Report of the Secretary.

WERE this the report of 1892 instead of 1882, after fifteen years of labor, instead of five, I would tell you of a spacious building owned by the "Women's Educational and Industrial Union." The front of its lower floor is used as an attractive bazaar, where women always find a ready sale for whatever their hands can well do, either useful or ornamental.

In the rear of the same floor is an inviting restaurant, conducted on hygienic principles, where food the most delicate, tempting, and nourishing is offered at the lowest rates, because served by the students of the cooking-school, who, under the instructions of a capable and economical teacher, are learning valuable lessons to fit them for useful positions in life.

The next floor contains parlors and reception rooms, and quiet retreats, especially for rest, which are filled every evening with groups of women enjoying conversation or occupied with games. These rooms are comfortably and conveniently arranged, and ready from time to time to be turned into a larger or smaller auditorium, as it is needed for entertainments, lectures, and Sunday meetings.

Back of these is the Reading-room, containing all the papers and magazines of the day, with the Library adjoining, well stored with valuable books. On the next floor are

found the Class-rooms and Gymnasium, besides many lodging-rooms, making for women a pleasant home centre.

I could tell you of the Social Committee, not only giving the words of sympathy and advice at the rooms, but sending out its committees to find the friendless and homeless, to help them to cheap and comfortable homes, and standing always ready to give motherly advice to keep them in the paths of right; that, under its auspices, all women are brought into sympathy with each other, meeting on a common platform, without patronage or distinction of class, knowing that each has needs which the other can serve, acting on this principle of social exchange, which is the cornerstone of the Union.

I could tell you of the Moral and Spiritual Development Committee, not only filling its large rooms on Sundays with the eager listeners and talkers, but sending out its speakers to hospitals and all reformatory institutions, telling of the messages the Divine has sent through woman's heart to

woman.

Of the Hygienic Committee, with its large gymnasium and crowded lecture-rooms, aiding women to keep in good health, as well as prescribing for them after they are ill.

Of the Employment Department, not only readily securing places for all women who apply, but teaching them how to develop their talents, and the best way of making themselves useful in order to gain a livelihood.

Of the Protective Department, not only securing the wages of women from whom they are fraudulently withheld, but vigilantly protecting all women from wrongs, either in shops or factories, or the more unfortunate in station-houses and prisons.

And of the Lecture Bureau, sending out its lecturers into all the towns and villages, when, awakened to their needs,

people are hungering and thirsting for woman's thought. All this we have in prospect. All this, and far more, was laid out for us and arranged by the wise head and large heart that first organized the Union; and all this the fortytwo charter members agreed to do when they signed their names to the Constitution, and time must bring its fulfilment. To-day, I have only to tell you of another year of successful work, as far as our room and means allowed. The Sunday meetings were never attended more fully, the frequenters to the Reading-room are increasing, the lectures and classes are more in number and drawing more and more pupils, the entertainments have been given to well-filled rooms, the work brought in by women is of better quality and the sales have much increased, the number of employés are far more, the Protective Department is gradually increasing its labors, and the Printing Committee have done all in their power to bring the Union more fully before the public. While all this work has been going on in the various departments, the Directors have not been idle. Several special meetings were held in May and June to arrange for the summer's work; and, since the first regular meeting in October, four or five hours twice each month have been passed in Board meetings, to listen to reports and regulate the many departments, all of which have required much calm thought and cool judgment. At a special meeting held upon May 16, it was thought necessary to increase the number on the Board, that a quorum might always be present at the meetings; and, in accordance with Article III. of the Constitution, two Vice-Presidents were appointed, Mrs. A. M. Macy and Mrs. C. A. Marquéze.

As the munificent gift of five thousand dollars ($5,000) from Mrs. John W. James, and the bequest of two thousand ($2,000) from the Lyman Estate, were felt to be the forerunner of others equally large, a motion was passed, at the

meeting of the Board on April 18, that a committee of trustees should be appointed the following year, to take charge of the permanent fund.

All the work of the Union has been done by volunteer service, excepting the Superintendent and assistant, and the lady in charge of the Industrial Department. In May, the superintendence of the rooms. was given to Miss Davis, whose love for humanity led her to accept the position for the small salary we were able to offer; and the interest she has taken in the work of the various committees, as well as in all persons who go to the rooms in any way in need, has largely contributed to the prosperity of the Union. In November, Mrs. Shaw was engaged as her assistant, and by her faithful and painstaking labor has added much to the comfort and hospitality of the members.

The Industrial Department was closed during the summer, and was not opened again until November 23. In December, Mrs. Drake was engaged to take charge of that branch of the work, and has given valuable service.

General committee meetings, for discussion of all branches of the work, have been held, as last year, the first Wednesday of every month; and, although not as fully attended as might be desired, they have served to increase the interest. Ninety-one ladies are on the different committees, many of whom have retained their positions from the first and seem to be unwearying in their efforts, sparing neither time nor labor. To these, as well as to the many generous subscribers and donors who have helped to sustain the work under the increased expenses, the Union would express its gratitude.

One of the most interesting as well as encouraging features of the work is the letters which have been received from so many places, asking for reports and circulars and

expressing a strong interest in this movement for women. In San Francisco, an institution with many departments similar to this has been organized; in Baltimore, another, taking up the Industrial, Hygienic, and Protective Departments. From New York, most enthusiastic letters have been received; also from Brooklyn, Washington, New Orleans, Kansas, Iowa, and several towns in New England.

In November, a letter was received from England, asking for a prospectus of the Union, as they were anxious to establish a similar institution there. Also from Scotland, Switzerland, Germany, Hanover, Hungary, and Russia, where the reports were circulated by the former President in her travels, letters have come, asking for more reports, and expressing a wish to organize similar institutions or engraft some branches of this into their own.

Thus, it is seen that the whole world is awakening to this interest in woman; and this institution, started by a few earnest women in Boston, and persistently maintained, is having its wide influence, proving how with one pulse the whole world moves, and that every word said and every act done individually or collectively is felt throughout humanity. Is it not true that "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump"?

There are now eight hundred and sixty-one members, three hundred and ninety-eight of whom are renewals, and four hundred and sixty-one are new members. There are twenty-nine Honorary Members, and twenty-four Life Members, nine of whom have joined this year, making the total list of members nine hundred and fourteen, an increase upon last year of one hundred and ninety-five.

Has not the Union now proved that no disappointments or failures can stay its progress? And, after five years of labor, has not the time come to throw aside the timidity