USA > Wisconsin > Centennial records of the women of Wisconsin > Part 12
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The choir then sung that good old New England tune, Majesty, with excellent effect.
NOW AND THEN.
The president then said that Miss ELLA WHEELER, a young lady well known in this state, always ready to do nice things for nice occasions, had written a poem expressly for this entertain- ment, which was read in a manner to give full force to its beau- tiful passages, by Maj. CHARLES GEO. MAYERS:
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And now, when poets are singing Their songs of olden days, And now, when the land is ringing With sweet Centennial lays, My muse goes wandering backward To the groundwork of all these, To the time when our Pilgrim Fathers Came over the winter seas.
The sons of a mighty kingdom, Of a cultured folk were they, Born amidst pomp and splendor, Bred in it, day by day, Children of bloom and beauty, Reared under skies serene,
Where the daisy and hawthorne blossomed, And the ivy was always green.
And yet, for the sake of freedom, For a free religious faith, They turned from home and people, And stood face to face with death. They turned from a tyrant ruler And stood on a new world's shore,
With a waste of waters behind them, And a waste of land before.
Oh, men of a great Republic; Of a land of untold worth; Of a nation that has no equal Upon God's round green earth; I hear you sighing and crying Of the hard, close times at hand; What think you of those old herces, On the rock 'twixt sea and land.
The bells of a million churches Go ringing out to-night, And the glitter of palace windows Fills all the land with light;
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And there is the home and college, And here is the feast and ball, And the angels of peace and freedom Are hovering over all.
They have no church, no college, No banks, no mining stock; They had but the waste before them, The sea and Plymouth Rock. But there in the night and tempest, With gloom on every hand, They laid the first foundation Of a nation great and grand.
There were no weak repinings, No shrinking from what might be, But with their brows to the tempest, And with their backs to the sea, They planned out a noble future, And planted the corner-stone Of the grandest, greatest republic The world has ever known.
Oh women in homes of splendor, Oh lilly-buds frail and fair, With fortunes upon your fingers, And milk-white pearls in your hair, I hear you longing and sighing For some new fresh delight; But what of those Pilgrim mothers On that December night?
I hear you talking of hardships, I hear you moaning of loss, Each has her fancied sorrow, Each bears her self-made cross. But they, they had only their husbands, The rain, the rock, and the sea; Yet, they looked up to God and blessed him, And were glad because they were free.
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Oh grand old Pilgrim heroes, Oh souls that were tried and true, With all of our proud possessions We are humbled at thought of you. Men of such might and muscle, Women so brave and strong, Whose faith was fixed as the mountains, Through a night so dark and long.
We know of your grim, grave errors, As husbands and as wives; Of the rigid bleak ideas That starved your daily lives;
Of pent-up, curbed emotions, Of feelings crushed, suppressed,
That God with the heart created In every human breast.
We know of that little remnant Of British tyranny, When you hunted Quakers and witches, And swung them from a tree; Yet back to a holy motive, To live in the fear of God,
To a purpose high, exalted, To walk where martyrs trod,
We can trace your gravest errors, Your aim was fixed and sure; And e'en if your acts were fanatic, We know your hearts were pure. You lived so near to heaven, You overreached your trust,
And deemed yourselves creators, Forgetting you were but dust.
But we with our broader visions, With our wider realm of thought, I often think would be better If we lived as our fathers taught.
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Their lives seemed bleak and rigid, Narrow and void of bloom; Our minds have too much freedom, And conscience too much room.
They overreached in duty, They starved their hearts for the right. We live too much in the senses, We bask too long in the light. They proved by their clinging to Him The image of God in man; And we, by our love of license, Strengthen a Darwin's plan.
But bigotry reached its limit, And license must have its sway, And both shall result in profit To those of a later day. With the fetters of slavery broken, And freedom's flag unfurled, Our nation strides onward and upward, And stands the peer of the world.
Spires and domes and steeples, Glitter from shore to shore; The waters are white with commerce, The earth is studded with ore; Peace is sitting above us, And plenty with laden hand, Wedded to sturdy labor, Goes singing through the land.
Then let each child of the nation Who glories in being free, Remember the Pilgrim Fathers Who stood on the rock by the sea; For there in the rain and tempest Of a night long passed away, They sowed the seeds of a harvest We gather in sheaves to-day.
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THE WOMEN.
The fifth toast was then read:
"THE WOMEN OF 1776 AND OF 1876. - The first shone as morning stars in the Nation's day dawn; the second fill its meridian with sunlight."
