w:Mount Carroll Seminary

“ Thousands of women will endorse the expression of that woman who declared, "This is the busiest world I ever lived in." With the multiplicity of duties which confront each one of us, obligations which "wait and will not go away, wait and will not be gainsaid," it is utterly impossible for any one to keep up with the whole busy world, with nations, rulers, statesmen, scientists, inventors and writers racing, rustling and jostling each other like the denizens of an ant-hill, and herein lies the secret of mutual help. ”

“ She who has for ages lived in her home as a nun in a cloister, who has studied no translation of the world except the expurgated condition which custom and tradition has vouchsafed her, is in the renaissance of a new day, like a blind person suddenly restored to sight. He has no idea of perspective. He will put his hand on the window to touch the tree across the street; will shrink back lest the passing vehicles run over him; will hesitate to step over a crack in the floor. ”

“ Some extol physical strength and courage, some have no leisure to discuss a theme so axiomatic as an ideal woman. Some fearlessly relegate her throne to the kitchen and the nursery and brand her as an intruder and tresspasser if she cross the limits of those domains, some generously accord her a place in affairs of state and municipal government, if she so desire, but for their own part think she is happier in the home, and the ideal woman must be the happiest woman. ”

“ In short she is the Alpha and Omega in the alphabet of human life. But though jeers and taunts and ridicule be done away with, the new woman is not thereby eliminated. Though distorted, misrepresented and antagonized in public, she is so absolute, so real, that whether desired or dreaded, she appears in as varied forms as a kaleidoscopic vision, an inciter to reform, a participant in municipal affairs, a factor in economics, as philanthropist, as daughter, sister, wife.
She is neither old nor young, she may be married or single, handsome or plain, wealthy or poor. ”

“ Imperfect as he may be in his present condition, the new woman has no thought of undertaking his complete elimination from the scheme of creation. If he cannot keep up with her pace, he deserves to be left behind. But he will keep up—-and try to deserve her—-thus the best result of the new woman will be the new man. He will see as never before that home encircling a noble and excellent womanhood—-is the safeguard of a nation. However no one expects him to be as interesting a novelty as the "new woman."
Much has been said and written concerning the ideal woman. ”

“ Open wide every door of opportunity and development. And the woman who chooses the duties of wife and mother, the home maker, let her not demean her calling, and her sisters in other avocations, let them not like Niobe of old, enjoying the divinity of her life, deride with jingles of "pots and pans, cradles and tubs, butchers and bakers, maids and dress-makers," lest the punishment of Niobe fall on them. ”

“ As sunlight kills many noxious germs, so the atmosphere of this club-life destroys the germs of ignorance, narrowness, over-sensitiveness, lack of self-confidence, sentimentality; it disintegrates cliques and classes, it melts the cold reserve of formality, it thaws the ice of indifference, and prejudices pall into nothingness. It has been demanded by an inward force, and enthusiastic, womanly ambition, that womankind might be transferred into a broader life. ”

“ Let men jest and quibble as they may, this one fact remains, "Women are not as they used to be." A spirit like that which appeared at Runnymeade, which freed the slaves and manumitted serfs, which has overthrown despotisms and written constitutions, swept away class legislation and abolished caste, is abroad in the land. It is not a new force. Its essential element is the energy of individual life. ”

“ They make no one discontented, except in a noble way in which it is an honor to feel discontent. She whose mind is broadened by contact with the world, knows better how to keep the wheels of her domestic machinery oiled, than the woman who never goes outside the round of daily duties. She learns to manage her household with the same kind of business sagacity that her husband uses in his calling.
The club movement which is the new woman's exponent is a sign of progress, because it is an effort to satisfy wants. A savage, having nothing, is perfectly content so long as he wants nothing. ”

“ The new woman does not profess to be the ideal but she has an ideal.
Poets from the days of Homer have sung of beauty as the chief characteristic and charm of ideal woman.
It is quite comforting to the majority of women to know that physical beauty seems of little importance to the masculine mind of the present century. One connoisseur says she is like a rose. With the rose you can tell by every indication of its health, strength and beauty that it is from one of the finest strains of roses, and that all the conditions of its development have been as nearly perfect as they could be made. ”

“ She is independent in her choice of avocation, and punctilious in her thorough preparation for duty. She cares more for a preponderance of convolutions in her brain than embroidered ruffles on her garments or for the size of her sleeves. She arrogates to herself no supremacy, and desires to be rated only according to her merit. She does not look backward, gloating over her progress, but forward with courage for new acquisitions.
Masculine anxiety attributes many idiosyncrasies to the new woman without obtaining her endorsement as to facts. ”

“ Ignorance and narrowness being vanquished by the club scheme of the new woman, against what other sentiment shall revolt be instituted?
The new woman has announced that something ought to be done to eradicate the erroneous idea that the proper thing to do is to depreciate and minify the duties of home. Domestic life is a profession just as truly as medicine, journalism and law, and it is a profession which in truth requires a more liberal preparation than any other.
There are misfits in every profession, and home making is not an exception to the rule. ”

“ At the present time there is no occasion for revolt against legislation. Women can do and accomplish what they choose to do, and all for which they fit themselves. No laws are actually enforced which work any hardships to woman since property laws and those affecting domestic relations have been modified. The new woman asks no special or class legislation, nor has she occasion to revolt against industrial, educational or social conditions. Every avocation and profession is now open to her. ”

“ Leaving to women the perfect freedom of choice and development in the sphere of duty will not result in domestic desolation.
So long as man is man, and woman woman, the old, old story will never go out of print. The throne of the fireside queen will not be vacant, and baby will be king. Romeos and Juliets will never die, the wife will be the loving and beloved companion, faithful unto death. ”

