e culture, but they are not productive of respect
from the enemies of the movement. The remarkable spectacle has been
presented of "championship" games of basketball which ended in fights
between the adverse collegiates that recall the days when a baseball
match was merely the preliminary to a battle between the partisans of
the respective clubs, led by the players. Gracefully to accept defeat is
not the nature of womankind, and struggles for physical mastery among
them are subversive of all that is most admirable in the feminine
nature. Nevertheless, all these things are but excrescences and not
germane to the main theory, and they will doubtless correct themselves
by the constant self-evidence of their absurdity or evil tendencies. The
promoters of the movement did not look to an aping of masculine garb and
pursuits as the end or even means of their purposes, and their original
aim will emerge from the mists and shine clear and bright in its height
and singleness. That aim was that woman should be placed upon a level
with man in all that is most desirable as a foundation for a career, and
no one can dispute its excellence of theory. The methods of obtaining
the best results in that purpose may be debated and, it is possible, the
conclusion reached that not yet have the guides of the army of feminine
culture found the shortest and least-encumbered path to their goal, but
that the goal will in time be reached by the easiest and best way does
not admit of a doubt; in this case at least, though with some difference
of application, may be quoted the old French proverb: _Ce que femme
veut, Dieu veut_.

That the future of our country depends, as its past has largely
depended, upon its women is but a truism; it is something more, however,
that we can look forward with calm confidence to that future as upheld
by American womanhood. To-day the American woman stands but on the
threshold of her career. Behind her are noble traditions, fraught with
lesson, with admonition, and in some cases with warning; before her are
the coming centuries, pregnant with possibility, to be made her own.
Every step that she takes is a determination of her destined path; even
though the step be temporarily in advance, if it leads to no worthy goal
it is force wasted, and worse.

She must needs face responsibility, without which she would be but the
toy which she rightfully refuses to be considered; yet the
responsibility which lies on her shoulders