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■ II
L:
T gives me great pleasure to appear be
fore you this afternoon, and to address
you upon the theme chosen for me at
this time. Permit me to thank you for
this generous kindness and to tell you
that such a theme at such a time and
before such an audience, fills me with
unspeakable gratification and delight.
Much has been written and more has
been said about woman: and between the thrusts on
the one side of the crusty old bachelor, who call
see nothing more than her foibles and her paint,
whose eloquence is constantly called forth to ex
press his constant consternation at her amazing
genius to devise so many new fashions and hats and
his keenest shafts of ridicule at her wonderful de
sire to become an andromaniae, and the other sil
ver-tongued enthusiast who sees woman as queen of
all; who discovers her the apotheosis of all that is
sweet and lovely, and beautiful and good, and
charming and wonderful, whose most polished dic
tion is called forth to deify and laud, I think there
is a middle ground that I desire to reach this after
noon.
Her Foibles and Her Charms.
I feel that woman has her foibles, and that she
’has her opulence of womanly chanri and grace;
■but I believe that she has more to attract in real
ity and truth apart from either of these extremes.
In appearing, therefore, before you this afternoon,
I come that I may lift up my voice in her behalf
to bear testimony to the unselfish altruistic minis
try, and to the great love of her country that has
ever been a pronounced characteristic.
History records her achievements, and tells the
record of her glory. Even before the day when
she was emancipated as she is today, and way back
in Bible times, there is the record of Deborah and
Ruth and many others whose achievements were
deemed worthy of a record in Holy Writ.
We might briefly note woman’s sphere. Frances
Willard, the uncrowned queen of America, said
that her mother always taught her that she must
be womanly first, and after that what she would,
and we note that woman has entered the commercial
sphere, and side by side with man has demonstrated
her ability as a wage earner and money maker, and
some of the wealthiest people in this country are
women who manage their own colossal estates
and further their own financial schemes.
Socially she reigns the queen of our homes, our
salons and public functions.
Mentally she has vindicated her ability to cope
with the Lords of Creation in the universities of
this great country, and side by side with him in
our higher institutions of learning, has been able
not simply to keep up, but has been able to take
all the honors of the class. She has entered into
all the professions and has clearly demonstrated
her ability in the whole range of professional life.
So that woman has become a potent factor in all
our civic and social life. But I desire to go fur
ther this evening and affirm that she is also a pa
triot. Women have ever been great lovers of God,
of home, and native land.
Standing* on the public square of our town is a
most eloquent testimony to her fidelity to her coun
try and the heroes that fought for principles dear
to their hearts, and this has been true through all
the annals of history. Victoria, Columna, Madam
Roland, Charlotte Corday, Joan of Arc, Florence
Nightingale and thousands of Revolutionary moth
ers, Clara Barton, of the Red Cross, and thou
sands more eloquently proclaim the patriotism and
sacrifice of women in days gone bv.
I have read in history that, when Camillas reigned
in Rome and the country was straitened and bank
rupt on account of a lack of funds, the noble
matrons of Rome, in obedience to the mandate of
the oracle, came forward and signified their fideL
THE PATRIOTISM OP WOMAN
Address 'Before the Recent District W. C. T. U. Institute , Union Springs , Ala.
By Reb. Robert Lee Bell
The Golden Age for June 18, 1908.
ity and devotion to their Country by laying On
the altar their jewels, their treasures and their
gold; and when 1 read that I thought it whs Wor
thy the noble matrons of the eternal seven-hilled
city,
Loved Oountrjf Better Than Jewels.
1 liaVe l*ead in French history, that, when France,
a century a fid a half ago, was groaning under a hu
miliating debt and was hopeless and in despair,
the Minister of Finance was waited upon by a com
mittee of ladies bearing their jewels and diamonds,
their treasure and their gold, who laid them at his
feet, and then standing before him in all the beauty
and nobility of splendid womanhood, with flaming
cheek, said: “We would scorn to wear jewels in
the hour of our country’s need”; and when I read
that I exclaimed: “Little wonder that heroism
like that could foster and raise up such sons as those
who followed the gallant Lafayette, and who flashed
their bright blades in defense of our independence
in 177 G. ”
I have read in German history that Frederick
William 111. laid the foundation of the great Ger
man empire in the Order of the Iron Cross. The
people in answer to his call brought likewise with
others their jewels and their gold, their rubies and
diamonds, an*l laid them in the public treasury,
receiving for them similar ornaments made from
bronze bearing the inscription: ‘‘l gave gold for
bronze in 1813.” And when I read that the old
time admiration that had flamed for others flashed
again in my soul, and I said, “Little wonder that
such sacrificing love for country made Germany
great. ’ ’
I have read in the annals of Carthaginian history
that once*when Carthage was in dire distress on ac
count of a lack of weapons for warfare, that her
fair daughters cut off their ebony tresses and sent
them to the front to be manufactured into bow
strings that their brave defenders might win lus
trous and glorious victories on the Held of honor.