“ Woman has been so long accustomed to retirement, to avoiding criticism, to feeling her way, that it takes time for her to acquire confidence. She must encourage the culture of definite ideas, learn to focus thoughts and concentrate effort, not to expend ten pounds of flutter for each pound of result, nor drape a dollar's worth of words on a nickle idea.
The new woman has also found a screw loose in the machinery of social conditions. It is undeniable that men as a class prefer clinging, to independent women. ”

“ Because so much of this department of woman's work is "far from the maddening crowd," because her full returns are not immediate, because her books cannot be balanced until the generation which follows her has audited the accounts, because it is not so prominent as important, not so brilliant as inspiring, not so showy as divine; woman herself has permitted it to be called drudgery. The home maker has without protest permitted a $2 estimate of her profession, and let clerks, saleswomen, dressmakers, milliners and type-writers pocket the $39,998 worth of praise to which she has an equal right. ”

“ No one believes the ballot will deter woman from rising, but many doubt the drastic power of outward applications, without an internal vitalizing impulse. To them there is something repugnant in soliciting credentials, asking rights, claiming suffrage and demanding admittance. They hope to accomplish the same end in a different way, by working from within, developing latent powers, building even on slender foundations a broad true culture, so that woman will be invited to positions of trust, and offered rights so long withheld. ”

“ She has cheerfully and willingly shared adversity and accepted prosperity. Her heart was always pure and free from selfishness, her love has been most loyal, her friendship unswerving. My ideal, perhaps is high, but she is a loving reality, and though the inevitable has changed her dark hair to beautiful silver gray, her other charming attributes remain and she is still my ideal, my wife! ”

“ Out of the widespread educational advantages offered to woman and accepted by her, has come the natural unrest and impatience of restraint, which is inseparable from a consciousness of power. It requires only a short mental review to appreciate how thoroughly and perfectly this country is organized for woman's work. Women are everywhere alert and active, aroused to every call and effort to help bring about an improved condition of affairs, intellectually, morally and politically. And the woman of this transition period, the leader in this revolt is the new woman. ”

“ Her ideal is not one who abnormally develops only one of the trinity of mind, heart and body. Not that one who dwells in the highest empyrean of intellect, who pities you that you have not read Ibsen and Dante and Browning, who laments lest you may never attain her lofty plane. ”

“ There is a prevailing impression that a new woman is abroad in the land. We no longer hear of the coming woman, for the new woman is here, and every one knows it. The questions at once arise, Who is she? ”

“ She asserts no legal claim to a place for which she knows she has no equitable title. She transforms minute irritating duties of every-day life, into gems for her own coronet, even as the oyster converts grains of sand to shining pearls. She sees before her a large and beautiful career of trying to make it harder for peo-ple to do wrong and easier for them to do right. ”

“ Each is to fill a place which some one else is not filling, or which may be reserved by legitimate competition. Nor does this revolt imply a commotion and turmoil. The silent force of gravity moves more machinery than all the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions combined. So woman's fitness and ability is a surer force to persuade men to seek her will, than mandates and decrees. ”

“ Woman is not losing thereby her sweetness and gentleness, she is losing lines of anxiety and care from her face. In the glorious sunshine of a broader world, she forgets her wail of discontent to join the refrain, "Who labors alone wears the crown." ”

“ She who does not carry home some bit of information, some inspiration, some material to be incorporated into the tissues of home life, to beautify or to strengthen, loses a higher pleasure than entertainment. ”

“ The real new woman, is not the creation of newspaper paragraphs and caricaturists, the embodiment of fads and foibles, but is so much like the sensible wives, mothers and daughters of the homes we have known and honored all our lives ”

“ There is much talk in these days about the "revolt of woman," and determined by incidents like this, it is time there were revolts. But revolt against whom? Rebellion against what authority? Insurrection against what power? ”

“ So with the ideal woman, one knows by every look and word and by the subtle charm of thought unexpressed, that she has developed as perfectly as the rose.
Another critic asserts that there is no definite ideal of womanhood. Our age is so generous it discards the Grecian measurements and symmetry between nose, forehead, mouth and chin. ”

“ One exists only the satisfaction or enjoyment of the present—-the other garners and carries home a surplus for future use. The woman who attends the club with no other motive than to while away a pleasant hour, only smells of a feast without eating of it. ”

“ The mother with her infantile disputants, must exercise as great aptness and discrimination as the judge on the bench. She requires as great fertility of resource and attention to details as the petitioner at the bar. In the oversight of procuring needed supplies and the manufacture of raw materials into food, clothing and comforts for the family, she exercises a greater versatility, superintends the working of a larger number of machinery, turns out an infinitely larger variety of products than any manufactory or laboratory in the world. ”

“ There are too many homes whose comforts are dispensed from a hand-me-down counter, but it will be found that the home maker who is mistress of her profession, possesses an unlimited education, quite as much executive ability, judgment and discrimination as is needed in the so-called wage earning professions, and her holdings in these lines frequently rival the tenure of her husband. ”

“ She meets us on every page of literature. She peers at us out of the most grotesque caricatures. She is the target for every shaft of wit and sentiment. She is the spice of banquets and the text of sermons. ”

“ The head of a mammoth iron establishment admits that he knows comparatively nothing of fabrics, silk, linen, cotton and wool, he is not a connoisseur of china or furniture, he is not a judge of leather and its manufactured forms, he is not versed in the unwritten lore of food products; but the home maker must know something of all trades and professions, from hats to hams, from mirrors to carpet tacks, from laces to door mats, from pottery to pills and from edibles to bric-a-brac. ”