The Books: Against the Odds: ‘The Strike at Putney’ (L.M. Montgomery)

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98044549-0-m.jpgAgainst the Odds: Tales of Achievement – ‘The Strike at Putney’ – by L.M. Montgomery

This story is kind of cute. It’s a relatively early one – 1903 – and it’s pretty simple. It’s about a small town – Putney – (kind of Avonlea-ish) – and it has to do with the ladies going on strike. The church in Putney is the pride of the area. It has a great minister, a devoted congregation, and it does a lot of good works. It has a Missions Aid society, a lecture series, a Ladies Aid society – it’s very big on societies. Everyone is very involved.

Then comes the big tragedy.

I think a visiting minister was going to come and speak at an evening prayer meeting. He canceled at the last minute. Meanwhile: the Missions Aid Society had sent out an invitation for a female missionary, a famous one, to come speak at their meeting. Because the minister canceled – the Missions Aid Society voted to hold their meeting on that night – and have the missionary speak from the pulpit. It was going to be a great evening. But oh no no – to have a female in the pulpit? This cannot be!! (Sexist mo-fos. They deserve what they get.) All hell broke loose. The Missions Aid Society was told they could NOT hold their meeting that night … and suddenly – the congregation ruptured. Men on one side, women on another.

So the women – just as devoted to their church as the men – decide to go on strike. Because naturally (naturally!!) all of the day to day stuff at the church (flowers, cleaning, supplies) is done by the women. Oh yes, it’s fine for women to just serve men – but let them get out of line? Let them overstep their bounds? This cannot be! The ladies of Putney have had enough. They go on strike. Good. I wish they would have gone on strike forever. Get some REAL change going.

It’s funny because Lucy Maud ended up marrying a minister – so all of this stuff ended up being her LIFE – not just her faith. She had to head up all of the societies, and missions aid teas, and luncheons … Her life was almost totally taken up with that kind of stuff – a minister’s wife was a big deal – she was always like a local celebrity (member Mrs. Allan in Anne of Green Gables??). So Lucy Maud is already writing about what she knows here.

It’s a cute story.

Here’s the moment when all the men realize that the women have struck.

Poor Eben Craig.


Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement – ‘The Strike at Putney’ – by L.M. Montgomery

On Sunday morning the men were conscious of a bare, deserted appearance in the church. Mr. Sinclair perceived it himself. After some inward wondering he concluded that it was because there were no flowers anywhere. The table before the pulpit was bare. On the organ a vase held a sorry, faded bouquet left over from the previous week. The floor was unswept. Dust lay thickly on the pulpit Bible, the choir chairs, and the pew backs.

“This church looks disgraceful,” said John Robbins in an angry undertone to his daughter Polly, who was president of the Flower Band. “What in the name of common sense is the good of your Flower Banders if you can’t keep the place looking decent?”

“There is no Flower Band now, Father,” whispered Polly in turn. “We’ve disbanded. Women haven’t any business to meddle in church matters. You know the session said so.”

It was well for Polly that she was too big to have her ears boxed. Even so, it might not have saved her if they had been anywhere else than in church.

Meanwhile the men who were sitting in the choir – two basses and two tenors – were beginning to dimly suspect that there was something amiss here too. Where were the sopranos and the altos? Myra Wilson and Alethea Craig and several other members of the choir were sitting down in their pews with perfectly unconscious faces. Myra was looking out of the window into the tangled sunlight and shadow of the great maples. Alethea Craig was reading her Bible.

Presently Frances Spenslow came in. Frances was organist, but today, instead of walking up to the platform, she slipped demurely into her father’s pew at one side of the pulpit. Eben Craig, who was the Putney singing master and felt himself responsible for the choir, fidgeted uneasily. He tried to catch Frances’s eye, but she was absorbed in reading the mission report she had found in the rack, and Eben was finally forced to tiptoe down to the Spenslow pew and whisper, “Miss Spenslow, the minister is waiting for the doxology. Aren’t you going to take the organ?”

Frances looked up calmly. Her clear, placid voice was audible not only to those in the nearby pews, but to the minister.

“No, Mr. Craig. You know if a woman isn’t fit to speak in the church she can’t be fit to sing in it either.”

Even Craig looked exceedingly foolish. He tiptoed gingerly back to his place. The minister, with an unusual flush on his thin, ascetic face, rose suddenly and gave out the opening hymn.

Nobody who heard the singing in Putney church that day ever forgot it. Untrained basses and tenors, unrelieved by a single female voice, are not inspiring.

There were no announcements of society meetings for the forthcoming week. On the way home from church that day irate husbands and fathers scolded, argued, or pleaded, according to their several dispositions. One and all met with the same calm statement that if a noble, self-sacrificing woman like Mrs. Cotterell were not good enough to speak in the Putney church, ordinary, everyday women could not be fit to take any part whatever in its work.

Sunday School that afternoon was a harrowing failure. Out of all the corps of teachers only one was a man, and he alone was at his post. In the Christian Endeavour meeting on Tuesday night the feminine element sat dumb and unresponsive. The Putney women never did things by halves.

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2 Responses to The Books: Against the Odds: ‘The Strike at Putney’ (L.M. Montgomery)

  1. Ann Marie says:

    I’d like to read this whole story. Although that is one dusty church if after a week, the bible has a thick layer of dust on it! I like France Spenslow and how all the women are just reading their bulletins and bibles.

  2. red says:

    Ann Marie (ack, I owe you an email, I’m so horrible with that these days!!) –

    I thought the same thing. There’s a thick layer of dust on the Bible after 2 days of no cleaning?

    Wow!!

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