Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1858-06-26
Fair Play for Women.

Mr.. George w. Curtis delivered lecture
last evening on the above subject, at the hall
OF the Lowell Institute, by invitation of the
Mercantile Library Association. lie said
that the woman question, or tie candid in
quiry whether women are to have the same
chance in the world as mer, has now become
q very robust question,and is not to be put of
with slops and sugar much longer. The ques-
ton. No boy is so contemplate as the she.
boy; while the he-woman justly puts all men
to flight. The lecturer traced the position OF
women from the earliest times, when she was
an absolute slave, to the present time, when,
though in theory she has been elevated to an
equally with man. yet really has no practical
and legal equality. In some parts ofthe coun-
try there are laws which justify the assertion
that woman is respected; but this is by no
means the general spirit Of our society. We
may be as gallant as Lovelace, or as courtly
as Sir Charles Grandson but this is profess
sion, and it is cur natl nal weakness to con-
found our profession with our performances.
Is not the position of women in this coun-
try somewhat similar to her position in the
Turkish harem. If unmarried is she not
obliged to drudge for living, and be laughed
at if she strive to rise above that position p
If married. does she not become q simple
mother Of children, lazy figure for milliners,
figure head for her husbands table In
painting, sculpture, literature and science, a
few women are patronizingIy sad to be doing
very we'll for women. Literary women are
still sneered at. But among the industrial
classes, where always must be most men and
women, there are sadder sights. Thousands
of miserable men and women surrounded us.
The men live by their work, their votes ,and in
the last extremity their strong right hands.
But the women-even their needle is now
stolen away from them BY the subtitle brain
nf man, and what resources have they g.
Pretty girls they become what you are not ex-
pected even to know ; they ale not far from
here. You shall see them as you 60 home
tonight. In the gas light they are gay in
the midnight you shall hear them laugh and
sec them reel no leper so outcast, no slave
more forsaken. Might we not a. we'll stop
bowing an | complimenting,an and ask ourselves
when we drink with enthusiasm, Heavens
last and best gift" whether she is most like
ly to be cared for and elevated by our cups
or by wholesome regulations in our laws and
workshops. AS honorable men we must con-
cede that every human being has a natural
right to what God has given him the power
to do within the limits of the moral law.
The State must sh w that women are in
competent, and by what authority they are
determined to be so. If bearing arms be the
test, the reply, is that many men are excus-
ed, and many women, in days of trial, will
not be excused. 1t is not to be supposed
that, if the polls were to be opened to-mor-
row, many but the ignorant women would
avail themselves of it. They would do as
the men do now. You have to look on the
sloth of parlors, ,and not on the slime of the
grogshops for the basencs of national poll.
tics. Is it improper for woman to spenn
halfan hour at the polls and highly proper to
be crowded for hours into lecture room or
church, to hear prurient puns in play or
see the pretty spectacles of an opera Un-
womanly for woman to drop ballot in a
box, but quite modest and young ladylike to
whirl ina polka in the arms of man she
may never have seen before, and have her
cheeks famed by his tipsy breath 2 That
there are children now in some cities who
will one day 60 with their wives to the ballot
box as they now do to the church, or lyceum,
or theatre, the speaker as firmly believed as he
did that women are quite as well informed as
men on political subjects. 1t is our duty, he
said, to keep ourselves free from preind,ce on
this subject,to call our friends around US with
sacred hospitality, and be ever generous to
every movement wich tends to the welfare
and elevation of our common humanity.