island was completely washed away by the waves, and only a circular submarine bank remained. If corals lived in the Mediterranean,
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which they do not, there is no reason why a circular reef might not have been formed.
Darwin has another theory: That the sea bottoms have been steadily going down for ages, taking the islands with them, but the coral growth goes on and upward till the reefs or fringes are higher than the submerged isles, thus forming the beautiful lagoons.
The mangrove trees of Florida have assisted the coral animals in their work. These trees send down roots from the branches, thus retaining small shells and sediments and the coral deposits, till land is slowly formed. Ten thousand square miles of land has thus been formed by these combined influ- ences. The Gulf stream, too, has helped in the work, by bring- ing in deposits and keeping the temperature favorable for the growth.
Sea, earth, air, Gulf Stream, shells and divine Providence, all working together, have produced that process in nature, the various beautiful specimens of coral.
As we look on them with awe and wonder, we revere the power that has called them into existence, and are not sur- prised that the Great Architect, as He contemplated His work, exclaimed, "It is good."
THE UNISON OF BODY AND MIND
Paper Read Before Sorosis by Mrs. M. J. Caton, Sept. 7, 1893
The human body is, without question, the most perfect, beautiful and intellectual of all animal creations that nature has designed to work out her wonderful plans; but it has been the most abused, despised and neglected. The most despised, because it has been dragged to the lowest depths of infamy, and yet it is capable of being raised to inconceivable
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heights, so ennobling in character, so far-reaching in intellect, and so perfect in beauty, that when we pause and contemplate it for awhile, we are astounded at this the grandest thing God has given us, next to the immortal soul. The desire of men to become more complete, comely, vigorous and healthy-to ap- proach as nearly as possible to the ideal man-has existed in all ages, and has impelled them to make special efforts to secure these ends.
Of the remains of statuary that have descended to us, we have ample demonstrations of the appreciation the ancient Greeks had of perfectly developed and beautiful physical forms. These representations in marble are enduring monuments of the perfection of the physical education of the people. Even with- out these evidences, we feel from the character of their litera- ture that such must have been the case. At the very mention of the word "Greek," there arises in imagination a beautiful human form as near perfection as it is possible for any child of Adam to approach.
The gymnasium was, with the Greeks, the place for both physical and intellectual culture. The training of body and mind went hand in hand. It was there that all persons of all ages congregated, and while some were reciting poetry, or delivering lectures on philosophy, others were performing, or criticising the performance of various exercises adapted to develop all their physical parts and powers. Probably no Greek town of any importance was destitute of these schools of exer- cise. The education commenced at the seventh year, and con- sisted of music, grammar and physical training. Some authors assert that as much time was employed in the culture of the body as in that of the mind. In Sparta, the idea of physical culture overtopped every other, and the excess to which it
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was carried excluded that attention to letters which obtained at Athens and the other Grecian cities. Even the women were subjected to treatment similar to that which men received. "For," said the law-givers, "female slaves are good enough to stay at home and spin, but who can expect a splendid offspring, the appropriate gift of a free Spartan woman to her country, from mothers brought up in such occupations?"
The traditional history of the Chinese affords us many in- structive examples of the employment of various exercises to develop the body and restore the health. History informs us that the humidity of the atmosphere and the stagnant waters were considered a prolific source of disease, and the efficient means of preventing this consisted in regular exercise of the body by a kind of gymnastic dance. This matter was consid- ered so important as to be under governmental regulation.
The Chinese writers support this practice with the tradi- tion that the life of man depends on a union of earth and heaven, together with the use that the creature makes of these. A subtle material they think circulates in the body; if then the body is not in action, the material accumulates; and, accord- ing to their theory, all diseases come of such obstruction. In- termingled with the superstitious religious practices of the ancient Indians, there were also many bodily exercises bearing a great resemblance to those of the Chinese, the most prominent among them being the retention of the air in respiration. Thus it seems that the oldest nations of the world fully believed in and practiced various external mechanical operations upon the body, both as a luxury and to relieve them of their chronic ailments.
Today man and womankind at middle age should be so en- dowed with physical force brought about by their own efforts,
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as to be conscious that life has only just commenced, for in reality this should be true in physical, mental and moral sense. We all recognize the truth that the intellect is not fully devel- oped until just before the decline of our physical force. We should grow stronger and healthier until we reach the age of forty, and hold that strength as it is for twenty years more. This must have been the design of nature as all other animal life that comes to our notice (not subject to the rule of man), gives strong proof that such is the existing state of things.
That we should be obliged to sit down and seriously con- sider how we can find sufficient exercise to develop the physical woman as she should be, is a commentary upon our distance from nature. Fancy a Gypsy mother or an Italian peasant devising a system for a developing the muscles and bones of her healthy offspring. The Gypsy, though, gives her baby a species of massage, with frequent baths and rubbings and plenty of exposure to the sun; while the system of the Italian peasant (who herself is perhaps driving her mule or bringing wood), consists in putting the little girl to goat-tending, where she can develop sturdy limbs in running after the household stock, until later she, too, may rise to the dignity of mule-driving or crop-tending, or kindred offices performed for the benefit of the masculine member of the household. But the march of civiliza- tion and the inrush of emigrants have long ago made field labor, and, in fact, much of any so-called manual labor, an un- known factor in the life of the American woman-even in the humbler walks of life. And this curtailing of out-door life. which gives bodily exercise in what we call the natural way, has increased with schools and social culture and convention- alities, until it has become, for the average woman, a serious question as to how she may regain some of that physical activ- ity which in primitive life is the price for existence.
