infinite degree. It is well for our country that
we can claim that such as she are but types.

It is one of the rightful boasts of America that, although she has been
vehemently accused of making the "Almighty Dollar" her one god, she has
always been ready with generous response to the call of need. It
mattered not whence that call came; Ireland, Russia, India, Cuba were
alike recipients of her bounty, full to overflowing, when they raised
their voices in anguish. That the answer to the cry for help was so
quick, so hearty, so satisfying, was in large degree the work of our
womanhood, whose ears were ever attuned to the voice of suffering. This
was so almost from the birth of America as a nation; but only of late
has the answer from our women to such cries for help been organized and,
therefore, really effective. This apart, however, it may be claimed that
one of the enduring attributes of American womanhood--more so than of
any other race--is its generosity and response to the call of humanity,
uncaring for race or creed or any outward circumstance. Many of the
organized efforts in this wise of later days have been but the
expressions of the national spirit of generosity, first finding
congenial direction and resultful methods. It is no new thing that
American womanhood should give of its substance to the cause of
humanity; the newness lies entirely in the more concentrated methods of
such gift, directed along the most effective lines and thus escaping
that diffusion and waste which is common to unorganized effort. That
this result has been reached we owe chiefly to the leaders among the
woman's movement in this direction toward the close of the past century.

The present era of American womanhood, indeed, may be classified as
supremely that of concentration. Throughout our country are constantly
springing up women's societies having definite aims and purposes, and
the effort which was formerly diffused, and therefore unavailing, now
tends from a consolidated source to a clearly discerned end. Whether for
purposes of amelioration of sex-position or of general beneficence,
women have learned the power which lies in concentration of effort and
have penetrated the secret of the most effectual putting forth of the
strength which lies in them. Organization among women is a thing of the
last few decades, but already it has assumed such proportions that
feminine influence, not individually but collectively asserted, sways
t