INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 543 



are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound 

 by any laws in which Ave have no voice or representation." 



From all that can be learned, the home of John and Abigail Adams 

 was one of the kind which we like to picture to ourselves. There was, 

 in the first place, a perfect union, founded on mutual esteem and love. 

 One did not look up to tlio other, because both looked straight across. The 

 constant and unwearied attention of father and mother to the training of 

 their children in every virtue and grace may well be a model for every 

 age. "Our lovely babes" are daily the theme of John Adams' thoughts in 

 the midst of the cares of state; and she, never neglecting her little king- 

 dom, was constantly writing to him concerning questions of government, 

 liberty, and the public welfare. Both were domestic, but home did not 

 bound their interests. Identical in opinions and purposes, there existed 

 between them a delightful feeling of equality and comradeship hi all the 

 affairs of life. 



Such homes are much less rare nowadays than they ever were before. 

 The average woman is better fitted to do her part in the making of home 

 than she was one hundred or fifty years ago. And the average man is 

 learning that a part of his duty lies here also. 



In those days when the home marked the boundaries of a woman's 

 world, she had no legal existence. As an individual her rights before the 

 law are now fully recognized; and, although her political disabilities have 

 not yet been entirely removed, she can acquire and hold property and 

 carry on any sort of business. Not only is she an equal partner in the 

 home, biit it is probably true that the education of the average American 

 woman today, as far, at least, as a knowledge of books is concerned, is 

 superior to that of the average man. 



Mr. Ruskin said, not so many years ago, that the average woman's 

 idea of life was to dress herself and her children becomingly, and leave 

 cards on her acquaintances. That was her '"real notion of the matter," he 

 said, "and modern Christian women's generally, so far as they have got 

 any notions at all under their l)onnets and the skins of the dead robins 

 they have stuck in them." If Mr. Ruskin's picture was a true one we 

 have traveled far since then. Such a woman would certainly justify 

 Petruchio's boast. But Catherine is no longer pleased to be considered 

 "my ox. my ass, my anything;" and Petruchio now blushes that such 

 words ever passed his lips. 



The woman with such a view of life as Mr. Ruskin described could 

 not have an ideal nor a real home. But this is not tlie woman of the pres- 

 ent day. She has a liome, and a center-table, and, generally, children. If 

 she belongs to clubs, she does not on that account neglect domestic duties. 

 I am told that even the woman whose name appears on the lists of twenty- 

 six clubs is a perfect housek(>eper; and, though I can not vouch for it, and 

 it seems incredible, we must riMuember tliat there are geniuses, and some- 

 times Ave live very near them in ignorance of the fact, 



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