FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 157 



our own lives. No intluence is so strong as tliat of example. The reason we have 

 striven after a certain noble quality is because we have seen it grandly and sweetly 

 exemplified in the life of another. We could no longer live as before, for we had 

 caught a glimpse of something higher and nobler. 



Finally, there is no holier realm of action than the home, where children are be- 

 ing trained not only for time, but also for eternity. There is no work that yields 

 such large returns in future years as that of a devoted Christian mother. How rich 

 every day is our reward in love. Let us love this work and not look upon it as a 

 burden and a sacrifice. A few short shears and our birdlings will have flown from 

 the home nest. Lessons will have been learned never to be unlearned. Let us 

 make the most of our opportunity, and in our weariness not lose sight of a privilege 

 that angels might envy. 



BEGINNING REFORMS AT HOME. 



MRS. L. CARUS PAUBEL, St. Johns, at WOMEN'S SECTION, CLINTON COUNTY 



Institute, St. Johns. 



l^ook with me to the successes and failures of the past. Is the balance in favor of 

 progress or retrogression? We see an activity everywhere. Who leads? What 

 motive has grown out of past effort? What is the aim and promise of the future? 

 We must organize, work in harmony, and proceed with care from known to un- 

 known, using all accepted and tried means of profit that promise progress if we 

 are to attain to the desire and possibility of the twentieth century. 



It is scarcely fifty years since our emancipation to a plane above a chattel; since 

 a liigher education was attempted amid protest and insult; since our entrance into 

 fields of professions was ridiculed and condemned; since slavery was a part of 

 national law and the expedient of the ballot to the slave made free suggestion of 

 universal suffrage to right all wrongs. 



I may not dwell to speak singly of the many noble women whose names are 

 legion and whose lives were labors of love. Suffice it to say, their example and 

 effort made it possible to enter college, to gain diploma and degree. We have 

 proven capable of mental skill in whatever we propose. It is in woman's physical 

 mechanism alone that all the argument lies against her as a worker in public life. 

 Sihe must use her strength with more economy. The condition of prospective 

 motherhood often unfits her for serving the public in a public way. Again, when 

 men are in full strength in life, women for a time need rest and quiet. Our aim 

 and system must be in harmony with nature's intentions. 



THE HOME THE CENTER. 



That I may be clear and you understand at the outset my plans, I assume that 

 the homes that dot our fair land are the centers from which all reforms begin; from 

 which all good proceeds. I shall set aside all arguments of the past as regards 

 executive skill, capability or not; all antagonism that may have arisen with men 

 through jealousy in competition as wage-earners, or through fear of losing our com- 

 panionship, or from whatever cause, and I shall appeal to the candor and the best 

 manhood and womanhood of our land to listen to me and reason with me. I shall 

 farther assume, in the law of existence, man's intent ultimately is to be a husband; 

 woman's first, highest, and natural choice is to be a wife. Man and woman are 

 each the complement of the other. Our spheres run side by side— the oak and the 

 vine, ^^'e need his strength and support— he needs our sympathy and love. He may 

 have been misguided, ungallant, and even unjust— has she ever been perfect? Or 

 can we charge mistakes alone to either? To exercise a supreme power, even justly, 

 is a divine rather than human act. Because of this the need of woman's equal 

 authority and wisdom, that the rights of each be kept in balance. Whatever we 

 aspire to we must seek his welfare— better him— and keep him with us— make him 

 see and feel his need of us— his loss without us— our loss without him. The destiny 

 of one is indissolubly woven with the destiny of the other, and the highest attain- 

 ment of each secured through the inseparable efforts of the other. Let us then 

 labor as we never have before to better our homes— all homes— to elevate our planes 

 of thought and action. 



