been oppressed from the dim ages of
the past, was heeded? Or, shall it be told of us, in the
beginning of this second centennial, that justice has been
ignored, that only liberty to men entered at this stage of
progress, into the American idea of self-government? Freedom to
men and women alike is but a question of time--is America now
equal to the great occasion? Has her development expanded to that
degree where her legislators can say in very truth, as of the
colored man, "Let the oppressed go free"?

The woman's pavilion upon the centennial grounds was an
after-thought, as theologians claim woman herself to have been.[18]
The women of the country after having contributed nearly $100,000
to the centennial stock, found there had been no provision made for
the separate exhibition of their work. The centennial board, Mrs.
Gillespie, president, then decided to raise funds for the erection
of a separate building to be known as the Woman's Pavilion. It
covered an acre of ground and was erected at an expense of $30,000,
a small sum in comparison with the money which had been raised by
women and expended on the other buildings, not to speak of State
and national appropriations which the taxes levied on them had
largely helped to swell.

The pavilion was no true exhibit of woman's work. First, few women
are as yet owners of business which their industry largely makes
remunerative. Cotton factories in which thousands of women work,
are owned by men. The shoe business, in some branches of which
women are doing more than half, is under the ownership of men. Rich
embroideries from India, rugs of downy softness from Turkey, the
muslin of Dacca, anciently known as "The Woven Wind," the pottery
and majolica ware of P. Pipsen's widow, the cartridges and
envelopes of Uncle Sam, Waltham watches whose finest mechanical
work is done by women, and ten thousand other industries found no
place in the pavilion. Said United States Commissioner Meeker,[19]
of Colorado, "Woman's work comprises three-fourths of the
exposition; it is scattered through every building; take it away
and there would be no exposition."

But this pavilion rendered one good service to woman in showing her
capabilities as an engineer. The boiler which furnished the force
for running its work was under the management of a young Canadian
girl, Miss Alison, who from a child loved machinery, spending much
time in the large saw and g