Edward Eldridge

The next day after the meeting Barker and Brookes were busy with the C.I. Committee of Los Angeles in dividing the work up and organizing, so that each ward of the city had its committee, whose business it was to do all it could in enlightening the people of the ward in which the committee lived.

Penloe and Stella devoted one afternoon and evening to informal talks in each ward in the city, those present having the privilege of asking questions. After Penloe and Stella had worked in every ward, they went with Barker and Brookes to San Diego and spent a week there; then they worked all the other towns in Southern California, and then returned to Los Angeles. On their return they were more than satisfied with the progress of the C.M. What helped the movement very much was the character which Penloe and Stella gave it. When some of the more conservative element suggested the impropriety or immodesty of the C.I., they were met with the answer: "Look at Penloe and Stella, who live the idea every day of their lives. Are there any purer-minded persons than they are? Do not the best people of the city open their houses to welcome them? Did they not tell how living the life helped them intellectually and spiritually?" Those replies quieted all opposition and gave courage to those who were a little timid and fearful, also to those in doubt whether it was right or not. As the movement was gaining ground rapidly, persons began to think how very foolish it was to entertain such thoughts as they had been accustomed to concerning the sexes. The movement in Southern California showed how the movement would work elsewhere in this way. It was one of those movements that needed a few intelligent, courageous spirits in a locality to start it, and when once it got a going, most of the other members of the community fell in line, and when it was about universally adopted in one locality, the people living in the next county soon joined the movement. After three months' labor in Los Angeles a vote was taken. For Woman's Suffrage, eighty-five per cent. voted "Yes," and by a very careful estimate seventy-five per cent. had put in practice in one form or another the C.I. Soon San Diego followed Los Angeles, then Pasadena and Riverside, and soon after all the other towns in Southern California fell in line. The result was wired all over the State and nation.

During the progress of the movement in Southern California, Mr. and Mrs. Herne were not idle. They put their hands in their pockets freely, and paid for much of the printed matter they circulated.

Now that Southern California had gone overwhelmingly for the C.I. Penloe and Stella, Barker and Brookes, felt at liberty to accept some of the many urgent calls from other parts of the State. They were continually receiving calls from other States, but would accept none till the same condition prevailed throughout the whole State as now existed in Southern California and the State Legislature had granted to woman the same legal standing in the eyes of the law that man had.

The next places visited by the workers were Bakersfield, Hanford, Tulare, Visalia, Fresno, Oakland, and San Francisco. In all these places they found the work in a more or less advanced state. The fact that Southern California had gone for the C.I. was a great help in forwarding the movement in other places, so that after about eight months' work in these cities just named, and some other places, it was found that the entire State had been carried for the C.M. and Woman's Suffrage, except one county. The Legislature was about to meet in a month's time, and would give to woman the suffrage, and place her, in other respects, on an equality with man in the eyes of the law.

Great work was being done in the last county, so that it joined the rest of California for progressive thought, and the whole State was carried for the C.I. just as the Legislature passed the necessary acts for woman's legal freedom. The news was wired to every State in the Union, and California was one scene of rejoicing throughout the entire State. It was a great day for California when her men and women threw off the yoke of superstition and ignorance and thus cut some of the bonds which had held them in ignorance. They had taken one great stride toward the goal of freedom. California now took her true place among the States in the Union, for she led the way toward freedom in its highest sense.

The leaders of advanced thought in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho were very active in working for the C.I. All these States having granted woman the suffrage before the C.M. was started, the workers found it easy to get them to follow California in the grand procession for freedom.

Wyoming, which was the first to grant the suffrage to woman, was the next to join California; then came Colorado, then Utah, and then Idaho wheeled into line.

Penloe and Stella were receiving calls to labor from other States, and finally decided to go to Illinois. Kansas wired the following message to the Central Committee of California: "Kansas is all ablaze with the C.M. from its center to its circumference, and its fires have leaped the borders into Nebraska, Iowa, and reached Minnesota."

After the C.I. had been practised in Southern California a few months, if a young gentleman had just returned to the East from Los Angeles, his friends wanted to know immediately how the C.I. worked.

