OUT OF BONDAGE.
The next day after the meeting Barker and Brookes were busy with the
C.I. Committee of Los Angeles in dividing the work up and organizing, so
that each ward of the city had its committee, whose business it was to
do all it could in enlightening the people of the ward in which the
committee lived.
Penloe and Stella devoted one afternoon and evening to informal talks in
each ward in the city, those present having the privilege of asking
questions. After Penloe and Stella had worked in every ward, they went
with Barker and Brookes to San Diego and spent a week there; then they
worked all the other towns in Southern California, and then returned to
Los Angeles. On their return they were more than satisfied with the
progress of the C.M. What helped the movement very much was the
character which Penloe and Stella gave it. When some of the more
conservative element suggested the impropriety or immodesty of the C.I.,
they were met with the answer: "Look at Penloe and Stella, who live the
idea every day of their lives. Are there any purer-minded persons than
they are? Do not the best people of the city open their houses to
welcome them? Did they not tell how living the life helped them
intellectually and spiritually?" Those replies quieted all opposition
and gave courage to those who were a little timid and fearful, also to
those in doubt whether it was right or not. As the movement was gaining
ground rapidly, persons began to think how very foolish it was to
entertain such thoughts as they had been accustomed to concerning the
sexes. The movement in Southern California showed how the movement would
work elsewhere in this way. It was one of those movements that needed a
few intelligent, courageous spirits in a locality to start it, and when
once it got a going, most of the other members of the community fell in
line, and when it was about universally adopted in one locality, the
people living in the next county soon joined the movement. After three
months' labor in Los Angeles a vote was taken. For Woman's Suffrage,
eighty-five per cent. voted "Yes," and by a very careful estimate
seventy-five per cent. had put in practice in one form or another the
C.I. Soon San Diego followed Los Angeles, then Pasadena and Riverside,
and soon after all the other towns in Southern California fell in line.
The result was wired all over the State and nation.
During the progress of the movement in Southern California, Mr. and Mrs.
Herne were not idle. They put their hands in their pockets freely, and
paid for much of the printed matter they circulated.
Now that Southern California had gone overwhelmingly for the C.I. Penloe
and Stella, Barker and Brookes, felt at liberty to accept some of the
many urgent calls from other parts of the State. They were continually
receiving calls from other States, but would accept none till the same
condition prevailed throughout the whole State as now existed in
Southern California and the State Legislature had granted to woman the
same legal standing in the eyes of the law that man had.
The next places visited by the workers were Bakersfield, Hanford,
Tulare, Visalia, Fresno, Oakland, and San Francisco. In all these places
they found the work in a more or less advanced state. The fact that
Southern California had gone for the C.I. was a great help in forwarding
the movement in other places, so that after about eight months' work in
these cities just named, and some other places, it was found that the
entire State had been carried for the C.M. and Woman's Suffrage, except
one county. The Legislature was about to meet in a month's time, and
would give to woman the suffrage, and place her, in other respects, on
an equality with man in the eyes of the law.
Great work was being done in the last county, so that it joined the rest
of California for progressive thought, and the whole State was carried
for the C.I. just as the Legislature passed the necessary acts for
woman's legal freedom. The news was wired to every State in the Union,
and California was one scene of rejoicing throughout the entire State.
It was a great day for California when her men and women threw off the
yoke of superstition and ignorance and thus cut some of the bonds which
had held them in ignorance. They had taken one great stride toward the
goal of freedom. California now took her true place among the States in
the Union, for she led the way toward freedom in its highest sense.
The leaders of advanced thought in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho
were very active in working for the C.I. All these States having granted
woman the suffrage before the C.M. was started, the workers found it
easy to get them to follow California in the grand procession for
freedom.
Wyoming, which was the first to grant the suffrage to woman, was the
next to join California; then came Colorado, then Utah, and then Idaho
wheeled into line.
Penloe and Stella were receiving calls to labor from other States, and
finally decided to go to Illinois. Kansas wired the following message to
the Central Committee of California: "Kansas is all ablaze with the C.M.
from its center to its circumference, and its fires have leaped the
borders into Nebraska, Iowa, and reached Minnesota."
After the C.I. had been practised in Southern California a few months,
if a young gentleman had just returned to the East from Los Angeles, his
friends wanted to know immediately how the C.I. worked.
Mr. Franklin Hart, of New York, a young gentleman who had just returned
from Los Angeles, was sitting in a parlor with some young friends, and
they all wanted him to relate his impressions of the C.I. in Los
Angeles. When he was describing its workings, two or three young ladies
put their hands to their faces and laughed, one saying, "How strange and
funny it must have seemed." Another young lady remarked, "There has been
too much foolishness about such things." Mr. Franklin Hart said: "After
you have been there about a week the old idea seems stranger than the
new. You wonder to yourself however such thoughts could have fastened
themselves on us for generations and generations."
