Centennial records of the women of Wisconsin

              198 CENTENNIAL   EECOEDS.
Thus, alone, can we attain.
To those turrets, where the eye Sees the world, as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky."
At the request of Mrs. Dueand, President Bascom, of the the State University, remarked as follows:
" I fail quite to understand why the ladies should seek indorsement for them¬ selves or their cause at my hands. But when this mdorsement is sought, noth¬ ing can be bestowed by me more cheerfuUy and heartfly. The openuig bud has a more pleasing lesson than the dropping petals. Our social life, I make no doubt, is passing into fresh flowering at this very point — the enlarged intelli¬ gence and activity of woman. Whfle I rejoice in the centennial that is, I greet the centennial that is to be, and extend to it my right hand of help and good AviU."
Eev. Dr. Chapin, of Beloit College, said:
" I bid these ladies a hearty God-speed in this enterprise. They are certainly acting in a legitimate sphere when they join their influence and efforts to make the national exposition a worthy fllustration and memorial of the wonderful de¬ velopment of this free republic under the guiding hand of God — our fathers' God and our God, through the first century of its Ufe. The products of feminine taste and genius and skfll are needed to make complete the visible manifestation of what our people have become and of what they are doing. The declaration of independence of 1776 embodies ideas of Uberty and equality which have led on a steady emancipation of woman from wrongful subjection and tliraldom to the despotism of the stronger sex, which originated in the selfish violence of a bar¬ barous age, and has been perpetuated by the traditions of feudal times. Hence the gentieness and refinement of Christian womanhood have become a power in our country as nowhere else in the world, felt and honored and fuU of blessing. Now if this year 1876 shaU, as intimated in the interesting paper to which we have just Ustened, be marked by a strong and eff'ective declaration of independ¬ ence on the part of women for themselves, from the tyranny of Fashion, then we may be sure that under the fuU and free unfolding and application of that power, yet higher blessings and a grander groA\'th shall gladden and adorn our nation's life in the century to come."