STATE GRANGE OF ILLINOIS. 123 



in all his glory was not" flounced and frilled and furbelowed and pinned 

 back like one of these, who may flirt and flitter away the long summer 

 days at the sea side, or the springs, spending money they never earned, 

 while our wives and daughters continue to toil through the hot days 

 of Summer and the cold ones of Winter without rest or relaxation, and 

 never a prospect of change or relief. 



"When the Grange accomplishes woman's emancipation and elevates her 

 to her proper position, then we may point with pride and exultation to 

 our work. 



That the Grange is moving slowly to this, and the accomplishment of 

 these reforms gives courage and hope to the hearts of its thousands of 

 votaries. But the great truths that underlie our movement are but little 

 understood as yet with the average minds of which we are composed. 

 Light is breaking upon many; but more reading, more thought, and more 

 determined, persevering work is necessary to overcome the many obstacles 

 that beset us and surround us on every side, but mind must grow, and 

 hopes must grow, and hearts must grow, and nowhere with more health- 

 fulness than in the agricultural walks of life; the hopes of the down- 

 trodden in this and other lands are with us, ours is the great school from 

 which the democratic idea of the world in its best and yet future era of 

 usefulness, of classless society, must largely graduate, and those in 

 future, unless of the future society, will be no generation of dunces. 