Prof. Dawson, of Boston, visited Los Angeles two years after the C.I.
had been in operation, and wrote a letter to the leading Boston daily,
as follows:
"DEAR SIR: Being naturally of a conservative turn of
mind, I came to Los Angeles with ideas unfavorable to
the C.M. I had not taken the least stock in what the
papers said or the people of California wrote in regard
to the practical workings of the C.I. I expected the
defenses of morality and modesty had been swept away by
such ideas, and that the communities of Southern
California had sunk into licentiousness. I had spent
two years in California about eight years ago, and I
considered at that time that the morals of the people
were not of a high order. So I expected to find society
in a still worse moral condition now. I have been here
six months, and, in justice to truth, I must state the
facts even if they show that my previous opinions were
incorrect. To those who study the people closely in
regard to sex matters, I can say truthfully that sexual
excitement has fallen fifty per cent., and that obscene
pictures and stories have no attraction for the people.
The low places of amusement, that used to be run under
the name of 'Variety Theaters,' and other such names,
are closed up, for the reason, as a former proprietor
of one of these resorts expressed it, 'A leg and bosom
show has no attraction for the people since the C.I.
has been in operation.' Houses of prostitution are
less in number by forty per cent., so the chief of
police informed me, and I saw a large number of them
closed. The low dives are closed, and places where
girls made exhibitions of themselves for the sole
purpose of exciting passion in man are no more. They
died for want of patronage. The forms of each sex are
looked at now with eyes which see purity and beauty.
"I notice, also, the conversation among young people
has improved greatly, being of a higher and purer kind.
Now I practised the C.I. myself, and came in contact
with many of both sexes. After very careful observation
in Los Angeles, and other towns in Southern California,
I feel I am in a position to know and I can state that
I now consider the C.I. is the greatest reform movement
that the world has ever seen.
"Yours truly,
"ROBERT DAWSON."
In about a year later the four progressive States known as Kansas,
Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa, had removed all barriers from woman's
political freedom and placed her, in the eyes of the law, where
California had. The C.I. having become the predominant thought, it was
lived throughout these four States. The C.M. received a great impetus
when they fell into line with the other advanced States.
Penloe and Stella, with Barker and Brookes and other workers, had worked
for over a year in Illinois, and now they were concentrating all their
forces in Chicago, the other part of the State being all right. It was
in that city that a great battle for reform had to be fought. The
opposition was strong. It consisted of society ladies and gentlemen, who
thought woman's position was above politics; that is, to their minds it
was far higher for a woman to be prettily and daintily dressed, and to
be a petted slave, than to use her God-given intellect for the benefit
of herself and the nation in which she lived. The other wing of the
opposition consisted of those who were making money in the saloon
business and running low places of amusement. They did not want woman to
vote in making laws which might be detrimental to their business
interests. As the opposition became strong in its concerted action to
overthrow the influence of the reform forces, the two great
figure-heads, the two grand leaders of the C.M. seemed to acquire
increased energy and power. Listen to what Barker and Brookes said,
after having attended a meeting in the great Auditorium of the Lake
City, when over a thousand had to be turned away for want of room:
"Though I have been so much with Penloe and Stella like yourself, and
one would naturally think that the influence of their personality had
become common, yet such is not my experience," said Brookes.
Barker replied: "Is not that strange, where we see them almost every
day, as we have done for about two years? Instead of their influence
becoming tame and commonplace, it seems to take a renewed force and
power with each day, and they appear to carry a newness and freshness
with them continually. Their efforts to-night were the greatest of their
lives."
Brookes said: "I saw the power of the Yogi to-night as I never had
witnessed it, to such a degree, before. Did you notice, Barker, that at
the close of the meeting, instead of having some prominent person
speaking against the C.M., there was not one dissenting voice when
opportunity was given, but the short speeches which were made by
prominent members of the audience were all in favor of the movement.
Just think of the number of invitations that poured in upon them to
deliver the same address in other parts of the city. The battle is won,
Barker, for no opposition can withstand that power which was manifested
to-night."
