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

IN THE WOMAN’S BUILDING. 245 them the companions and helpmates, not the servile attendants, of their husbands, will soon do away with that unnatural inactivity of so many intelligent and educated women. With the exception of some of the post office, telephone, and telegraphic offices, there is not a single official bureau where women are regularly employed; and besides certain lines of tram- ways in a few cities, and occasionally in a small number of stores and shops, they are never seen anywhere in the vast field of public or private activity. To close the series of these brief notes, I submit two very sig- nificant facts, viz.: First, the spirit of association for serious and useful purposes, lately initiated among the Spanish-American women and attaining every day more remarkable proportions. Second, the ever-increasing circulation of literary and scientific books and periodicals among the women of the principal cities in almost every one of those states. It is the moral duty, as well as the practical interest, of the North American people to extend to the young and promising nations of Spanish America the influence of their modern institutions, and the liberal and progressive spirit which is advancing the cause of woman; and.very particularly the atmosphere of freedom and encouragement that surrounds the life of our sex in the North. No field richer in promise can be opened to their energies than the more complete social emancipation of the Spanish-American woman—a blessing of which she lias proved to be worthy in every respect—and that no nation could as easily as yours grant to these sympathetic and benevolent homes. It seems to me an axiomatic truth that to complete the personality of woman in the domestic and social life is to secure her legitimate influence and civilizing power in the general evolution of mankind. Matilde G. de Miro Quesada.