A Proper Pursuit (30 page)

She proceeded to enumerate them, one by one, but my mind began to wander after “heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, and lightheadedness.” The symptoms sounded suspiciously like a romance novel’s description of love. Could it be that thousands of women had married their husbands in the mistaken belief that they were in love, when all along their corsets had been too tight? How disappointing to watch their love mysteriously vanish once their corsets were unlaced. I made up my mind that if I ever felt love’s symptoms, I would loosen my corset immediately before accepting a proposal of marriage.

I turned my attention back to the speaker and learned that she not only advocated tossing out our whalebone corsets, but expected us to replace all of our leisure dresses with bloomers.

“Someday, dresses for women will be a thing of the past,” she insisted. She bounced around the stage as she talked as if she had taken an overdose of Dr. Dean’s Blood Builder, her baggy bloomers flopping like a clown suit. “Women will experience more comfort, better health, and more freedom of movement when they switch to wearing bloomers. Once you try them, every one of you will want to wear them. We’ll see bloomers on trains, in the parks, and in every public place. Freedom, ladies! Bloomers mean freedom!”

I had to work hard to stifle my giggles. I was probably the only woman in the audience who thought the lecture—and the doctor’s bloomers—were hilarious.

The applause that followed her speech seemed a bit tentative to me. As much as Aunt Matt and her friends might yearn for freedom, I don’t think they could picture themselves in bloomers. Nor could I. Admittedly, corsets were uncomfortable. But the unrestrained female form, especially on some of the plumpest dowagers, might yield more freedom than the world was prepared to see.

Aunt Matt and I continued our tour of the Woman’s Pavilion after the lecture, and it truly was awe-inspiring. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union and Susan B. Anthony’s suffragettes both had booths. The sky-lit gallery housed every type of artistic endeavor I could imagine: paintings, sculpture, needlework, pottery. The pavilion overflowed with women’s accomplishments in science, health care, literature, education, and exploration. The variety of inventions was staggering— everything from washing machines and surgical bandages to egg beaters and frying pans. All created by women.

“I had no idea that women were doing so many things,” I said.

“Yes. While it’s still an unfortunate fact that men dominate our culture, we would like our pavilion to show that creativity and inventiveness aren’t limited to men. Have you read the novel
Jane Eyre
?”

“Yes, of course.”

“We have a copy of it on display written by Charlotte Bronte’s own hand. I can also show you an original copy of the law that allowed women to argue cases before the Supreme Court for the first time. This pavilion is going to further women’s causes far into the twentieth century.”

“Where did the Lady Managers ever find all these things?”

“We sent invitations to women around the world, and even asked queens and princesses for their help. Women in every state and nation gathered together to search for their most outstanding accomplishments in every field. An all-women jury judged the entries and selected the winners.”

“I am truly amazed, Aunt Matt.”

“Good. But don’t stop there, Violet. As you look at all of these achievements, think of what you might accomplish someday.”

“Me? It never occurred to me to do anything. I mean … no one ever told me that women could do these things.”

“That’s why I wanted to bring you here. No one ever encouraged me either. But I hope you will begin to dream of more for your life than sipping tea or marrying a wealthy husband.”

“This pavilion is like … like a celebration!”

“You’re absolutely right. That’s exactly what this pavilion is—a celebration of women’s abilities and talents. The world can no longer dismiss us. You will have so many more opportunities in life than I ever did. Take your time choosing, Violet.”

I gazed around at the variety of displays and remembered my grandmother’s words about being unique:
“You be exactly who God created
you to be, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
Where did I fit in? Could I really do something as amazing as all of these women had?

Later, Aunt Matt stopped at a booth that sold silk scarves handmade by women in India. “Pick one,” she said, “and I’ll buy it for you. I want you to remember your visit.”

I came out of the building inspired to accomplish great things.

But as we walked back to the streetcar stop, it seemed that everywhere I looked I saw men and women together—strolling the fairgrounds arm in arm; pushing children in baby carriages; sitting beside each other on the streetcar. I realized that in spite of all the wonderful things I’d seen in the Woman’s Pavilion, I still longed to fall in love.

More than anything, I wanted to know what it felt like to be kissed the way I’d seen Nelson kissing Katya. I didn’t want to spend my life all alone, even if I could accomplish great things.

Did I really have to choose one or the other?Why couldn’t I have both?

Chapter

19

Thursday, June 29, 1893

O
n Thursday evening, Nelson Kent and I boarded the whaleback steamship
Columbus
in Chicago’s harbor and sailed to the fairgrounds. A large group of pea pods and their dates joined us, including Haughty and Naughty. The Grant sisters greeted me like long-lost friends.

“What a fine-looking couple you two make,” Haughty said, looking us over.

“Don’t we?” Nelson replied. He treated me very possessively, as if letting the others know he had staked his claim. We conversed politely with everyone for a few minutes, then Nelson steered me away.

“I’ve had enough of them,” he said. “It takes forty-five minutes to get there, and I want to enjoy the cruise with you.”

“I am enjoying it already.” We stood at the rail and watched as the ship steamed along the shoreline. Homes and factories, shipyards and church steeples slipped past us. Soon the fair’s domed buildings came into view, its towers and turrets topped with colorful flags and streamers. A little daylight remained in the warm June evening, and the setting sun leaked streams of vivid colors across the western sky.

“What do you think of your first view of the fair?” Nelson asked. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I had seen it three times already.

“It’s beautiful from this vantage point. It looks like a magical city with the white buildings all lit up with electric lights.”