Mr. Franklin Hart, of New York, a young gentleman who had just returned from Los Angeles, was sitting in a parlor with some young friends, and they all wanted him to relate his impressions of the C.I. in Los Angeles. When he was describing its workings, two or three young ladies put their hands to their faces and laughed, one saying, "How strange and funny it must have seemed." Another young lady remarked, "There has been too much foolishness about such things." Mr. Franklin Hart said: "After you have been there about a week the old idea seems stranger than the new. You wonder to yourself however such thoughts could have fastened themselves on us for generations and generations."

Prof. Dawson, of Boston, visited Los Angeles two years after the C.I. had been in operation, and wrote a letter to the leading Boston daily, as follows:

"Dear Sir: Being naturally of a conservative turn of mind, I came to Los Angeles with ideas unfavorable to the C.M. I had not taken the least stock in what the papers said or the people of California wrote in regard to the practical workings of the C.I. I expected the defenses of morality and modesty had been swept away by such ideas, and that the communities of Southern California had sunk into licentiousness. I had spent two years in California about eight years ago, and I considered at that time that the morals of the people were not of a high order. So I expected to find society in a still worse moral condition now. I have been here six months, and, in justice to truth, I must state the facts even if they show that my previous opinions were incorrect. To those who study the people closely in regard to sex matters, I can say truthfully that sexual excitement has fallen fifty per cent., and that obscene pictures and stories have no attraction for the people. The low places of amusement, that used to be run under the name of 'Variety Theaters,' and other such names, are closed up, for the reason, as a former proprietor of one of these resorts expressed it, 'A leg and bosom show has no attraction for the people since the C.I. has been in operation.' Houses of prostitution are less in number by forty per cent., so the chief of police informed me, and I saw a large number of them closed. The low dives are closed, and places where girls made exhibitions of themselves for the sole purpose of exciting passion in man are no more. They died for want of patronage. The forms of each sex are looked at now with eyes which see purity and beauty.

"I notice, also, the conversation among young people has improved greatly, being of a higher and purer kind. Now I practised the C.I. myself, and came in contact with many of both sexes. After very careful observation in Los Angeles, and other towns in Southern California, I feel I am in a position to know and I can state that I now consider the C.I. is the greatest reform movement that the world has ever seen.

"Yours truly,

"Robert Dawson."

In about a year later the four progressive States known as Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa, had removed all barriers from woman's political freedom and placed her, in the eyes of the law, where California had. The C.I. having become the predominant thought, it was lived throughout these four States. The C.M. received a great impetus when they fell into line with the other advanced States.

Penloe and Stella, with Barker and Brookes and other workers, had worked for over a year in Illinois, and now they were concentrating all their forces in Chicago, the other part of the State being all right. It was in that city that a great battle for reform had to be fought. The opposition was strong. It consisted of society ladies and gentlemen, who thought woman's position was above politics; that is, to their minds it was far higher for a woman to be prettily and daintily dressed, and to be a petted slave, than to use her God-given intellect for the benefit of herself and the nation in which she lived. The other wing of the opposition consisted of those who were making money in the saloon business and running low places of amusement. They did not want woman to vote in making laws which might be detrimental to their business interests. As the opposition became strong in its concerted action to overthrow the influence of the reform forces, the two great figure-heads, the two grand leaders of the C.M. seemed to acquire increased energy and power. Listen to what Barker and Brookes said, after having attended a meeting in the great Auditorium of the Lake City, when over a thousand had to be turned away for want of room:

"Though I have been so much with Penloe and Stella like yourself, and one would naturally think that the influence of their personality had become common, yet such is not my experience," said Brookes.

Barker replied: "Is not that strange, where we see them almost every day, as we have done for about two years? Instead of their influence becoming tame and commonplace, it seems to take a renewed force and power with each day, and they appear to carry a newness and freshness with them continually. Their efforts to-night were the greatest of their lives."

Brookes said: "I saw the power of the Yogi to-night as I never had witnessed it, to such a degree, before. Did you notice, Barker, that at the close of the meeting, instead of having some prominent person speaking against the C.M., there was not one dissenting voice when opportunity was given, but the short speeches which were made by prominent members of the audience were all in favor of the movement. Just think of the number of invitations that poured in upon them to deliver the same address in other parts of the city. The battle is won, Barker, for no opposition can withstand that power which was manifested to-night."

