evitable from the structure of society in the Old South.
A woman's place was the home. As a girl she might live for enjoyment and
spend her time in a round of visits, but she was expected to give up
frivolity of all sorts when she married. Society in the South was almost
entirely the concern of the unmarried. Women seldom took a prominent
part in any organization, and a woman speaking in public was regarded as
a great curiosity. Not so many years ago the missionary society, and
perhaps the parsonage aid society, were almost the only organizations in
which women took a part. In recent years church and educational
organizations have multiplied, and today there are numerous women's
clubs devoted to many different objects. Southern women are active in
civic leagues, associated charities, and other forms of community
endeavor; they are prominent in various patriotic societies; and there
are many suffrage societies. Where the laws permit, women are members of
school boards; they often head organizations of teachers composed of
both men and women, and at least one woman has been chosen mayor of a
town.

Women have done more than the men to keep alive in the South the
memories of the past. Perhaps because the women of the older generation
suffered more than the men, they have been less willing to forget, and
their daughters have imbibed some of the same feeling. The Daughters of
the Confederacy have been more bitter than the Sons of Veterans or than
the veterans themselves. The effect of recent events upon their
psychology has been interesting. In the Great War their sons and
grandsons were called to go overseas, and the national government was
brought closer to them than at any other time for more than forty years.
It is idle to insist that before this there had been any ardent
affection in the South for the United States. There had been acceptance
of the national situation, perhaps an intellectual acknowledgment that
all may have been for the best, but no warm nationalism had been
developed before the Great War came. Loyalty was passive rather than
active.

The closing of the chasm has been hailed many times, notably at the time
of the Spanish War, but no keen observer has been deceived for a moment.
The recent world crisis, however, seems to have swept aside all
hindrances. Perhaps the people, and particularly the women, were
unconsciously yearning for a country to love and were ready for a great
wave of patriotism to carr