A California Girl Part 24

Mrs. Marston said: "Stella, I suppose you and Penloe have all your plans made for your wedding tour."

Stella said: "Well, Aunt, we had made many plans and I had built several castles which I expected to occupy during our journey, but we received a visit from Herbert and Stanley while we were at Charles' and Clara's and they brought with them a number of letters containing invitations for us to speak on the 'California Idea,' as it is now called, and we think it best to give up our wedding tour and do what we can to help forward the California movement; and, Aunt, the money which you so very kindly gave me to use for a wedding tour, I feel I ought to return to you, as we are not going; and so here is a check for the full amount of your gift made payable to your order."

Mrs. Marston received the check from Stella and said: "I had hoped you would have gone on your tour."

And added in a laughing tone: "You two are the strangest persons I have ever met. The idea of giving up ten thousand dollars and losing the opportunity of seeing the most interesting countries in the world, for the sake of talking to persons who are curious to see how you both look because they have read about you in the papers."

"I appreciate your gift just the same, Aunt, as if we had used the money," said Stella.

Mrs. Marston said: "Of course, I want you both to do whatever you think best." As they continued their conversation the door-bell rang and four of Stella's friends called to see her. They were Dr. Lacey's two daughters and two young gentlemen. They spent the evening in games and music, and when they left it was late. Mrs. Marston, Penloe and Stella sat in front of the fire a few minutes before retiring, and just before Stella rose from her seat to wish her aunt good-night, Mrs. Marston said: "Stella, dear, I thought I would have a little fun with you so I accepted the check, but I had no intention of taking the money back. No, dear, I want you to keep it and use it as you think best"; and taking the check off the mantel with a laugh she threw it into the fire.

Stella rose from her seat to wish her aunt good-night, and thanked her again for her handsome gift.

Mrs. Marston's guests spent a very pleasant time in Roseland. As they were very popular, they received many invitations to dinner. They saw Barker and Brookes every day and had chats about the C.M. After several consultations in regard to making arrangements for the work, they at last reached the conclusion that it would be best for Penloe and Stella to go to Southern California and commence their labors there. At Penloe's request the two young men agreed to accompany them, as Penloe said there was a kind of work to be done that they were adapted for and their services would be really needed. And as Charles and Clara Herne wished to be actively engaged in the C.M., it was decided to transfer the head office from Roseland to Orangeville, where the Hernes would see to the sending out of literature and do all the correspondence, and so that would relieve Barker and Brookes, and they could travel with Penloe and Stella, and Mr. Herne could do their work and see to his ranch.

Barker said: "Brookes and I will pay all our own expenses connected with the work," and Penloe said: "For the present we will do likewise, as we do not wish to accept money from any one for our services; for by so doing our influence will be much greater."

Brookes said: "Why, Penloe, the people who have invited you and Stella to speak have expressed a wish to pay all expenses and remunerate you both for your services as well. When I think how hard you worked to get what few dollars you may have saved from your earnings, I hardly think you are called upon to use your hard earnings when there are so many more financially able to pay your expenses."

"I thank you, Stanley," said Penloe, "for your interest in my financial welfare, but I see you are under the same impression that many others are, in thinking that I worked out for the money there was in it. If it had been money I wanted, I could have accepted a very fine offer from a university to fill the Chair of Oriental Languages; but instead of being Professor of Sanskrit and drawing a fine salary, I took the position as dishwasher in a restaurant in San Francisco for awhile. Then I worked with pick and shovel on the Pacific Coast Road. Next I worked on the streets in the City of Chicago. I returned to Orangeville and took a position as cowboy on a great cattle ranch near Orangeville. Then I worked out as a ranch hand. I did all this hard, disagreeable work for my spiritual unfoldment. I did it to bring myself in touch with the hard lot of the ma.s.ses. I did it also to show that if a man is upright in his purpose he can live the Divine life anywhere. Again, I did it that I might minister to the needs and necessities of that cla.s.s of men who see and hear so little in their lives to touch their Divine nature. That was excellent for me; it helped to broaden and fit me for other work."

Brookes said: "It must have been exceedingly disagreeable to a man of your tastes, culture and refinement, to perform such hard muscular work in such rough surroundings, among coa.r.s.e animal men."

Penloe said: "It would have been all that you have just expressed had it not been for the fact that neither my work, my rough, tough companions, nor my disagreeable environments were my world. No, they were not my world. I built a wall around me and allowed none of these things to enter my inner thought. My life was one of bliss, for I was all the time drinking deep at the fountain of Divine love, and by His help I trained and disciplined myself so that I saw Him in my hard manual toil. I saw Him in all my uninviting environments, and, above all, I saw Him in my animal companions."

Barker and Brookes saw such a glow of spiritual fire in Penloe's face as he finished his last remark as they had never seen there before. They realized they were in the presence of a divine man, and their natures had been touched by his discourse.

After a pause Penloe said: "My father left me property which brings me an income sufficient to make me independent of receiving financial support from those we intend to address."

