THE CLOSE OF A CENTURY
When a German woman residing in a Western city, but recently arrived in
America from the midst of the conservative social circles of her native
land, described American women at large as _furchtbar frei und furchtbar
fromm_ [frightfully free and frightfully pious], she unintentionally
paid a compliment to our feminine civilization. The accusation of piety
calls for no rebuttal; and that of freedom was caused by the
confounding, as was natural in European thought, of innocent simplicity
with recklessness of deportment. The social manners of American women of
the present is a subject of philosophy rather than history; but the fact
of the freedom of intercourse between the sexes may be touched upon,
since, however strange and reprobatory it may seem to European eyes, it
is as much a national "institution" as our form of government itself,
while its causes lie in the story of the past.
The opening of the vast treasures of the West, and the marvellous
development of that section, had effect upon the direction of feminine
thought and effort in various channels. Though the leaps of that part of
our country into prominence had made of such places as Chicago and St.
Louis, as well as lesser but still important cities of the West, a
potent influence in the development of material interests long before
the century had entered upon its ninth decade, until that time they had
won but little power as social influences. They were fast taking their
places as powers in this direction also, however, and before long
Chicago at least came to be recognized as a stalwart rival to New York,
the acknowledged leader of the East in things social. Then, because of
the lusty strength incidental to the vigorous youth of the junior
members of our commonwealth, Western ideas and influences began to be
felt in the East and to modify the conditions that existed in Eastern
society.
The simplicity [freedom] of which the German woman complained is in
truth one of the finest, as of the most characteristic, traits of our
social system in its regulation of intercourse between the sexes, and it
was well that the East, which was beginning to pay too much attention to
the ultraconservative ideas of the Old World in this respect, should
find a counter influence within the borders of its own land. Even more
important, however, was the hearty acceptance by the West--far broader
than that of the East--of the theory of woman's place in affairs; though
the woman worker had been accepted and even honored in the East, it was
not until the West had made her a matter of course that she was
universally regarded as entirely within the proper sphere of femininity.
Up to that time she had been looked upon as the creature of
circumstances, to disappear when the conditions of her existence were
altered, rather than as an established fact; but the last decade of the
century swept away such remaining cobwebs of tradition and for all time
made the woman worker a recognized fact as well as factor in the
totality of our social system.
As the century drew to its close, increasingly prominent and determined
became the position of the woman worker. Her sphere of action became
rapidly enlarged; she grew to be a power as well as an influence. She
was no longer of necessity the subordinate worker; often she claimed and
obtained a place at the head of affairs, even if as yet these were
rarely "of great pith and moment." The woman worker rapidly developed
into the woman of business. She began to rival the men in enterprise,
even although she rarely contended with them in their traditional
fields. Yet even this latter rule was not universal in application; the
nineteenth century had not yielded its latest breath before it had seen
the appearance of women as commercial travellers, as agents of various
descriptions, and in many departments contending with the men for
supremacy in fields that had hitherto been considered necessarily
confined to cultivation by the sterner sex.
The close of that century also saw women entering into rivalry with the
men in learned professions. Female practitioners of medicine, such as
Dr. Mary Walker, had been known for some time, and the last few years
have seen, even in the most conservative States, women admitted to the
bar, following in the footsteps of Mrs. Belva Lockwood, to contend with
their male rivals in forensic eloquence and subtleties. The professorial
chairs of such institutions of learning as Vassar College, the
forerunner of the many splendid educational centres for female training
that have sprung up throughout our land, were filled for the most part
by women, themselves the product of those educational institutions; and
even some of the universities hitherto confined to the education of the
male youth of our land opened their doors to women, while coeducation
already had its notable strongholds. Everywhere there was granted, and
gladly granted, to womanhood all that it asked in concerted demand;
"Woman's Rights," as far as claimed by the consensus of womanly thought,
had won all that its advocates could desire in the matter of
recognition.
The change came with wonderful suddenness; yet it was so natural in its
workings, and the national mind had so long been prepared for it, that
it bore with it no sense of strangeness. Such a personality as that of
Mrs. Hetty Green, for example, the richest woman in America, financier
and woman of affairs, holding directing interests in many large
corporations, fostering and guiding some of the greatest enterprises in
the world of finance, and doing all of her own responsibility and
unaided by advice--such a personality as this would have seemed
incredible fifty years ago, but to-day is hardly worthy of more than
passing note. The entrance of women into the sphere of business,
competing with men upon their own ground, matching their wits against
those of their masculine competitors and remaining unworsted in the
struggle, excites no remark but is accepted as a thing entirely natural
to the conditions of modern life. Yet in its youth the century whose age
beheld these things would have maintained, even with acrimony, that they
were undesirable impossibilities.
