The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 22, 1869.

TVOMA,IVS RIGHTS WOMEN IN AMERICA.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

It may be interesting to the women of England
to learn how their strong-minded sisters are getting
on in America. We can best do this by a few ex-
tracts from the latest transatlantic journals. The
New York Citizen and Round 2 able has an article
en titled

"THE WILD WOMEN VICTORIOUS.

" There is joy among the Wild Women of New York ;
joy such as envious women experience at the misfortunes
of a hatred rival, and such as female reformers feel when
they scent a coming
scandal. They hated the Wild
Women of Chicago because the latter surpassed them in in-
decency, and lo! adversity has smitten the NN estarn pan-
taloonatics, and their leaders are about to desert them. The
Wild Women of the metropolis hungered and thirsted after
scandal, and behold, the Chicago Universe, a paper which
exists solely to supply this chief desire of the Wild
Woman's heart, is to be removed to New York. Truly
fortune smiles upon the brave supporters of those sacred
Rights of Women, the right to hate successful rivals, and
the right to read the most shameful of scandalous stories !
We have once before remarked upon the strange ar d
morbid love of indecency, which is perhaps the most pro-
minent of the distinguishing traits of the Wild Woman
of the Period. In the absurd burlesques of public meet-
ings which the Wild Women perpetrate, the favourite topic
for discussion is uniformly that of the physical relations
of the sexes. When they meet together, and the in-
evitable inspection of bonnets is ended, the minutes of
the preceding meeting are hurriedly read, the preliminary
business is hastily transacted, and a visible uneasiness
pervades the assembly, until the looked-for moment
when the presiding Wild person announces as the sub-
ject for the evening's discussion some such dainty topic
as The Social Evil,' or The Physical Ills of Matri-
mgny.' Then the placid Emile of contentment softens
each bony countenance, and the flush of expectant
pleasure muddies each sallow cheek. With a sad
perversity of taste they usually so manage their meet-
ings that some comparatively young and approxi-
mately comely woman is selected to open the debate by
reading an elaborate essay. Indecency from the lips of a
passably pretty woman possesses in the Wild Woman's
estimation a piquancy which is wanting when an ancient
and ugly female is the speaker. And if to comparative
youth and beauty the propounder of prurient ideas can
boast a reputation sullied by actual immorality, or well-
founded suspicion, the delight of her bearers knows no
bounds. The Wild Women of this city, though lack-
ing the benefit of a Chicago education, have still been
remarkably successful in the pursuit of indecency in
their public discussions. Their journal, the Revolution.,
has, however, failed to achieve anything like the repu-
tation for shamelessness which the Chicago Universe has
decidedly won. Not that the Revolution did not fre-
quently shock and disgust even the readers of the Police
Gazette; but still it professed to be a decent paper, and
generally managed to evade any absolute breach of the
law against indecent publications. The Universe, on the
other hand, conducted by Chicago women, was unrivalled
in its unblushing shamefulness. It openly attacked the
institution of marriage, and avowed the right of any
woman to become a mother when and hew she pleased.
In its language it was simply beastly. The very last
number which reached this city contained an article which,
for loathsome obscenity, has never, to our knowledge, bten
paralleled, and which would probably disgust even the hu-
man ghouls who surreptitiously supply the literature of hell
to prurent youth. (The Wild Women will find the article on
the fourth page of the Universe). Naturally it was a great
grief to the Wild Women of New York that such a paper
should be published, not by them, but by their rivals in ano-
ther city. Their joy can therefore be only faintly imagined
when the Universe last week announced the glad tidings that
it would henceforth be published in New York. No longer
will the Wild Women be forced to blush for the compara-
tive decency of their former organ, the Revolution. No
longer will they consume their hearts in envy of the
superior shamelessness of the organ of their Chicago sis-
ters. Henceforth they will proudly bear the palm of in-
decency, and Chicago must be content to draw her weekly
supply of licentious literature from tho metropolis.
We discussed in our last issue the mystery of the per-
sonal ugliness of the Wild Women, and gave up, as
hopeless, the effort to solve it. But the mystery of the
shamelessness of tne Wild Women is still darker and
More impenetrable. Various theories have been pro-
posed by speculative persons to account for the mystery
of ugliness, but no one has ventured to suggest a theory
by which to explain the mystery of shamelessness. It
is nevertheless an appalling reality. The Wild Women
lay aside modesty when they speak, and defy decency
when they write. Though wo cannot find the reason
of this scandalous conduct, it should not be passed by un-
noticed. And we, therefore, beg leave to call the atten-
tion of the police to the frightful and iucreasiug immora-
lity of the Wild Women's journals. The Last Sensation
was suppressed, and rightfully so; but it was prudish in
comparison with the Universe. Because the latter paper
veils its lewdness with the thin pretext of aiding in
moral and physiological reforms, its true character
should not be mistaken. Should many of its articles be
