a teacher of
wood-carving. We have physicians, and there are two attorneys,
Perry and Martin, now practicing in the city of Chicago.
Representatives of our sex are also to be found among real-estate
agents and journalists, while, in one or two instances as
preachers they have been recognized in the churches.

CATHERINE A. STEBBINS of Michigan said: "Better fifty years of
Europe than a cycle of Cathay!" So said the poet; and I say,
Better a week with these inspired women in conference than years
of an indifferent, conventional society! Their presence has been
a blessing to the people of this District, and will prove in the
future a blessing to our government. These women from all
sections of our country, with a moral and spiritual enthusiasm
which seeks to lift the burdens of our government, come to you,
telling of the obstacles that have beset their path. They have
tried to heal the stricken in vice and ignorance; to save our
land from disintegration. One has sought to reform the drunkard,
to save the moderate drinker, to convert the liquor-seller;
another, to shelter the homeless; another, to lift and save the
abandoned woman. "Abandoned?" once asked a prophet-like man of
our time, who added, "There never was an abandoned woman without
an abandoned man!" Abandoned of whom? let us ask. Surely not by
the merciful Father. No; neither man nor woman is ever abandoned
by him, and he sends his instruments in the persons of some of
these great-hearted women, to appeal to you to restore their
God-given freedom of action, that "the least of these" may be
remembered.

But in our councils no one has dwelt upon _one_ of the great
evils of our civilization, the scourge of war; though it has been
said that women will fight. It is true there are instances in
which they have considered it a duty; there were such in the
rebellion. But the majority of women would not declare war, would
not enlist soldiers and would not vote supplies and equipments,
because many of the most thoughtful believe there _is_ a better
way, and that women can bring a moral power to bear that shall
make war needless.

Let us take one picture representative of the general features of
the war--we say nothing of our convictions in regard to the
conflict. Ulysses S. Grant or A