QUINQUENNIAL NOTABILIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2884, 30 June 1909, Page 87

QUINQUENNIAL NOTABILIA.

: Bt. Wn-HEiidKA SHEBaiFJS. Bain". \ The International Council of Women !>now meeting quinquennialLy ia Toronto is likely to make, brilliant and effective ' demonstration. Canada Trill open _hc<r big warm ibeafit to the representatives of •': many lands, showing them the splendid ~'. hospitalities of a great nation fast awaken- ' ing to her own immensities, and revealing to them the significance of perennially youthful vigour symbolised- by British • Empire. The Countess ol Aberdeen presides. She , known her Canada well, and' many other ! experiences shs kn-ews. Large, handsome, ! and rosy, she is a personification 01 pros- | perity. Her coiHprebsnsipn .of the human ■' problem does? not compare with that of ! he: 1 strangely-gifted pved-scessor, Mrs May j Wright Sewall — imle-ed, tier somewhat i bourgeois^ consKou^nc^s of aristocracy | is distinctly .her limitation; but she is really able, 'and generally impressive. j There will be many, to miss the ] ' astonishing versatility, vivacity, and j alertness of Mrs 'Sewall. Seeming to be equally familiar with each of th-a three "official"' languages — German, French, j English (for Esperanto has not xpt taken j it^ duo place in council) — the guided { and controlled the vast assemblages ■ of 1904 with masterly power and prompj titu^e. -Her .clear, pale visage, wit^i its j aureole of glistening" snow, tier robes of- ( white or p silver grey, her quickness -of | intellect,, -her strong and widely "•sympaj tbetic attitude, her flow of -language, her 1 ] amusinig Americanisms, acd her princely j entertainments made her the delight of j the German capital nve'vears- apo. Nbi thing leas than leadetshiw can be hers, and as chaivwpman of the International Ccmmittes for peace and arbitration she is probably marshalling hear forces today. * The chairwoman .if tilie Interniationil Suffrage Ireague, Mrs Carrie Chapman Catt, lies done eminent service. She- is a born president — judicious and judicial, calmly authoritative for the work's sake. She and Dr Anna Howard Shaw will almost certainly be - consociat-cd in .Toronto, ever increasing the marvel that ' the seaboard which •claims two such women should still lack "the elementary need of equal suffrage. Dr Shaw is by birth "an -Englishwoman, but training and environment have made her "an American of tba Americans. Witty and forceful, she speaks well -" platform or in pulpit (*<he wa.s raid to be the first woman who had preached in Germany), j thß glow of her desp-seK eyes indicating a fervency that sometimes leaps up in volcanic phrase. » The American woman who received the crowning homage of tli-9 Berlin quinquennial has passed to the enfranebisetnent of loftier spheres. • Miss Anthony — '"Susan 8.," as she was affectionately termed by her subalterns— pwas .the cynosure' of ev€iry . occasion at ■whidi sh» appeared. Her year's- and' her intrinsic greatness were fitting irei^opifeed by the Kaigerine in a mem enable interview, ths two women conversing as comrades mriqht, When countesses and others of that ilk were" waiting to pay obeisance. Miss Anthony -^ never lost ~ opportunity to dilate on her text,' "Taxation without rem^entation is tyranny." She has not left her work -undone. The 50 years' crusader bas not toutrht in vain. Who shall say how mucb her mere presence, aged^ but unconquerable, influenced the other women of that polyglot gathering ! Certain it. is that northen Europe has gained much since 1904. It is to be hoped that beautiful Mary Clifford will grace the Toronto meeting. Tall, and- gracefully robed in black relieved by white ; mature, with this freshness of a girl ; gentle, in the dinmity ■of a well-born Englishwoman and a Friend, she made, when 6l>e chose, a unique impression. The two ladies who represented the "Clarion" earno displaced anofh£V style of charm and ability. Quite vourtsr. and very pretty, they were Socialists to the core," primed with statistics, and expressing themselves — in English and in ■German — with a rush that sweot conviction to their, audiences. His Norwegian representatives, magnificent in native, fidelity ; the' Swedish, of rich noblesse? the Danish, most attractively homely of monarchists ; - the brilliant French, with their exquisite Princesse de Rohan — leading a-ntaviviseetionist ; tbat'-other royal and beautiful being, Ihe escaped Mohammedan, ' who' essayed to address the council in Turkish, then, correcting herself, poured forth her impassioned utterance in faultless Parisian ; the ! strong, clear-visioned Swiss, sparing of speech, so sure in action : — each nationl ality was a revelation to all the others.

But the- Germans commanded the most extreme and continuous interest : thorough to the smallest detail — according to tha tradition of their land — Taut cultured also in unusual degree, and of charming personality ; some among them being daringly philosophic thin£ers and* orators of real eloquence. The Baronsss yon' Suttu-ar must be named. She is so devoted to the cause of peace and arbitration that she - will surely make appeal in Canada. Her aspect touches ail behold-srs. Invariably gowned in Tjlack, her sadness be sombreness were it not varied now and then by a smile luminous enough to reveal a rare and exalted soul. To have noted that expression is to rejoice heartily in the Nobel award to Bertha yon Suttner — the genius who stirred civilisation <r-ith the injunction : " Lay down your .a-nns ! " Alxs Dobson will be the chief representative of the Southern Cross in this 1909 quinquennial, and with her distinguished presence and fine tact she may be relied on as a worthy exponent of her wide constituencies. Alas, for the National Council of the Women of New Zealand ! The demise of its last president^ Mrs Margaret Sievwright. co gafted physically, intellectually, and spiritually,, -so absolutely fearless, so far in advance of her generation, seems to have taken away the very reason of. its existence. But such an example cannot be lost. More imperbhable than the monument erected by the womer of New Zealand to their grandest woman is the seed which aha has sown. Even now girls may 'be blossoming intc womanhood who will prove themselves inheritors of her devotion to the human "family, who will rebuild our National Council, and who will voice our Dominion's actions md b.&~ ideals in councils international.