The President said it would be a difficult task to respond to this sentiment, but he would call on Gen. EDWARD E. BRYANT, who, he was confident, would be equal to the occasion, as was demonstrated by the General's very eloquent speech, substan- tially as follows:
"It is difficult to say why, of all others, he had been called on to respond to this sentiment. He was not a witty man like Mr. RICHARDS. The pulpit, now- a-days, was saying all the sparkling things, monopolizing the wit and humor, and leaving to the bar to preach the prosy lessons of man's duty to man. Ho could not respond like Prof. BUTLER, with a mind stored with gems of thought gathered from the literary mines of every age and clime; nor like Gen. ATWOOD, with the happy faculty of saying the right thing in the right place; nor like the gifted poetess, whose offering had just been read, could he express thoughts of beauty in words of sweetness; nor in the calm, stately dignity of Judge Hop- KINS, whose " word was law." He thought he must have been selected because he was a philosopher. as defined by MACAULEY, as one who, with a moderate veneration for the past, had an abounding faith in the present and the future. The women of 1776 were worthy helpmeets of the heroes of that eventful time. The days that "tried men's souls," tried the hearts of women, as well. She walked the rugged path of duty, side by side, with the other, but not stronger sex, in the Revolution, as she has done lovingly, devotedly, wherever man has dared or suffered for conscience or for liberty. But the women of 1876 are wor- thy of their noble lineage. He was not of that school of croakers who claimed that the simple and homely virtues of the early days were extinct; who point to the past as the heroic age, or the age of greater virtue or higher devotion to duty. A hundred years of Christian civilization, diffusing a broader charity, a more tol- erant and loving spirit, had not been lost upon woman. The women of 1876 are an improved and revised edition of those of 1776, in perhaps a little more expen- sive binding. She is like the jewel, which, as we read in the Oriental tale, the fairy gave to the prince to wear upon his breast. At the court it was a gem
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noticeable only for its beauty and brilliancy, apparently only an ornament; but in battle it became a shield, and turned aside the darts aimed at his breast, and a talisman which rendered harmless the poisoned arrows with which he might be pricked. So in the peaceful social circle woman is its ornament and shining jewel, but when the shafts of adversity come, she is the shield, the comforter, the consoler and guardian angel, who, sharing our sorrows, robs them of their poison. God bless the noble women of our time. The wives, mothers, sisters, daughters of 1876 would have honored the good old days, and a larger culture had enlarged her capacities to render aid and comfort. In the war, whose marks of desolation are still visible in our land, she had been a blessed angel. She had hovered on the borders of the battlefield, and ere the sabre had rested in its sheath or the cannon's lips grown cold, she hastened to bind the wounds which bled. In the fevered wards of the military hospitals she had come to soothe the anguish of the sufferer, and by her presence and her kindness, to remind him of his dear, dear home. While mercy was an attribute of Heaven, as long as to relieve the dis- tressed was the highest exercise of Christian duty, so long would the noble part taken by woman in the late war be sacredly remembered. There live to-day hundreds of Wisconsin soldiers, who, but for the untiring labors of Mrs. HAR- VEY, one of our noble women, and her strong pleadings in their behalf, would now be sleeping in the south, in the shallow grave of the soldier. Her energy secured for them a transfer north, to the bracing air of their own clime. Her name, doubly written in honor upon the brightest pages of Wisconsin's history, was also written in deep lines of gratitude on many a soldier's heart. She is but a conspicuous representative of thousands of women of 1876, who did more to assuage the suffering and mitigate the horrors of war than had ever been done before. He would not raise a note of discord in the expression of homage and veneration which rose like the tones of an anthem from the hearts of all New Englanders on this day, toward the Pilgrim Fathers. But Forefathers' Day always reminded him of a traditionary family grievance suffered by his ancestor at old Plymouth, and inherited as a grudge. That ancestor did not come over in the Mayflower. Too prudent to hazard his life or his fortune in a doubtful exper- iment, he waited till Plymouth Colony was a success, and then came over. Being of a philosophical turn of mind, he had experimented before emigration with the newly imported tobacco weed, until he had formed and enjoyed the habit of smoking. Having landed, he lighted his pipe and walked out to view the wonders of a new world. The Pilgrim Fathers looked upon him with austere astonish- ment, and forthwith he was apprehended and brought before the council of Ply- mouth and fined; and to this day the sentence stands recorded: "JOHN BRYANT,
11
