Show tIIRL Al TilE FOR6E Modern Hebe Created by the Natural Exercise Demanded S Prominent Clubwoman States Her Belief in Development Devel-opment of Strength to Offset Male Ascendancy Kansas City Mo Jan 3zow It is a woman at the forge The slender fingers of a young rosy cheeked maiden grasp the heavy hammer ham-mer and bring it down with a sharp tap on the molten metal scattering the shower of glowing sparks across the grimy smithy S No place for a woman that you say promptly but hearken to a voice calling from the twentieth century Esther Searle of Cawker City Kim I is the latest specimen of the new woman wo-man During the two months that her brother was absent llss Searle took his place in the blacksmith shop with her father Esther was determined that her father should suffer no inconvenience inconven-ience from the absence of her brother In consequence she took hold of whatever what-ever there was to do with a heartiness and vim ivheli astonished everyone Her prowess atthe anvil became the common theme oC conversation in the vicinity The Searle smithy became the rendezvous ren-dezvous for thosewho had heard of the girl blacksmiths fame and curious people peo-ple from far and wide drifted Into the little city to seeAhe prodlpy for themselves I them-selves Miss Searle seemed to be unconscious un-conscious that sh6 was the object of so much attention and continued her duties du-ties at anvil or bellows inst as if she were doing nothing extraordinary Long before the return of her brother from his vacation Miss Searle received the most satisfactory proof of the advantage ad-vantage to be derived from hard manual manu-al labor Her biceps were so developed that she could swing the heaviest liam fbi in the shop with comparative eitse Her chest measurement had Increased rtWO Inches In the same period andShe was capable of sustaining the hardest I and most protracted labor At the same time she was as lively as ever and enjoyed her games when put of the shop with all the zest of her girl companions These soon found that where the game required any extra endurance or strength Esther Searlo had very much the advantage of them her wrists being be-ing as hard as steel in comparison with Ucir own The local belles were not slow to perceive per-ceive the advantage whreh her training In the smithy liad given pretty Esther Searle who had been rather n delicate girl and many oC them envied her the opportunity which she possessed for taking just such exercise as the swinging swing-ing of the hammer und other dutiesne cessilated The various movements coincide almost al-most exactly with those called for by the most advanced rules of physical culture calling into play almost all of I the most important sets of muscles Including In-cluding those of the back the arms the thighs and the chest Naturally the experience of illss 1 Searlo has directed attcntjon to the benefits which might be obtained by women from entering some of the trades which have hitherto seemed to offer no opening for women on account of the severity oC the labor Involved Various woiiipns clubs in Kansas and other States have tukfcn up the subject and u very interesting paper was read at one of them by an advanced woman I suffragist recentlY In the course of her remarks this oman a o-man said The lesson which Miss Searle has taught us should mean the regeneration of womanhood We shall never encase from the Ujruldom Which binds us like slaves to the mop the scrub brush and thu dlshrag until we put ourselves exactly on the same level as the male We must lake our ulacu ut the forge and the carpenters bench I as we have done at the loom and at the counter We must sail shlpa and mount sruus blast rocks and mine inotals The woman of the twentieth century will be a revelation She will no longer be the timid shrinking shadow of lordly and domineering man She will ask no quarter in fighting the worlds battle She will take only when she can give She will till thcsoil and mine the mountain moun-tain She will run locomotives and drive electric motors play football and baseball and do anything and everything every-thing develop lint side Dfhornature which has lain dormant for centuries thereby compelling her to be the weaker weak-er vessel Has not a woman led an army to victory already Has not a woman explorer traversed thewllds of Africa alone Has not a woman ruled the greatest empire of the earth better than it ever was ruled before Have not women worked In the coal mines and did not many oC our grandmothers battle bat-tle with redskins help to build log houses dig wells hunt and take part I in all the rough duties of frontier life I honor the girl who took her brothers place at her fathers forge I That girl has material in her to make a I twentieth century woman Were I her father I would have her made a skilled mechanic She would be allowed to follow fol-low the bent of her tastes If only a woman What Is there more beautiful I than some of the processes which belong be-long to the smiths work Think of the handsome and delicate things done In Iron moldings Does not such wOrk call I for the graceful skill and taste of a womanas much as for the coarser work of man What Is there more to bear Sn a foundry than in a hot stuffy kitchen with washing and cooking to be done with a houseful of babies tumbling across ones footsteps at every turn I would like to see a thousand American Amer-ican women working at the forge tomorrow to-morrow We should hear less about shattered nerves and dyspeptic anaemia if women would take their place at the plough and wherever good rough honest hon-est work has to be done I would have the trade schools opened to girjs just as they are to men that they might learn the ruder crafts and In that way resume the position which they once held not only as the superior but the stronger sex Moreover all that Idle and vicious class of women should be taken from their lives of unspeakable shame and compelled to do the roughest and hardest hard-est kinds of manual labor in Institutions specially provided for the regeneration I of the moral degenerate It would not take many generations of such treatment treat-ment to convert the moral pervert Into a nvaluable citizen It is among the hardestworking people that we Und the highest standard of virtue Hard work Is the most valuable gift of God ELEANOR CURTIS HARVEY |