find that, representing not only one school hut college women in gem
eral, I could not resent the brutal frankness with which my oratorical
possibilities were discussed by the enthusiastic group who would allow
no personal feelings to stand in the way of progress, especially the
progress of Woman's Cause. I was told among other things that I had
an intolerable habit of dropping my voice at the end of a sentence in
the most feminine, apologetic, and even deprecatory manner which
would probably lose Woman the first place.
Woman certainly did lose the first place and stood fifth, exactly in
the dreary middle, but the ignominious position may not have been
solely due to bad mannerisms, for a prior place was easily accorded to
William Jennings Bryan, who not only thrilled his auditors with an
almost prophetic anticipation of the cross of gold, but with a moral
earnestness which we had mistakenly assumed would be the unique
possession of the feminine orator.
I so heartily concurred with the decision of the judges of the contest
that it was with a care-free mind that I induced my colleague and alternate to remain long enough in "the Athens of Illinois,'' in which the
successful college was situated, to visit the state institutions, one for
the blind and one for the deaf and dumb. Doctor Gillette was at that
time head of the latter institution; his scholarly explanation of the
method of teaching, his concern for his charges, this sudden demonstration of the care the state bestowed upon its most unfortunate children, filled me with grave speculations in which the first, the fifth, or
the ninth place in an oratorical contest seemed of little moment.
However, this brief delay between our field of Waterloo and our arrival at our aspiring college turned out to be most unfortunate, for we
found the ardent group not only exhausted by the premature preparations for the return of a successful orator, but naturally much irritated
as they contemplated their garlands drooping disconsolately in tubs
and bowls of water. They did not fail to make me realize that I had
dealt the cause of woman's advancement a staggering blow, and all my
explanations of the fifth place were haughtily considered insufficient
before that golden Bar of Youth, so absurdly inflexible!
To return to my last year at school, it was inevitable that the pressure toward religious profession should increase as graduating day approached. So curious, however, are the paths of moral development
that several times during subsequent experiences have I felt that this