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THE CONGRESS OE WOMEN.
“ Of all the pages of history written of our great fratricidal strife, there are none so fraught with glory and true bravery and high patriotic endeavor as those which tell us of woman’s love and woman’s self-sacrifice and devotion and woman’s tears. Let us not forget the mothers and wives and sisters and daughters whose best days of womanhood were consecrated to a ‘ Lost Cause.’ ”
Patient, courageous and strong were these women, and what was left for them to do after the war?
To rise up bravely and found new homes upon the ashes of their former glories, to encourage and inspire their husbands, to teach their young sons and daughters to be courageous, and above all, to keep up a cheerful spirit under the most depressing circumstances with which gentle women have ever had to deal in the history of our country.
Is it possible to think that the heroism and self-sacrifice shown by them at this crucial time in their lives could fail to implant a like nobility of character in their daughters?
It is a true saying “ that a fountain never rises higher than its source,” and in speaking of the present young women of the South let us first remember the mothers who influenced and molded their characters. It is from these women that a race of daughters has sprung whose necessity for self-reliance and independence has steadied their characters and been the means of developing the deeper and more serious part of their natures.
The desperate feeling which took possession of the Southern people immediately after the war made them realize that a mighty effort was needed to bring about a change of affairs. This feeling, which has made the New South, did much toward making it possible for young women to be self-supporting, and opened avenues of work for them which were formerly pre-empted by men. The Southern legislatures have within recent years allowed young women to be elected to the offices of enrolling and engrossing clerk in the House and Senate, while there are a number of post- offices and public libraries in charge of women.
In many Southern states there are women who own and manage large plantations, and the outdoor life seems peculiarly fitted for them; while in Texas they own and successfully manage large stock farms. One young woman in Arkansas was left a very valuable plantation by her husband. Ow r ing to his long illness, however, it became embarrassed with debt, and upon his death suits were brought against the estate. The widow took entire charge of affairs, and on horseback personally superintended the two thousand acres and five hundred employes; at the same time practically acting as her own financier and bookkeeper. She built gins, attended to the cultivation of the ground, the picking of cotton, etc., and in five years this plucky woman cleared the plantation from all indebtedness and made it one of the most prosperous in the state. Another young woman of whom her state is justly proud is Mrs. Mary B. Murrell, of Little Rock, Ark., who organized a Young Woman’s Building Association, and as its secretary carried out a number of series successfully and made it a splendid interest-bearing investment. She has written various articles on finance for New York papers, and was the only woman chosen by Mr. Seymour Dexter, of New York, to read a paper in the General Congress on Building Associations.
A most important business position, and the only one of the kind occupied by a woman, is that held by Mrs. Annie Moore, who is president of the First National Bank of Mount Pleasant, Tex. She is said to be thoroughly familiar with the banking business, and can shave a note or refuse a loan with as much facility as any of her male colleagues.
There are various newspapers in the South edited and managed entirely by women, while the South has given her daughters numerous other positions of trust, which they fill with credit to themselves and honor and dignity to their states.
The World’s Fair has been justly called “ woman’s opportunity,” and it has been