Volume III Part 136 (1/2)
The Greek woman in the Orient must be studied under two heads: the Greek woman in Turkey and the Greek woman in Greece. In both cases we find them filled with the spirit of western civilization--perhaps it would be better to say, with the spirit of their cla.s.sic ancestors. Primary, secondary and normal schools, asylums, hospitals, societies--all for women and generally managed by women--are found in all the Greek centers of Turkey. Calliope A.
Kechayia, the cultured princ.i.p.al of the Zappion, the famous girls'
college at Constantinople, says:
The intellectual condition of the Greek woman in the Orient is, generally speaking, not inferior to that of women in many parts of Europe; and as regards the instruction of the girls of the lower cla.s.ses, it is much superior to that of several Latin countries.
The Greek woman in Greece differs essentially from the Oriental woman. With the independence of Greece came a great patriotic movement for the building up of the new nationality, a movement in which women took a most active and prominent part. Several American women, especially Mrs. Hill, lent their aid and founded the first girls' school at Athens. ”A whole generation of women,” says a Greek lady, ”distinguished for their social and family virtues, received their education in this college.” An a.s.sociation of Greeks soon afterward established a normal school for women. The Greek government also early took up the question of popular education without excluding women from its plans. The way in which young Greek schoolmistresses hastened all over the peninsula, spreading knowledge, the Greek language and their own enthusiasm throughout the newly liberated nation, is one of the most unique episodes in modern history. ”It is true and beyond dispute,” I am told by Miss Kechayia, ”that the Greece of to-day owes its rapid progress and its Greek instruction to its women.” But the Greek woman is more than a school-mistress. The wife of a public man has other than social duties to occupy her. She often represents her husband before his const.i.tuents. She partic.i.p.ates actively and usefully in many of his political affairs. It frequently happens that the wife goes into the provinces to solicit votes for her husband, and sometimes in drawing-room lectures she defends his political conduct. ”In truth these facts would not be believed by a foreigner if he had not seen them with his own eyes,” I was once told by a Greek. a.s.sociations of various kinds have been formed by women during the past few years, and there is at least one instance of a woman lecturing in public on literary topics. However, woman's rights in the American sense has not yet penetrated into Greece, but from what has just been said it will be seen that when that day comes, the reform will find a soil well prepared for its reception.
Such is a brief and general view of the present status of the Woman Question on the European Continent. It will have been constantly noticed in the preceding pages that in every country there are evidences of progress. Public opinion in the Old World is slowly but surely accepting Voltaire's statement when the broad-minded philosopher says, with a dash of French gallantry: ”Women are capable of doing everything we do, with this single difference between them and us, that they are more amiable than we are.” In matters of instruction, the ideas of Montesquieu and Aime Martin are gaining ground. ”The powers of the s.e.xes,” wrote the penetrating author of the ”Spirit of the Laws,” ”would be equal if their education were, too. Test women in the talents that have not been enfeebled by the way they have been educated, and we will then see if we are so strong.” ”It is in spite of our stupid system of education,” declared Aime Martin, more than fifty years ago, ”that women have an idea, a mind and a soul.” And even the more radical utterances of the late Eugene Pelletan find an echo. ”By keeping women outside of politics,” once said the distinguished senator, ”the soul of our country is diminished by one-half.” No wonder then that Frances Power Cobbe likens this revolution to the irresistible waves of the ocean. ”Of all the movements, political, social and religious, of past ages, there is, I think,” writes Miss Cobbe, ”not one so unmistakably tide-like in its extension and the uniformity of its impulse, as that which has taken place within living memory among the women of almost every race on the globe.
Other agitations, reforms and revolutions have pervaded and lifted up cla.s.ses, tribes, nations, churches. But this movement has stirred an entire s.e.x, even half the human race. * * * When the time comes to look back on the slow, universal awakening of women all over the globe, on their gradual entrance into one privileged profession after another, on the attainment by them of rights of person and property, and, at last, on their admission to the full privileges of citizens.h.i.+p, it will be acknowledged that of all the 'Decisive Battles of History,' this has been, to the moralist and philosopher, the most interesting; even as it will be (I cannot doubt) the one followed by the happiest Peace which the world has ever seen.”
