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

THE BUILDING AND ITS DECORATION. THE great work of the world is carried on by those inseparable yoke-mates man and woman, but there are certain feminine touches in the spiritual architecture which each generation raises as a temple to its own genius, and it is as a record of this essentially feminine side of human effort that the Woman’s Build- ing is dedicated. In the dread art of war the male element of the race asserts itself alone. In its antithesis, the art of peace, woman is para- mount. We are yoke-fellows, equal and indivisible, tugging and straining at the load of humanity which, we must drag a few paces ■onward ere our work is done. On the outskirts of the throng- of tireless workers there are a few men and women who, when the heat and stress of the day are over, climb to the hill-tops, and look- ing into the mute heavens read the promise of the coming day. A generation ago the seers of our race foretold two great things: a material growth and prosperity, the like of which the world lias never seen; a mastery of electricity, that most potent of man’s friendly genii, and a great city through which the traffic of the world should roll, one of the strongholds of the earth—all this the voice of the male seer foretold from his tower, and much more. A clearer, sweeter prophecy went forth from the tower where the wise women watched the signs of the times: “ Woman the acknowledged equal of man; his true helpmate, honored and beloved, honoring and loving as never before since Adam cried, * The woman tempted me and I did eat.’ ” We have eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and the Eden of idleness is hateful to us. We claim our inheritance, and are become workers, not cumberers of the earth. Twenty years ago to be called strong-minded was a reproach which brought the blood to the cheek of many a woman. To-day there are few of our sisters who do not prefer to be classed among strong-minded rather than among weak-minded women. The battle has been fought out, and the veterans who have been wounded and scarred with that cruelest weapon of ridicule, smile (23)