printed and published in pamphlet form, the police
would promptly arrest the villains who should sneak-
ingly venture to sell them in alleys and by-places.
Why then should they be permitted free circulation
when published in a Wild Woman's newspaper? We
do not advocate any interference with the pleasures and
tastes of the Wild Women. Let them write and print in-
decent journals to their hearts' content, but let them circu-
late them in secret, and exclusively among themselves.
We do most earnestly protest against the public sale of
such noxious nastiness, and insist that the modest women
and virtuous men of the metropolis shall not be exposed to
the contamination inseparable from the perusal of the
Wild Women's favourite literature. The establishment
of the Universe in this city is a step in advance of any in-
decency which the Wild Women had as yet attempted.
To their peculiar stuns ments we have no right to object,
except when they outra_e the rights of modest women.
We earnestly hope that our city authorities will keep a
watch upon the Universe and its female conductors, and
not permit New York journalism to be disgraced to the
extent to which that shameless sheet has disgraced the
Newspaper world of the West."
The Tribune asks— " Can the paragraph be well-founded
statesrim
ne
ng _
a herselfttii
lamt eMnart—s MtioaLmj ooarur
irbn.
which we find careering through the newspapers, which
ry
yoarflekatechrhe
thaslha bewa eget no fd fortye requiringc la -
eMff
oaarvreoytuhrWe
years ?' Is this the kind of legislation which Madame Mary
and her friends propose to treat us rnisembles when she
gets into Congress ? if so (and, alas ! it looks like it), all
we have to say is, that we shall regard it as most abomin-
able, outrageous, indefensible, and.highly exasperating.
We like voluntary marriages as well as anybody. But
upon compulsion—never ! We will fight, Wed. and die
first."
The Boston Traveller, describing a " scene not in
the bills," says :
"At the close of the Rev. Mr. Fulton's lecture, on Mon-
day evening at the Music Hall, the Rev. Gilbert Haven
introduced himself to several ladies who were upon the
platform, among others to Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. That
lady refused to shake hands with him, and said, 'You pro-
fess to be a Christian minister, sir, and you have reviled
woman. "Better do that, madam,' replied he, than to
revile Jesus Christ."l never reviled Jesus hrist,' she
said. You have done your best to do it,' said he. Sir,'
she responded, you have played the part of a dramatist
and a buffoon.' Madam,' said he, your birth, your edu-
cation, and your position in society should have made a
lady of you.' She replied, Do you mean to say, air, that
lam not a lady ?' 1 mean to say, madam,' said he,' that
you act like an outrageous exception.' At this point Mrs.
Livermore and Mrs. Lney Stone Blackwell took up the
conversation, and Mrs. tiowe withdrew."
The Daily Advertiser, of the same city, in a favour-
able notice of Mrs. Lucy Stone's lecture there, ob-
serves :
"She never puts off the robe of her womanly refine-
ment. It is much to be regretted for the sake of decency
that all the women who strut their brief hour on the lec-
ture platform are not made after this pattern. For Mrs.
Lucy Stone will make five converts in an evening where
a dozen are lost to her cause by the brazen hoyden or
noisy scold who delights in flaunting her unwomanliness
in the face of astonished audiences."
This, we presume, is by way of "chaff":—
"Mrs. Arabella Mansfield, Esq., is the beauty of the
I•wa bar."
In its article " On Silk Attire," the Tribune dis-
cusses the costume of the emancipated woman—
Miss Logan having been censured for her personal
splendours, now appears " in heavy rich black vel-
vet, heavy silk overskirt and panier, and gold
ornaments." On the nth& hand, Miss Field was
clad in simple white muslin, while Mrs. Pauline
Davis, in the Hartford Convention, was "radiant
in an overwhelming confusion of blue satin, black
velvet, and white Bair ;" and Mrs. H. B. Stanton in
black velvet solely. This certainly is not in the simple
and useful, if unbecoming style of the " bloomer ;"
and the Tribune asks, "Now, which is to be the
attitude? Under which king, Bezonian, or which
Queen ? Is it Eugenie or Lucretia Mott who is to
regulate the costume of the platform ?"
The Nation has an article on the Woman's Parlia-
ment, in which it discusses Mrs. C. S. Pierce's late
address. The main point of the Nation's argu-
ment is that women are constantly claiming quali-
fications which in action they do not show ; that
it is open to them to do what they assert they can,
yet that they do not do it, and that a lady who
edits a law paper in Illinois has in this bumble
work done more for the admission of women to the
legal profession than all the speeches ever made.
The advocates of ‘V omen's Rights mistake and
underrate the magnitude of their task. They re-
gard it as a social excrescence like slavery or reli-
gious intolerance, or landed entails ; whereas they
are trying to revolutionize human society, " to de-
stroy ideas and usages which not simply have re-
ceived the consecration of all recorded time, but
have their roots intertwined with the inuertrost
fibres of the human heart. The relations of the
sexes, which they are trying to change, are rela-
tions which, though they have been, like every-
thing else in this world, disordered by folly and
ignorance, have supplied the race with nearly all
the pure happiness it has ever known."
We have said enough to show the present tend-
ency of this discussion in America, where the
papers have lately teemed with articles on the sub-
ject.

