highest rank in the legal profession in our State,and several secured a national reputation as orators, jurists and statesmen. The names of Bartlett, Woodbury,Pierce, Hale and Atherton, indeed form a brilliant consellation, while those of Plumer, Bell, Harvey, Hubbard, Norris, Wells and Hibbard, not to mention many scarcely less distinguished, will be remembered and honored for generations to come.. Of all the men who have held the Speaker's office, but seventeen are now living. Of these, the eldest, as well in years as in time of service, is Gen. James Wilson of Keene, who presided in the house forty nine years ago, being at that time thirty one years of age. Gen. Wilson, although subsequently for a time a resident of Iowa and afterward of California, is now living at Keene, in the full enjoyment of his mental powers and as high a degree of bodily vigor as is usual for men of fourscore. He has held a seat in the Legislature more years than any other man now living, sixteen in all, his first year being in 1825 and his last 1870. He was elected a member of the Thirtieth Congress, succeeding Hon. Edmund Burke of Newport, and re-elected to the Thirty-First, from which he subsequently resigned to go to California. Second in order among the Speakers now living is the Hon. Ira A. Eastman, now resident in Manchester, formerly of Gilmanton, who held the office forty years ago, being then about thirty years of age. He was chosen a member of Congress in 1839, serving four years in that body, and was subsequently for ten years, from 1849 to 1859, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. Judge Eastman is still in excellent health, active and vigorous as most men of fifty, and manifests a lively interest in public affairs. of the medical profession to occupy a seat in the national legislature from this State, although many of our ablest representatives in former years, including Bartlett and Thornton of the Continental Congress, had been members of that profession. The immediate predecessor of Dr. Kittredge in the Speakership, Nathaniel B. Baker, who subsequently became Governor, died last year in Iowa, where he had resided for about twenty years, and had been largely in public life, rendering important services to the State as Adjutant General during the war of the Rebellion. His immediate successor, J. Everett Sargent, who was subsequently President of the Senate, an Associate and afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, still remains upon the stage of active life, and is a prominent member of the present Legislature. Mr. Sargent's successor, Francis R. Chase, died last year. Of the fourteen incumbents of the Speakership since 1856' all are living, with the single exception of Wm. H. Gove, all in active life, and all still residents of New Hampshire, except Napoleon P. Bryant, who is now practicing his profession of the law in the city of Boston. Augustus A. Woolson, the present Speaker of the House of Representatives, is a native of the town of Lisbon, which he now represents, born June 15, 1835, being now, therefore, just forty-two years of age. The Woolsons are not a numerous family in this country. The name, in fact, is a very rare one, having, we believe, but a single representative in the Boston Directory, James A. Woolson, an active partner in the well-known firm of William Claflin & Co. All the Woolsons in America are the direct descendants of three brothers who came from Wales, Dr. George W. Kittredge of Newmar- and were among the early settlers of the ket, the third in order of our living ex- town of Lunenburg, Mass., from whence Speakers, occupied the chair just twenty- their descendants have scattered over the five years ago this summer. He was country. Among the more prominent then in middle life, but is now in feeble members of the family in New England bodily health, though his mind is yet are Amasa Woolson, of the enterprising clear and active. Dr. Kittredge repre- and wealthy firm of Parks & Woolson, sented the First District in the Thirty- of Springfield, Vt., manufacturers of Third Congress, being the last member woolen machinery, and Prof. Moses Woolson of Concord, a successful educator of many years experience, and husband of the celebrated authoress and public lecturer, Mrs. Abby Goold Woolson. Elijah Woolson was among the early settlers of Lisbon. His son Amos, father of the Speaker, has resided most of his life in that town, following the occupation of a tailor. Another son, E. S. Woolson, engaged in the same business at Littleton, where he became a prominent citizen and died a few years since. Still another, Theron Woolson, went West and settled at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where he became distinguished in public life, was Mayor of the city and a member of the State Senate. His son, John S. Woolson, who was engaged in the Naval service during the late war, and was upon the Housatonic when blown up in Charleston Harbor, is now a leading lawyer of Iowa, and has been offered, but declined, an election to Congress. Speaker Woolson's educational advantages were not extensive, his father's circumstances not being sufficiently easy to admit of his bestowing a liberal education upon his children, and even requiring their assistance in his work to some extent. He attended the district school until fourteen years of age, after which he worked in his father's shop for some time, but secured the advantage of a few terms' attendance at the Academies at Newbury, Vt., and at Meriden in this State. At the age of twenty-one he went to Minnesota, where he remained about two years, engaged in teaching school, as clerk in a store, and such other employment as he was able to secure. In two years, however, he