USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. II > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
THE ANNUAL
Response to Toast by Mrs. J. H. Paine, Delivered at Annual Banquet
I have somewhere read of an orator whose whole public reputation was founded on the fact that he had made but one speech. Perhaps I might claim the right to sympathize some- what with this noted gentleman, were it not that his was the speech of a life time. Mine is only an annual talk. It is, more- over, my first annual talk, and I think I can reassure you by saying it will undoubtedly be my last. When our most worthy President suggested that I should say a few words at this ban- quet about the Sorosis Annual for 1893, my first impulse was to positively decline. Our Annual speaks for itself. What need has it of a mouth-piece? Is it not eloquent in each of its two hundred pages-more or less? Is there a Woman's Club in broad America of anywhere near the tender age of our Sorosis that has produced as meritorious record? As I asked myself these questions, it occurred to me that I might at least ask them of you. And then the remembrance came to me of how, in the absence of our loved President, I had watched our hardy Annual's leaves unfold beneath the publisher's care, as a botan-
394
The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
ist might look upon the budding and blossoming of a rare exotic. And while the botanical spirit is upon me let me utter a word of praise for our publisher, Mr. W. R. Rose, who threw into the work of compilation a personal ardor that is worthy of high commendation. And this brings me down to more practical details. The Sorosis Annual is before the members, what will they do with it? Will they allow it to lie in obscure neglect, wasting its garnered sweetness in musty seclusion? Will they? It was this thought in particular that nerved me to address you today. I want you all to look upon our Annual as an important part of the work of Sorosis, and as a book that each member should display upon her library table. It also leads to broader views and more liberal thought, by exchanging with other Woman Clubs, which we expect to do, so that our Sorosis ladies can go to our book-case and compare our Annuals and our work with those we receive.
I speak warmly on this subject, and yet I confess that my share of the work took a good deal of conceit out of me as chair- man of the Committee on Publication. I have been the target for a steady fire of criticism. Part of the shafts, however, were scattering and harmless, and I can assure you that little permanent damage has been done. There were rays of sun- shine too, that more than counteracted any little unpleasantness. One lady said to me that she was told that her article was so badly cut that its sense was ruined. Having her original manu- script she compared notes. There was one line changed and one word different, and these changes so improved her paper that she had come to thank instead of criticise. And now for another practical detail. I want to heartily (and I think all Sorosis will join in) thank Mrs J. O. Anderson, Mrs. Hough- ton, Mrs. Wood, Mrs. Short and Mrs. Stewart who joined me in
395
Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
delivering the annual's advertisements. It was not entirely an agreeable task, but they did their work well. It was believed that the advertising in the volume would cover the entire ex- pense of publishing. It would have been ample for that purpose if the present financial depression had not wrought numerous changes in the totals. As it is, we look to the sale of the book to make up the arrearage. By purchasing copies the members will certainly show their pride in the annuals of Sorosis, and at the same time confer a practical financial benefit on the Society. With this text I beg leave to end my already too long annual address.
THE WORLD'S FAIR GLIMPSES OF THE WORLD'S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
Paper Read Before Sorosis by Mrs. Frances E. Shipherd, February 15, 1894
Monday, September 11, 1893, in the Art Palace, Chicago, was an eventful day, and no one who was present is likely to forget it.
Beautiful and regal Mrs. Potter Palmer, who must have seen many brilliant occasions, pronounced this to be the great- est event in her life. It was the most significant and epoch- making meeting of the century. To this more than imperial feast, all were welcomed by Dr. Barrows, chairman of the Par- liament, in an address instinct with the august spirit of the oc- casion. He said:
"We are met together as men, children of God. We are not here as Baptists, Buddhists, Catholics, Confucians, Parsees, Presbyterians, Methodists, or Moslems. We are here as a Par- liament of Religions, one which flies no sectarian flag, but in a
396
The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
large council where, for the time, the banner of love, friendship and brotherhood is to be lifted up. We are here to inquire, 'How can we make this suffering and needy world less a home of grief and strife?'"
It seemed like the millennium dawn to see representatives of every pagan nation, as well as every Christian nation, coming into the hall in friendly procession, in native picturesque cos- tume.
