USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. II > Part 9
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"Habit with him is all the test of truth,
It must be so; I've done it from my youth."
"There is no more necessity," she went on, "of a woman losing her figure at sixty than there is at sixteen. She can make and keep her figure. Corsets are an abomination. Del- sarte said: 'A woman can be gracious but never graceful in a corset.' It compresses the body at the waist, throwing out the abdomen and bust, which is decidedly vulgar, and prevents a woman from breathing properly to say nothing of the con- straint it places on her actions. Paris journals now announce that small waists are opposed to every principle of art. It is well known that we become what we think about. It seems to me we have thought more about fashion plates than Venus de
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Milos. Women should discard corsets and many skirts and give the body its pro rata of work or weight. The weight should not all come from the shoulders. The hips are strong, and should share the burden of carrying the clothes. In winter the body can be kept sufficiently warm by a union suit, a pair of equestrian trousers, and one silk skirt. I would not advise a very stout woman to abandon corsets the first thing. It would give her a very slouchy appearance indeed. She would train her muscles first, but she can, if she chooses, wear bandages. There is no necessity of being so large, an overabundance of flesh is a disease. Women ruin their form by sitting down on their hips, thus extending them and throwing out the abdo- men. The weight should rest on the arch of the foot, the chest should be raised and the head held erect. The body should not settle on the hips, and then on the heels. Standing with the feet apart, a broad base as we may say, is very vulgar and is a sign of weakness. No set rules can be given for walk- ing, standing or sitting. The right way comes of itself after proper training. I will say, however that in walking the heels should be in a straight line, one in front of the other, other- wise one waddles instead of walks, and the ball of the foot should strike the ground first-lift the leg from the thigh and let it drop. That is all there is to it, but it is hard to learn. A fine carriage has something distinctive about it which we feel belongs largely to a good quality of mind, and will carry the eye farther than fine clothes or a handsome face. If we have not a perfect figure it is our own fault. Everyone has an op- portunity if he improves it to grow beautiful with age. Breath- ing alone has much to restore the figure or prevent losing it. Mrs. John Drew, the actress, is a wonderful exponent of what physical culture will do. She is seventy-two years old, but
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appears to be twenty-five years younger. Sitting and rising properly is a wonderful saving on the nervous force. To sit, rest the weight of the body on one foot and swing the other back a little way, letting the toe just touch the floor, and sink down into the chair. Use the same principle in rising and in climb- ing stairs let the legs bear all the weight of the body. This physical culture makes one's body feel as light as air, one. loses all consciousness of the body. Fifteen minutes' exclusive time each day is sufficient to restore the body in good condition."
CHARITIES AND CORRECTIONS MRS. E. W. JONES.
They say "Charity begins at home," why not have cor- rections also begin there? Surely much poverty is being caused by housework being neglected, through false pride and ignorance. Let every mother teach her daughter housework, and thus elevate it in the best way possible.
A lady should never give her servant any reason to think her work is not respectable as any other she is capable of do- ing. There is no good reason why housework should not be quite as genteel as work in a nail or rag mill, since more intel- ligence and good judgment are required for it than for any ordinary mill position; but the girls, apparently, do not think so.
A woman must necessarily be the housekeeper and home maker, it is to her advantage to ennoble the work by every means in her power.
A good way would be to organize clubs or societies of house- keepers, and to elect officers with all the high-sounding titles that some orders of men have, and with as many degrees to study for. It might take a long time to reach the "thirty-third degree," but even that would not be the highest to which they
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might attain, for when a woman had become possessor of the highest qualifications in housekeeping, she would certainly have great reason to feel proud of her success, and should receive honors as men do for their attainments. To make these clubs popular our wealthy ladies should be the first to organize them.
A domestic training school, with and without all modern conveniences, open all day, and evening too, would be another means of educating many who can now receive no benefit what- ever from the few at present in existence. Many girls and women could attend only evenings. If our benevolent citizens would build and support such schools they would do more for the elevation of the people than is done now by any other institution except the public schools. A good foundation is of the utmost importance, and where is a better place for one than in the home? To make such a school successful give prizes for the best work in the respective departments. Un- doubtedly the merchants would give these prizes, since they do so now to the man or boy who excels in athletic sports, such as jumping or kicking the highest, rowing or shooting the best, all of which are not of half as much importance as knowing how to make a good cup of coffee, or to sew on a button. This school would be of great benefit to girls who are in service, and to their mothers, neither of whom could attend regularly, nor in the day time; also to girls just coming to this country who, instead of seeking for housework, look for work in mills or shops. When a girl is compelled to support herself every in- ducement should be held out to her to accept domestic employ- ment, where she will receive higher wages, and usually a more comfortable home.