had enough of Western life to satisfy him that the old Granite State was preferable as a residence, and he returned to his native town, where he has ever since resided. Mr. Woolson has been engaged for many years in a general office business at Lisbon, as a notary public, conveyancer, pension and claim agent, etc., acting generally as a trial justice, when the services of such an officer are needed in town, and frequently as a referee under order of the Court. He was appointed an Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue in 1862, and held the position for eight years. He also acted as a Deputy U. S. Marshal in taking the census of 1870, his district comprising the towns of Lisbon, Littleton and Lyman. In 1872, he engaged in mercantile business as a member of the firm of Wells & Woolson, general country traders, now commanding an extensive patronage. They are also proprietors of two starch mills, and do a large business in the manufacture of that article during each sea son. In town and general public affairs Mr. Woolson has always taken a lively interest. He was for some time town clerk, and has been moderator of the annual town meetings in Lisbon for eleven years. A decided and active Republican, earnest in his support of his party and prompt in the use of all legitimate means to insure its success, he has not, however, engaged in the unscrupulous and dishonest measures which frequently disgrace the politics of these latter days. For several years past, the recognized leader of his party in his town, he has naturally come to be active in conventions and general party management. He has served for some time as a member of the Republican State Committee, and was in the last campaign a member of the Executive Committee of that body, and Chairman of the Grafton County Committee. He was elected a member of the House in 1875, and re-elected last year and again this year. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Claims in 1875 and '76, and proved himself an efficient and industrious legislator. Several times called to the Chair, he developed a tact and readiness as a presiding officer seldom shown, even by members of long experience, to which fact, in the main, he owes his election to the Speakership at the opening of the present session, in which office he has given the highest satisfaction for efficiency, courtesy and impartiality. Mr. Woolson is a bachelor. In religious sentiment he belongs to the liberal school. In social, as in public life and business circles, he commands the friendly regard of all with whom he comes in contact. In the prime of early manhood, with an active temperament, clear perceptions, a good practical judgment, laudable ambition, and enviable distinction already attained, he may well look forward to an honorable and successful future. THE GOLDEN HOUR. pose of self-culture and self-development; she was made to serve man and to perpetuate the race; for this and this only. Such is the verdict of the barbarian,—a verdict which every stride of the moral force leaves farther behind. Society, like every organization,passes slave. She was not created for the purthrough various phases of development. In the first, or savage period, it is wedded to physical force. The man is right who has the strongest arm. Brawn and muscle are the only "weight of evidence," the only judge or jury. Horatius proves himself superior in physical strength to the Alban champions and is esteemed a hero forever after. Those who fear that any innovation in woman's present position will destroy the peace of home, should have lived in those old days when there was the most perfect unity between the sexes. Then every man had this one theory of woman's sphere, and every woman accepted rer. this sphere without question or demurBut civilization has passed that plane where strength of limb is looked upon as the only mark of honor. The giant is a myth; the pugilist has fallen into contempt. The hero of the past beheaded the enemy, tortured the infidel, exterminated the weak. The hero of the present time does not oppress the lowly, but uplifts him; does not burn the heretic but converts him; does not slay his adversary, but dies for him. The grand promise of the present age is its determination to recognize principle. The rights of the individual are being every day more accurately defined, more extensively granted. Every soul shall be its own guardian; shall decide its own wants, relation and mission, with only such restrictions as shall insure no infringement on the rights of others. Such is unmistakably the verdict of our times. This, therefore, is the Golden Hour for woman. Man has spoken for her in the past; she may now be permitted to speak for herself. Man has spoken for her. What he said as a barbarian, we have seen. In the ages succeeding, one might expect to find grander words. Let us come up nearer the present, to Teutonic literature, which is recent, and what does he say here? Search the record and you will find him appealing to nothing higher than her love of his approbation. I speak not in bitterness or anger. It were as wise to rail that the plant was once beneath the soil. Sunlight has caused it to leave and flower, and simple growth likewise has carried the race through the unconsciousness of its embryonic state. Truly, no woman has reason to murmur that the savage and the half-civilized held her sex as of little worth. "Ah! but here is the humiliation," some one may argue, "that she has been dumb through all the ages. She has neither made history nor written it. She can boast of nothing but her obedience to man; she therefore has proved herself worthy of no better place than the one he has assigned her." Let her therefore no longer bewail