2-1-1 THE ILLUSTRATED WEST SHORE. ADDRESS OF MRS. BERTHA HOXORE PALMER. , President Hoard Lad) Managers, delivered More the Woman's National Council. I came to listen and learn in this assembly of women of broad views and high ideals, and I feel assured that the purposes of our board will be greatly (unhered by our having been put in sympathetic touch with the leaders of thought in the various departments of woman's work. A magnificent site has been assigned us, and $200,000 appropriated for the construction of the woman's building at the world's lair. Such will be, undoubtedly, kept as a permanent memorial of woman's work after the fair is over, and in it all wo men's organizations and convocations will find a borne. This building is to be designed by a woman, competitive sketches having already been adver tised for from the women architects of the country, three prizes of J 1,000, $500 and $250 respectively, being offered for the three best designs. We hope by thus calling attention to the work of women in architecture to aid them to occupy a field which naturally belongs to them, that of domestic architecture, for every man is gradually being educated by the women for whom he builds to know what is required in a home. We shall try to provide in this building lor all possible wants of women, hating in view a bureau of information wkh interpreters and guides for Strang- representing missionary societies to realize that they may aid both themselves and us by showing the life and work of women in heathen countries. If a child widow, for instance, from a Zenanna, could be brought, with her native dress and surroundings, and the suffering and inhumanity to which she is sub jected shown, it would arouse such an interest on the subject as years of talk would not produce. The native weaving, pottery, ornaments, costumes, house hold utensils, etc., from these countries would also be of the greatest interest and value. Our building and its facilities will be offered free to all the women of the country. ' For the first time in our history the mothers, wives and daughters of America have been permitted to assist in the management of an important national enterprise, and have been allowed the the high, but demoralizing priv ilege of slipping their fingers into the national purse laughter in order that they might prepare an object lesson showing the progress of women during the century in which educational and other privileges have been accorded her. We wish to show that with the enlargement of her opportunities, her sphere has extended and broadened until she works successfully in almost every field heretofore given up exclusively to her, except that she can do many things and do them all well, and that there are no intellectual heights she can not scale. Hers are essentially the arts of peace and progress, and her best work is shown in the reforms she has had the courage and the ideality to inaugurate - : .;-v . ) . -A ' t I m ir ; . V -i - v- ' I KS TKAXl't TO KIVKKVlttt ChMKTfcKY. PORTLAND. OkKttlS.-Srt P.ip atf. en, parlors and balconies where ladies may rest and chat, an exhibitors' club room, a model kitchra where demonstrative lessons may be given, we nope, without charge; a loan exhibit ol colonial, old Dutch, Scandinavian and other relict recalling the early history of our country and the various natioralities from which w are sprung, and also of objects developed in the home by the taste of wxxnen. One wing of the building writ possibly be devoted to show ing the reform and charitable organiiatioris originated and earned on by wo men, and the other to the eihibk which will be sent by our auxiliary associa tions formed through the instrumentality of our foreign ministers in the coun tries to which the)" are accredited, and by means of wruch w shiH be enabled to indicate the condition and attainments of women in every part of the world. We shall also have an administration room, committee rooms and an as sembly room for all lectures, congresses and assemblies which may be de sired by women. In the main gallery there wiH be probably shown some of the most brilliant ashievrmenls of woman's hand and brain. There will doubtless be in many cases duplicates of objects entered for competition in the general exhibM under the regular classification, the duplicates being placed in our building to mphasire the fact that they are the work of women. In reading a list of the organizations represented here it occurred to me that wr might obtain alto a most unusual exhibit from the missionary stations in the inccrui))e and unftrurntrd parts of the earth, and I beg the ladies against time-honored wrongs, both legislative and social, and in the gradual elevation of the standard of morality. We feel the necessity of showing this beautiful influence and the ad vance which it has caused, but are handicapped by the fact that the most val uable part is spiritual and that it is difficult to show progress in abstract things, except by a mass of statistics which become significant only when intelligently and systematically read. Will you not aid us with your experience and thought to show woman's work as a beautiful whole, with its animating spirit, and not as a mere mass of material things ? We wish the world's fair of 180J to be memorable as a great exhibition, greater than any which ever preceded it. but we also wish its history to be a golden page in the annals of woman's advancement. We urgently rrquest, therefore, that each organization represented here appoint a committee of rive of its most able women to consider the work we are trying to do for our sex at the fair, and to present to us at an early day their suggestions and advice as to how we may best accomplish the great end w-e have in view, and to inform us in what manner their associations will be able to cooperate with our board in its work, and we ask that they send their suggestions, applications for space, etc., to our headquarters in Chicago, where they win be gladly received and most carefully considered and acted upon. The board most cordially and pressing)- invites this council to hold its niter-