USA > Wisconsin > Centennial records of the women of Wisconsin > Part 17
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CENTENNIAL THOUGHTS OF WOMAN.
In the progress of knowledge and Christianity has come the conviction that the province of woman's activities is as broad as the interests of humanity; that she, too, in common with man, has the world for her field, and its physical, intellectual and spir- itual kingdoms for her inheritance.
Thus truth involves an active participation in all measures and movements that pertain to public or private welfare, whether of government, of church, of school, of society, or of the home.
The mischiefs that have issued from a less-enlarged view of woman's mission have been, still are, and must ever be, most disastrous. The magnitude of her work demands, first of all, the
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broadest self-culture the resources of the age can offer. Woman can not value too highly her own acquisitions, for the measure of her individual strength will be the measure of the strength she will bring to the household, to society, to the state. The more woman is impressed with the worth of humanity, the more fully she accepts her new revelation - now borne in upon her by the experience of the past, and the needs of the present - the more she realizes the infinite scope of the high career to which she is now called, the more eagerly will she respond to every op- portunity for the development of her powers, the more diligent- ly will she seek for truth and growth, and the more patiently will she bring into subjection to the law of wisdom and love each wayward and frivolous impulse.
Every department of human effort needs the direct influence of intelligent womanhood, and every woman needs the discipline and general information which a participation in public affairs can alone furnish. By large individual acquirements and breadth of comprehension, woman must command that respect upon which her usefulness will depend. Fields of art, science and literature, the learned professions and all honorable callings must be familiar to her, open to her pursuit. Self-reliance and inde- pendence of character are best acquired in some noble sphere of activity which woman's special aptitudes or intellectual instincts may choose. By such practical training, her own life is greatly enriched and the world benefited; while the mental discipline, culture and self-control thus obtained are especially serviceable
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to woman in the well ordering of her household, and in the per- formance of its holy duties.
As the ideal of a Christian home is advanced, as its far-reach- ing blessings are more highly appreciated, and its close relations to the community are better understood, it is more fully and clearly revealed what wealth of intellectual and spiritual power may wisely be employed in its service.
We do well to beware, lest our very reverence of home, nar- rowing our thoughts concerning it, narrow also our preparation for its duties. He who so prizes the bible as to read it only, will poorly understand its teachings, will miss altogether some of its far-reaching principles, and pervert others to his own moral injury.
Home must, indeed, be the center of divine beneficences; but that it may be this center, it must also gather into itself all dis- cipline and wisdom. The moment the wife and mother allows her energies and interests to be absorbed in the family, and be- comes indifferent to public measures, and to the welfare of other homes and of the no-homes, that moment deterioration com- mences in herself and in her household. Household selfishness is but a small remove from personal selfishness, and its retribu- tion is as certain. We cannot forget the brotherhood of the race, and withdraw our sympathies and activities from its com- mon well-being, and prosper in our individual or family life. Not thus can we unite ourselves to God's work in the world. Seclusion and exclusion in the home is the rock on which many families have been fatally shipwrecked.
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The richest ministrations of unselfish love and unwearying patience must have the support of broad intelligence for their effectnal influence. The mother's knowledge of public affairs and outside activities must deserve the respect of her sons, that her much-needed counsels in the important steps of their lives may be valned and obeyed. Affection, in a world to be guided and restrained, can never be a substitute for that knowledge that wins and holds an attentive ear. It may greatly aid the word of wisdom, it can never replace it.
The mother, above all others, is most vitally concerned in public movements. Unjust government, unrighteous social en- actments, unwise school regulations, imperfect sanitary laws, each and all of them, may defeat the mother's high purposes, and bring ruin to the home, however faithfully she may have labored within its precincts for its highest perfection.
From our homes then, and in behalf of our homes -the true sources of a nation's intellectual and spiritual wealth -comes the earnest plea that woman should have a voice in the adminis- tration of national affairs.
To-day man proudly celebrates the close of his first Centennial of freedom. To swell his triumphs, woman brings her contributions, but brings them the more joyfully as with the eye of faith she sees the approaching inauguration of her own Centennial. Her inspired vision beholds the promise of the future, the glories that shall be, when humanity shall be enriched by the highest achievements, holiest aspirations, and grandest possibilities of the whole race. The present holds the future; that future, then,
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springing from these infolding forces will be soul-satisfying and sufficient, according as the household, gathering into itself all re- generative, expansive agencies, transforms the home of the few into the heaven of the many.
All hail to this opening kingdom of enlarged powers, virtues and pleasures. EMMA C. BASCOM.
REMINISCENCE.
It is pleasant when the harvest-home is shouted and the in- gathering garnered, to contemplate the labors of the season, esti- mate the gains and losses, and ponder the lessons of the hour, for future guidance and profit.
Thus, as the interest in our National Exhibition gathers vol- ume from its near approach, some utterances are forced upon us, concerning the advantages accruing to woman, in conse- quence of her share in the work, as well as on kindred subjects affecting the well being of our sex.