It was as Brookes said, the opposing forces had to yield, for there was
a seen and an unseen power sent out which swept and overcame all
opposition, and a month later Illinois was counted in with the
procession which California was leading. A year later the great States
of Ohio and Pennsylvania had joined the ranks, followed by the old Bay
State with its conservative element, and Boston became the scene of
illumination and rejoicing. The influence of these great States was felt
in many smaller ones, and they also helped to swell the wave of the C.M.
by joining the ranks. Quite a large percentage of that element in the
big cities, who profited by pandering and catering to the depraved
tastes of human nature, had left the city in which they carried on their
places of business now that the C.I. was practised, and they had gone to
the City of New York, thinking the element to which they belonged was
too powerful in Gotham ever to be driven out by the C.M., and it was in
this city where the greatest of all battles for reform thought was
fought.
When Penloe and Stella with Barker and Brookes left Chicago, they went
to the City of New York, staying in Boston a week on their way. They had
now been in this city for over a year and had called together picked
workers from many other States who were in the procession for reform.
The opposition was the same as that encountered in Chicago, only ten
times as strong.
When they had been in the city eighteen months, some few of the churches
had helped forward the work, just as some churches did in other cities.
Penloe decided that every church and every society of every kind that
had for its basis of organization love and justice, should receive a
special invitation to join in this great moral reform movement, and
special work should be allotted them. Penloe and Stella made a personal
visit to the leaders of the various sects, denominations and societies,
and ably presented the case for their consideration, showing that the
life of their organization depended upon their members being active
living workers for truth, purity and justice. He put each society on
record as to where they stood, whether its organization was merely that
of a social club, or whether it was ready to stand and work for the
principles it claimed to have for its foundation. Be it said to the
credit of each society, sect and organization, they all responded
heartily and co-operated with Penloe and Stella in helping forward the
grand reform; for they saw it was useless to prate about love, purity,
justice and freedom, with woman debarred by law from her legal and
political rights and tolerating a social custom which excited the worst
passions and bred prurient curiosity. It was a grand and glorious sight,
such as the world had not witnessed before, to see Catholics,
Unitarians, Methodists, Universalists, Baptists, Episcopalians,
Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Theosophists, members of the Jewish
Synagogue, representatives of the Vedanta, together with the Y.M.C.A.
and Y.W.C.A., Christian Union, Christian Science and Socialists
Societies, and all other such societies join in the work. The members of
these various bodies coming in contact with those two great spiritual
luminaries, seemed to receive such an influx of the Divine as purified
their own organizations and made them what they should always be, a
_great power for good_. With such concentrated efforts by such an army
of workers, the enemy gave way and New York City became the beacon light
to travelers from other nations; not as it had been a city of greed and
lust, but a city where woman stood before the law the same as man, and
where its citizens were beginning to walk a little more in the line of
purity and freedom.
Just before the battle was won in the State of New York, the agitation
which had been going on in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland for over
two years culminated in a victory for the reform forces. Two years after
the State of New York was won, the C.M. had carried every State in the
Union, and also Canada. Australia and New Zealand not wishing to be
behind in all that stood for advanced thought and freedom, fell in line
with the other English-speaking countries.
Penloe and Stella did not consider the work finished yet, and they
called for a congress of representative workers to meet in the
Auditorium in Chicago at a suitable date, which would give all time to
be present. Each State and country were to send two delegates, one man
and one woman. Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Wales,
Ireland, Canada, and every State in the Union were all represented at
the Congress.
When the Congress assembled, it was unanimously agreed that Stella
should preside.
After the meeting had been opened and some preliminaries had been gone
through, Penloe said: "In the call for this congress it was stated that
its purpose was to consider how best to carry on this great work in
foreign countries, but before doing so I think it would be best to
change the name of the work. It seems necessary that some names, as well
as races, should pass through the period of evolution. The reason why I
will briefly state, as follows: In some countries where it is necessary
to carry on this work, they are not in bondage, and the name C.I. would
not convey the meaning of the full scope of our work; for while it is
true they do not discriminate between the sexes, yet they are in bondage
in many other different ways, and while the work originally started with
the idea of freeing men and women from the shackles of sexual bondage
with the name of 'Sex Reform Movement,' yet afterwards it was called the
'California Idea,' and the name included Woman's Suffrage, so as to make
her free before the law, before man, and before the whole world. And as
it grew its name changed to 'California Movement.' But now that the work
has grown to such gigantic proportions, having about taken in all the
English speaking countries, the work has also grown in its scope of
usefulness and its object now is not only to free the mind from sexual
bondage, not only to see that woman holds the same place as man in the
eyes of the law of the land that she lives in, but still more, to FREE
HUMANITY FROM ALL BONDAGES OF EVERY KIND OR CHARACTER. Therefore, I
propose that the name to be given to the movement shall be '_Reform
Forces_,' for under this name and banner all can work."