It was as Brookes said, the opposing forces had to yield, for there was a seen and an unseen power sent out which swept and overcame all opposition, and a month later Illinois was counted in with the procession which California was leading. A year later the great States of Ohio and Pennsylvania had joined the ranks, followed by the old Bay State with its conservative element, and Boston became the scene of illumination and rejoicing. The influence of these great States was felt in many smaller ones, and they also helped to swell the wave of the C.M. by joining the ranks. Quite a large percentage of that element in the big cities, who profited by pandering and catering to the depraved tastes of human nature, had left the city in which they carried on their places of business now that the C.I. was practised, and they had gone to the City of New York, thinking the element to which they belonged was too powerful in Gotham ever to be driven out by the C.M., and it was in this city where the greatest of all battles for reform thought was fought.

When Penloe and Stella with Barker and Brookes left Chicago, they went to the City of New York, staying in Boston a week on their way. They had now been in this city for over a year and had called together picked workers from many other States who were in the procession for reform. The opposition was the same as that encountered in Chicago, only ten times as strong.

When they had been in the city eighteen months, some few of the churches had helped forward the work, just as some churches did in other cities. Penloe decided that every church and every society of every kind that had for its basis of organization love and justice, should receive a special invitation to join in this great moral reform movement, and special work should be allotted them. Penloe and Stella made a personal visit to the leaders of the various sects, denominations and societies, and ably presented the case for their consideration, showing that the life of their organization depended upon their members being active living workers for truth, purity and justice. He put each society on record as to where they stood, whether its organization was merely that of a social club, or whether it was ready to stand and work for the principles it claimed to have for its foundation. Be it said to the credit of each society, sect and organization, they all responded heartily and coÖperated with Penloe and Stella in helping forward the grand reform; for they saw it was useless to prate about love, purity, justice and freedom, with woman debarred by law from her legal and political rights and tolerating a social custom which excited the worst passions and bred prurient curiosity. It was a grand and glorious sight, such as the world had not witnessed before, to see Catholics, Unitarians, Methodists, Universalists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Theosophists, members of the Jewish Synagogue, representatives of the Vedanta, together with the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., Christian Union, Christian Science and Socialists Societies, and all other such societies join in the work. The members of these various bodies coming in contact with those two great spiritual luminaries, seemed to receive such an influx of the Divine as purified their own organizations and made them what they should always be, a great power for good. With such concentrated efforts by such an army of workers, the enemy gave way and New York City became the beacon light to travelers from other nations; not as it had been a city of greed and lust, but a city where woman stood before the law the same as man, and where its citizens were beginning to walk a little more in the line of purity and freedom.

Just before the battle was won in the State of New York, the agitation which had been going on in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland for over two years culminated in a victory for the reform forces. Two years after the State of New York was won, the C.M. had carried every State in the Union, and also Canada. Australia and New Zealand not wishing to be behind in all that stood for advanced thought and freedom, fell in line with the other English-speaking countries.

Penloe and Stella did not consider the work finished yet, and they called for a congress of representative workers to meet in the Auditorium in Chicago at a suitable date, which would give all time to be present. Each State and country were to send two delegates, one man and one woman. Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, and every State in the Union were all represented at the Congress.

When the Congress assembled, it was unanimously agreed that Stella should preside.

After the meeting had been opened and some preliminaries had been gone through, Penloe said: "In the call for this congress it was stated that its purpose was to consider how best to carry on this great work in foreign countries, but before doing so I think it would be best to change the name of the work. It seems necessary that some names, as well as races, should pass through the period of evolution. The reason why I will briefly state, as follows: In some countries where it is necessary to carry on this work, they are not in bondage, and the name C.I. would not convey the meaning of the full scope of our work; for while it is true they do not discriminate between the sexes, yet they are in bondage in many other different ways, and while the work originally started with the idea of freeing men and women from the shackles of sexual bondage with the name of 'Sex Reform Movement,' yet afterwards it was called the 'California Idea,' and the name included Woman's Suffrage, so as to make her free before the law, before man, and before the whole world. And as it grew its name changed to 'California Movement.' But now that the work has grown to such gigantic proportions, having about taken in all the English speaking countries, the work has also grown in its scope of usefulness and its object now is not only to free the mind from sexual bondage, not only to see that woman holds the same place as man in the eyes of the law of the land that she lives in, but still more, to FREE HUMANITY FROM ALL BONDAGES OF EVERY KIND OR CHARACTER. Therefore, I propose that the name to be given to the movement shall be 'Reform Forces,' for under this name and banner all can work."

