Everyone--I mean everyone with a right mind--will sympathise with
those nice people at Bristol who have been holding a "Woman's
Conference." So kind and thoughtful of them, isn't it? I notice
that Lady BATTERSEA gave a spirited account of a Confederation
of Temperance of some thirty villages in Norfolk. The dear, good
inhabitants are to keep off the allurements of drink by "listening to
such shining lights as Canon WILBERFORCE, and social teas, processions
with banners, and magic-lanterns, play their part." How they are
to listen to the teas, processions and lanterns, I don't quite
understand, in spite of the fact that they (the aforesaid teas, &c.)
seem to be "playing their parts." Evidently teas, &c., are amateur
Actors.
Then somebody who described herself as "a nobody from nowhere," is
said to have "touched a moving chord, as she spoke with great feeling
of the sympathy and the moral help the poor give back to those who
work among them." What "moving chord?" Sounds like a bell-rope!
Then another lady who wore "the black and lavender dress of the
Sisters of the People," followed with a paper, "perhaps overfull
of details." And here let me say that I am quoting from "a woman
correspondent" who seems to be full of admiration for her talking
sisters. But in spite of this admiration, she knows their little
faults. For instance, she describes a speech as "vigorous, racy, and
perhaps a trifle sensational." Then, when someone else delivered an
"address to educated mothers," she says that it excited deep interest,
and "almost too many educated mothers threw themselves into the
discussion that followed."
Then she observes, "It was disappointing that Lady ABERDEEN was at the
last moment forbidden by her Doctor to undertake the long journey from
Scotland." So it was, most disappointing; and "at the last moment,"
too!
Then she announces that "Some ladies expressed a feeling, that
introducing young men and women in business to each other, when
assembled in their hundreds at Prince's Hall, was an office fraught
with considerable responsibility." To be sure! Great responsibility!
Might even be improper! Everyone should be _so_ careful!
However, there was one good thing in this Woman's Conference that
everyone will praise. The delightful, genial, charitable females seem
to have kept to themselves. No men were present. What a blessing--_for
the men_! Yours gratefully,