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1s. 2d. for smokinge of tobackoe in ye hyghewaye," an enduring mark of infamy upon the family name. But the worthy ancestor paid the fine; soon after, loved and married a Puritan maiden, as good and as fair as PRISCILLA. immortalized in the poem; and became the founder, in New England, of a family who, like him- self, loved to eat, drink and smoke what they chose, without prohibitory laws; and think and believe as their own judgment and conscience dictated, and who, like him, were devotedly loyal to the ladies. The old gentleman in his late years received promotion from the same council who had sat in judgment upon him as stated. He was appointed a commissioner to divide a pile of rails which were the subject of controversy, and he performed the duties of the office with that judicial fairness and impartiality which, inherited, is the characteristic of all his posterity. " Woman, in art, in science, in poetry and song, as well as heroism, has gained enviable fame. She has in literature taught us lessons which we read in smiles and tears. She has given us poems which we wear in memory as diamonds. She is to-day opening for herself avenues of usefulness and industry in a thousand directions. Let her go on, and God speed her. Let her rival the poet, the sculp- tor, the painter, the physician; let her turn the clerk and book keeper out of doors. Let her do all this. But the speaker playfully said he hoped she would not become an office seeker nor apply for admission at the bar. He preferred not to come in competition with her. She would coax verdicts ont of the jury and rulings out of the court, by those irresistibly winning ways, which neither youth nor age of the musculine gender could withstand. Even with such stern judges as HOPKINS, such venerable jurors as ATWOOD and SLAUGHTER, logic and dem- onstration would be weak when a woman plead for a verdict. With ladies for lawyers, COKE and BLACKSTONE would be obsolete, and the wish of a pretty woman would override the constitution and be the supreme law of the land. Not any lady lawyers if you please."
LEGENDS OF THE LAKES.
The last toast was as follows:
" THE LEGENDS OF THE LAKES. - A heritage older than the Pilgrims, and offered by the Wisconsin women as their Centennial gift to the Nation, to be a perpetual possession."
To this, a beautiful poetical response by an authoress who does not wish her name announced, was well read by Maj. C. G. MAYERS, as follows:
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A mirror for the bending sky, Is fair Mendota's breast, Bringing the wondrous glories nigh, That tint the glowing west.
Opal and gold and crimson rays Alternate meet and blend; The diamond's light in beauty plays, And sapphire hues descend.
Then sweetly, as an infant breathes, Is each soft passion stilled; A mist, like sacred incense, wreathes, And the rapt soul is filled.
Here the Great Spirit holds his sway, And guards it for his own; The twilight hours of each fair day, Bring offerings to His throne;
And calm Monona's gentle voice, Is wafted on the air, As fairies mingle, and rejoice, In mortal bliss to share.
Moonlit, as are the dreams of youth, Their spell comes floating back, With deep ning shadows from the truth; "Each heart knows its own lack."
So fair the scenes, so true the chords; They waken all anew; We list again to magic words, Fresh with love's sparkling dew.
The legends of the lakes repeat The mysteries of life, In numbers, and in tones so sweet, That we forget its strife.
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ORIGINAL HYMN, DISPATCHIES, ETC.
The President announced that the New England celebration exercises would close with the singing of an original hymn (of which it has since transpired Mrs. A. C. THORP is the author- ess), and called attention to the choice candies for the benefit of the Centennial memorial fund, which were the gift of Miss MARTHIA PEET of Beloit, who was present on this occasion, and who had been very active and efficient in Centennial as in every good work. The choir and audience then joined in singing, to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne," the following:
A Bark once launched, with many a prayer, Upon the angry sea, Bore hearts of steel and women fair To work out Liberty. The centuries have passed between Us and their deeds so grand, And silent in the vast unseen, Await our Pilgrim band.
The seed that fell on Plymouth Rock, Bears golden fruit to-day;
The patience and the battle's shock Have paved a shining way. With rev'rence for our noble sires, Their sons and daughters sing.
Our altars glow with patriot fires, And loud Hosannas ring.
In seventeen hundred seventy-six Old Independence Hall Struck the key note whose numbers rich Still echo to our call. We celebrate a century! The stars and stripes fling out,
And let them wave for Liberty, While we glad pæans shout.
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While this was being sung, the following dispatch was re- ceived from the president and secretary of the Beloit Centen- nial Club, and read by the president:
BELOIT, WIS., December 22, 1875.
To Gen. ATWOOD, United States Centennial Commissioner, and Mrs. A. C. THORP, Chairman of the Executive Committee:
Forefathers' Day bids fair to close with due honor to seventeen seventy-six (1776), and with pride and good cheer of loyal hearts and purses for eighteen seventy-six (1876).
Mrs. ISRAEL WILLIAMS, President. JULIA A. SALMON, Assistant Secretary.
The above was responded to as follows:
MADISON, WIS., December 22, 1875.