After a little discussion the name given by Penloe was adopted unanimously.

The next business was to hear from some of the delegates in regard to plans for carrying on the work in foreign countries. After hearing many different plans proposed, and listening to various suggestions from many of the delegates, the plan mapped out by Penloe was finally carried unanimously.

It was something like this: That each country or State should have its special work. Europe was portioned off to England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. They were to divide the work among themselves. New York took Southern India, Pennsylvania took Northern India. The northern half of China was allotted to Illinois, the southern half, to Ohio. Mexico was given to Texas. The islands of the Pacific to California. South America was portioned off to other States. Massachusetts was given Japan, Egypt was given to Michigan. Persia to Indiana. Every State had a certain work of its own in some foreign country separate from that which was done by other States and countries. Each State or country was to send just four teachers to the country they had taken to enlighten. The teachers must be all round characters, with high intellectual attainments, and possessing at the same time rich spiritual gifts and free from family ties.

The line of work marked out for the teachers was as follows: First, to locate themselves in the largest city in the country to which they are sent.

To make themselves thoroughly familiar with the writings and teachings of the founders of the predominant religion of the country to which they are sent.

To find out all that is known of the leading saints and sages who have lived in their lives the prevailing religion of the country in which they lived.

To study thoroughly the habits, customs and bondages of the people of the country to which they are sent. Then to cultivate the acquaintance of the most intellectual and spiritually inclined native men and women and get them interested in the work of the Reform Forces. To appeal to them, and reach them through the teachings of the founders of their own religion, as well as by what has been written and said by their own saints and sages. Get the intelligent natives of both sexes to become the leaders and teachers to their people. Get the native teachers to work to strike at some of the bondages which they think the people are ready to free themselves from first, and when the people have thrown off one bondage then to work to get them to be free from other bondages.

After the teachers have got a group of intelligent native workers in the line of the Reform Forces in one city, they are to go to another city and do the same till the whole country has native workers in every part working along the line of the Reform Forces.

From Penloe's remarks before the Congress, concerning the religions of other nations, we will copy the following extract. "If any one will study the teachings of the saints and sages of other religions, he will find that the essence of spiritual thought contained in them all is about the same as that contained in Christianity. The mistake which has been made by missionaries and others lie in thinking that the ritual and practices of the masses represent the thoughts of the great spiritual luminaries of those religions. The masses of the Oriental countries no more represent the real thoughts of the great spiritual teachers of those countries than the commercial cannibalism of the West represents the teachings of Christ. In fact, the masses of the Oriental countries are in ignorance of the real spiritual thought of their own religion, as much as the masses of the Western World are of theirs, and the teachers who are sent out by the West would help forward the work of the Reform Forces by showing the natives that the ideas of the reform forces are in the line of thought of their own great saints and sages. There is not a delegate present who is not able to show that the work of the Reform Forces is in accordance with the teachings of Christianity. I can also clearly show to you from the teachings of the Zendavesta, of the Koran, of Buddha, of Krishna, of Lord Gauranga, of Seyed, Mohammed Ali, and of Rama Krishna, that the spiritual thought of the Reform Forces is in accordance with those teachings. Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Gauranga, and Rama Krishna, were all the manifestation of God in the flesh. They towered head and shoulders above all others in the manifestation of the Divine.

"Supposing I was a true follower of Buddha and a person who was a true follower of Jesus spoke to me about the grand life and teachings of Jesus, what would his opinion of me be if he saw that I was jealous because he said nothing about Buddha, or because I thought the more beauty and glory he saw in Jesus it lessened and belittled the character of Buddha. Would he not be right in thinking I was ignorantly and foolishly jealous, and that that feeling ought not to exist in a true follower of Buddha? What then when you speak to a follower of Jesus about the divine life of Buddha or Krishna, if he should become incensed in manner and speech and manifest a feeling of jealousy, acting as it were that in seeing the Divine in Buddha or Krishna made you think less of Jesus. And yet that is a common experience which one meets with among very many of the followers of Jesus. No, for in proportion as you live the true Buddha life or Krishna life, so do you live the true Christ life, and if I have imbibed the spiritual thought of Jesus, I have also imbibed the true spiritual thought of Buddha and Krishna. Thinking that the Divine was manifested in Buddha or Krishna, does not lessen the exalted conception which one may have of the Divine manifested in Jesus. The Divine is in all, but is manifested in some persons to a much greater degree than in others."