Even some of the extreme demands of the radicals in such matters were
granted, at least experimentally, with results which showed the wisdom
of the more moderate advocates of "Woman's Rights." A town in Kansas,
that stronghold of extreme experiments, placed the whole internal
government mayoralty, town council, and all like offices in the hands of
its women. This was about 1897; and the century had not yet drawn its
last gasps when the aforesaid town was found to be bankrupt, while its
affairs generally were in such hopeless confusion that the men were, at
the next election, hastily called in to repair, as far as possible, the
devastation which had been wrought. But if women could not find success
in the administration of civic government, they none the less proved
themselves, in more than one notable instance, admirable organizers and
administrators in other spheres. It suffices to recall the name of
Frances Elizabeth Willard to show what can be accomplished by an able
woman working upon lines which her education and sexual traditions fit
her to pursue. Miss Willard left behind her noble monuments in the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which she was president from 1879
un til her death, and the World's Christian Temperance Union, founded by
her in 1883, and of which she was made president in 1888. She did other
work for her sex and humanity in general, and in her educational and
journalistic career she proved her abilities and her administrative
powers; but these were best and most nobly shown in the fostering of the
great temperance movements in whose success she was the most influential
factor. Nor is it only by the womanhood of America that the name of
Frances Willard is held in honor or will be eternally remembered, though
it was in her exposition of some of the highest qualities peculiar to
that womanhood that she won her most enduring claim to honor and
remembrance.
Another woman's name which before the close of the century had taken
place among the foremost of organizers and administrators in work
helpful to humanity is that of Clara Barton. Miss Barton served a long
apprenticeship in her work before she became its recognized leader on
American soil. During the Civil War she did relief work upon the
battlefields, succoring with her own hands many a stricken soldier and
saving him from a lingering death. Even thus early she displayed her
talent for organization by forming a "bureau of information," where
inquiries could be made and information lodged concerning missing men.
(It was, however, to the Rev. William A. Crocker, a chaplain in the
Confederate service, that the original idea of such a bureau, as well as
its foundation and administration, were due.) Later, Miss Barton became
associated with the International Red Cross Society, and as one of its
members did noble work during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1881 she
became president of the American Red Cross Society, the organization of
which was mainly due to her personal efforts, and its success to her
prestige and direction. Under her administration great good has been
done by the Society to suffering humanity, her efforts in this direction
not being confined to times of war. Such catastrophes as the Russian
famine of 1892 and the Armenian massacres of 1896 won prompt aid from
the Red Cross, while not only was relief sent to the suffering Cubans in
1898, but during the subsequent war Miss Barton took personal charge of
the hospital service of her Society. Even the Boer War gave her
opportunity for humane work, which was eagerly embraced.
If it must be acknowledged that the sex has not as yet, even in
world-inclusion, shown itself the equal of its rivals in the matter of
literature, it has yet done some work that will live. In poetry it has
given us a Sappho, a Vittoria Colonna, an Elizabeth Barrett Browning; in
fiction, a George Eliot, a George Sand, a Madame de Stae'l; in the
graver departments of letters, a Harriet Martineau. Neither America in
particular nor the present age in general has added to this important
list, but in Frances Hodgson Burnett our womanhood has at least given to
the present one of its best novelists, and there are on the roll of
women writers several who have done work that ranks above the average of
the literary production of the day.
Perhaps one of the most characteristic advances of the century at its
close was the recognition among womanhood of duties of a nature till
then unacknowledged save by a few, who had made no disciples. There had
always been many, to the praise of womanhood be it said, who had been
foremost in almsgiving and aid to the needy; indeed, the personal calls
of charity had been left almost entirely in the hands of woman as the
traditional and natural dispenser of alms. But it was not until the
latter days of our civilization, as we now know it, that women became
publicly and recognizedly the leaders in the great charitable movements;
it was even not until that time that women, in individual guise, became
known as philanthropists. Especially is the fact of a rich woman, such
as Miss Helen Gould, being prominently identified with benevolent work a
product of our own time. There may have been in the past many who gave,
and that liberally, but they did not identify themselves and their lives
with their charities; they did not give themselves as well as their
money. It is less the pecuniary generosity of Miss Gould to worthy
objects than her personal identification therewith, her gift of part of
her life to such objects, that is worthy of commemoration; and in her
way she stands a type of the later American woman. When she gave the
munificent sum of one hundred thousand dollars--but a portion of her
total contribution--to the work of the hospital service at the beginning
of the war with Spain, she did something, yet hardly achieved rivalry
with a certain widow of Scriptural fame; but when, at Camp Wikoff, she
nursed with her own hands the sick soldiers of her country she brought
to her gift of money the far finer gift of her own personality, and thus
added to the former in infinite degree. It is well for our country that
we can claim that such as she are but types.