After further talk in regard to perfecting arrangements, it was decided that Barker and Brookes should go to Los Angeles and arrange for Penloe and Stella to speak on Thursday evening of the following week. The committee of arrangements in Los Angeles saw the need of securing the largest hall in the city, for the city dailies had taken up the matter of their coming and dwelt upon it, so that interest in the subject combined with curiosity to see and hear two such remarkable personages caused the committee to do their best to provide accommodations for the large crowd they expected. Before the time for opening the meeting every seat in the large hall had been taken and standing room was all that was left, and that even was taken by the time the meeting was opened.

The Mayor of Los Angeles opened the meeting in the following language:

"It gives me great pleasure this evening to see before me this large and intelligent audience. I am proud to think that this audience before me to-night has demonstrated the wisdom and good sense of the leaders of the C.I. in selecting this city, above all others in this State, to open the campaign for the C.M. In order that you may feel better acquainted with the persons who will address you to-night, I will let you into a little secret which came to me in a very indirect way. It seems that the gentleman and lady who are on the platform were about to start on their wedding tour through the Oriental countries, and they had received the gift of a handsome sum of money to defray their traveling expenses; but when Los Angeles and other places sent pressing invitations to them to speak they gave up their wedding tour and returned the money to the giver in order that they might be able to accept the call which you and other cities have given them. I must say, in justice to the giver, it was subsequently returned. They are here at their own expense, they receive no remuneration whatever. I tell you this so you may appreciate their n.o.bility and fidelity of character, their honesty of purpose in so grand a cause. Ladies and gentlemen, I now have the honor of introducing to you Penloe and Stella, the leaders of the C.I., who will address you this evening."

When Penloe and Stella came forward the whole audience rose and saluted them.

In regard to the meeting, we will quote a few extracts from one of the Los Angeles dailies: "However various the views on the C.I. the audience may have which heard Penloe and Stella last night, there can be but one thought in regard to the speakers themselves, and that is they are the two most remarkable and distinguished personalities that ever appeared before a Los Angeles audience. As speakers, they are brilliant, logical and impressive, and soon inspire you with their sincerity of purpose and with confidence in themselves. It seems there _is tacked on to the C.I.

'Woman's Suffrage'_, for it is claimed that a woman is still in bondage till she stands equal before the law, and has all the rights and privileges that a man has.

"Penloe's remarks were addressed more particularly to men, looking at the C.I. from the standpoint of a man, while Stella presented the woman's view.

"Penloe put these questions to the men of the audience: 'Is there a man here to-night who does not think that the average woman is as intelligent as the average man? Is there a man here to-night who does not think that woman has a divine nature the same as man? I would like to see the man rise in this audience who thinks he has a divine nature, but does not wish another being who has a divine nature to enjoy the same privileges as he himself enjoys?'... Stella portrayed in a telling manner the sufferings and misery which have been woman's lot through being in bondage to her material form.... We here give a few notes from Stella's address:

"A woman who is in bondage to her material form can never rise above the idea that she is just a woman and nothing more."

"A woman to be free must have a higher idea of herself than that she is only a woman."

"A woman can only advance as her thought concerning herself advances."

"When woman looks upon herself as an intellectual and spiritual being, and not as just being a woman only, and her whole thought is to adorn her mind and manifest the qualities of her soul, then will man look upon her with the same eyes as she looks upon herself."

"It is not man that keeps woman in bondage, but woman keeps herself in bondage through the thought she has concerning herself."... "Stella said we are not here on a flying visit, we have decided to remain in Southern California till two-thirds of its inhabitants are not only talking of _but living_ the C.I., and we will stay here till we get a vote of two-thirds from all males over twenty-one, and all women over eighteen, in favor of woman's suffrage. It does not matter how pressing the calls to speak elsewhere may be, we shall not accept them till the work is completely done in Southern California."

CHAPTER XXIV.

OUT OF BONDAGE.

The next day after the meeting Barker and Brookes were busy with the C.I. Committee of Los Angeles in dividing the work up and organizing, so that each ward of the city had its committee, whose business it was to do all it could in enlightening the people of the ward in which the committee lived.

Penloe and Stella devoted one afternoon and evening to informal talks in each ward in the city, those present having the privilege of asking questions. After Penloe and Stella had worked in every ward, they went with Barker and Brookes to San Diego and spent a week there; then they worked all the other towns in Southern California, and then returned to Los Angeles. On their return they were more than satisfied with the progress of the C.M. What helped the movement very much was the character which Penloe and Stella gave it. When some of the more conservative element suggested the impropriety or immodesty of the C.I., they were met with the answer: "Look at Penloe and Stella, who live the idea every day of their lives. Are there any purer-minded persons than they are? Do not the best people of the city open their houses to welcome them? Did they not tell how living the life helped them intellectually and spiritually?" Those replies quieted all opposition and gave courage to those who were a little timid and fearful, also to those in doubt whether it was right or not. As the movement was gaining ground rapidly, persons began to think how very foolish it was to entertain such thoughts as they had been accustomed to concerning the s.e.xes. The movement in Southern California showed how the movement would work elsewhere in this way. It was one of those movements that needed a few intelligent, courageous spirits in a locality to start it, and when once it got a going, most of the other members of the community fell in line, and when it was about universally adopted in one locality, the people living in the next county soon joined the movement. After three months' labor in Los Angeles a vote was taken. For Woman's Suffrage, eighty-five per cent. voted "Yes," and by a very careful estimate seventy-five per cent. had put in practice in one form or another the C.I. Soon San Diego followed Los Angeles, then Pasadena and Riverside, and soon after all the other towns in Southern California fell in line.

