Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

221 IN THE WOMAN’S BUILDING. Blanca and Berenguela, mothers of two great kings and two saints, San Ferdinand of Spain and Saint Louis of Fiance. The law rives to woman such a prominent place in the family that we have what is called los gananciales—that is to say, the gams in marriage; this implies that the augmentation of the fortune of man and wife, during their married life, lias to be equally divided, for the law wisely thinks that the wife and mother, by her economy, her making the home pleasant, and her devotion to the education of her children, plays a part as important as t husband in making the fortune of the family. She has, after the death of her father, the patrm potestad... and she has by right a portion equal to the one inherited by each of the ChlThTshort space given to each nation in this book makes it impossible to fully portray the importance of woman in the history of Spain, but it is easy to say, that although her character makes her principally a home-abiding woman, that although she is leti ing and avoids publicity, and dislikes all that is næsy and seems to her immodest, she has all the rights of man except the political rights She has the right to take the highest honors m the government universities, and avails herself of it; she takes fn important part in the productive industry of the country, both as merchant and worker; she does creative work m literature an art directs the education of children in the elementary schools, and is recognized as the most active worker in chanties by the state, which has given to a commission of ladies the direction o the hospitals and asylums. The women of Spain have always shown that they can do every- thing that men can do. They have fought the enemies of the coun- try heroically, like Maria Pita and Augustina de Aragon; they have stood by their husbands and sons in sieges and battles, being a source of strength, and never a pretext for weakness. As far back as the fifteenth century we find such philosophers as Teresa de Cartagena and learned women as Beatriz Galindo, the friend and adviser of the great Queen Isabella, who was called “ La Latum from Vipt aeh.ievem.ents in classic literature. In the pavilion erected in the Woman's Building by the Spanish Commission, can be read the names of eight women who have been celebrated not only in Spain, but are known by every edu- cated person all over the world: Santa Teresa de Jesus, one of the classic writers of Spanish literature, whose writings on philosoph- ical matters have had a great influence; Oliva Sabuco de Nantes,