By going into a mill or factory she takes the place of a boy, or man, and will have to accept half the wages for the
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same kind and amount of work. Did she not do so she would not have received the position, and by accepting it she not only helps to lower the wages of a man, who has a family to support, but also takes his work from him. Here are conditions injurious to both parties. When a girl does the work her father has been doing for half the wages he has been receiving, who has derived the benefit? Surely not the family. Women should refuse to accept less remuneration than man for the same work. When a woman is doing a man's work what is he doing? Nothing; while she is neglecting her own work, home and chil- dren. A visit to the places they call home will convince one that a woman can do a man's work only by neglecting her own. And when a man is out of employment the saloonkeeper will have plenty of business, for he is ever on the alert for just such customers. He has proved the truth of the old saying, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach," for he has been most successful in capturing and keeping it in the strongest bonds of slavery; and what makes the victim's case quite hope- less is that he appears unconscious of his bondage. He is ever watchful for the danger signal, and always ready to hasten to the protection of the man who has robbed him of money, home, friends, and everything worth living for, that he may gratify his appetite.
Very frequently doctors are responsible for much inebriety of both men and women; it seems a mistake to give liquor as a stimulant without first destroying the taste, or making it as disagreeable as possible. Some of the earnest temperance work- ers might take this into consideration and begin with the doctors.
If some of our charitably disposed citizens would only visit the homes of these people they would soon discover that their wretchedness and destitution are caused almost wholly by
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ignorance and drunkenness in the men, also ignorance and sub- mission in the women. They have no true idea of economy, and really do not know what the word means. They consider it stingy to be saving, and that, with them, is looked upon as almost a disgrace. What these men and women need are the advantages of an education in economy and self denial. "It would increase the taxes but little if the city would build and equip a training school for men, and when they apply for aid give them work in this school and pay them." If they do not earn anything, they will at least learn something which will be of benefit to them, while giving alms would encourage idleness which leads to indigence if not to pauperism. The remedies must be applied at the root of the evil, and not at the top, if we hope to have any corrections in our charities.
If these men and women could be taught and convinced what are the first principles of a well-regulated and comfortable home, we might have less poverty and destitution with which to contend.
THE NON-PARTISAN NATIONAL W. C. T. U. PAPER
BY MRS. HOWARD M. INGHAM.
It is a pleasure to represent a cause so holy and so im- portant as that of temperance reform. Underlying, as it does, all questions of social reform, taking hold upon the very central life of individual and state, it has the first claim to recogni- tion.
It has become trite that intemperance is directly responsible for three-fourths of all the crime, poverty, taxation and misery of this country; that every year sends an army of 75,000 men and women to dishonored graves. Just think of it; all the long weary year, once in eight minutes, night and day, summer and
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winter, some poor wretched victim of the drink habit is breath- ing out his ruined life and going down to a shameful grave!"
Do we open our eyes to the scenes about us; behold the wretched homes, the abused wives and defrauded children, the crowded jails, workhouses, infirmaries and insane hospital wards; behold the misery that fills this world which God made. so fair-all because of that fell adversary, alcohol? How do we women live, and know these things are so, and yet not give our lives to free our country ?
Eighteen years ago there came to the women of Ohio and of the country an awakening. In those days of stress was born the Woman's Christian Temperance Union-a force whose might was drawn direct from the Lord of Hosts. Knowing no creed save love and faith, with no weapons save prayer and consecration, this organization, white as the lily and sweet as the rose, gathered to itself the strength of Christian American womanhood. In ten years it had spread over the entire coun- try, and had become the most magnificent organization of women the world has ever seen. Its work is familiar to all who know the social history of our times.
In 1884 there came a rift within the lute. It is not our purpose to say more of this than the mere statement of facts requires. People see things differently; and on so important a thing as the allying of moral reform with party politics it should be expected that views would differ. The fact remains, that the influence of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was in 1884 pledged to a political party, by the National Con- vention which sat in St. Louis.
There were many who felt this action unwarranted and wrong; unwarranted, because no representative body has the right to pledge an influence never put by its constitutents in its
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hands; wrong, because there is no natural relation between a great moral reform and the machinery of party politics.
The marvelous success achieved by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union while it remained, as it began, non-sectarian and non-partisan, seemed to indicate sufficiently the right of that position. It is impossible that all good people should see alike concerning political issues; but there can be no difference of opinion concerning the need of destroying the drink traffic; a result that can only be secured by the combined efforts of all good people, of every name and every shade of political faith, standing shoulder to shoulder on one broad platform.
And woman's work as marked out by the Divine Leader, was believed by those who opposed party affiliations to be especially the creation of sentiment, the education of principle which should naturally and permanently bring about the ex- tinction of the drink habit and of the drink traffic; not the manipulating of party machinery to bring about a forced and unreliable prohibition easily overthrown by the next move of the wires, because founded on no strong, constraining public conscience.
