to vote; will it not take women from the home?  I am afraid the home will then suffer in consequence.  Will man accord woman the same reverence she has received in the past?  Should she have equal political rights?  A race lacking respect for women would never advance socially or politically.  I think women could not have a more important part in the government of the land than in rearing and educating their children to be good, useful citizens.  In what nobler work could women engage than in work to promote the comfort and well-being of the ones they love in the home?  I say, allow men to make the laws, as God and nature planned.  I think women should keep to the sphere God made them for—­the home.  Said Gladstone, ’Woman is the most perfect when most womanly.’  There is nothing, I think, more despicable than a masculine, mannish woman, unless it be an effeminate, sissy man.  Dr. Clarke voiced my sentiments when he said:  ’Man is not superior to woman, nor woman to man.  The relation of the sexes is one of equality, not of better or worse, of higher and lower.  The loftiest ideal of humanity demands that each shall be perfect in its kind and not be hindered in its best work.  The lily is not inferior to the rose, nor the oak superior to the clover; yet the glory of the lily is one and the glory of the oak is another, and the use of the oak is not the use of the clover.’

“This present-day generation demands of women greater efficiency in the home than ever before.  And Mary, many of the old-time industries which I had been accustomed to as a girl have passed away.  Electricity and numerous labor-saving devices make household tasks easier, eliminating some altogether.  When housekeeping you will find time to devote to many important questions of the day which we old-time housekeepers never dreamed of having.  Considerable thought should be given to studying to improve and simplify conditions of the home-life.  It is your duty.  Obtain books; study food values and provide those foods which nourish the body, instead of spending time uselessly preparing dainties to tempt a jaded appetite.  Don’t spoil Ralph when you marry him.  Give him good, wholesome food, and plenty of it; but although the cooking of food takes up much of a housekeeper’s time, it is not wise to allow it to take up one’s time to the exclusion of everything else.  Mary, perhaps my views are old-fashioned.  I am not a ‘new woman’ in any sense of the word.  The new woman may take her place beside man in the business world and prove equally as efficient, but I do not think woman should invade man’s sphere any more than he should assume her duties.”