FOOTNOTES:
[566] This chapter is, in large part, a resume of Mr. Stanton's valuable work ”The Woman Question in Europe,” published in 1884 by the Putnams of New York, to which we refer the reader who desires to study more in detail the European movement for women.--[THE EDITORS.
[567] The United States was represented by Albert Brisbane and Mrs.
Brisbane, of New York; Elizabeth Chalmers and Mrs. Gibbons, of Philadelphia; Colonel T. W. Higginson, of Ma.s.sachusetts; Miss Hotchkiss, Fernando Jones and his wife and daughter, Jane Graham Jones and Genevieve Graham Jones (now Mrs. Geo. R. Grant), Mrs.
Klumpke and her two daughters, of Chicago; Mrs. Party and Louisa Southworth, of Ohio.
[568] Before closing this brief sketch, I desire to mention with deep grat.i.tude the name of the man who first lifted up his voice in the Italian parliament to defend and protect women. Salvatore Morelli deserves the veneration of every Italian woman. His first book, ”Woman and Science” (_La Donna e la Scienza_), dedicated to Antona Traversi, was animated by a just and n.o.ble spirit, too radical, however, to meet with universal approbation. When he entered parliament, Morelli, with the same courage, constancy, and radicalism, demanded the complete emanc.i.p.ation of women.
Conservatives laughed, and many friends of our movement trembled for the cause. Ably seconded by Mancini, he succeeded in securing for women the right to testify in civil actions, a dignity which they had not previously enjoyed, although, by an absurd contradiction they could be witnesses in criminal cases, convict of murder by a single word and send the criminal to the scaffold. One of Morelli's last acts was a divorce bill which was examined by the Chamber. Guardasigilli Tomman Villa, the then Minister of Justice, was inclined to accept it, but death, which occurred in 1880, saved poor Morelli the pain of seeing his proposition rejected. An appeal to women has been made to raise a modest monument to Salvatore Morelli in memory of his good deeds, by Aurelia Cimino Folliero de Luna. The author of this essay has been requested to receive subscriptions to this fund. Such subscriptions will be acknowledged and forwarded to the Italian Committee. They should be addressed to Theodore Stanton, 9 rue de Ba.s.sano, Paris, France.
[569] The American members are as follows: Ma.s.sachusetts, Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone; Illinois, Jane Graham Jones, Miss Hotchkiss; New York, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Stanton; Pennsylvania, Mrs. Gibbons, of Philadelphia.
[570] The office of this journal is 12, rue de Cail, Paris.
[571] The office of this journal is 4, rue des Deux-Gares, Paris.
[572] See the _Index_, of Boston, May 19, 1881, where I give in full this remarkable speech.
[573] What is said of Austria in this respect further on in this chapter will apply to Italy if the proposed reform is finally accepted by parliament.
[574] Recent reforms in the war department call for economy, and the minister has been forced to refuse the usual subsidy for the support of the woman's medical courses and they are unfortunately in a very critical situation. The result will probably be the foundation of medical colleges for women independent of government aid.
CHAPTER LVIII.
REMINISCENCES.
BY E. C. S.
Reaching London amidst the fogs and mists of November, 1882, the first person I met, after a separation of many years, was our revered and beloved friend, William Henry Channing. The tall, graceful form was somewhat bent; the sweet, thoughtful face somewhat sadder; the crimes and miseries of the world seemed more heavy on his heart than ever. With his refined, nervous organization, the gloomy moral and physical atmosphere of London was the last place on earth where that beautiful life should have ended. I found him in earnest conversation with my daughter and a young Englishman soon to be married, advising them not only as to the importance of the step they were about to take, but as to the minor points to be observed in the ceremony. At the appointed time a few friends gathered in Portland-street chapel, and as we approached the altar, our friend appeared in surplice and gown, his pale, spiritual face more tender and beautiful than ever. This was the last marriage service he ever performed, and it was as pathetic as original, his whole appearance so in harmony with the exquisite sentiments he uttered that we who listened felt as if for the time being we had entered with him into the Holy of Holies.