And 1 submit, is it any wonder that with these tok
ens of the sacrifice of their wives, their sweet
hearts, their sisters and their daughters, that these
brave Carthaginian leaders rose in might and
heroism and even dictated terms to proud Rome.
1 have read that once when Coriolanus was thun
dering with his conquering legions at the very
gates of Rome, and Rome was trembling on account
of his great wrath and rising power, that Yolumnia,
the mother of Coriolanus, brought forth from the
city gates his two little children, and at the risk
of her own life and the lives of these little ones
approached the tent of her son; and when she
found audience with him, pleaded so eloquently for
Rome, that Coriolanus melted, called away his con
quering legions, and with tears in his eyes, said:
“Mother, you have saved Rome, but you have lost
your son.”
Thus in the annals of all histories, its pages
are made fragrant with the odor of woman’s pa
triotic devotion to her home and native land. And
in this fair Southland of ours, we have had illus
trated some of the most splendid exhibitions of cour
age, sacrifice and patriotic devotion the world ever
saw. No nation can boast of a grander womanhood,
a more opulent or patriotic sisterhood.
Her Victories In Peace.
But peace has her victories no less than war, and
there is a patriotism that flourishes today, equally
as great, noble, and splendid as ever illustrated in
the annals of civilized nations of earth. Patriot
ism does not necessarily imply that one must shoul
der the musket and fight for the defence of home
on the battlefield; but on the contrary, it demands
courage to fight every foe to home, every invader of
sacred rights and every foe to the noblest and high
est interests of home and native land; and when
women fight for the highest welfare of their- hus
hands* their children, and their country, they are
exhibiting as splendid form of patriotism as any
womdn who in days gone by lias made achievements
on the field of battle.
Permit me to say that there is no higher form of
patriotism than that which seeks the highest polit
ical and moral welfare of the people; no higher
form than that which seeks to promote those
things which will increase the efficiency of her citi
zenship, and destroy the things which blight and mar
and degrade. 1 believe that America lias produced
no greater patriot than Frances Willard, the un
crowned Queen of America, who gave her life to
the interests of this grand old commonwealth, and
who fought with all her powers the greatest foe to
our manhood, and the peace and happiness of the
home,
In your endeavors to rid the home of the evils of
intemperance, you are putting yourselves in line
with the heroines of the past aild evidencing to the
world the high estimate of one’s country that has
made our country great. I hail you in your efforts,
and congratulate you in the success that has already
attended your warfare, and trust that the day is
not far distant when the whole country shall be
free from the blight and curse of rum. The grand
old state of North Carolina has gone dry by a ma
jority of 50,000 and others are falling in line; and
we feel that the time has come when we may say;
“King Alcohol is dethroned.” In this great work
to no ones are due more credit than to the patriotic
women of our country.
« *
The TLnd of the Whole Hatter.
By Arthur Goodenough.
Sometimes when silence bounds the earth,
And vesper bells are pealing forth,
Amid the gently falling dews
I walk apart and walking muse.
And as I walk beside the sea
The world departs away from me.
There is no sea —there is no sky
Nor earth —but only God and I!
The plan is done; the thread is spun;
The course of all the race is run.
And in the dome of heaven gray
The stars have burned themselves away!
The Future and the finished Past
Are one, for time is done at last;
There is no star, there is no sky
Nor sea-—but only God and I!
So will it be when I am dead:
I shall not leave the world; instead
As morning mists dissolve and flee
The world will pass away from me!
And I shall stand (as 1 have stood
So many times in thoughtful mood)
With nothing but a painted screen
Between me .and the End unseen.
And all that is, or is to be,
Will then have passed away from me;
And there remain nor sun nor sky
Nor earth, but only God and 1!
* *
A little four-year-old was sitting beside his moth
er’s young lady guest. He was silent for perhaps a
•whole minute, and then asked her, “Say, what
would T be (what nationality) if I was born on the
.ocean?”
“Whatever vour mother and father were, dear,”
was the reply.
“But,” and his big blue eyes widened with in
tenseness, '-‘supposm ’ T was cornin’ across with my
;auntie?”
And that -yipung lady didn’t know the answer.
