THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

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proportion than is generally supposed. Our India silks are largely made in Connecticut. Most beautiful brocades are made in Patterson, N. J. What a trade has grown out of our intercourse with China; the beautiful wood carving, the bronzes and lacquered ware from Japan, how they have delighted us. Let anyone recall the progress of these few industries. We have felt the stimulation of the Centennial from the broad Atlantic to the shores of the peaceful Pacific. We awoke from our slumber, and with our awakening came the desire to see the countries that sent us their treasures. And the result is the most traveled people in the world.

The wonderful, the curious, the unique find a ready market with Americans abroad, and are chosen with that same keenness of wits that characterizes the amass­ing of great fortunes, and brings to our attention a trait, truly American, that the best is none too good for us, our homes or our museums. So that from the year 1876 may be counted the birth of the fine arts in the United States. The development of architecture has made this Columbian Exposition possible; a surprise to ourselves, the wonder and admiration of the world.

No accident has brought about this dream of beauty, this perfection of harmony; but practical education, whether pursued in the Old World or in the New. Culling out the gems of ancient architecture and adapting them to the modern has not been done by the hand of ignorance. All agree to the magnificence of conception, and behold! how well it has been carried out.

It has been said that the buildings found in the Paris Exposition would have been expected in Chicago, and the buildings found in Chicago would have been expected in Paris.

In that first exposition the world lent us their treasures. This year they have brought them. All countries have come to us, and the Islands of the Sea have con­tributed their curiosities, and, more than all, themselves. Think you, that having touched our civilization they can return to the same rut, and fill the same small place as before? The hope and belief that the world will be the gainer for this coming together, is that the women have come, and woman takes no backward step in this age. Will they take a lesson from us? A new idea? Can we do them any good? When woman feels a prompting from within to a better living, higher aims, there is hope for her future. Will prejudice, custom, environment be too much for these? We have only to study the crowd as it passes by to hear snatches of conversations, the acci­dents and incidents of a week at the fair, to read the signs of the times.

One of the women which we would like to help gives her opinion of us in the fol­lowing language: “ The women of this country interfere with everything.” I am afraid her criticism was merited. One said: “Your people are very inquisitive, must see and examine everything.”

Styles for memare changing, swearing has gone out of fashion, chewing tobacco is only indulged in on the sly, or by the uncultivated. While within the month I heard some fashionable young men discussing smoking with the remark that “ it is no longer good form to smoke on the fashionable promenade.”

There has been such a warfare waged upon intemperance, that public opinion would not tolerate a man upon these grounds who gave evidence of intoxication.

Women are largely instrumental in bringing about this change in sentiment; and wisely, too, for here she may roam from morning until night in perfect safety, with­out a thought of molestation.

The United States have received the poor, the unfortunate, the degraded of all countries for years, and now we are glad to welcome the refined and cultivated class of foreigners who have been the nation’s guest since this Exposition has been opened. Having clasped hands with all the world, that a friendship may flow from it both true and lasting, let us hope that many reciprocity treaties will follow with the smaller nations who have been our guests, and that the markets of the world may open to our productions. That to us, and through this channel, will come back like “ Bread cast upon the waters, return after many days.” That the expenditure of $50,000,000 will be an eventual gain to the nation.