Some time after, Miss Anthony and I called on him, to return our thanks for the very complimentary review he had written of the History of Woman Suffrage. He thanked us in turn for the many pleasant memories we had revived in those pages, which he said had been as entertaining as a novel; ”but,” said he, ”they have filled me with indignation, too, over the repeated insults offered to women so earnestly engaged in honest endeavors for the uplifting of mankind. I blushed for my s.e.x more than once in reading these volumes.” We lingered long in talking over the events connected with this great struggle for freedom. He dwelt with tenderness on our divisions and disappointments, and entered more fully into the humiliations suffered by women than any man we ever met. His conversation that day was fully as appreciative of the nice points in the degradation of s.e.x as is John Stuart Mill in his wonderful work on ”The Subjection of Woman.” He was intensely interested in Frances Power Cobbe's efforts to suppress the vivisectionists, and the last time I saw him he was presiding at a parlor meeting at Mrs. Wolcott Brown's, when Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell gave an admirable address on the causes and cure of the social evil. Mr.
Channing spoke beautifully in closing, paying a warm and merited compliment to Miss Blackwell's clear and concise review of all the difficulties involved in the question.
Reading so much of English reformers in our journals, of the Brights, the McLarens, the Taylors, of Lydia Becker, Caroline Biggs, Josephine Butler and Octavia Hill, and of their great demonstrations with lords and members of parliament in the chair, we had longed to compare the actors in those scenes with our speakers and conventions on this side the water. At last we met them, one and all, in London, York, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, in great public meetings and parlor reunions, at dinners and receptions, listened to their public men in parliament, the courts and the pulpit, to the women in their various a.s.semblies, and came to the conclusion that Americans surpa.s.s them in oratory and the spirited manner in which they conduct meetings. They have no system of elocution in England such as we have--a thorough training of the voice, in what is called vocal gymnastics. A hesitating, apologetic way seems to be the national idea for an exordium on all questions. Even their ablest men who have visited this country, such as Kingsley, Stanley, Arnold, Spencer, Tyndal, Huxley, and Canon Farrar, have all been criticised by the American public for their stammering enunciation. They have no speakers to compare with Wendell Phillips and George William Curtis, or Anna d.i.c.kinson and Phoebe W. Couzins. John Bright is without a peer among his countrymen, as are Mrs. Bessant and Miss Helen Taylor among the women. Miss Tod, from Belfast, is a good speaker. The women, as a general thing, are more fluent than the men; those of the Bright family in all its branches have deep, rich voices.
Among the young women, Mrs. Fawcett, Mrs. Charles McLaren, Mrs.
Scatcherd, Miss Henrietta Muller, Mrs. Fenwick Miller, and Lady Harberton, all speak with comparative ease and self-possession. The latter is striving to introduce for her countrywomen a new style of dress, in which all the garments are bifurcated, but so skillfully adjusted in generous plaits and folds, that while the wearer enjoys the utmost freedom, the casual observer is quite ignorant of the innovation. We attended one of their public meetings for the discussion of that question, at which Miss King, Mrs. Charles McLaren, and Lady Harberton appeared in the new costume. All spoke in its defense, and were very witty and amusing in criticising the present feminine forms and fas.h.i.+ons. Lady Harberton gave us a delightful entertainment one evening at her fine residence on Cromwell Road, where we laughed enough to dissipate the depressing effect of the fogs for a week to come over the recitations of Corney Green on the piano. There, among many other celebrities, we met Moncure D. Conway[575] and his charming wife.
I reached England in time to attend the great demonstration in Glasgow to celebrate the extension of the munic.i.p.al franchise to the women of Scotland. It was a remarkable occasion. St. Andrew's immense hall was packed with women; a few men were admitted to the gallery at half a crown apiece. It was said there were 5,000 people present. When a Scotch audience is thoroughly roused, nothing can equal the enthusiasm. The arriving of the speakers on the platform was announced with the wildest applause, the entire audience rising, waving their handkerchiefs, and clapping their hands, and every compliment paid the people was received with similar outbursts of pleasure. Mrs. McLaren, a sister of John Bright,[576]