The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-18
''THE sUBJBCTION OF wOMEN.o .
Are Women Physically on an EQUAL Footing
with Mon

N--N N@'-'''"'e' y NAA
Mills "Subjection of Women" we extract the
i jections to the doctrine of the equality of
/ women with men:-
But let us turn for one moment TO the
other view of the question. il is that woman
is q woman, and not lesser edition of man.
The competition in which we are forever Ia
/ boring to involve them has no existence in
4 nature. They are not rivals nor antagonists
They are two halves of @ complete beiAg.
The offices they hold in the world are essen
| italy different. There is scarcely any natural
standing ground which we can realize on
which these two creatures appear as rivals.
The very thought is preposterous. Shall the
! woman challenge the man TO a trial of
strength? Shall the man pit himself against
the woman for delicacy of eye and taste
! Shall she plough the heavy fields with him,
4 wading through the new-turned mould, or
! shall he watch the children with her, patient
through the weary vigil An exchange of
place and toll, the man taking the indoor
work and the woman the outdoor, in order
30 prove the futility of their mutual dscon-
tent, was favorite subject with the old
ballad makers; and the witty minstrel is gene
rally very great on the domestic confusion
that follows and gives the wife the best of it.
But the fact is that such rivalry can be
nothing but jest. The two are not rivals,
they are not alike. They are different crea-
lures. They are one.
To illustrate this theory, we have but to look
ut the life which they lead together. Civiliza-
4 ton has wonderful faculty for altering and
4 confounding the natural conditions of exist
j ence. But in primitive circumstances it is
al ways the man who is the bestower of mate
| rial advantages; it is his to give to provide
for, to labor, to protect. He is the bread
winner-the strength is his. 1t is he alone
| who without intermisson, can face the out
| side world, and force subsistence out of the
reluctant soil or the barren seas. When the
typical pair set out together who are to found
all human economies, all domestic relations,
and from whom the new life is to proceed
! and every new pair is but repetition of the
frst-nature places them at once with a cer-
tainty beyond theory in their traditional
places. The woman has an Office to perform
which renders unremitting labor impossible
to her. She is the fountain of life, bound
by all the laws of her nature to guard
the sacred seed and bring it forth to
crush the serpent's head and fill the
world with increase and gladness The man
shirk. And in the pride and JOY of her
special Office there mingles a sacred shame
which compels her to intervals of seclusion
and avoidance of the worlds gaze. Her life
is interrupted, broken up into morsels now
she can go forth, can work if it be needful,
can use in any way that may be necessary the
faculties that God has given her; and anon
there comes time in which all such labors
must be suspended in consideration of some
thing else which God has given her to do
But the man has no Interruptions to his life;
his strength is steady without breach or varia-
tion What partnership is there that can have
any analogy with this? Let us suppose that
they labored together in their Eden a little
while, scarcely knowing which was which in
fTct at 11Dlt Of hain0
time came when he went out alone to labor,
and she in her sanctity of weakness stayed at
home. When he returned, how could it be
otherwise than that the one for whom he had
been toiling all day should meet him with
Offices of service, with domestic ministratlons,
with grateful lessening Of herself and magni-
fying of him? Frona that moment must not
equality have fed to the winds like all other
foolish pretenses? The man was out all day toll
ing struggling, meeting the winds and the
storm, the sun beating on his head, the
powers of nature resisting him; what could
he be but king when he returned to that first
hut or hovel and stretched out his weary limbs
by the new-lighted fire? Service was his due.
The food he had earned, must it not be
offered to him, with observances copied afal
off from those with which the gifts of His
giving were offered back again to God The
imagination refuses to believe 10, refuses tC
frame, any other conception. His inferior
that might or might not be-but his servant
yes-his minister, the natural Second, the
born solace and consolation. When we cas-
our ewes back to the primeval husband an(
wife-when we turn to any subsequent pal
who have ever set out upon the world lik
Adam and Eve, we find the same course o
events recurring in infallible sequence. Thi
is fact and nature, let theory say what it will
The woman in such union is in no wa
called upon to be the mans inferior. Sh
NAV be intellectually his superior even
and it will not change the course of ma
ture. She will serve him should all tn
world interfere to prevent her. She vii
spread his table, and watch his wishes
and give him of his own, with rites of graft
tude, with flowers and incense, and Who'll
liturgy of ministration. Eve would have don
il had Mr.. Mill been there ever so distinctly
shaking his head at her, and bidding her re
member the rules of equality. Equality
What does it mean? Has it any existenc
as between any two people in intimate reli
tions on the face of the earth And were
established over and over, were 1T measurab
by line and weight like any tangible materia
what place is there for its consideration bC
tween the two thus linked and bound tC
pether, the one the supplement of the other
Man goes out to his work and labor till th
evening Woman prepares for him, waits fo
him. serves him at home. So natural is thii
that when, as the case may be, 1T is woma
who is the bread-winner for household c
women. the worker is turned into an in
promptu superior on the spot, and serve
and waited on as the man In other circun
stances is waited on and served. 1t is IL
hive of the lahorar the reward of the ORE