Just before the Congress closed Mr. Rattenbury, one of the delegates from California, rose to make a statement. He said: "Since the Congress had assembled he and the lady delegate from California had been in the receipt of numerous telegrams from persons living in different parts of the State they represented, to the effect that California did not wish to take the Philippine Islands, but they would take the other islands of the Pacific, and also they would send Penloe and Stella to make a tour through the Oriental countries to help forward the work of the Reform Forces as they saw best. The delegation from California has made arrangements with the delegation from New Zealand and Australia, so that the latter take the Philippine Islands as their field of labor, as those islands are near to them. Therefore the delegation from England and the other countries who have taken Europe as their field of work, have kindly consented to release Australia and New Zealand from helping them, so that they might take the Philippine Islands. It might be well for me to state that the delegation from California has waited on Penloe and Stella, to ask them if they would go East, and I am pleased to say that they have consented."

He added, further: "It is with mingled feelings of pride and pleasure that I stand to-day as one of the delegates from California. I am proud to represent that grand State, with its past achievements. Her boast before has always been of her fertility and marvelous resources, such as her rich mines, her large wheat fields, her prolific orchards, bearing fruits belonging to many climes, her fine vineyards, with clusters of luscious grapes, superior to those of Eschol, her grand floral display, her great forests, and her oil wells. But now we can boast that in its genial climate, surrounded by its grand scenery and its lofty peaks, which lift their heads to heaven, that Stella, the pearl of womanhood, should be born. It was under these influences, surrounded by advanced liberal thought that she grew up. On the soil that she was born did she consecrate herself and all that was dear to her to liberating humanity from its many bondages. Starting out with the idea of helping those of her own sex to throw off a bondage which has held them in superstition and ignorance, and which also has been the cause of untold suffering and misery as well as millions of deaths, she labored heroically under social persecution and ostracism. But when the purity and nobility of her grand character was fully known, those obstacles to her work disappeared as snow does before the heat of the sun, for her whole nature being of intense love, its heat melted all prejudices before it. All of you are familiar with the grand work in her own State. I need not touch on her work in other States, for you all know it so well. I am glad to state that California which has always been so proud of her material resources is now far prouder of the fact that on its soil was born 'The Coming Woman,' 'The Ideal Woman,' 'The Glory of California,' and that her shores attracted the great Yogi Penloe. California having already given Penloe and Stella to the Nation, now bestows them to the World. When they travel through many countries scattering light and knowledge wherever they go, they will always know that wherever they are, even in the furthest corner of the earth, that back of them, in all their travels, are the wealth and great hearts of the people of the Golden State."

Two days before Penloe and Stella left San Francisco for Japan, I was seated in the parlor of Treelawn, in front of the large bay window. On my right was Penloe and on my left was Stella. The windows were raised and a gentle breeze wafted the fragrant odors from the flower beds into the room, filling the parlor with perfume. At times the muslin curtains puffed out gracefully by the gentle breeze, and the external atmosphere was like the internal of my companions' sweetness and harmony. The other members of the company were Mr. and Mrs. Wheelwright and Mr. and Mrs. Herne. Many reminiscences were gone over. Penloe in a very nice way spoke of the influence on owners of ranches, through Mr. Herne's noble example of the treatment of his men, and there was a great improvement in the treatment that ranchers gave to their hired help, and the ranches became more profitable accordingly.

Clara Herne expressed her thoughts and feelings in regard to how different the world and herself looked to her now, to what it did when she first entered her home as a bride. She added: "The world within me has become so beautiful, so bright, and so very large. How lovely life has become, what a pleasure it is to live."

It did me good to look into the faces of Stella's parents. That grand old couple who had lived a life of purity under marriage, and who gave to the world, Stella, "The Pride of California."