Unbridling the Tongues of Women - The University of Adelaide

The New Woman of South Australia: Grand Old Woman of Australia
which her sister-in-law was fleeing to Mt Lofty. The greatest concession that Spence
made to the temperature was to decide not to go to church that Sunday. 101 However
despite her energy, and the multitude of occupations that she undertook, she could
relax among her friends. Jeanne Young reported a cheerful conversation during a
week at Victor Harbour, again writing as though she were Spence.
I remember one day being asked whether I was not sorry I never married.
‘No,’ I replied, ‘for, although I often envy my friends the happiness they
find in their children, I have never envied them their husbands.’ 102
Alice Henry, a Victorian born more than 30 years later than Spence, had, as a writer
for the Argus, suffered for nearly 20 years from constraints upon her work almost
identical to those which had confined Spence. She turned for advice to the ‘Grand
Old Woman of Australia’, a title she was subsequently to give Spence, and won from
her, not only sympathy but affection. Henry left Australia in 1905 as a delegate from
the Melbourne Charity Organisation Society, first for Europe and England, then for
the United States. 103 Spence sent her five pounds to help with her travelling expenses,
writing:
Oh my dear friend I shall go with you on this interesting itinerary … You
are so much more like minded with me than Vida Goldstein or any others
to whom I have bidden God Speed. 104
Alice Henry ended up in Hull House, on an invitation from Jane Addams that was
undoubtedly prompted by Spence’s letters. 105 Her stay there led to her appointment
as secretary of the Chicago branch of the National Women’s Trade Union League
and, later, as editor of the League’s journal. 106 She remained in that post, with another
Australian – Miles Franklin – as her assistant, until 1915, five years after she
and all Spence’s other friends, admires and supporters had mourned the Grand Old
Woman’s death.
Catherine Spence died on 3 April 1910, the proofs of her unfinished autobiography
lying, corrected, beside her bed. Writing about her shortly afterwards, Rose
Scott proclaimed:
To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die! The shadows of time will
no doubt eventually dim the vision we now hold of that vivid personality,
but her works will live after her, and be the most fitting monument to her
memory. Energetic, helpful, courageous, with broad human sympathy
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