Moreover, they remembered the great lesson Christ Him- self had taught the world when He put far from Him and the eternal reform He came to inaugurate, the tempting proffer of worldy power. Repeatedly He refused the demands of the eager populace to make Him a king; fleeing from them when they would own Him by force; calmly laying aside the politi- cal power they would constrain Him to employ, with meek voice reiterating "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, but now is my kingdom not from hence." In the steady rejection by that Chief Reformer, of political means and methods, in His un-
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varying reliance upon purely moral and spiritual forces for the upbuilding of the kingdom which should at last embrace the whole world, many women of the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union felt that there were indicated to all moral reforms, the ages through, the methods on which they, too, should stead- fastly rely.
Hence it came to pass, that in all love and gentleness, but with a sense of unmistakable duty, these workers withdrew from the Union they had loved with an unutterable love, and formed a new organization. In forming this new organization special care was taken to make its platform so broad and free that all women loving God and temperance, could stand and work together. This great underlying reform was considered by itself, and separated wholly from questions of other reforms, however important, leaving every member free to follow her own convictions regarding these other reforms, only not to bring them into this work. At the same time there was in- woven into the constitution of the new Union a strict forbid- ding of the "allying of the Union or pledging its influence, to any political party, to any other association, or to any re- ligious sect;" and as strict a provision that "any addition to or departure from the principles or policy of the association shall be referred back to the local auxiliaries, requiring a major- ity vote of their membership for approval or adoption."
The Non-partisan National W. C. T. U. was organized in Cleveland in January, 1890. It has now State organizations in Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and the District of Columbia. It has provisional State organizations in New York, West Virginia and Cali- fornia. In Indiana a full State organization is on the eve of formation; and local unions are doing a noble work in Massa- chusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Missouri, Kansas, Maryland and Nebraska.
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At the second annual convention, held in Brooklyn in No- vember, nearly 500 local unions were reported, with an ag- gregate membership of nearly 10,000. Many new Unions have since been formed, and the steady growth of the present year is full of encouragement.
In prosecuting the work of organization care has always been taken not to interfere with the work of the old Union, or to lure away its membership. It is no part of our ambition to sow discontent, or to divide already existing forces. But where we find women conscientiously objecting to the policy of the older Union, and in sympathy with our principles and purposes, or where there are those as yet unidentified with any active temperance work, we gladly invite them to our fellowship. There are millions of women in our great, beautiful America. A few hundred thousand are actively working for temperance in our own and our sister Union, among the Good Templars and the Sons of Temperance. It is such a small minority, we may all wisely use our utmost endeavor for our own growth, without touching by the tip of our finger those whom the other organi- zations should reach. There is room for all; and with love and good fellowship they should join forces against their common foe.
The Departments of work conducted by the Non-partisan W. C. T. U. are such as naturally and inevitably grow out of temperance work, and now number ten. First, is the Evan- gelistic; which comprehends every variety of religious effort. The securing of temperance sermons, cottage prayer meetings, mothers' meetings, Bible readings, gospel temperance meet- ings, prison and jail visitation, house to house missionary visi- tation, railway temperance work, the distribution of temper- ance literature, work among foreign born peoples, are some of the ramifications of this blessed work, which, done in the
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spirit of the Master, goes out as He did, to seek and to save that which was lost.
The Educational work of our Union busies itself to watch over the enforcement of the Scientific Temperance Instruction law, in force in so large a part of our country, and to give specific aid to teachers. In some places Unions have offered prizes for the best temperance essays written in the schools. In Bennington, Vermont, they have formed what is called the Bennington Graded School Temperance Society, embracing nearly all the pupils of the schools. Meetings of the society are held, with songs, recitations and addresses, and pledges are thoughtfully and gladly taken. Teachers' Institutes have been addressed, school text books carefully examined, and additional books and charts provided, and every possible aid given the thorough instruction of the growing generation in the facts concerning alcohol and narcotics.
The Literature and Press Department's work is sug- gested by its name. Thousands of pages of the very best temperance literature are distributed; thousands of columns in newspapers filled, by the energetic workers along this line.
The Legislative Department's work concerns the securing and enforcing such laws as will restrict or wholly prevent the sale of intoxicating drinks. One great victory won by our workers last year was the securing of the one-mile prohibitory limit about the Washington, D. C., Soldiers' Home. The vig- orous enforcement of that law secures in Washington a circle of prohibition two miles in diameter, and that is worth untold wealth to many a worn soldier and to many a mother's boy The enactment of anti-tobacco laws, of laws protecting girls, forbidding minors visiting saloons, prohibiting liquor-selling at Castle Garden, the securing of the punishment of illegal
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liquor-selling; these are a few of the good things done or aided through this department of work.
