into conventional shapes, to meet the requirements of an artificial standard, the shears and props have been thrown away. We shall learn by watching the beauty and the vigor of the natural growth in the open air and sunshine, how artificial and false was the ideal we had previously cherished. Our efforts to frustrate Nature will seem grotesque, for she may always be trusted to preserve her types. Our utmost hope is, that woman may become a more congenial companion and fit partner for her illustrious mate, whose destiny she has shared during the centuries.

We are proud that the statesmen of our own great country have been first to see beneath the surface and to understand that the old order of things has passed away, and that new methods must be inaugurated. We wish to express our thanks to the Congress of the United States for having made this great step forward, and also for having subsequently approved and endorsed the plans of the Board of Lady Managers, as was manifested by their liberal appropriation for carrying them out.

We most heartily appreciate the assistance given us by the President of the United States, the Department of State, and our foreign Ministers. We hope to have occasion to thank all of the other great departments of the Government before we finish our work.

Even more important than the discovery of Columbus, which we are gathered together to celebrate, is the fact that the general Government has just discovered woman. It has sent out a flash-light from its heights, so inaccessible to us, which we shall answer by a return signal when the Exposition is opened. What will be its next message to us?

COLUMBIA'S BANNER.

ODE FOR COLUMBUS DAY.

BY EDNA DEAN PROCTOR.

"Furnished for the National Columbian Public School Celebration by the Youth's Companion." Permission is kindly granted by the editors to re-print the poem in the Souvenir.

"God helping me," cried Columbus, "though fair or foul the breeze,
I will sail and sail till I find the land beyond the western seas!"
So an eagle might leave its eyry, bent, though the blue should bar,
To fold its wings on the loftiest peak of an undiscovered star!

And into the vast and void abyss he followed the setting sun;

Nor gulfs nor gales could fright his sails till the wondrous quest was done. But Oh, the weary vigils, the murmuring, torturing days,

Till the Pinta's gun, and the shout of "Land!" set the black night ablaze! Till the shore lay fair as Paradise in morning's balm and gold,

And a world was won from the conquered deep, and the tale of the ages told!
Uplift the starry Banner! The best age is begun!

We are the heirs of the mariners whose voyage that morn was done.
Measureless lands Columbus gave and rivers through zones that roll,

But his rarest, noblest bounty was a New World for the Soul!

For he sailed from the Past with its stifling walls, to the Future's open sky.
And the ghosts of gloom and fear were laid as the breath of heaven went by;
And the pedant's pride and the lordling's scorn were lost in that vital air,
As fogs are lost when sun and wind sweep ocean blue and bare;
And Freedom and larger Knowledge dawned clear, the sky to span,
The birthright, not of priest or king, but of every child of man!

Uplift the New World's Banner to greet the exultant sun!

Let its rosy gleams still follow his beams as swift to west they run,

Till the wide air rings with shout and hymn to welcome it shining high,
Aud our eagle from lone Katahdin to Shasta's snow can fly

In the light of its stars as fold on fold is flung to the autumn sky!
Uplift it! Youths and Maidens, with songs and loving cheers;

Through triumphs, raptures, it has waved, through agonies and tears.

Columbia looks from sea to sea and thrills with joy to know
Her myriad sons, as one, would leap to shield it from a foe!
And you who soon will be the State, and shape each great decree,
Oh, vow to live and die for it, if glorious death must be!