First, the Archbishop of Zante, followed by two deacons, the bishop in a petticoat of brilliant purple, scarlet vest and black robe, with three large gold chains suspended around his neck, with crosses and medallions hanging from them, a stove- pipe hat, and long black veil, like that of a widow, hanging over his hat and drooping around his head. He is a gifted, warm, and sympathetic speaker. With great impressiveness, he said: "Beloved friends, reverend ministers, most honorable gentle- men, the superiors of this Congress, and honorable ladies and gentlemen." His address was in capital English and magnifi- cent enunciation.
The second speaker, Mr. Virikananda, a young Brahmin monk, and an advanced thinker, wore a distinctive garb of his own official station, orange robe, pinkish yellow trousers, yel- low turban; handsome, alert, a graduate from an English col- lege in Calcutta. His profession, in his letter of instruction to the chairman of the Parliament, pronounced him to be well fitted to instruct his teacher. He addressed us as "Brethren and sisters of the West. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world for this opportunity. I thank you in the name of an ancient religion of which Buddhism and Judaism are but the branches. I thank you, finally, in the name of millions and millions of the Hindoo people of all castes
397
Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
and sects. I am proud of the Israelites who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their Holy Temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny."
Next i norder came our Chinese ambassador from Wash- ington, resplendent in most gorgeous costume, with a face as round as a dinner plate, and about its size-a Mandarin of the Red Button, a writer and thinker of power. His paper, though translated, was punctuated by applause which he could under- stand, and to which he readily responded. And other Chinese brethren, with more changes of brilliant costume than a Sara- toga belle, and with such remarkable, unique and topping headgear that they were unlike anything on the earth, or in the swellest millinery shops. Mr. Nargawhat said: "You have to teach to the East the glory of man's intellect, his logical accuracy, his rational nature, and in the church of the new dispensation you will have the harmony of the East and West." Mr. Mazoomdar, master of purest and most virile English, author of "The Oriental Christ," said: "Now sits Christianity upon the throne of India, with the gospel of peace in one hand and the sceptre of civilization in the other."
Timidity of statement has not been on the side of the heathen religions. Bishop Arnett, welcomed with immense ap- plause, spoke of his being called on to represent on one side the Africans in Africa, and on the other the Africans in America, and was also announced by the chairman to "give color" to this Parliament, and he thought the color was in the majority this time. A thrilling address followed this introduction. Mr. Shebata said: "Now I pray that the eight million deities pro- tecting the beautiful cherry tree country of Japan may protect you and your government."
A Russian prince, of fine presence and eloquent speech, was
es
1 t I
398
The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
next listened to. Then a Russian Tartar, a pilgrim with long hair, wearing a black serge robe, spoke, declaring he had never spent a single cent since he entered his pilgrimage, except for barest necessities, food, clothing and shelter. What a living rebuke to Christ's followers in our opulent age! A Buddhist monk from Ceylon, in white silk robes, swarthy but handsome, attractive, delicate and refined, took all the prizes of his class in Yale College for his knowledge of the New Testament, and had he remained in this country, undoubtedly would have been a Christian. Instead, when he made his principal address, a stone idol of Buddha, two feet long, was elevated upon a pedestal for the audience to look upon as his object of worship. But, in his address, he said: "You have the most wonderful civiliza- tion, the most wonderful religion, the most wonderful woman at the head of the Fair, and the most wonderful brutality-you have slaughter houses."
Miss Serabji, of Bombay, formerly a Parsee, charmed us. Her Christian sisters said to her when leaving Bombay: "Give the women of America our love. Say we are fast being edu- cated, and that we love Jesus. We are all under one banner- love. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you."
The Indian delegates represented thirty-three millions of deities. One newspaper man expressed himself as being thank- ful they did not bring them all along, because Chicago, with all its liberality, would have been overwhelmed. As it was, the strain was great. He observed, that while the heathen are still killing and eating one another, that theology of the rose- water kind should be relegated to the rear, and also after they are gone it is to hoped they will never more, world without end, come back. Women applauded these representatives whose re- ligions have enslaved their sex, of whose nations it is said,
399.
Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
"Women never smile and children seldom play." One Jain brought a servant of his own faith to boil the water he drank and to cook his food, lest the guilt of destroying animalculæ should be laid upon his soul! What of the soul of the servant? Base passions which would disgrace mortals are sinless in the Gods. "Don't talk to me of spiritual things," said a Hindoo to a missionary; "a full stomach is my heaven." The priests cry, "These be thy gods, O India!" They are goggle-eyed, many-armed, huge, misshapen, grinning deities. Their god Siva is supposed to be inebriated, naked, with disheveled hair, covered
with ashes, ornamented with skulls and bones. His votaries stab their limbs, pierce their tongues with knives, and walk with living serpents thrust through their wounds. The impurities of their idolatrous worship, if published, would be excluded from our mails. The hope of India is in her two million sons and daughters in English schools today. Woman, as a Buddhist, has no soul, but possibly, after a life of great austerity, may be reincarnated as a man. If born a Brahmin, she may wash her husband's feet and drink the water as a sacred oblation.
While the Parliament was holding its session, while Oriental was shaking hands with Occidental, a Russian merchant vessel dropped anchor in the Dardanelles. In the morning the anchors were found to be obstructed with several large sacks. In them were found the bodies of three hundred Armenian Christians, drowned by order of the Turkish government. Living Armen- ians are subjected to most brutal and merciless treatment. These things were not mentioned in the Parliament. They only referred to matters taught in their sacred books three thousand years ago.
But all spoke with the utmost liberty, and were treated with exquisite courtesy and consideration by the chairman, no matter to what degree their pagan philosophies and isms were dis-
d.
400
The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
tasteful to him as an evangelical Christian minister, or to the large ministerial circle present. Only when Russell Webb, a native-born American, although a resident of Turkey thirty- six years, rose and advocated polygamy as just and right, did a tempest of noes and hisses rage.
The oriental mind is a psychologic curiosity. The spectacle, presented to any one sensitive to the infinite pathos of the sorrows and the hopes that take hold on both time and eternity, was of overwhelming interest. Abroad, over all the earth, there are still vast regions of spiritual darkness, but let us believe the spirit of God in infinite love is brooding with creative force that is yet to make all things new. The startling fact was made known in the Parliament that pagan nations without the Gospel have the knowledge of God as self-existent, eternal, and ruler of all. Religious union was emphasized by all, though no at- tempt was here made to treat all religions as of equal merit. Sectarianism exists as much among heathen religions as in Christianity. It was thought too much prominence was given to humanitarianism and philanthropic thought. Some impatience was manifested when evangelical views were presented.
Dr. Barrows, in his closing address, said: "An Asiatic peasant, who was the son of God and made divinely potent through Him, is clasping the globe in bands of heavenly light. As the story of this Parliament is read in the cloisters of Japan, by the ruins of Southern Asia, amid the monasteries of Europe, and in the islands of all the seas, it is our prayer that non- Christian readers may in some measure discover what has been the source and strength of that faith in divine Fatherhood and human Brotherhood."
The Parliament occupied seventeen days. One hundred and seventy addresses were heard by 150,000 persons.
401
Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
THE IRISH INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE
An Impromptu Talk Given Before Sorosis by Mrs. Ella Sturtevant Webb, March 1, 1894
Walking down Midway Plaisance from the Woman's Build- ing, one came to a picturesque gateway, modeled after the en- trance to King Cormac's chapel, Rock of Cashel. This was the entrance to Lady Aberdeen's Irish village, a group of model cottages for the peasantry.
As you all know, Lady Aberdeen founded the Irish In- dustrial Association in Ireland, and this village was built at the World's Fair to create, in this country, an interest in Irish industries.
Passing through the gateway, we found ourselves in the cloisters of Muckross Abbey, a faithful representation of the ruins upon the shores of Killarney, excepting the gigantic yew tree, which stands in the center of the original. Passing on through a succession of cottages, each containing some Irish industry, we first entered a model home for the Irish working- man. It contained but two rooms, the living-room being sup- plied with an odd-looking fire-place, a table, chairs, settee and set of shelves, all of the plainest description. A few articles necessary for table and kitchen use rested upon the open shelves and the mantel-piece over the fire-place. In spite of the absence of all useless articles, the room looked cosy and comfortable, and as I contrasted these simple furnishings with the magnificent display of furniture and tableware in the French and German exhibits, the thought came, how little it need take to make a human being happy and contented after all.
