New-York daily tribune., 1858-04-09
FAIR PLAY For E'OMdN.
BY GEO. VIM. CURTIS.

A large audieDce greeted Mr. u. W. Cufts Iast
night at Mozart Hail. where he ectured on the above
subject. He said that whoever had heard public
speaking or read public dfcourses in this country had
leaned that publ orators in this country had learned
well the ar of not how to say it. There was always
come party to be compromised or some prospects to be
ignored. Happily, tonight. there was no psrty, not
even a committee to be compromised by any plain
speaking. stand kere tonight alone in sweet and
good cause. In saying what think of it speak only
for myself though may speak also for many of the
good ard true who hear me. The subject is Of such
nature that those who speak about 1t may say nearly
the same thing and arrive at the same conclusions.
Although new subject to a popular audience, it
already has literature of it, own and many advo-
Gates Of its own, and has become as familiar to those
vino have thought of the question ss flowers are to
NAV, When we zee something that ought to be done
ard may be done, we scon begin to consider how it
sha be done. I will therefore hope that our talk
together this Spring evening may be like the talk OF
Boaz when he saw Ruth cleaning in the fields and
Thou shouldst but gean lay thy sheaf adown, come
- share my he vest aud my home" Applause. Just
tbe degree that the world advances, every question
Of right and responsibility is subjected TO most
temper to call n."s. When this nursing OF ques,
lion grows more robust scolduy nnay quiet it, and
ing may do or frightening with the bugaboo
bu. -til later, when this poor little baby OF
q question, at which you liuoh has grown to
be problem to solve, no. to be frohtened,
when il eeZes feeble hsts and pummels you with
its OVID you will either have to come to terms or be
reduced to an intellectual and moral jelly. This wO-
man question has grown to be robust the child has
grown strong. Wien woman. not far away from
this refuses to pay taxes without alton; when
the Sorbonne in Paris gives diplomas to 300 women
teachers when the most eminent men in mOde, times
protest against the injustice done to their wives when
women anywhere doing more than half Of the most
III UnrlA aEan tha hmm manfy
and the invention of man, and as society has
condemned the great mass OF woman TO the needle,
the sewing machine comes IN to rel eve the few and
send the many into the street or the graveyard The
woman question, or the andd inquiry whether women
are to have the chance in the world a. mon, has
become very robust question, and not to be put of
with sops and sugar much longer The question Is not
whether women are men. Men are men, and women
are women; no boy is contemplate as the she boy,
while the he.Womsn puts all men to flight But we
men have treated women as slaves, or have always
made them subordinate 70 ourselves, ana LOT no
other reason than the same by which the big
boy take. the apple away from the little
grl, and the white makes the black man
bis slave. In the earliest times women were ahse-
lute slaves they belonged to the man who could
take them. The Hebrews and Egyptians were polyg
amists, and in Athens among savaees now they
were not allowed TO sit at table with their lords Yet
even in Greece, SspphO sang, and Arete lived, and
Corirna bore away the palm: True, the they called
now -a-days. The Romans did better, and among the
northern nations, there was mysterious religious
res pect for women. ChivaIy was the offspring OF TINS
respect, but it only beautiful form OF seln'h'
ness Nowhere in literature cid respect for women
apnear until the days of Shakespe when Elizabeth
ruled England. Soon this was over and men praised
ONLY baLdsOme women. Detoe sroke noble words tor
women in the Liidst Ct the dirty drams OF the 18TH
century The eesayests, who came next patromzed
women; they gave them advice about hoops, and
treated them az elder brothers treated very little
sisters. Pope said every woman was rake q;
beaIt and yet he was called poet
WLat dreaiy women were portrayed by Fielding ana
Smoett and even t;oldsmith's women were only mix
and water and water and milk. Until TINS century
VIC men were the oasts Of cornwall hours the toys OF
moment the puppets of court, the slaves OF paren,s
and brotbers TIE drudge Of the household and the
field This was in the days Of GOOD old England when
the King said il boobies viii be boets and baInters,
LET EN- sdarye" In France there was then boated
snd sensual court. while thousands Of women were
cr,irc for "bread bread ard sucking the French
evolution. An English Judge then decided that a
man had a right chastise his wife with suck a.
are AZ bis thumb but if il were no larger than his
Wi, cr Lis manhood a cord Of such thumbs would
& nm tick large enough ~ make babe tlnglet
Tie whole theory OF modern socety is the Cochin
China proverb, that "women's hearts bear good
deal of bre king. II is not charged 30 very much.
Women ere sold by parents from Clrcsssia. ard they
by the sale precisely toe same as the fashionable
woman now means when she calls a good match tor
her daring Jane epysng in trowsers with twenty thou
.ard year. This was 10 esrly times; and while
there have been some variations in the social con.
dition OF women, there he's always been the same
general estimaton that she was Of an inferior SEX
AID although the loveest traditions Of Christianity
are interviewer with names Of the Madonnas, the
Slagdalens and the Marbas-although in its theory
woman is brought TO an equaity-yet she prae-
ticslly bas no legal and industrial equality. In
the celebrated debate 10 England. Mr.. Gladstone
said, when the Gospel came into the world, woman
was elevated into an equality with her stronger com
panion. So che was iu theory. But il Christianity
taught the equality Of woman, II taught that men
were brothers; yet in Christian nations matter
of fact, women have not enjoyed that equality any
more than men have enjoyed that brotherhood. Al
that very time the English law Of divorce was DO
ncuEeed as disgusting AID demoIa aliziDg IN Its
operation barbaious and Disgrace to tho county
.hn1L in1 10 tie ssnsa of r;nht