The brave of all the centuries gone this starry Flag have wrought;
In dungeons dim, on gory fields, its light and peace were bought;
And you who front the future-whose days our dreams fulfill—
On Liberty's immortal height, oh, plant it firmer still!
For it floats for broadest learning; for the soul's supreme release;
For law disdaining license; for righteousness and peace;
For valor born of justice, and its amplest scope and plan
Makes a queen of every woman, a king of every man!
While forever, like Columbus, o'er Truth's unfathomed main
It pilots to the hidden isles, a grander realm to gain.
Ah! what a mighty trust is ours, the noblest ever sung,
To keep this Banner spotless its kindred stars among!
Our fleets may throng the oceans-our forts the headlanas crown-
Our mines their treasures lavish for mint and mart and town-
Rich fields and flocks and busy looms bring plenty, far and wide-
And statelier temples deck the land than Rome's or Athens' pride-
And science dares the mysteries of earth and wave and sky—
Till none with us in splendor and strength and skill can vie;
Yet, should we reckon Liberty and Manhood less than these,
And slight the right of the humblest between our circling seas—
Should we be false to our sacred past, our Fathers' God forgetting,
This Banner would lose its luster, our sun be nigh his setting!
But the dawn will sooner forget the east, the tides their ebb and flow,
Than you forget our Radiant Flag and its matchless gifts forego!
Nay! you will keep it high-advanced with ever brightening sway—
The Banner whose light betokens the Lord's diviner day-
Leading the nations gloriously in Freedom's holy way!

No cloud on the field of azure-no stain on the rosy bars

God bless you, Youths and Maidens, as you guard the Stripes and Stars!

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE PURPOSES OF THE BOARD OF LADY MANAGERS OF THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN COMMISSION.

THE

HE Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Commission, having been created and authorized by the concurrent action of Congress and the Columbian Commission, to take entire charge of the interests of women at the coming Exposition, desires to develope to the fullest extent the grand possibilities which have been placed within its reach.

The Board wishes to mark the first participation of women in an important national enterprise, by preparing an object lesson to show their progress made in every country of the world, during the century in which educational and other privileges have been granted them and to show the increased usefulness that has resulted from the enlargement of their opportunities.

It is of the first importance that such a representative collection be secured from every country as will give an adequate idea of the extent and value of what is being done by women in the arts, sciences and industries. We shall thus aim to show to the breadwinners, who are fighting unaided the battle of life, the new avenues of employment that are constantly being opened to women, and in which of these their work will be of the most distinct value by reason of their natural adaptability, sensitive and artistic temperaments, and individual tastes; what education will best enable them to enjoy the wider opportunities awaiting them and make their work of the greatest worth, not only to themselves but to the world.

The Board of Lady Managers, therefore, invites the women of all countries to participate in this great exhibit of woman's work, to the end that it may be made not only national, but universal, and that all may profit by a free comparison of methods, agencies and results.

The Board has decided that in the general Exposition buildings, where the competitive exhibits will be placed, it will not separate the exhibit of women's work from that of men, for the reason that as women are working side by side with men in all the factories of the world, it would be practically impossible, in most cases, to divide the finished result of their combined work; nor would women be satisfied with prizes unless they were awarded without distinction as to sex, and as the result of fair competition with the best work shown. They are striving for excellence, and desire recognition only for demonstrated merit. In order, however, that the enormous amount of work being done by women may be appreciated, a tabulated statement will be procured and shown with every exhibit, stating the proportion of woman's work that enters into it.

The Board of Lady Managers has been granted by Act of Congress the great and unusual privilege of appointing members of each jury to award prizes for articles into which woman's work enters. The number of women on each jury will be proportioned to the amount of work done by women in the corresponding department of classification. The statement as to the amount of their work will therefore be of double significance, for in addition to the impressive showing of how large a proportion of the heavy work of the world is being performed by the weaker sex, it will also determine the amount of jury representation to which the Board is entitled.

Besides the foregoing extensive exhibit, women will have another opportunity of displaying work of superior excellence in a very advantageous way in the Woman's Building, over which the Board of Lady Managers will exercise complete control. In its central gallery it is intended to have grouped the most brilliant achievements of women from every country and in every line of work. Exhibits here will be admitted only by invitation, which will be considered the equivalent of a prize. No sentimental sympathy for women will cause the admission of second-rate objects, for the highest standard of excellence is to be here strictly maintained. Commissions of women organized in all countries, as auxiliaries to the Board of Lady Managers, will be asked to recommend objects of special excellence produced by women, and producers of such successful work will be invited to place specimens in the gallery of the Woman's Building.