WHAT SOME WOMEN ARE DOING.
REV. A. H. BRADFORD, D.D.
This is woman’s era. Her influence and presence are in all spheres. Within a quarter of a century there were few in stores, and none in public offices. To-day they are clerks, operators in the factories, teachers in schools; they are in telegraph, and telephone, and post-offices; they are artists and traders; a few are captains of steamboats; a few are lawyers; now and then one ventures to preach; and even the mysteries of Wall Street are not terrifying to them, for they have commenced competition with the brokers. Women have already won recognition in the practice of medicine, and are among the most successful practitioners in all great cities. They are among the most popular lecturers. At least one of the most successful publishing houses in New York is owned and managed by a woman. In business and on the platform she has ceased to be a curiosity.
The power of woman in politics is not appreciated, but it is one of the most vital forces of this century. No Anarchist in Paris could influence the Faubourgs quicker than Louise Michel. In the history of Nihilism in Russia no names have been regarded with more devotion by those struggling for wider liberty, and none more dreaded by the existing order, than Sophie Perovskaia, Jessy Helfman and Vera Zassulic. Charles Dickens never exhibited a truer insight into human nature than when he made a woman the impersonation of remorseless vengeance.
But notwithstanding all that women are doing in trades, industries, politics, it still remains that in works of reform, charity and missions, she is especially distinguishing herself.
Two of the largest and most efficient charitable institutions in the world, viz: “The Deaconesses’ Institution of Rhenish Westphalia, at Kaiserwent,” and “The Mildmay Conference Hall and Deaconesses’ Home, in London,” are almost exclusively in the hands of women. The influence of these two noble charities reaches around the world, not only in works of beneficence, but also in active evangelistic ministry.
The first person to call attention to the horrible condition of English prisons was Elizabeth Fry. The horrors of war were immeasurably mitigated by Florence Nightingale. She gave an impetus to the work of training nurses, which has grown into enthusiasm in all civilized lands. Agnes Jones changed the work-house hospitals of Great Britain, from places of torture into places of blessing. Sister Dora glorified the “Black Country” by her heroism and self-sacrifice. The first person to make practical a good plan for improved tenement houses was Octavia Hill. Her efforts reach the people which such houses as those built by the Peabody estate only displace.
In this country the most conspicuous effort to improve the low-class of tenement houses has also been made by a woman. The success Miss Collins has won in Gotham Court is one of the most noticeable in the history of such efforts. The Bureau of Charities in New York is very largely managed by Mrs. Lowell and her devoted co-workers. The President of the American Branch of the Red Cross Society, that non-sectarian, but most Christian Association, which extends its arms of blessing wherever human suffering is found, is that American Florence Nightingale, whose heroism and sacrifice on Southern battle-fields can never be too highly appreciated—Clara Barton. And these are only hints, here and there, of woman’s work in charity.
If now we turn to her service in Reform we are met, at once, by the fact that not even the fiery eloquence of Phillips, nor the unconquerable agitations of Garrison did so much to hasten the abolition of slavery as the persuasion and persuasive eloquence of Mrs. Stowe, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. People were beguiled into reading that, who would not have listened to a word from the equally sincere, but more rampant agitators.