Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-11-24

II has been said repeatedly that the pecuni.
ary wants Of Woman have been the great cause,
more than all others, of plunging so many into
a life Of vice. That tnese hapless outcasts live
a loathed lie for gain 10 too often true. Some
times . mother Il driven thus to save the faith
erless little ones Of her dead husband from
cruel Starvation oftener, perhaps, the friend.
less girl sells her all with no higher motive than
buying fine clothes for herself and getting a
living.
Such girl once conversed with. She had
no delicacy that could make her scruple to lay
bare so detestable life that the virtuous heart
can never fully conceive of It's abominations.-
Heaven knows with what loathing one must
listen.s The, physician In a putrid hospital is
yet spared much knowledge Of deeper cor
ruption. With pencil in hand this girl wrote
down her accustomed gaines and balanced her
accounts. to give me a living idea of expenses
and profts-smiing at the look Of utter horror
and surprise which she seemed to have excited,
and po;ntedly asking, what else could dol
l could mt do anything"
What else2 nothing else! She was right
She could not teach, for she had never been
taught. She could by no honest possibility
have saved hundred dollars year-probably
not nifty by her utmost labor; ard she knew it.
Then she had lost her reputation and could
never regain it; it had been stolen from her in
early girlhood. In this calling she could even
grow rich. The thought is sickening and hor-
ribly black!
All this in Christendom! Any woman who
can know such facts and not be at first bowed
down with shame, and then girded with right
eous indignation that can make her rise above
all fear, and swear solemnly to right her great
wrong-neyer resting till the shame is wiped
away-has lost what is hottest in her own ma
ture. There are ten thousand just like that
wretched girl in every great city; ten thou
sand just as helpless, and selling themselves
Just so for money. And why does society let
them do ii To crafty the brutal passions of
brutal men. Society shuts the door of every
profitable and every honorable avocation against
Woman, and makes her literally dependent on
man; then while she is wife and daughter he
supports her; and when she becomes prosti-
tute be supports her still then, for what she
does for wages, brands her with disgrace
than which there is no blacker on earth; while
what he does for base pleasure only entities
him to the rank Of gentleman.
1t does no good TO rail; but if Satan himself
does not turn from such facts with loathing,
then he is blacker than believe him to be |!
starvation or infamy, and when they fall, make
it an inky, indcllblc infamy that no publication
can ever remove and at the same moment
push their male companions into high places
and rich places where they can get money and
honor with which to corrupt more women. and
yet remain themselves immaculate Who
could invent a morality more fiendishs F.
This very girl spoke Of, boasted that she
h4d hnn of NochJ t1of h<,r L1,,
she was the public mistress of our public men
and she said, with what one might believe to
be sincerity, that she often loathed this life with
an intense hatred, but that there was no other
way for her to get living, and no other way
for her to get into good society. Now, on the
strength Of such thought let politicians and
businessmen and professional men sheer, if
they can, against women who would have some-
thing to do with vulgar business, with the pro-
LESSONS, and with government. They are not
so blind as not to see that if property-laws were
equalized, and if women were fairly allowed
to acquire independence, and to present
their own interests at the balot-box; to receive
pubic salaries and to 60 into all honorable, lu-
crative callings as they chose; that the prosti-
tutes of our country could no longer be reck-
oned by the hundred thousand.
Great fears some people have of public wo-
men a mighty alarm there is at lest rude
business life will destroy the purity and virtue
of our females! God knows if there be any,
thing worse than the present, and if there be
anything better; but we are ready to take the
consequences! Women, with pecuniary indie
pendenca within their reach-an independence
coupled with honor and the esteem of the world
are not more likely to submit to ruin and
disgrace than helpless, starving creatures are
who must take these or die. The worlds
present accursed regime has its millions of fe-
male victims---yes, millions of avowed profess
sional prostitutes; and utterly PROSTATE they
are beneath the heel of society.
l say boldly, if mems passions must be graf
flied. do not at least make women the outlawed
scapegoats to bear all the shame. If we are
10 accept it as fact in physiology and anthro-
pology that ten thousand women, more or less,
are to be set apart for every city, to be the COM
mon property of bestial men, then, in Coos
name let us meet the thing fairly, as they do
Slavery at the South, and contend that it is so
ordained of Providence! Let these women
be looked on as 30 many preordained slave
victims OF peculiar grade; and if there is
any contempt or Reproduction to be manifested.
let it fall elsewhere.
When woman sins not for money---not from
sharp necessity, but from passion---then scorn
her as you do him or pardon her as he is par
doned; but till then pity her more than you
blame, for it is hard case.-.a case that never
could have frequently occurred except that Wo-
man had first been despoiled Of her living
despoiled every way Of her independence
Look to it! Woman has some rights, whatev-
er they are; and the degradation Of so many
fallen ones will stand as living testimony that
she has some wrongs. 10 7'-a'els eii nose