WHAT CAN WOMEN DO? 199 



withont any knowledge of the usages of society. Nor should the school of man- 

 ners be one of hypocrisy. Seeming to be a geiitleniau or lady without being 

 ■one, is not the question ; but how best to show by deportment the natural 

 impulses of a kindly heart, full of all that is noble and gentle. 



Habits of thought and correct expression, memory strengthened, self-reliance 

 gained, all may be acquired around the family table, with good books and 

 periodicals, read aloud, discussed and digested, all, from the oldest to the 

 joungest, taking part. 



" So build we up, the beings that we are, 

 Thus drinking in the soul of things, 

 We shall be wise perforce; and while inspired 

 By choice, and conscious that the will is free, 

 Unswerving shall we move as if impelled 

 By strict necessity, along the path 

 Of order and of good. Whate'er we see, 

 Whate'er we feel by agency direct. 

 Or indirect, shall tend to feed and nurse 

 Our faculties; shall fix in calmer seats 

 Of moral strength, and raise to heftier heights 

 Of love divine, our intellectual soul." 



Mr. Bartlett: I hope when an3'oue says that Mrs. Fox read a paper, the first 

 ■question may not be, " How was she dressed? " 



Mr. Peabody: I don't agree with the writer that the age is degenerating. 

 The late war showed that our manhood is not lost, and I believe the dude boys 

 of to-day would come to the front on suidi a call again. 1 believe we are ahead 

 •of the days of Elizabeth with her patches on lier cheeks, and Beau Brumniell 

 with his hypocrisy. We dress better, more sensiljly now than ever before, and 

 I believe in the present and the future of the United States. 



Mr. Adams: I remember when liquor was as free as water. It was i-o in 

 .my father's house. It is not so now. I don't know of such a family. I believe 

 we are on the up grade, that there is progress every day. 



Dr. Wilson: I stand here to defend the essay as read. My locks are grey. 

 I remember society for 40 years and know how children were then reared. 

 Parents then taught their children's dispositions. Children did not then tell 

 their parents to go to the devil as they do now. 



Mrs, Van Deuseu: I don't think people worse now than formerly. The 

 jnothers of to-day are faithfully trying to elevate their uhildren. 



WHAT CAN WOMEN DO ? 



BY MRS. L. E. CANNON, WASHINGTON, MICH. 



[Read at the Rochester Institute, Feb. 4, 1886.] 



We are but women. What can women doV" 

 Over and over, all a long night through. 

 That simple statement and the question plain 

 Unresting kept my scarcely conscious brain, 

 'Till, half awakened, half asleep, I thouglit 

 •Of many deeds by noble women wrought. 



