The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1857-12-23

WoMEN's RIGnTs.-Much is sad and
written nowadays of women's rights
What then are her rights? She has q
right to q good education. This is not
only just, but expedient to give her,
Man defrauds himself when he withholds
it. For is not woman to be his constant
companion Would he choose that his
companion should be destitute of ideas :?
Surely not The conversation Of an edu-
Gated woman is a perpetual feast. If the
first pleasure of life is action, the second
certainly is talk. And there is often al
most as much pleasure in talking about
things as in doing them. A man wants
in a wife not only companion, but e
counsellor. No one mind ever saw all
sides of all subjects, nor even all sides of
one subject. And the wisest suggestions
not unfrequently come from the least in
formed. The Pythoness, the Sybils of
DID, were women, because women were
always supposed to enjoy near acces to
the fountain of wisdom than man.
Women have Alright to good husbands,
because most of them mean to do the
thing that is nearly right When they
marry they have right that their hus-
bands should be men and not mere
wrecks of debauchery and dissipation
Oh, it is one Of the cruelest of wrongs, for
pure and innocent girl to throw herself
away upon a broken down victim Of IL
centiousness, whoi is more fit for a hospital
than to preside over family, the candi-
date for premature decay and early death.
The mind and moral nature generally in
such cases, quite as much wreck as the
body. The freshness of life is all worn
off, the gayety of innocence is forever
gone. The life Of such a man is cold
and hard, destitute of sentiment and
enthusiasm. Woman is cruelty wronged
when she has accepted such compan-
ion.
Woman has right to the society of
her husband Home should be his sane
tuary, and he ought to find his highest
happiness there. Ifhe does not there is
something wrong. He has promised to
be the husbanG-that is the house-b band
the band that keep the household to-
gether. His presence there is necessary
to keep all right. If he wanders away
hredlessly something is apt to go wrong
His authority is often wanted to mailman
order, to arrange business, to superintend
labor. His absences onght to be as few
and ntrequent as possible. Woman has
q right to this, and her rights are grossly
violated when her husband is often and
unnecessarily away.
Lastly, women have right tothe ear
nings Of their husbands for the support
of their families. We never pass drin-
king saloon, from the low GROCERY to the
ponderous hotel, without saying to our
selves, here, after all, is the most outra-
geous, violation Of woman's rights. We
sometimes get glimpse of the interior of
these apartments, and whom do you see
there Husbands and fathers, who sub
sist upon their daily wages, spending one
half, or perhaps all their earnings in Ii
quid poison, to ruin their health, spoil
their temper, corrupt their morals, and
make themselves odious and loathsome
vagabonds, while their wives are at home
earning, by the slender gains of their
needle, the pittance which rescues their
mutual offspring from starvation. Oh :!
this is too bad to be seen and suffered in
a Christialfcountry.
This outrage upon women's rights cries
loudest of all to Heaven, and ifthere were
a particle of chivalry in these degener-
ate days, this is the first abuse in our So
cial economy which would be abated.--
Tell me not Of the barbarism of the Ma
lays or the Feejee Islanders, who roast
their enemies and pick their bones.-
Their enemies expect it, and would do
the like in return. But here the black
hearted cruelty is inflicted by friend
the one who ought to be the nearest and
tenderest of all Our boosted civiliza-
ton and Christianity of the nineteenth
century-what are they Bali Sun.
A AGED GONvrCT -0D Monday last