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The muscles cry out for strength, and the nerves play their pranks in sheer desperation, but civilization has come to stay, and we must meet its evils with its advantages. The muscles give expression to the thoughts and emotions of the soul. They are the visible sign by which our transient modes and our very characters are represented to others. Deeds often lie, and language is as often used, perhaps, to conceal as to express thought. We are often as much convinced or moved by the glance of the eye or gestures or general bearing of a person, as by anything he says. Indeed, the strongest emotions, we well know, are much more powerfully rendered by facial ex- pression than by the employment of all other agencies.
A man or a woman may have a great mind, thoroughly cultivated, but if the face, body and limbs, which are the media of the soul's expression by action, are not correspondingly cap- able-indifferent, awkward, inadequate-inappropriate action will be the result. Education in this, as in all other directions of endeavor, finds plenty of work for its directive and corrective processes. Walking and talking cost us no thought or effort, yet we had to learn to walk and talk, no matter how poorly, for the ordinary purposes of life. There is a best way of doing everything and an art study for every act of our lives.
It is not a gracious thing to refer to the age of ladies, but allow me to say that it is well known that the most famous and charming women actors are no longer in their girlhood, yet who would fancy from the grace of motion and the supple at- titudes, and the succession of rapid changes in position, in- volving sometimes the larger portion of the important muscles and joints of the body, that these women were beyond their earliest youth? In fact, these queens of the stage put to shame in their physical accomplishments, the average girl of sixteen
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or twenty, and this by no means because they were born grace- ful and supple. On the contrary, most of them have attained this skill through persistent exercise carried on systematically for many years. In the sense of the bodily changes that mean old age, such people will remain young long beyond the natural period, and are generally physically fresh to the end.
Oh, why is it necessary, asks some anxious woman, to preach exercise to every community in these days? Are we not of the same flesh and blood as our fathers and our mothers. who did not hear these everlasting sermons, and who were not obliged to know the reason why? Is not the instinct of the body guide enough for each one of us, so we may rest in peace till we feel like moving, and then be permitted to move in the manner that best pleases us? Possibly, dear friend, if our in- stincts were all educated and to be trusted; if people lived more nearly the lives of our ancestors; if the American people did not need every offset possible to their eager and worried lives; if it were not as rational and evidently necessary to educate the body as to educate the mind, then we might stop preaching from this text. But until this millennium has come, the preach- ing must go on; and until we cease to be twenty-four hour clocks, we shall need the every day winding up that can be found only in systematic exercise.
There are such intimate relations existing between body and mind. Every part of the physical economy is related to and acted upon by nerve connection with the brain. So inti- mate and delicate is this wonderful soul telegraphy, that the simplest idea or sensation is instantly telegraphed from brain to body, and the result is expression according to the character of the idea or sensation. All life is involuntary expression. Highest or best life is the expression of a cultivated mind in a cultivated body.
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The true end and aim of Physical Culture is to prepare the body to work in unison with the mind, and express the soul in the best possible way, and at the same time be true to nature. True art, as Emerson beautifully defines it, is, "Nature passed through the alembic of man." Then, to keep young, let us take the advice of Goethe, and exercise both mind and body. He says, "Every day read a poem, hear a choice piece of music, view a fine painting, and, greater than all, do a good action." And remember, past grief, old angers, revenges, even past pleasures, constantly dwelt upon-all dead, decaying or de- cayed thought-make a sepulchre of the soul, a cemetery of the body, and a weather-beaten monument of the face.
OCEAN CURRENTS
Paper Read Before Sorosis, October 4, 1894, by Mrs. Martha Richardson
Old Ocean is the mother of Poetry and Song. In her con- stant ripples, her never-ceasing tides, her varying currents, her unwearying waves, gently she chants while rocking to and fro-
"Rocked in the cradle of the deep."
Or she croons to the child of nature lying on her breast- "And mother's heart for sleepy-head, Oh, little son of mine." Again, in more sportive mood, she sings- "Now we go up and now we go down, And now we go whirling round and round."
One more couplet she sings through her currents, which might be expressed thus :
"Now we go east, and now go west, North and south with ceaseless unrest."
So it is that my subject, "Ocean Currents," may be viewed in various lights, all of them true. In one way they travel from
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South to North, then from North to South. Again it is from East to West, and then from West to East. Now they are on the surface, and now they are on the floor of the ocean. The waters of the ocean have three movements, namely: tides, waves and currents. Tides are the result of the attraction of the sun and moon. Waves are the result of atmospheric dis- turbance. Currents are the results of a combination of pre- vailing winds, differences of temperature and other causes. A wave contrasted with current shows the wave to be the passage of energy alone, while a current is a passage of energy com- bined with matter.
The ocean current differs from the river current in this respect: The river current does not allow fine sediment to settle, while the ocean current is quite favorable to the deposit of sediment upon the bed of the ocean. A constant wind in any direction produces a current. In the Indian Ocean the currents are dependent on the prevailing winds. The northern part changes direction with the seasonal reversals of the monsoons; the southern part keeps up throughout the year a strong west- erly equatorial current. Currents produced by prevailing winds are mostly east and west currents. Other currents are produced by differences in temperature. These will be north and south currents. The manner of their motion seems to be in this wise: The heated part of the globe at the equator sends the warm surface water away from the equator, towards the poles, north and south. After a brief visit to the polar regions, the waters becoming chilled and consequently heavy, take a plunge beneath the warm blanket of surface water and creep on the bed of the ocean, back towards their equatorial home. Therefore, water on the bed of the ocean, even at the equator, is intensely cold. Some of these surface currents, by being deflected, now by
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