The hydraulic press. (North San Juan, Nev. Co., Cal.) 1858-18??, 1859-01-15
Uas a}!tlaulie 2ress,
SOMETHING IN IT.

lings, there is in the woman's rights
movement, SO called, deep meaning
which claims recognition from every
thoughtful, liberal man. tits not the part
of such to join the senseless hoeting at
what is extravagant, or at what seems
so. The Cavaliers of Charles Ist.
sneered at the followers of Cromwell;
yet the Puritans became triumphant
power, and remain stern fact in history
to this day. There is something true in
this woman's rights movement which is
also bound to triumph. We may not
sympathise with the form in which it
works,-with its conventions, its ultra
thinking feminine orators, who are not
its true opponents, or with its numerous
miscellaneous vagaries; but beneath all
these there lies a fact, with which we
can and do sympathise heartily.
The best women are claiming the right
to be their own mistresses, as men are
their own masters, They think that sla-
wish mental inferiority should not be i'm
posed upon their sex, by a course Of in
struction which dwarfs instead of devel-
oping the mind; that they should not
be debarred by selfish prejudice from
adopting any vocation for which they
can fit themselves; and that they are en-
titled to the same legal protection Of
their properly and personal rights which
men receive aud would fain monopolise.
These claims are not unreasonable, nor
will they be always denied. Already
the assertion Of them, in so many differ
ent ways, has obtained respectful hear
ing and friendly influence. We see this
in the establishment of female colleges;
in the admission of women to the schools
of art and Of medicine and to certain
industrial avocations once jealousy clos
ed against them; i'll the passage of laws
securing to them the sole control over
their own property, and permitting them
after marriage to conduct business as
sole traders.
Instances Of practical recognition of
the rights of women are multiplying
every year Philanthropists, and those
who would be reputed such, are turning
their attention more and more to the
pleading women, and making them oc-
casionally the special objects of their la
bors. The latest example of this is the
institution of free school of Design for
women, in the City of New York.
The primary object of the school is the
education Of women as designers for art
manufactures and book illustrations, as
engravers on wood, teachers, artists and
workers in various branches of industri-
al art. 1t already counts large number
Of pupils; many have been made compe-
tent teachers and obtained employment
assuch while numbers now support them
selves handsomely by designing and en-
craving. Such an institution is finely
adapted, not only to the wants but to the
peculiar genius of women. Their deli
cate touch, quick perception and uner-
ring sense of the beautiful, eminently
fit them for artistic occupations. Some
of the best wood engravers in France
are women, and they may soon look for
rivals in America.
The gradual elevation of the sex to
the height of their wishes proves what
we have claimed, that there is mean
inc in the woman's rights movement,
truthful meaning, which all earnest, gen
erous minds appreciate. Women are
certain, eventually, to receive the high
est culture, to be free agents in society,
and busy workers in all its schemes and
enterprises. Upon the claim to vote and
hold Office, some later generation than this
will decide Men and women both will
be. by that time better fitted to perform
those high functions of citizenship.
1t is enough for this generation if it
succeeds in helping woman to be some
thing more free and noble than she ever
was before, thereby still further emo
bling man, and infusing into his rude ma
ture, so given to broll and bloodshed,
some of her own exquisite gentleness
and humanity;
ssThe man be- more of woman. she OF man;
He gain in sweetness and in moral hight,
Nor lose the wrestling sinews of the world:
She mental breadth, fail in childward care
Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind;
r.rt A. lo-+ -l,ano r1o1f