After a little discussion the name given by Penloe was adopted
unanimously.
The next business was to hear from some of the delegates in regard to
plans for carrying on the work in foreign countries. After hearing many
different plans proposed, and listening to various suggestions from many
of the delegates, the plan mapped out by Penloe was finally carried
unanimously.
It was something like this: That each country or State should have its
special work. Europe was portioned off to England, Wales, Scotland,
Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. They were to divide the
work among themselves. New York took Southern India, Pennsylvania took
Northern India. The northern half of China was allotted to Illinois, the
southern half, to Ohio. Mexico was given to Texas. The islands of the
Pacific to California. South America was portioned off to other States.
Massachusetts was given Japan, Egypt was given to Michigan. Persia to
Indiana. Every State had a certain work of its own in some foreign
country separate from that which was done by other States and countries.
Each State or country was to send just four teachers to the country they
had taken to enlighten. The teachers must be all round characters, with
high intellectual attainments, and possessing at the same time rich
spiritual gifts and free from family ties.
The line of work marked out for the teachers was as follows: First, to
locate themselves in the largest city in the country to which they are
sent.
To make themselves thoroughly familiar with the writings and teachings
of the founders of the predominant religion of the country to which they
are sent.
To find out all that is known of the leading saints and sages who have
lived in their lives the prevailing religion of the country in which
they lived.
To study thoroughly the habits, customs and bondages of the people of
the country to which they are sent. Then to cultivate the acquaintance
of the most intellectual and spiritually inclined native men and women
and get them interested in the work of the Reform Forces. To appeal to
them, and reach them through the teachings of the founders of their own
religion, as well as by what has been written and said by their own
saints and sages. Get the intelligent natives of both sexes to become
the leaders and teachers to their people. Get the native teachers to
work to strike at some of the bondages which they think the people are
ready to free themselves from first, and when the people have thrown off
one bondage then to work to get them to be free from other bondages.
After the teachers have got a group of intelligent native workers in the
line of the Reform Forces in one city, they are to go to another city
and do the same till the whole country has native workers in every part
working along the line of the Reform Forces.
From Penloe's remarks before the Congress, concerning the religions of
other nations, we will copy the following extract. "If any one will
study the teachings of the saints and sages of other religions, he will
find that the essence of spiritual thought contained in them all is
about the same as that contained in Christianity. The mistake which has
been made by missionaries and others lie in thinking that the ritual and
practices of the masses represent the thoughts of the great spiritual
luminaries of those religions. The masses of the Oriental countries no
more represent the real thoughts of the great spiritual teachers of
those countries than the commercial cannibalism of the West represents
the teachings of Christ. In fact, the masses of the Oriental countries
are in ignorance of the real spiritual thought of their own religion, as
much as the masses of the Western World are of theirs, and the teachers
who are sent out by the West would help forward the work of the Reform
Forces by showing the natives that the ideas of the reform forces are
in the line of thought of their own great saints and sages. There is not
a delegate present who is not able to show that the work of the Reform
Forces is in accordance with the teachings of Christianity. I can also
clearly show to you from the teachings of the Zendavesta, of the Koran,
of Buddha, of Krishna, of Lord Gauranga, of Seyed, Mohammed Ali, and of
Rama Krishna, that the spiritual thought of the Reform Forces is in
accordance with those teachings. Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Gauranga, and
Rama Krishna, were all the manifestation of God in the flesh. They
towered head and shoulders above all others in the manifestation of the
Divine.
"Supposing I was a true follower of Buddha and a person who was a true
follower of Jesus spoke to me about the grand life and teachings of
Jesus, what would his opinion of me be if he saw that I was jealous
because he said nothing about Buddha, or because I thought the more
beauty and glory he saw in Jesus it lessened and belittled the character
of Buddha. Would he not be right in thinking I was ignorantly and
foolishly jealous, and that that feeling ought not to exist in a true
follower of Buddha? What then when you speak to a follower of Jesus
about the divine life of Buddha or Krishna, if he should become incensed
in manner and speech and manifest a feeling of jealousy, acting as it
were that in seeing the Divine in Buddha or Krishna made you think less
of Jesus. And yet that is a common experience which one meets with among
very many of the followers of Jesus. No, for in proportion as you live
the true Buddha life or Krishna life, so do you live the true Christ
life, and if I have imbibed the spiritual thought of Jesus, I have also
imbibed the true spiritual thought of Buddha and Krishna. Thinking that
the Divine was manifested in Buddha or Krishna, does not lessen the
exalted conception which one may have of the Divine manifested in Jesus.
_The Divine is in all_, but is manifested in some persons to a much
greater degree than in others."
