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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

child goes wrong. He must stumble and fall many times before he learns to walk uprightly, either physically or spiritually. He must learn to climb the stairs of moral difficulty as he learned to climb the household stairs. As we patiently wait for the body to unfold and do its best, wisely guiding it all the while, so should we patiently wait for the soul’s unfolding. All education is a growth, not a creation. And to all growth belongs the element of time. We are none of us born with the “trade of con­duct” learned. The primal ideal of all government should be to teach a child to govern himself at the earliest possible period. And to learn how to govern himself a child must be indulged in self-government. The true teacher will be aiming all the time at the child’s enfranchisement—not in making him an unwilling slave.

Above all, the true kindergarten aims at the cultivation of the heart and soul in the right direction, and leads them to the Creator of all life and to personal union with Him. The law of duty is recognized by the little ones as the law of love. It is the aim of the kindergarten to lead the little ones to their Heavenly Friend. They are taught to love Him. They are taught to love one another, to help one another, to be kind to one another, to care for one another. No one can love God who does not love his fellows. The child in the kindergarten is not only told to be good, but he is actually helped to be good.

The very foundations on which true character rests are laid in the kindergarten. Habits of virtue, truth, purity and usefulness are here inculcated; and what is charac­ter but crystallized habit?

As to the moral effect of the kindergarten, a little three-year-old can best tell the story. A bright little blonde lassie of three years, belonging to one of our kinder­gartens, was holding tightly the hand of her lady guardian, as they wandered among the marvels of the Mechanics’ Institute Fair. It was high carnival with the little kin­dergarteners. This nervous little midget was wild with delight at the wonderful things to be seen on every hand. Just then she was delving into the mysteries of the chicken incubator. Suddenly one of the regularly deputized policemen, who do duty during the fair, passed by. He did not escape the vigilance of “ little blue eyes.”

“See, there’s a perlice ! ” she ejaculated, with resonant, ringing tone, pointing her little finger deprecatingly as she spoke. “There he goes,” she added, with increased fervor. “ Why, he needn’t be a watchin’ of us, ’cos we don’t nip nothin’ now, sence we went to the kindergarten! ”

The poor little dear—she had no idea that a “ perlice ” could have any other pos­sible vocation than to be watching her and the other little Barbary Coasters, who had been wont aforetime to “ nip” fruit and vegetables on the sly, as a sort of filial duty imposed by thriftless, shiftless parentage.

And now, dear friends, although I have overstepped the limits allotted me, I can­not close without a brief reference to this beneficent kindergarten work in San Francisco.

Fifteen years ago there was not a single free kindergarten west of the Rocky Mountains. There are now over sixty in San Francisco alone, including those in orphanages and day homes. Branching out from San Francisco as a center, they have extended in every direction, from the extreme northern part of Washington Territory to Lower California and New Mexico, and they have planted themselves in Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, and in almost every large city in California. The work in San Francisco has been phenomenal. No city in the Union has made more rapid strides in this work among the little children than San Francisco. This is owing very largely to the fact that persons of large wealth have been induced to study the work for them­selves, and have become convinced of its permanent and essential value to the state. Foremost among those who have given largely to the support of these kindergartens is Mrs. Leland Stanford, who has, from first to last, given $174,000 to the support of these beneficent schools for the neglected children of San Francisco. Over eight hundred children have been under training in the Stanford kindergartens the past year. Mrs. Senator Hearst, and others of generous mind, also support these schools.