It is one of the rightful boasts of America that, although she has been
vehemently accused of making the "Almighty Dollar" her one god, she has
always been ready with generous response to the call of need. It
mattered not whence that call came; Ireland, Russia, India, Cuba were
alike recipients of her bounty, full to overflowing, when they raised
their voices in anguish. That the answer to the cry for help was so
quick, so hearty, so satisfying, was in large degree the work of our
womanhood, whose ears were ever attuned to the voice of suffering. This
was so almost from the birth of America as a nation; but only of late
has the answer from our women to such cries for help been organized and,
therefore, really effective. This apart, however, it may be claimed that
one of the enduring attributes of American womanhood--more so than of
any other race--is its generosity and response to the call of humanity,
uncaring for race or creed or any outward circumstance. Many of the
organized efforts in this wise of later days have been but the
expressions of the national spirit of generosity, first finding
congenial direction and resultful methods. It is no new thing that
American womanhood should give of its substance to the cause of
humanity; the newness lies entirely in the more concentrated methods of
such gift, directed along the most effective lines and thus escaping
that diffusion and waste which is common to unorganized effort. That
this result has been reached we owe chiefly to the leaders among the
woman's movement in this direction toward the close of the past century.
The present era of American womanhood, indeed, may be classified as
supremely that of concentration. Throughout our country are constantly
springing up women's societies having definite aims and purposes, and
the effort which was formerly diffused, and therefore unavailing, now
tends from a consolidated source to a clearly discerned end. Whether for
purposes of amelioration of sex-position or of general beneficence,
women have learned the power which lies in concentration of effort and
have penetrated the secret of the most effectual putting forth of the
strength which lies in them. Organization among women is a thing of the
last few decades, but already it has assumed such proportions that
feminine influence, not individually but collectively asserted, sways
the destinies of our nation in more ways than are perceptible to the
casual observer. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, for example,
was strong enough to procure the abolishment of the army canteen, even
against the influence of the most powerful men in the army itself. That
Congress, as a body, was in favor of the action is a belief which would
find few thoughtful supporters; yet Congress gave the Temperance Union
the legislation it desired, and that with but little opposition. In
seeking the cause for this we touch the secret of the great power which
is admittedly swayed by our feminine organizations, a power far greater
than that belonging to any cognate ones of masculine membership. The
secret is this: because of the purity and height of their aims, the
councils of the women of our country have as ally that greatest of all
influences, public opinion. Moreover, this public opinion always looks
to the great end in view and but little to the wisdom of the proposed
means to that end; therefore, it supports any movement which tends
toward an amelioration of public morality, as in the example cited, even
where the movement takes a direction which is too radical to effect its
proper ends. Therefore, the womanhood of our country, as organized and
concentrated, holds to-day in its hands a power which it must exercise
with discretion and moderation, or there will result from its
unregulated exertion chaos and cataclysm; yet a power which, properly
exerted, will tend ever to the positing of higher standards of morality
and nobler goals of power, and generally to the upward as well as the
onward march of our nation and kind.
There is in all this access of power and influence a danger which it is
well to recognize and face,--the danger of hysteria. This is in many
respects a hysterical age, and neither sex can claim immunity from this
dread disease. There are many organizations and movements, masculine as
well as feminine, which have their birth and tendency in nothing else
than hysteria, and there are others, admirable in inception and purpose,
of which the conduct is governed largely by this emotional influence.
The feminine sex is far more prone to unthinking enthusiasm than is the
masculine, and they have given proof of this in many instances. Often,
beginning some new movement with admirable and definite aims, our
womanhood allows itself to be carried beyond its legitimate purpose by
the urging of undisciplined emotion, and thus brings its proper aim and
purpose into disrepute among those who judge of a theory by the
sub-theories of its disciples. A minor example of this error may be
found in the support accorded the axe-wielding termagant by women of
pure aims but misdirected energies and enthusiasms. That a crusade such
as that led by Carrie Nation could result in nothing but disrepute and
scorn for the tenets they cherished was beyond their scope of vision;
all that they could see was the attempted end. In the disregard of the
character of means so that the end be good lies a peril which, if not
subdued, may bring to naught all the noblest efforts of our womanhood in
the twentieth century. Unless the tendency to hysteria be eliminated,
the result cannot be that which the effort deserves.
Perhaps the most defined and significant feminine movement which
flowered it had long before blossomed at the death of the past century
is that which is generally termed "the higher education of women." While
this movement is not peculiar to America, it is in this country that it
first gave signs of florescence and has taken deepest root. Over the
length and breadth of the land are constantly springing up new
educational centres which are devoted to the culture of young women.
