been woven of cob-webs, two women
started southward with the needed supplies, and this great,
anxious, agonized North gave a sob of relief when the
message thrilled through the land that Jane C. Hoge and Mary
A. Livermore had arrived at the front with the needed
supplies. Idle, helpless, dependent queens were not then in
demand, but women fitted to be wives of heroes. Because our
lake-bordered, tree-fringed village was once her home, I
lovingly trace first on Evanston's scroll of honor the name
of Jane C. Hoge, while just underneath it I write that of
our venerable philanthropist, who was the first woman in
these United States to receive the badge of the Christian
commission, Mrs. Arza Brown.

And now, standing here upon the border-land of two
centuries, over-shadowed by the dear old flag, re-baptized
with the blood of my beloved as of yours--standing here, a
native-born citizen, as a woman to whom the honor, purity,
peace and freedom of native land is dear as life; as a wife
vitally interested in the interests of manhood; as a mother
responsible for the best development of her children; as a
human being, responsible to her Creator for the highest
possible usefulness, I claim equality before the law.

Mrs. Mary Bannister Willard gave some surprising facts in regard
to woman's work in connection with the North Western University,
and reminded us that foremost among the women of the dawning
century was Eliza Garret of Chicago, who secured to the Garret
Biblical Institute its endowment of a quarter of a million of
dollars, with the proviso that a certain increase of income from
the same after the wants of the young theologues had been met,
should be applied to the erection and endowment of a seminary for
young ladies. But alas! the theological appetite has been
insatiate, even unto this last, and deliverance has come to our
girls from another quarter. And this was the throwing down of
university gates and bars, and a free extension of all
educational privileges to women. Upon the roll of honor
connected with this work we gratefully place the names of many
brave, self-sacrificing women.[368]

The Rev. Mr. Chappell, pastor of the Baptist