A model dairy, presided over by rosy-cheeked Irish lassies, was next visited, and had I lived in Chicago, I am sure I should
402
The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
have carried home some of the most tempting pats of butter I have ever seen.
In another cottage the lace room was the center of attrac- tion. Irish laces of all descriptions hung within glass cases. One girl worked at her lace frame, while another bent over a pillow from which hung numerous threads and bobbins. I asked the girl at the lace frame for some information regarding her work. As her needle flew in and out of the fine net, she told me, with a rich Irish accent, that she used linen thread, No. 250; that it took her two weeks to complete one yard of lace one- quarter of a yard wire, and when finished it sold for $8.00.
In another room rich Irish poplins vied with Irish linens, and in one corner stood a linen loom in full operation. The Irish Belleek ware also attracted many admiring glances, but the prices were too appalling to gain many purchasers.
One cottage was given up entirely to Irish antiquities and articles manufactured from bog-wood. Among the antiquities were noticed the old violin, "Black Bess," which once belonged to John Philpot Curran, the celebrated Irish orator; the original copy of "Father O'Flynn," and an illuminated Irish Missal of the fourteenth century. Old bronze pots, found near a mon- astery, and war pikes, carried in the Fenian war of 1798, were also displayed.
Within the porches of the cottages facing the inside court of the village, hung willow bird cages containing thrushes and blackbirds. About once an hour during the day, an Irish jig- dancer came out upon the platform erected in the court, and "shook his trotters" in true Celtic fashion.
I must not forget to mention Blarney Castle, which reared its tower above the surrounding cottages. It was said that a bit of the real "Blarney Stone" hung at the top, and many
403
Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
weary sight-seers climbed the stairs in order to kiss it. For myself, I will say that I did not make the ascent, and that prob- ably accounts for my lack of eloquence in addressing Sorosis this afternoon.
THE WORLD'S FAIR AND ITS BENEFITS
Talk Before Sorosis, Nov. 23, 1893, by Mrs. Joseph H. Thomas
It was a charming mid-summer day upon which it was my fortune to first see the White City. In fact, all the days of my visit were pleasant and beautiful. Nothing happened to mar my enjoyment in the least. Everybody had the utmost con- sideration for the comfort and convenience of everybody else. This orderly conduct displayed by our people, assembled in masses, has been commented upon by foreigners as a revelation to them of an unexpected quality in us.
The World's Fair has been the realization of a dream of splendor, of science, of beauty. Its memory will never perish from the earth as long as a man lives who saw it.
Its most striking element of unrivalled beauty was its loca- tion in the central part of our country, on the border of a great inland sea, with its rippling, unstable surface appealing to the imagination, and preparing the mind for life in the ideal city, where thousands thronged daily, where the rowdy never found his way; if he did, breathing the enchanted air of the place, he was transformed by his environments. It has been said that the greatest discovery a man could make at the Fair was himself. That is, he found himself enjoying many things he had pre- viously taken no interest in, and awakening to new beauties, he found in himself new capacities.
One of the wondrous things about the Fair is the fact that in the center of the country, at a time of severe financial de-
any
Id
ed
1
404
The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
pression, it was possible to bring through its gates (20,000,000) twenty millions of people in six months.
Its benefits are many. In the first place, it has served a civilizing purpose by making us better acquainted with our- selves as a people and with the world, through what the world has been doing. The associations that have been engendered through this Fair have made us more courteous and broader. Foreigners have a better opinion of us as a nation, and we have a better opinion of them through meeting them face to face as exhibitors, visitors and friends.
The Fair has created an artistic idea among the common people, and a generous education to all classes as to the pro- ductiveness of Mother Earth. Its benefits have been summed up, and truly said to have given birth to aspiration, widened man's horizon, enlarged woman's sphere, unified our people, made ignorance a shame, lawlessness indecent, generosity a rule, co-operation a virtue; art a factor in our lives; promoted science, ennobled religious thought, elevated man to a higher plane, and made the whole world akin; abased the proud and exalted the humble; that there is not a virtue that it has not quickened, not a vice it has not made ignoble; that it has been, in concrete, Greek art and philosophy, Roman heroism and the Sermon on the Mount.
