WOMAN'S PART IN THE WORK 323 



burden of drudgery and the introduction of some variety into the 

 monotony of work will do to revive working folk's love of the country, 

 with its freedom for movement, its healthy air, its sunshine and all 

 the marks impressed upon it of " God made the country, and man 

 made the town," in the effect, noted by Mr. F. E. Green, a vigilant 

 observer, as already resulting from the " Saturday half -holiday " 

 granted, in moderating perceptibly the rural hankering after the 

 enjoyments of town life and quickening interest in country sports as 

 a counter-attraction. Under the influence of women's institutes there 

 has been a great deal more. " Women's institutes' action," so writes 

 Mr. Geo. A Putnam, Superintendent of Women's Institutes in 

 Ontario, " has meant to the people a social unity such as no other 

 organisation could have produced. Ladies from all parts of the 

 country meet and feel at home, as if they were neighbours. The 

 institutes have brought town and country women together, and each 

 has found in the other good qualities never dreamed of, and the con- 

 sequence is a mutual feeling of sisterhood between them." And he 

 cites the following statements taken from communications received 

 by him from members of women's institutes in various parts of his 

 province. " I consider the women's institutes are doing a greater 

 work in this part of Ontario than the churches." * " Each of us is 

 striving to attain the highest position a woman may fill, viz., a good 

 home-maker." " We have learned good business methods," so says 

 another, " in conducting our meetings, keeping accounts and being 

 able to discuss subjects brought before us. We have also benefited 

 very largely in a social way. In all communities there were societies 

 of women more especially in connection with church work, but each 

 denomination worked apart, and it has been the work of the women's 

 institutes to bring them all together as one harmonious whole on 

 common ground — the good of the home." " The women's institute 

 cannot measure success by dollars and cents, nor yet by numbers, 

 but by the spirit of helpfulness, sociability, sympathy and sisterhood, 

 which it has engendered throughout the entire township." " To fully 

 grasp the effect upon the individual members, the families and the 

 community, it is necessary to have been a charter member of a 

 branch and to have noted carefully from month to month and from 

 year to year the improvement on the individual, the home and the 

 community brought about by the regular monthly meetings of this 



* It may be interesting to recall the fact that in the eighties, when 

 official inquiries were made in Germany into the action and results of 

 the then si ill little-known RaifEeisen sooieties, the same praise was 

 bestowed upon these societies, even by ministers of religion. 



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