Mrs. ISREAL WILLIAMS and JULIA A. SALMON, Beloit, Wis .:
" Many daughters have done virtuously, but ye have excelled them all." Greeting of the Sons of the Pilgrims to Pilgrim Daughters. DAVID ATWOOD. A warm and kindly greeting to you who celebrate with us Forefathers' Day. A. C. THORP.
THE SOCIAL DANCE.
At about 10 o'clock the central part of the floor of the As- sembly Chamber was cleared for dancing. The first dance on the programme was the " Roger de Coverly," named after an Ad- disonian society character of some 150 years ago and like unto the Virginia Reel. It was very gracefully danced by a score of young lads and misses, tastefully attired in the costume of the olden times, and was a delight not only to the young partici- pants, but to all beholders. Other dances of the modern time were participated in with zest, to the music of FAUST's band, by young and old.
Mrs. THORP, and those of the Centennial Clubs of the city who
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aided her in getting up this entertainment, and such New Eng- landers as bore a hand, have reason to congratulate themselves on having been eminently successful in securing a worthy cele- bration of Forefathers' Day, and giving all who accepted the in- vitation a most delightful evening of varied enjoyment.
THE CENTENNIAL AT GREEN BAY.
There was published in the Daily Gazette, of Green Bay, for January 14th, the following call for a meeting of the ladies of Green Bay:
The ladies of Green Bay and Fort Howard are earnestly requested to meet in the parlor of Cook's Hotel. Saturday afternoon at 5:30, to meet Miss PEET, of Beloit, Vice-Chairman of the Women's Centennial Committee of Wisconsin. It is not too late even now for Green Bay. the oldest town in the state, and "the place where the Gospel has been preached for over 200 years," to be represented in this great work. Let all who are interested and all who are not, come to the meeting and hear what Miss PEET can tell us.
MRS. C. D. ROBINSON, Chairman.
Saturday afternoon, between twenty and thirty ladies re- sponded to the invitation. After being introduced to the ladies by the local chairman, Miss PEET stated, as concisely as possible, what the women of Wisconsin had already done and proposed doing, and then went on to say that nearly a year ago, Mrs. THORP, the Chairman of the State, had appointed Mrs. CHARLES D. ROBINSON to the position of Chairman for Green Bay and Brown county, who, from various causes, had declined accepting till now; but it was not yet too late for Green Bay to secure her representative name on the tablet of the memorial shrine; and that name all agreed should be Mrs. JEREMIAHI PORTER, whose
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services in the church, hospitals, and in establishing schools at the South, entitled her to that place. We could truly say of her, "many daughters have done virtuously, but thon excellest them all."
Miss PEET then gave the ladies, in her own concise and ex- pressive words, an idea of the Memorial Shrine, an exhibit which the State Committee had assigned to her special charge and control: "It is to be beautiful in design, of carved ebony and ornamented with medallions upon which will be paintings of Wisconsin scenery, and lined with silver plates. Upon these plates will be engraved the names of localities, individuals and Centennial Clubs who aid in the Centennial work. An inner tablet will be for the few whose services to humanity give them preeminence. As all this requires money, it has been proposed to raise the amount by asking certain sums from each organiza- tion. This, with other exhibits, which will make up the Centen- nial history of Wisconsin, will be deposited with the archives of the State and preserved. One hundred years hence, they are to be opened and the names of the public spirited men and women of the day made known to our descendants, who will find the names of many there, we may hope, well known to fame."
Mrs. ROBINSON then rose to explain why she had not accepted the position. When Mrs. THORP wrote her, sending her ap- pointment and asking her to accept. she was suffering from prostration which unfitted her for such duties; but Mrs. THORE would not accept that as a sufficient reason, knowing, she wrote, that there were many women in Green Bay to do the work. She gave a still more potent reason, which was the financial de- pression here affecting all classes. When the people of Green Bay undertook any project, they were in the habit of carrying it out in such a manner as to do credit to themselves and their
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well earned reputation. She appealed to the ladies present to bear witness to the liberality of our Green Bay people. It was time Green Bay should have some part in the Centennial his- tory of Wisconsin, and now that so little was asked of us (to raise one hundred dollars), she did not doubt it could be done promptly and gladly. She then read the names of an honorary committee comprised of well known old settlers, representing the thirteen original states.
The ladies present then put down their names as members, and after some general conversation it was decided to invite Mrs. THORP to come here and recognize the organization and eneour- age and strengthen us by her presence and inspiring words. After the singing of a Centennial hymn, the meeting adjourned to meet again next Tuesday at the same place, and it was hoped with largely increased numbers.