Just before the Congress closed Mr. Rattenbury, one of the delegates
from California, rose to make a statement. He said: "Since the Congress
had assembled he and the lady delegate from California had been in the
receipt of numerous telegrams from persons living in different parts of
the State they represented, to the effect that California did not wish
to take the Philippine Islands, but they would take the other islands of
the Pacific, and also they would send Penloe and Stella to make a tour
through the Oriental countries to help forward the work of the Reform
Forces as they saw best. The delegation from California has made
arrangements with the delegation from New Zealand and Australia, so that
the latter take the Philippine Islands as their field of labor, as those
islands are near to them. Therefore the delegation from England and the
other countries who have taken Europe as their field of work, have
kindly consented to release Australia and New Zealand from helping them,
so that they might take the Philippine Islands. It might be well for me
to state that the delegation from California has waited on Penloe and
Stella, to ask them if they would go East, and I am pleased to say that
they have consented."
He added, further: "It is with mingled feelings of pride and pleasure
that I stand to-day as one of the delegates from California. I am proud
to represent that grand State, with its past achievements. Her boast
before has always been of her fertility and marvelous resources, such as
her rich mines, her large wheat fields, her prolific orchards, bearing
fruits belonging to many climes, her fine vineyards, with clusters of
luscious grapes, superior to those of Eschol, her grand floral display,
her great forests, and her oil wells. But now we can boast that in its
genial climate, surrounded by its grand scenery and its lofty peaks,
which lift their heads to heaven, that Stella, the pearl of womanhood,
should be born. It was under these influences, surrounded by advanced
liberal thought that she grew up. On the soil that she was born did she
consecrate herself and all that was dear to her to liberating humanity
from its many bondages. Starting out with the idea of helping those of
her own sex to throw off a bondage which has held them in superstition
and ignorance, and which also has been the cause of untold suffering and
misery as well as millions of deaths, she labored heroically under
social persecution and ostracism. But when the purity and nobility of
her grand character was fully known, those obstacles to her work
disappeared as snow does before the heat of the sun, for her whole
nature being of intense love, its heat melted all prejudices before it.
All of you are familiar with the grand work in her own State. I need not
touch on her work in other States, for you all know it so well. I am
glad to state that California which has always been so proud of her
material resources is now far prouder of the fact that on its soil was
born '_The Coming Woman_,' '_The Ideal Woman_,' '_The Glory of
California_,' and that her shores attracted the great Yogi Penloe.
California having already given Penloe and Stella to the Nation, now
bestows them to the World. When they travel through many countries
scattering light and knowledge wherever they go, they will always know
that wherever they are, even in the furthest corner of the earth, that
back of them, in all their travels, are the wealth and great hearts of
the people of the Golden State."
* * * * *
Two days before Penloe and Stella left San Francisco for Japan, I was
seated in the parlor of Treelawn, in front of the large bay window. On
my right was Penloe and on my left was Stella. The windows were raised
and a gentle breeze wafted the fragrant odors from the flower beds into
the room, filling the parlor with perfume. At times the muslin curtains
puffed out gracefully by the gentle breeze, and the external atmosphere
was like the internal of my companions' sweetness and harmony. The other
members of the company were Mr. and Mrs. Wheelwright and Mr. and Mrs.
Herne. Many reminiscences were gone over. Penloe in a very nice way
spoke of the influence on owners of ranches, through Mr. Herne's noble
example of the treatment of his men, and there was a great improvement
in the treatment that ranchers gave to their hired help, and the ranches
became more profitable accordingly.
Clara Herne expressed her thoughts and feelings in regard to how
different the world and herself looked to her now, to what it did when
she first entered her home as a bride. She added: "The world within me
has become so beautiful, so bright, and so very large. How lovely life
has become, what a pleasure it is _to live_."
It did me good to look into the faces of Stella's parents. That grand
old couple who had lived a life of purity under marriage, and who gave
to the world, Stella, "The Pride of California."
EPILOGUE.
I must now part with two very dear friends, two whom I have known so
well, two whom I have loved with all the warmth of an intense nature,
two who have been an inspiration to my life.
The consoling thought I have in taking leave of them is, that though
visibly they are not with me, yet they are always with me in proportion
as I manifest the same spiritual life which has made them so dear to me.
May they both be to you, dear reader, what they are to me.
[Illustration: THE END]
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
Quotation marks are used inconsistently through the book; these have
been left as printed.
Inconsistent and unorthodox spelling (Lanair/Lenair, wont/won't,
Vivekanada/Vivekananda, bethrothed) has been retained.