Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1860-03-03


their husbands, and their princesses wef'
trained to the use of arms IN the Maiden''
Castle at Edinburgh and ID tie Isle Skye
The Moorish wives and maidens fought il
defence Of their European peninsula; anc
1.-The Portngese women fought, on the same
soil. against the armies Of Philip Ii. The
king of Siain has at present body guard
Of four hundred women; they are armee
with lance and rifle. are admirably dlscl
plined, and their commander (appointef
after saving the kings life ata tiger hunt,
ranks as one of the royal family and hs:
ten elephants at her service. When the
all conquering Dahomiao army MAJ ched
upon Abbeokuta, in 1851, they numbered
ten Thousand men and six thousand WON
ZEN; the women were, as usual, placed fore
most in the assault, as being most reliable
and of the eighteen hundred dead bodies
left before the walls, tho vast majority
were Of women. The Hospital of the
Invalids. 10 Paris, has sheltered, for bali
a century, fine specimen of female
soldier, :. Lieutenant Madame Bulan,
now eighty-three years old, decorated by
Napeleon's own hand with the Cross oil
the Legion of Honor, and credited on the
bospithl DO oks with /" seven years service,
seven campaigns, three wounds =
several times distinguished, especially in
Corsica, in defending a fort against the
English" Bet these cases, though inter
estlug TO the historian, are still exceptional
and the instructive repugpance they inspire
is condemnatory, not of women, but OF
war.
The reason, then, for the long subsection
Of woman has been simply that humanity
was passing through its first epoch, and
her full career was to be reserved for the
second. As the different races of man
have appeared successfully upon The stage
of history, so there has been an order OF
succession Of the sexes. Woman's appointed
era, like that of the scandinavian tribes,
was delayed, but not omitted. 1t 10 not
merely true that the empire of the past
has belonged to man, but that it has prop.
erly belonged TO him; for it was an EN-
pire Of the muscles, enlisting at best but
the lower powers of the understanding. -
There can be no question that the present
epoc is initiating an empire OF the high
er reason, of arts, affections, aspirations
and for that epoch the genius of woman
has been reserved, The spirit Of the aye
has always kept pace with the facts, and
oulstripping the statutes. Till the full!
ness of time came, woman was necessarily
kept a slave TO the spinning wheel and
the needle; now higher work is ready
peace has brought invention to her aid
and the mech suical meads for lier emsn.
cpation a,e ready also. No use in re
leasing her, till man, with bis strong arm
had worked out his preliminary share IN
Earth waits for her queen
was favorite motto Of Margaret Fuliers
Int would be more correct TO say that tue
onear has waited for Der earth, till IL coo
be smaothed and prepared for occupancy
Now Cinderella may begin to think O
putting on her royal robes.
Ever, body sees that the times are al,
tering the whole material position Of wo.
man; Tut most persons do not appear tc
see the inevitable social and moral chang
es which are also involved. As has beeu
already said, the won an Of ancient history
was slave to physical necessities, both
in war and peace. In war, she could dc
too little; in peace she did too much, under
the material compulsions which controlled
the world. How could the Jews, for in.
stance, elevate woman9 They could mol
spare her from the wool aud the flax and
the candle that goeth ont by night. Ii
some, when the bride first stepped acros'
her threshold, they did not ask her, D.
you know the alphabet? they asked simply
Can you spin! There was no higher
epltaph than Queen Amalasontha's,--
Doma.fa seruayit, londna fecit. In Baota
brides were conducted home in vehicles
whose wheels were burned at the door, il
token that they were never to leave The
house again. Pythagoras instituted a
Croiona an annual festival for the dIstatf'
Confucius, in China did the same for the
spindle: and the celebrated not the free
dom, but the serfdom of woman.
And even into modern days this same
tyrannical necessity has fingered. sc
spin, you jades! go spin!' was the onl,
answer youchsated by the Earl of Penn
broke to the twice banished nuns of Vii
ton. And even now, travellers agree tina
lhroughsu civilized Europe, with til,
partial exception Of England and France
the profound absorption of The mass o
women in household labors renders thei
elevation impossible. But with us Amer
cans, and 10 this age, when all these vas
labors are being more and more transferred
TO arms of brass and iron,-when Roch
ester grinds the flour, and Lowell weave.
the cloth, and the fire on the hearth goes
into black retirement and mourning
wnen the wiser virgin i, the less she has
10 do with oil in her lamP,-when the
needle has made its last dying speech
and confession 10 the Song of the Shirt, :
and The sewing machine las changed those
dol6fuI marches to delightful measures
how i 1t possible for the blindest to help
seeing that a new era is begun, and that
the time has come for woman to learn the
alphabeis
Nobody asks for any abolition of domes-
tic labor for women, any more than o.