The following call was published in the Daily Gazette, for Monday and Tuesday :
CENTENNIAL CLUB.
The Women's Centennial Club of Green Bay will have a reception at the par- lors of Cook's Hotel. to meet Mrs. J. G. THORP, of Madison, Chairman for the State, Tuesday evening, January 18th, at 8 o'clock. All interested are cordially invited to be present. MRS. C. D. ROBINSON, Chairman.
The evening was dark and clondy, following a stormy day, but a pleasant party of ladies and gentlemen met Mrs. THORP and Miss PEET in the parlor of Cook's Hotel. Miss WELLS opened the evening's entertainment with singing, followed by a Centen- nial hymn sung by all. Rev. WILLIAM CRAWFORD made the opening address, which was very witty, pleasant and apropos, introducing Mrs. THORP to the meeting. She then read the fol- lowing able address, replete with beautiful thoughts, charmingly
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expressed, delivered distinctly and delightfully, affording to all present so rare and delectable a treat, we could not but pity those who were prevented from enjoying it:
MRS. THORP'S ADDRESS.
Ladies and Gentlemen: - Those of us who have been longest in the centennial field in our own state have been at work only a few months; divining our way with but few definite aims of a practical character. We commenced, stirred by patriotic impulses, and with a desire to share in our grand Centennial Jubilee. We had also other incentives, which we know not how to define. We realized the fact, that the tone of womanhood should be elevated and strengthened, and we felt that this national movement furnished the golden opportunity which had never before occurred. Vague and indefinite as were our ideas, we could not be indifferent to the invitation given us, to add our mite, in our own way, to the grand aggregate. We found ourselves launched and in the midst of practical issues, before we were fully aware of the venture we had made, we reached forth for wise headed and strong hearted women to join hands with us and make the labor pleasant. With few exceptions, the response has been, we desire to aid, but know not how to commence, and this has been the difficult problem wo have been required to solve. Unaccustomed as we are to broad spheres of action, we are timid and distrustful of our own abilities, and the first lesson we have to learn is, to "be kindly affectioned one toward another;" charitable rather than critical. This spirit controlling our deliberations, it is wonderful to see how much women can accomplish. Their activity of mind, rapidity of suggestion and exc- cution are remarkable. Habits of concentration and method soon become easy, and the feminine side of life expresses itself in material, intellectual and æsthetic forms, giving satisfactory evidence of the still undeveloped resources of woman- hood. For this reason, if for no other, it is fitting that women awake to the glo- rious inspirations of eighteen hundred and seventy six! In our own State, we have aimed to have our exhibits illustrate thought, culture and aspiration. Our finances being so limited, we are obliged to tax ingenuity in devising ways and means to secure meritorious articles for this purpose. We are laboring to furnish a few well chosen, and if possible, elegant representations from the women of our State - at the same time touching the key note of united sympathies and cooper- ative effort, hoping that every locality, great and small, from our political and commercial centers, to the famtest echo of our most distant pinery, will unite to swell the chorus. We have reason to know that the requisite ability is not lack-
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ing, while we also understand that most of us have spent our lives in labors and accomplishments which we cannot now concentrate for purposes of exhibition. We have the grateful and sustaining consciousness that our treasures are in our homes and our seminaries of learning-and we would rather unfold mind and heart in active, earnest thought, in union of sentiment and purpose, making our lives and the lives of our children grander and more beautiful, than to over tax nerve and brain, in the manipulation of handiwork, which is as ephemeral as it is useless. It is the soul that lives, the aims and purposes that give vigor and coloring to life, and these are greatly strengthened by the love and sympathy which come of united effort. Women are not accustomed to aid each other, neg- atively speaking. It is not necessary to add anything in reference to the reverse side of this statement, as we all understand our true status in this respect, and the many reasons therefor. But the remedy is within our own hands. In efforts like the one now called for, we learn to respect the ability which accomplishes so much with so few facilities at command and so many obstacles to be overcome. While home is woman's sphere par excellence, the basis and incentive of all her actions. for the sake of home, she needs the refreshing and toning influences that come from other sources. She needs change and contact with minds bearing sim- ilar responsibilities - in short, she needs to contemplate and gain wisdom from every subject and every phase of life. She will, through the avenues of affection and sympathetic attraction naturally. bring all she gathrs in these ways, and lay it upon the altar of home. for her loved ones to share. American homes are the model homes of the world, and American women should be the representative women of the world, as they are allowed broader scope in every sense, than the women of any other nation. They have only to devise wise plans, to be executed in womanly ways, to insure success. We love our country. Our national home is as dear to us, as are our individual homes and the affection is as legitimate.
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