The result was wired all over the State and nation.

During the progress of the movement in Southern California, Mr. and Mrs.

Herne were not idle. They put their hands in their pockets freely, and paid for much of the printed matter they circulated.

Now that Southern California had gone overwhelmingly for the C.I. Penloe and Stella, Barker and Brookes, felt at liberty to accept some of the many urgent calls from other parts of the State. They were continually receiving calls from other States, but would accept none till the same condition prevailed throughout the whole State as now existed in Southern California and the State Legislature had granted to woman the same legal standing in the eyes of the law that man had.

The next places visited by the workers were Bakersfield, Hanford, Tulare, Visalia, Fresno, Oakland, and San Francisco. In all these places they found the work in a more or less advanced state. The fact that Southern California had gone for the C.I. was a great help in forwarding the movement in other places, so that after about eight months' work in these cities just named, and some other places, it was found that the entire State had been carried for the C.M. and Woman's Suffrage, except one county. The Legislature was about to meet in a month's time, and would give to woman the suffrage, and place her, in other respects, on an equality with man in the eyes of the law.

Great work was being done in the last county, so that it joined the rest of California for progressive thought, and the whole State was carried for the C.I. just as the Legislature pa.s.sed the necessary acts for woman's legal freedom. The news was wired to every State in the Union, and California was one scene of rejoicing throughout the entire State.

It was a great day for California when her men and women threw off the yoke of superst.i.tion and ignorance and thus cut some of the bonds which had held them in ignorance. They had taken one great stride toward the goal of freedom. California now took her true place among the States in the Union, for she led the way toward freedom in its highest sense.

The leaders of advanced thought in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho were very active in working for the C.I. All these States having granted woman the suffrage before the C.M. was started, the workers found it easy to get them to follow California in the grand procession for freedom.

Wyoming, which was the first to grant the suffrage to woman, was the next to join California; then came Colorado, then Utah, and then Idaho wheeled into line.

Penloe and Stella were receiving calls to labor from other States, and finally decided to go to Illinois. Kansas wired the following message to the Central Committee of California: "Kansas is all ablaze with the C.M.

from its center to its circ.u.mference, and its fires have leaped the borders into Nebraska, Iowa, and reached Minnesota."

After the C.I. had been practised in Southern California a few months, if a young gentleman had just returned to the East from Los Angeles, his friends wanted to know immediately how the C.I. worked.

Mr. Franklin Hart, of New York, a young gentleman who had just returned from Los Angeles, was sitting in a parlor with some young friends, and they all wanted him to relate his impressions of the C.I. in Los Angeles. When he was describing its workings, two or three young ladies put their hands to their faces and laughed, one saying, "How strange and funny it must have seemed." Another young lady remarked, "There has been too much foolishness about such things." Mr. Franklin Hart said: "After you have been there about a week the old idea seems stranger than the new. You wonder to yourself however such thoughts could have fastened themselves on us for generations and generations."

Prof. Dawson, of Boston, visited Los Angeles two years after the C.I.

had been in operation, and wrote a letter to the leading Boston daily, as follows:

"DEAR SIR: Being naturally of a conservative turn of mind, I came to Los Angeles with ideas unfavorable to the C.M. I had not taken the least stock in what the papers said or the people of California wrote in regard to the practical workings of the C.I. I expected the defenses of morality and modesty had been swept away by such ideas, and that the communities of Southern California had sunk into licentiousness. I had spent two years in California about eight years ago, and I considered at that time that the morals of the people were not of a high order. So I expected to find society in a still worse moral condition now. I have been here six months, and, in justice to truth, I must state the facts even if they show that my previous opinions were incorrect. To those who study the people closely in regard to s.e.x matters, I can say truthfully that s.e.xual excitement has fallen fifty per cent., and that obscene pictures and stories have no attraction for the people.

The low places of amus.e.m.e.nt, that used to be run under the name of 'Variety Theaters,' and other such names, are closed up, for the reason, as a former proprietor of one of these resorts expressed it, 'A leg and bosom show has no attraction for the people since the C.I.

has been in operation.' Houses of prost.i.tution are less in number by forty per cent., so the chief of police informed me, and I saw a large number of them closed. The low dives are closed, and places where girls made exhibitions of themselves for the sole purpose of exciting pa.s.sion in man are no more. They died for want of patronage. The forms of each s.e.x are looked at now with eyes which see purity and beauty.

"I notice, also, the conversation among young people has improved greatly, being of a higher and purer kind.

Now I practised the C.I. myself, and came in contact with many of both s.e.xes. After very careful observation in Los Angeles, and other towns in Southern California, I feel I am in a position to know and I can state that I now consider the C.I. is the greatest reform movement that the world has ever seen.

"Yours truly, "ROBERT DAWSON."