It cannot be denied that our non-partisan position gives us great advantage in these lines of work. With no political aim in view, recognized as interested only in the promotion of righteous legislation, our workers have access and willing and helpful hearing where no party adherent could gain ad- mission.
Our Department of Young Women's work concerns itself with the forming of Young Women's Unions wherever pos- sible, and a fresh, sweet, growing band of staunch young women is being enlisted the country over. They are our pride and our hope, holding in their strong young hands the promise of all the future. Associated with this work is a beautiful one for boys, as Temperance Knights and Temperance Volun- teers. These take the triple pledge against alcohol, tobacco and profanity and indecency, and their clear eyes and rosy faces are goodly to look upon as those of young David, the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite.
Juvenile work includes Band of Hope work, Kitchen-gar- dens and Kindergartens, Sewing schools, Cooking-schools, and every variety of work for interesting the children in temper- ance, and for giving them such careful training in industrial lines as will fit them for sober, self-respecting and self-sup- porting lives. There is a sound philosophy which makes all these things true temperance work, so close is the connection of diet, social habits and industrial skill, with the drink problem.
Our Sunday School work comes next, under the care of a tireless worker. Last year this lady memorialized con- ferences, synods and assemblies, sent out thousands of pack-
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ages of specimen Sunday School temperance lessons and liter- ature, and spread her inspiring influence over the Sunday Schools of twenty States.
Our Social Purity work is in the hands of a woman chosen of God. It is a work that must be wisely, carefully, delicately done, lest the result be harm, and not good; but Mrs. Cole has all those rare qualities which render her a master workman in her most difficult field. Her pen has provided the choicest of literature, and her personal work has been greatly blessed. A Manual of Social Purity work, leaflets and pledges have been prepared, and we believe great good is being done.
The Bible Study department is but newly organized. It is in capable and intelligent hands, and will, doubtless, be well and wisely developed.
Last of our ten is the department of Army, Navy and Marine Corps work, devoting itself to the saving of our soldiers and sailors-the veteran and the recruit, in Homes, Recruiting Stations and Schools. The head of this depart- ment, Miss Lavinia H. Chase, of Washington, is wholly de- voted to her work, counting every man and boy in blue her brother, and no effort too great to save him. She has organ- ized total abstinence unions at many points, conducts meet- ings among the men, and is a veritable angel of mercy to them. She has also prepared literature for this department, and she it was who won the battle for prohibition about the Soldiers' Home.
The work among foreigners has been chiefly done by Mrs. Zeman, herself of foreign birth, who has organized and nurtured the first Bohemian W. C. T. U. in the world. Her pen has provided temperance literature ready for all Bo- hemian organizations.
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It will be observed that the greater part of our work is educational. Not only the Educational Department, so- called, but the Young Women's work, the Juvenile work, the Sunday-school work-four departments out of ten, are dis- tinctively and exclusively educational.
PAPER
Woman and the Bible
MRS. H. E. HOLLINGSHEAD.
It has been conceded in times past that the Bible forbade the public ministrations of women, and taught her inferiority and subjection to man. This has been the accepted view of many religious teachers, and it is owing to this that some of the leaders for woman's enfranchisement have rejected the Bible as unjust. We believe this view of the Scriptures to be wrong and misleading. We accept the Bible as an inspired rule of faith and practice, and believe its teachings have been misinterpreted, and that it does not teach the inferiority of woman, but her equality with man. In explaining the scriptures we believe in one unbroken circle of harmony. The truth of God must be consistent, and therefore, in explaining some things in regard to the position of women in the Bible, what- ever is of doubtful meaning must be explained by that which is clear and fully understood. Eve is the first woman mentioned in the Bible. She was made an helpmeet for man, not his servant, but his counterpart. She came, fresh from the hands of the Almighty, and we may safely conclude that she was a type of what God intended woman to be, and her condition was what he intended the condition of the woman to be. Ac- cordingly we read, "In the beginning God made man in his own image; male and female created he them." It took the two
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to make man (man being a generic term) there is no hint of superiority there, but equality; further on we read, as to their property rights, he gave "them dominion over the fish of the sea, and the foul of the air, and over every created thing." The word used is them (not him). Then there was perfect equality of ownership. Thus we see God intended man and woman to stand side by side, dwelling in harmony of rights and privileges. But a critic will say, "Then came the fall." Yes, but man fell as well as woman, and the Lord told the woman now, as man was a sinner, he being the stronger physically he would rule over her, and this prediction came true, he has ruled ever since. But through the atonement both were to be restored spiritually and morally, to their original state. The apostle Paul says, "Ye are neither male nor female, but one in Christ Jesus."
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