SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 249 



From that time to the jjresent day the special mission of woman 

 has been the cultivation of flowers, and to her taste almost solely are 

 we indebted for the wealth of bloom that to-day adorns the porterre, 

 that «^laddens the winter windows of the humblest household or that 

 graces the conservatories of the wealthy. 



The l)arltarians of ancient times loved the beautiful things of 

 nature, handed down through legends of former eivili/ations; and 

 wonnm was the guardian of the treasures of the fields and gardens. 

 But Bacchus! Drunken Bacchus was the god of the wine-press. 



In all l)arbarian ages woman has been the cultivator of the soil, 

 while the warrior, m.in, devoted himself to rapine and slaughter, or, 

 in time of peace, the hunter, man, to the exercise of the chase. It 

 is always the province of barbarous man to destroy, to kill; it is that 

 of the woman to create, to gather the wild seeds of the fields and the 

 wild fruits of the earth, that something other than flesh may satisfy 

 the longing of all human nature for variety, and to store up against 

 a time of j)ossible famine, wherewith to sustain life. It is true 

 woman was but a menial slave, because the barbarian is barbarous. 

 She must dress the skins of the chase, and fashion them into gar- 

 ments; but the fruits she gathered, and the flowers she cherished 

 — this she did for very love. 



We may follow every civilization we read of, but, when studied 

 between the lines we shall find that no civilization has ever been pos- 

 sible until the fruits of the earth were successfully and systejnatic- 

 ally cultivated. Woman was its ministering spirit. High civilized 

 enlightenment was never reached without the accompanyment of 

 flowers and garlands woven by the hands of woman. Her province 

 in all overcrowded populations of civilized countries is the lighter 

 tasks in horticulture; and in free America her ministering hands 

 take kindly to the cultivation of flowers and to the weaving of them 

 into the varied and beautiful forms that grace our ])arlors and ban- 

 quets. Her true province is shown in this hall in the most kindly 

 manner, in the wealth of floral adornment here elaborated. Were it 

 not for her graceful hands and her tender care, our public and our 

 private gatherings would lack all that makes them truly enjoyable. 



But it is not alone in floriculture that woman may show her su- 

 perior art. Horticulture was, and always will be, the fine art divis- 

 ion of agriculture. The over-crowding of population in and near 

 our great cities is already crowding the sex into employments not 

 hitherto considered proper for her. And many of them are not, as 

 clerks in stores, as book-keepers, stenograi)hers and other office em- 

 ployments where labor must occupy many hours in a confined atmos- 

 phere, woman is never at her best. She is never at her best when 

 care-worn, sad-eyed and prematurely old. Like the birds, she must 

 have air, and plenty of it, as well as exercise, to hold out at her best 

 through life. Whe're can she find this so well as in the varied lighter 

 pursuits of horticulture. The pruning and dressing of vines and 