her infancy. It was a necessary phase in her development; an experience required to secure to her ultimately the greatest perfection. But time has increased her stature. The days of her childhood have gone by. She is of age. She no longer needs man's protection, only as he needs hers. The relation is mutual now. Equality, not subordination, is the word she delights to utter. But the influences of the past are around her. What has long been common usage cannot be put away entirely and at once. Habit causes her to doubt her insight. Man, too, would bind her to old customs. But the die is cast; there is no turning back. Old dogmas are denied; any theory of her status which may be presented is stormed with the batteries of criticism. The old is losing ground and passing away, while there is augury on every lip as to what will take its place. At the present time there are as many different theories as to woman's relations and needs as there are different heads. It is always thus when society is in a transition state. The unity characterizing the old order of things is succeeded by that diversity which attends every reform. The strife is actual and earnest. There is crimination and recrimination; there is charge and countercharge. The stagnant conservatism of the past and the progressive aspiration of the present are fairly met. Let us count the chances. Let us consider on which side stand the probable victors. The conservative affirms that woman must keep silence in the church, but already she is ordained of man to preach the gospel. He says she must not heal the sick, but in all our great cities we find her in successful medical practice. He thinks she would debase her womanI warn you not to impeach God's meth- hood should she attempt to expound the law; but already she is admitted to the bar. He tells her that eloquence belongs only to his sex, but she has arrayed a multitude of facts against this assumption. He believes she can find proper occupation only in the kitchen and the nursery; but to-day we see her winning an honest competence in many of the arts and trades. He contends she must not hold office, but even now she is engaged in government service. He argues that suffrage would unsex her, but she has been known to cast a ballot without loss to her womanhood. He grants that she has a heart, but deplores her want of logic, while she interprets for him the Declaration of Independence, a document lately perplexing. He is of little faith. Though he sees he will not believe. He will say to you: "I know there are women outside the ordinary sphere of their sex, but these are exceptional. The mission of the whole can in no particular be decided by these isolated cases.. Every age has had its pre-eminent women, whom some great event or some unusual circumstance has called to act a part in the drama of public life. Their course, therefore, was legitimate and proper, though they can by no means be held up as the representative of their sex." Such are the words of our conservative friend, but the world moves on. The "exceptions" of which he speaks are fast becoming as numerous as the sands of the seashore. The times are full of hope. They prophecy grand things for the coming woman. Indeed, they prove she is already among us and in the unmistakable language of action is affirming her sphere to be world-wide. She has opened the doors of culture. She has taken the keys of the workshops. She has donned the badges of labor. Within the memory of my readers what changes has she wrought for her sex. Within the last decade even more women have sought occupation outside the kitchen and the nursery than within any preceding century. One hundred have already begun the study of the law; one hundred more are on the platform; ten times that number have learned to feel the pulse; some are in the pulpit; some in the government service; while those in the trades and in other employment unusual to their sex, are too numerous to mention. A new census will be required to give their number. These may be "isolated cases,” but assuredly there are enough of them to set all womanhood aflame with ambition! Parents cannot give their daughters generous culture and expect them to have no aspiration but to do housework and dream of a future husband. Husbands can no longer expect educated and talented wives to sit down by the nursery fire with every purpose of their girlhood absorbed in bibs and shirt buttons. Women have done great things whether married or single. What has been can be again. "But the children will be neglected," cries the irrepressible fossil. Facts are against him. Approved usage contradicts his words. It will soon render them obsolete. A mother has been known to earn bread for the household and thereby save the children from neglect. Nay, sometimes she has brought to her very hearthstone the work which our opponent has claimed should be done only by his sex, and with the compensation for this "unwomanly" employment secured to her family comfort and culture. She has won laurels, too, and their shadow has been a benediction falling on the baby's forehead. Indeed, it would seem that woman is in no danger of being unsexed so long as she is true to herself. When she acted the part of sea captain, she has not been held the less feminine; when she has rescued men from the ocean, the world has applauded with eyes moist with sympathy. Whatever she has done in the spirit of self-trust, she has done well. Whenever she has acted from self impulse, she has acted the genuine woman. Whether this be a woman after the approved masculine pattern we cannot say, nor does it matter. She was made first for God; therefore should she obey Him as He speaks to her through her wants and her aspirations. |