When the demand came from our nation's birthplace, for all that "Science, Art and Labor could outpour, from all their myr- iad horns of plenty," to grace the new century's natal day, and woman was called upon for the first time in the world's history to assist in a national service, every true feminine soul in the land marked with gratitude this step of progress in her ascend-
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ing scale, and many from it horoscoped the bright star of her future.
The pronounced object of the exhibition being to display to the world the material productions, manufactures and handi- crafts, in which after a century's culture, each State had ex- celled, woman when accepting her recognition as helper, anx- iously asked the question, how she should represent herself on the festal day of her country. Not where in miles of palace halls shall be arrayed,
" Rich in model and design, Harvest tools and husbandry, Loom and wheels and engin'ry, Secrets of the hidden mine - Steel and gold and corn and wine, Fabric rough or fairy fine, Sunny tokens of the Line, Polar marvels and a feast Of wonder out of West and East."
Not in the range of material products could woman find her niche, and the problem where, and how, she should place herself before the world, brought to light the advanced ground she had almost unconsciously gained.
In the past, her departments of housewifery, in culinary arts, or the uses of the needle, were exhibited at State and County Fairs, as the only representation of the life and labors of our sex. And how loudly they spoke of toil and tedious routine ! We reverence the patience and long suffering with which the pioneer mothers bore the rigors of their lot, and wonder not,
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that the idea of Heaven, to many of them, was tired hands, folded on the clean white apron, after the day's tasks were done.
A better day dawns on us. Now, men and machinery com- pete in supplying the daily recurring wants of the body, and woman is greatly emancipated from many a domestic hardship and endurance, once her special province. While in America, in former times, rude arts and primeval life circumscribed woman's power to make the most of her mental abilities, in some other countries more silken bonds have been around her, and those degrading.
Says GEO. WM. CURTIS, in his recent lecture on "Woman of the Old Time and the New," "Yesterday is gone and to-day is come. The fretted slave of the Greek household, and the idle toy of the Chesterfield age have given place to a better idea, and we go forward with God's blessing to find the true woman in the free American homes."
Although it is only the morning of our brighter day which the new century will bring to a glorious noontide; although the night watchman on the hill top, hailing the glad light, has but just ceased his cry, already many women hold the arena as authors, artists and sculptors, as well as in the learned profes- sions, and in departments of business, requiring skill and prob- ity, while all who have discerned the blessed dawning, have seized the cheering promise of a higher phase of spiritual life.
We were not surprised to learn that all culinary and needle efforts, with the exception of embroideries and lace work, which
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rank among the fine arts, were excluded from the National Jubi- lee, as unworthily representing the woman of to-day.
It was seen at once, that the high and holy office, distinctively woman's right and honor as priestess at the family altar, could not be displayed, and that a well ordered home, with the glad- some light of household loves, could never be exhibited in sam- ples. Accordingly when the demand for a quota came to us, the daughters of Wisconsin were for a moment perplexed and troubled, but by the far-seeing prescience, added to the un- bounded energy, persistent effort and cultured taste of our State Chairman, the past year, has been made among the happiest in the lives of those most closely associated with her, in this preparation time for the grand era.
Our organizations have been in the highest degree enjoyable, and we do not hesitate to add, profitable. Without arrogating too much, we may speak of the processes of business, the promptness in action, the continuity of purpose which have been called for in the school of our experience, as educative and eminently useful for the future.
Again, the enthusiasm enkindled, and the incentives pre- sented by our devoted leader, have inspired many in our State to exert their best gifts in poesy and painting, and given them an impulse to high aspirations which will not rest with the occasion, but ripen into greater achievement and a full maturity. Still deeper has been an underlying current of sentiment and principle which has borne us on, and given us assurance that
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our progress has been in the right direction. Our exhibits speak for themselves, and are lovingly offered by the daughters of our State as an exponent of their endeavor, as well as a me- mento and legacy to those who shall come after. If from this feast of the nations more is not evolved than meets the eye, then the millions of time and money expended will be wasted treasure. But from the united efforts of foreign countries and our own, to exhibit the tokens of highest civilization, all concentrating in one focal center, must flow a generous rivalry, which cannot fail to bring us a purer patriotism, more honorable and honest poli- tics, and a truer recognition of the God of nations. And to
woman, often through the ages a slave or bauble, and who some- times in our age and land, under the increased freedom of her lot, has taken that vantage ground to bind herself with the shackles of fashion and conventional society - to her, who accepts the signs of the times, the open door of the coming century in- vites to her true place. Then let woman, honored by the Di- vine Master when in his human form, and by his first mani- festation as the risen Savior, never dishonor herself by low standards, or be satisfied with criterions, obsolete in the light of to-day, of her sphere of duty and action. Let her progress be shadowed forth in this fresh spring-time, by the gentle but sure promise of perfection in the living plant, fed by Heaven's dews and warmed by its sunshine.
"So from the root springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves More aery - last, the bright consummate flower."
MADISON, April 25, 1876.
A. B. B.
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