THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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who persevered in the face of opposition and difficulty. That which her intelligence and love plan, her hands rear, if possible. In scientific pursuits the women of the South have not made striking progress. The need of university training, growing out of the selfishness of the brothers or the conservatism of the daughters, has, to the present, prevented. This need will be met. When our women of means devise sufficient sums to meet the pecuniary demands of such institutions, or will endow chairs in those universities that are beginning to unlock their doors to women, this hindrance will be removed. Statistics are provokingly meager in endowments of schools for women in the Southland—indeed for women in all lands. Few magnificent gifts of this kind to educate women, even by women themselves, have been made, though they will leave large sums oftentimes to open or aid male schools. Why, I know not. Possibly from want of faith that their sisters would value such opportunities. May the day speedily come when opportunities of the highest culture will multiply in the Southland. While our women have left the bugs and bats, rocks, rockets and comets, and much more of scientific research to their brothers, and have never startled the world along mathematical highways, they are turning their attention to such matters, and in the near future may rival Caroline Herschel or Mrs. Somerville. In imaginative literature there is much promise of books that will live; in narration, exposition and description there is a creditable showing. Macaulay said: “ Poetry of the highest order may not be looked for in nations whose culture has attained perfection.” So we look for poets— look confidently, too—since of late years from under our own magnolia came one of the sweetest singers of the century, Sidney Lanier. In journalism the women of the South are being heard and felt, and, indeed, they are making ready to enter any lines of usefulness their preferences, necessities or tastes dictate. Time will not permit illustrations, or I would name many women of the South who are recognized as leaders-—honored for their attainments, admired for their success. Let me name one, the chairman of this Woman’s Congress—born in Kentucky, reared there, educated there, claimed by Arkansas as its ideal of beautiful,energetic womanhood—who well represents the refinement, the intelligence and executive skill of our women. Do I claim too much when I say the women of the South are the peers of the best, the truest, the purest and richest womanhood of the world?