~IIISCELLA NEO US NEWS.

THE ABOLITION OF THE LOUD JIrt3TICESIIIP.

--- -
The abolition of one of the Lord Justiceships is
not altogether a good thing. If it reduces the
amount of State money expended on the Chancery
Courts, it takes away the time of Lord Dufferin, the
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Last week
his lordship had to sit for two days to hear an appeal of
the legal bearings of which he knew nothing. He
toyed with his pen, and amused himself as best
he could, while Lord Justice Giffard listened
to the arguments and gave pi. .. ent. The Solicitors'
Journal is very angry, with t e Chancellor of the
Exchequer for suppressing the post, and suggests that
Mr. Lowe should be punished by being made to sit
for two days in the Court of Exchequer. The right
hon. gentleman would probably amuse himself by
mastering the case under hearing ; and would give
perhaps a "strikingly original decision based upon the
dictates of common sense." There is no reason, how-
ever, why tho law, permitting one Lord Justice to
hear a case alone, should not be extended to appeals
from the Lancaster Chancery Courts.

WHAT THE CONSERVATIVES THINK OF THE TEN

PEERS.

The John Bull accepts very complacently Mr.
Gladstone's ten new peers. Our contemporary
simply remarks that had ten Conservative creations
been announced in one day the outcry would have
been universal; and it warns the Premier
against the danger of increasing recklessly the
numbers of tho House. But, while doing so,
it regards the desire of Mr. Gladstone to obtain more
support in the Upper House as "very natural." Then,
as to " the party the John Bull says :—" The new
peers will doubtless soon shake off their Liberalism."
Has not Lord Edward Howard already supported the
Conserntive opinions on education ?

years se:Tice at home, and if volunteer; Mr IMMO
abroad, possibly seven,. but not to exceed ten years,
and every endeavour is to be made to carry out the
policy of the late Mr. Godby, Assistant Secretary of
State, for War, viz., to reduce, if not entirely abolish,
the pension list." Then as to the militia, the position
of quartermaster is not to be filled up should vacan-
cies arise, and the prbsent holders are either to be,
allowed to die out or to be placed on retiring allow-
ance, provision for which will be made in the Esti-
mates and the Annual Militia Pay and Clothing Act.
The Permanent Staff is to be reduced by the
abolition of the positions of orderly-room
clerk, drum-major, hospital-sergeant, and musketry-
sergeant,together with one sergeant per company. It has
not yet been finally decided whether these non-com-
missioned officers shall be at once disbanded, with
possibly a gratuity of three months' or six months'
pay, according to length of service, or be allowed to
complete the five years' engagement now running.
Against this " sad news to some " must be put tho
announcement of the Army and Navy Gazette that
the reductions which are to bo made in the army
stationed in India will not be of such a wide or
sweeping nature as was originally proposed.

FOREIGN NOTES;

PREIS TRAMS IN TIIE WEST.

Professor Perry, General Brinkerhoff, and other apostles
of Free Trade have held a meeting at Detroit to
discuss Protection. The professor said that Sir
Robert Peel was the great man for their imitation, because
he inaugurated Free Trade in England. They wanted
a modified tariff, but the Congress of the United States
was not governed by motives that fitted it for the
work. General Brinkerhoff, of Ohio, illustrated the
subject by a practical test. He wore a suit of clothes
that cost $73, but in Canada he met a gentleman who
had on a better suit than ho had himself, and it
cost only $l6. " See the difference," exclaimed he, "of
what you would have to pay under free-trade, and what
you have to pay now." The Secretary of the Free-Trade
League of New York explained the object of the associa-
tion ; and some of the friends of American interests an-
nounced their readiness to meet the champions of British
interests at a meeting for free discussion on both sides,
but they declined the offer, and appointed a committee to
form a Free-Trade League in that city.