When Vassar began its career, it was, as Girton in England, looked upon
as a most doubtful experiment, both as to its permanency and the merit
of its aims; now it is but one of an ever-increasing many, while
coeducation is now an established rule in many of our greatest
institutions of learning. There are still dissentients from the theory
of classical and scientific education for women, and it is somewhat
singular that the movement should have obtained full headway at the very
time when there has been sharp and sustained attack upon university
education for men as an aid to future career; but in neither case can
the opponents of liberal education be said to have prevailed in
argument. That errors have been made in the progress of the movement for
broader feminine culture cannot be successfully denied; occasionally, as
in the adoption of the purely masculine badges of cap and gown, cause
has been given for more or less good-natured ridicule and charge of
fashion rather than earnestness in the movement. Nor can the
introduction of athletic contests into the female curriculum be heartily
defended; not only are such contests abrogative of the most cherished
theories of feminine culture, but they are not productive of respect
from the enemies of the movement. The remarkable spectacle has been
presented of "championship" games of basketball which ended in fights
between the adverse collegiates that recall the days when a baseball
match was merely the preliminary to a battle between the partisans of
the respective clubs, led by the players. Gracefully to accept defeat is
not the nature of womankind, and struggles for physical mastery among
them are subversive of all that is most admirable in the feminine
nature. Nevertheless, all these things are but excrescences and not
germane to the main theory, and they will doubtless correct themselves
by the constant self-evidence of their absurdity or evil tendencies. The
promoters of the movement did not look to an aping of masculine garb and
pursuits as the end or even means of their purposes, and their original
aim will emerge from the mists and shine clear and bright in its height
and singleness. That aim was that woman should be placed upon a level
with man in all that is most desirable as a foundation for a career, and
no one can dispute its excellence of theory. The methods of obtaining
the best results in that purpose may be debated and, it is possible, the
conclusion reached that not yet have the guides of the army of feminine
culture found the shortest and least-encumbered path to their goal, but
that the goal will in time be reached by the easiest and best way does
not admit of a doubt; in this case at least, though with some difference
of application, may be quoted the old French proverb: _Ce que femme
veut, Dieu veut_.
That the future of our country depends, as its past has largely
depended, upon its women is but a truism; it is something more, however,
that we can look forward with calm confidence to that future as upheld
by American womanhood. To-day the American woman stands but on the
threshold of her career. Behind her are noble traditions, fraught with
lesson, with admonition, and in some cases with warning; before her are
the coming centuries, pregnant with possibility, to be made her own.
Every step that she takes is a determination of her destined path; even
though the step be temporarily in advance, if it leads to no worthy goal
it is force wasted, and worse.
She must needs face responsibility, without which she would be but the
toy which she rightfully refuses to be considered; yet the
responsibility which lies on her shoulders should make her thoughtful
and grave to meet and outface many problems of existence, to the
solution of which she must in largest part contribute by her dealings
with them. She is free with the noblest of freedoms; she has the liberty
to _be_ as well as to _do_, and the former is the greater thing. That
which she does is but the reflex of that which she is, and the latter is
the determining factor in the result of civilization. It is for her to
direct the steps of progress, less in material matters than in spiritual
direction; the legislation which is enacted in the halls of our
legislatures is but the consequence of the influence and even the
teachings of the home, and the face of the land is ever turned in the
direction toward which its women set their countenances. There lies
before us grave peril in questions of social nature, and it is our women
who will determine whether the peril is to prove fatal to the best
interests of civilization or but a "stepping-stone to higher things."
The story of American womanhood in the past shows deep cause for pride
in those who can boast kinship to that womanhood, and the future will
not blur the blazon of the past.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I THE ABORIGINAL WOMAN
II THE WOMEN OF MEXICO
III THE WOMEN OF SOUTH AMERICA
IV THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT
V THE EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD
VI THE LATER COLONIAL PERIOD
VII REVOLUTIONARY DAYS
VIII THE WOMEN OF CANADA
IX THE YOUNG REPUBLIC
X THE GROWTH OF THE NATION
XI THE SECTIONAL DIVISION
XII THE CIVIL WAR
XIII FEMININE RECONSTRUCTION
XIV THE CLOSE OF A CENTURY
List of Illustrations
Huemac II. meets Xochitl, Obregon.
The death of Minnehaha, William L. Dodge.
The beautiful maidens presented to
the Spaniards, From the "Lienzo de Tlaxcala".
The courtship of Miles Standish, C. Y. Turner.
Antony Van Corlear, F. D. Millet.
A Southern wedding, E. L. Henry.