IMPRESSIONS OF THE WORLD'S FAIR Paper Read by Mrs. Ella Grant Wilson, Before Sorosis, November 23, 1894
You ask me what was my strongest impression of the World's Fair. I answer-by it as an entirety! The grandeur of its conception, the magnificence of its architectural triumphs, the artistic blending of nature and art, the triumph of the whole !
405
Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
The interiors were wonderful and bewildering, but the im- pression that remains with me the strongest is the first glimpse of the beautiful Court of Honor, the lagoon, bridges, statues and fountains, while the afternoon sun was making dazzling the golden figure of Columbia, who presided over this matchless scene. I begged my husband to allow me to sit down and re- cover in a degree from the first overwhelming scene of beauty with which the scene impressed itself upon me.
We arrived in Chicago, and I had my first view of the White City on the afternoon of "Chicago Day"-that wonderful day of the crowd-from the deck of the whaleback steamer on Lake Michigan. We entered the grounds through the beautiful pal- isades, and immediately we were in that enchanted domain of the Court of Honor. Now, after the lapse of time, looking back on that aggregation of wonders, both of nature and of man's varied intellect, I am still strongly impressed by the majestic grandeur of the architectural features, their relative harmony toward each other; the harmonizing influence of the lagoon, the consummate skill of the artists who had blended all the elements that composed the perfect whole.
I was proud of America! I was proud of the intellect, the brains and the brawn which had made all this possible.
A JOURNEY TO THE MID-WINTER FAIR Letter Received by Sorosis from Mrs. J. Albert Venen, October 30, 1894
Although intending to visit the Mid-Winter Fair at the time I was so kindly solicited to add "my mite" to the elucida- tion of the subject then under consideration, we started rather hastily, thus preventing the fulfillment of my efforts. So, in lieu thereof, I have concluded to give a few jottings from my journal, of most interest to me.
e
406
The Western Reserve of Ohio and Some of
We left by the Big Four route for continuous passage, but stopped long enough in Indianapolis to view the capitol; thence to St. Louis, crossing the Mississippi with its many "s's" and muddy channel; later on, by the clear, unruffled waters of the Missouri, whose banks were never-ending fields of greenest wheat. Stopping with relatives, we explored Kansas City, with its lofty hills and verdure-clad plains. Traveling on through interesting places, we saw, at Battle Mountain, tribes of In- dians in native dress, the papooses hanging on their mothers' backs, with circles of squaws sitting on the ground playing cards for money, thus showing the rapid strides of civilization. Some of them were unwittingly captured by the ever-ubiquitous kodak, of which they have a mortal terror, running like hunted deer when they see it. Even our scenery glasses were too much for them, so great is their fear of "being taken." Vast plains of sage-brush, so sterile in appearance that one is left to won- der how the lives of a thousand cattle, on as many hills, could be sustained; but the rills of trickling water, from the never- ending ranges of snow-covered mountains, assures them of plenty of drink. Near Sherman we encountered the worst storm of the season, which delayed the train several hours on the pinnacle of the Rockies, at an altitude of 8,000 feet.
At Ogden we took cars for Salt Lake City, and were agree- ably surprised at the home-like aspect of the place, with its fine hotels, electric lines of street cars and lights, and paved streets; but here the similitude ended, for rushing streams of pure water flow through the streets in conduits, and huge hills of rocks environ the city. Motors carried us about three miles, to Fort Douglas-an interesting sight-and we were shown Ensign rock, on whose pinnacle the Mormons declare that the Prophet received his mission from heaven. We were also shown
407
Its Pioneers, Places and Women's Clubs
a neglected spot, where Brigham Young and six of his wives were buried. No monument marks the place.
We were invited to attend choir rehearsal at the Tabernacle by a Mormon elder. We were told the Tabernacle was made of native woods and would seat twelve thousand people. The choir consists of five hundred voices, led by Evan Stephens, and competed for first prize at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but took second.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.