The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-10-06
A Wonnn's idea.

A fine article in the October num-
Der of Demorest's Magazine is from the
pen of Mrs. Croly. We give few
extracts from it:
Who is it that buys all the sugar
plums that support our great confec-
tiouery shops-not such rs have
restaurants and "bars" attached, but
the simpler establishments where
only candies and confections and
crystalized sweetmeats are to be
found?
Why, women and children, of
course. Men occasionlly may be
seen going in or coming out of them,
but men are rarely seen eating can
dies. The package they purchase is
nearly always bought to take home to
wife children, or present to some lady
friend.
This fact illustrates q humilating
truth. Women have been fed on
confectionery until they have &C.
quired o distaste for more solid food.
In other words, they have been pet
ted and sweetened into compliance
with the wishes and authority of
men, until they have lost individuality
and self-respect, and dread nothing
SO much as the loss of their accns-
toned indulgence.
The first thing that young man
does when he proposes to girl is to
assure her he is willing to work for
and support her to the extent of his
means and ability to the end of his
natural life.
This assurance the girl receives in
perfect good faith, admiring lis dis
interestedness, and more than CRATE
full, as is the manner of women, for
his exceeding kindness in selecting
her, when, no doubt, he might have
had the choice of many prettier and
richer girls.
p The idea that prudence had any
thing to do with the matter on his
part never enters her mind. She
would Indignantly repel the intima-
ton that he had been confirmed in his
resolution of asking her to be his wife
by the thought that she would not
require too much of him, and could
give him all he wanted in the way of
household services at less cost than
he could get it in any other way.
In asking her to be his wife, he
proposes to support her, and even in
the church service magnifcently
offers to endow her with oil his
worldly goods goods that he does
not possess, and never will, unless
she assists him by her industry, thrift
and management.
What does "endow" mean, then,
and why is the word used at all?
The truth is, that it generally
means that the wife receives from
her husband whatever he has q mind
to give her, not as her right, but rs
his gilt, he retaining all the control
over his own property, and very often
assuming it over hers, if she happens
to possess any in her own right.
We have had no mind to ask the
price that many women pay for their
immunity from household drudgery,
for their exemption from absolutely
menial employment, for their privi-
lege of living in II house with n few
more rooms, for their costly ward
robes, for their rich jewels; but one
thing is certain, that all would be
given, and more, very often, for the
womanhood lost, for the sense of
perfect, absolute freedom.
For q paper of promised sugar
plums, which they may or may not
get, women barter in marriage their
most sacred right, their right over
their own persons, and the control of
their own actions.
A great deal is said about wo-
mans will, but in married life there
is but one will, and that one is that
of the man. Men sometimes make a
merit of yielding when they do not
care one way or the other, but if they
do, all the power on earth could not
turn them.