“It’s like something from a storybook, isn’t it?”

Indeed, it resembled a scene from an entirely different world, and I couldn’t resist asking Nelson the question, “If you could choose between living on another planet or living beneath the sea, which would you choose?”

“I can’t imagine either place being more lovely than our own planet.”

We got off the ship at the end of the pier, and Nelson paid our ten-cent fares to ride on the “people mover.” The moving sidewalk had chairs to sit on, as it transported us all the way down the pier to the fairgrounds. We got off in front of the Peristyle, a long hallway of massive columns that made me think we had arrived in ancient Greece. Nelson took my arm as we walked beneath the arch, and then we paused to admire the scene. The Court of Honor lay ahead of us with a view of the Grand Basin, the Statue of the Republic, and MacMonnies Fountain.

“This is so beautiful, Nelson!”

“And it’s only the beginning.”

He stopped at a souvenir stand on the way to the concert hall and bought me a beautiful ivory fan with a picture of Columbus on it. “In case it’s warm in the theater,” he said.

We stopped again to admire the statues of Handel and Bach in front of Choral Hall and the portraits of famous musicians and composers that decorated the building’s facade. We found our seats inside, and when the music began, I closed my eyes and lost myself in the magnificent sound. This was a world away from the Gospel Wagon’s wheezing organ and muddy streets. We might have been on a different planet altogether instead of the same city.

We went outside for air during intermission. Nelson grabbed my hand. “Come on, we have a few minutes. I want you to see the Electricity Building all lit up at night.”

We hurried past a pavilion that looked as though the Moors had built it, with an arched doorway painted in vivid reds and gold.

“What’s inside that building?” I asked.

“I wish I had time to show it to you. It’s the Transportation Building, and it’s amazing, Violet. Every means of transportation you can imagine is inside from the smallest wagon to the largest locomotive.”

“It sounds interesting.” In fact, it must have been “remarkably interesting” since it hadn’t been on Herman Beckett’s list.

“There are so many new inventions and ideas at this exposition,” Nelson said. “You can really get a glimpse of what the future is going to be like. Someday all of the streetcars will run without horses. And everyone will ride around in their own horseless carriage too.”

“How will a carriage get anywhere without horses?”

“They will all have miniature steam engines to power them. And man is going to figure out how to fly like the birds one of these days too. The modern age is just ahead of us. If only I could convince my father to invest in that future.”

A statue of Ben Franklin stood guard in front of the Electricity Building. I had never seen so many electric lights in one place.

“I wish I had time to show you Thomas Edison’s displays. He has some amazing new inventions. There is a machine that makes music—or rather, reproduces the sound of music from an orchestra or choir. Can you imagine what it will be like to have a music machine in your own home? We’ll be able to hear a concert like the one we heard tonight whenever we want to.”

“It will put a lot of musicians out of a job.” I happened to glance behind me at the Wooded Island and saw thousands of tiny lights twinkling in the dark like fireflies. “Oh, look, Nelson! It’s like a fairyland!”

“Come on, let’s go.” He took my arm, leading me toward the island.

“What about the concert?”

“This is more fun, isn’t it? Besides, I’m pretty sure there’s a path that will take us across the island and back to Choral Hall again.”

I linked my arm through his and we hurried across the footbridge and onto the island. I was so entranced by the trees and the lagoon and the twinkling fairy lamps that several minutes passed before I realized that Nelson and I were alone.

“We don’t have a chaperone!” I said, skidding to a stop.

“It doesn’t matter, Violet. You’re safe with me.”

It annoyed me that America was entering an era of inventions and innovations, yet I still had to live by an old-fashioned set of rules. I was tired of them.

“I want to be a modern woman,” I told Nelson, “and go wherever I’d like with whomever I’d like. I can’t even get on a streetcar and go downtown without someone to accompany me. I wish I didn’t need a chaperone.”

“They’re for your protection, Violet. Believe me, there are plenty of unsavory rogues and thieves out there who would like nothing better than to take advantage of a pretty young woman like you.”

Silas McClure, for one
.

“Speaking of change,” I said, swiftly changing the subject, “would you support a woman’s right to vote?”

“I don’t know … I haven’t given it much thought.”

“My aunt Matt reads the newspaper every day, and she believes that women not only should be allowed to vote, but that a woman can do any job that a man can do.”

“Surely not manual labor like building railroads and working in coal mines. Why would a woman want to do that kind of work? Besides, aren’t there jobs that only women can do—such as having children? Only a woman can nurture a child properly.”

We slowed our pace, enjoying the evening as we strolled down the winding pathway past hundreds of fairy lamps. Neither of us was paying much attention to where we were going.

“I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be able to make my own decisions,” I said, “the way men do. Jane Addams defies convention with her work among the immigrants. Aunt Matt defies tradition too.”

“But money is a big factor in both instances. If you can support yourself, you can do anything you want. Didn’t your aunt inherit her father’s estate? And Jane Addams inherited money too, I believe. That’s how she started her work.”

“I guess you’re right. And I’m not likely to inherit any money.My father is comfortable but not wealthy. When he remarries everything will go to his new family. There’s not much chance that I could inherit enough to be independent.”

“There is another way to inherit money and be independent.”

I looked up at Nelson. “There is?”

“Yes, you could marry into it.”

I halted in the middle of the path and a group of people walking behind us nearly ran into us.

When I didn’t respond, Nelson continued. “Some wealthy, modern-minded men—such as myself—are willing to give their wives a great deal of independence. My wife would have enough money to do whatever she pleased.”