The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-04-15
IHE WOMAN OF THE PERIOD
BY A WOMAN.

of the period, under the title of F" Mems
Rights She says:
To speak plainly, believe that the old
type of the woman. whose real life comes
70 her through the love of home, husband
and children, is irrevOcably fixed by'nature
in the heart of all men, and the majority OF
women, as the h CHEST and best
\ Now for the woman developed by the So
called progress of the age:
The most salient and apparent change in
women in the last few years II don't say the
deepest) is not advance in intelligence.
marked rs that may be; it is the growth of
impurity. 1t is simply transient effect OF
this reused and unqualified brain power
The ordinary London or New York woman
| is too far advanced in the progress of the
age to find employ ment for her awakened
| imagination or reason in housekeeping or
| in gossip; too little 10 turn TO art or science
or even downright hard business. In self
defence. then, she listens to lascivious music.
| or looks at the living pictures of the ballet,
where her passions AT least are daintily
played upon. She reads, or writes, as the
case may be, novels in which few of the men
are honest, and none of the women virtu-
Gus. or advancing a step further, she finds
that but mean and ignoble life for wo-
man which is sacrificed 10 the children
whom God has given her; and, on aesthetic
| principles, quietly does her share in build
ing up the temples TO murder, that openly
face US in our most crowded streets
| | began with an extreme case? Perhaps
| so. Yet hunger is not choice in its food. and
| there is reason to doubt whether the ordina-
| ry aliment of all women in literature or art,
! now, Is whit more pure and wholesome
than that of men, course as We declare their
| appetites TO be.
| There is a class of subjects, the name OF
which would bring the red TO the old lady's
! cheek yonder. but with which il is the fash
/ ion OF the day to make young girls thorough
/ ly conVersant. There Is no need TO send
| Nelly out of the room now, no matter what
| topic the matrons may discuss. The terra
iRccglitd of our grand mothers is well-trod
Chen ground to her at sixteen.
How can it be otherwise?
She finds not only men, but women whose
names are tainted, among the leaders of
fashionable society; she sits beside her
mother, and sees her smiling at the bald in
| decency OF opera bouffe without 4 blush !:
! she hears the social evil'' coolly discussed
| as a social necessity. 1t is no wonder, then,
that night after night. Nelly herself may be
seen. with back and bosom half-bared.
whirliDg and perspiTing in Dick French's
! arms, while her mother looks placidiy Oh
/ If hint my disgust, am told severely that
! to the pure all things are pure. and that the
/ obscene play and the waltz that sets Dick
/ FreHch's blood on fire. if looked on Hstheti-
/ cally, are. TO women, refined and innocent
pleasures.
/ doubt if any man believes this. IT, for
/ lack of pure occupation for their brains and
| senses, women of society bring this offal TO
/ pollute their daily lives, they need not sup
! pose that any affected ignorance or aesthetic
! sunlight will hide the real nature of the sub
| stance from the men about them. Dick
| French, worn roue that he is. has Joined the
school of the criJic of the Saturday Review.
| He asserts that all women are represented
/ 10y these. He hints that he understands the
! lures that these decOltettee bellies put forth.
Its cursed hard on a fellow" he saws
The extravaganza of these women won't
! allow a man TO marry yet they tempt him
| to do it with all the arts of the worst of the
! demi-mode.' Then he and his compeers adj
justed their eyeglasses, and lean against
| dooT-ways, criticizing the PAGES of the deli
! cate yonng girls who are hurled past rs a
trader might the slaves in the market.
| French goes too far. My little Nelly is
not in the market; she has her secret inno-
cent dream of true love and marriage some
| day, hid away in her heart. There is not
\ one of Tench's crew whom she would mar
~. When she unclOthes herself immodest-
/ y and surrenders her person to their touch,
| sue has no Interior purpose beyond the ulte-
| rior pleasure of the moment. Custom has
| made her eyes familiar with indecency-
worn away the defensive instinct of purity
with which every woman is born; but that
| is the worst that can be said of her. ct, If
| her own blood be such ice that the exposure
| of her person has no power to bring a blush
| to her cheek, does it matter nothing to her
| that pleased, uncleau eyes rest on her, that
| half of the men who look on her mistake
her motives, and pity the degradation she
| undergOes in her effort to please them?
| [ use coarse language. The times are
| coarse. The state of society which ca II make
| "A Swinburne possible can bear a few plain
words without detriment to its modesty. 1t
| is true that the evil is as yet confined TO our
| large cities. God forbid that the fashiona-
| bic. fast girl of New York or Chicago should
! be received as the typical woman of Amer
| ica She bears the same proportion to the
women of the States that the feverish out
! break on the face does TO the whole, healthy,
| sweet blooded body. But this society AS
sumes to stand foremost in refinement and
culture, and cannot object to have its claims
tested Besides, the feverish faint will
spread.
| Men, think, have some claim to be heard
| In this matter. The most debased among
them will hold one thing sacred-the honor
| of his wife. He has right to demand that
| it come to him untainted. Dull and plain
fellow as Is John, he has right to claim
| from the woman whom he marries, and
| from the mother who rears her. that she
shall not have been put in the market to pa
rade her shape like an animal; that she
| shall not have had her person handled by
every roue who frequents the ball room /;
that lie shall not receive her hackneyed and
| brazen from fiirtations, and that her mind
shall be clean as her body.
This is a return to old-fashioned prudery.
| Yes. If the esth 1tic culture of to-day de-
mands the exploration of such foul fields by
| our young girls. and if on the other hand,
| the necessity for wilder careers for woman
is TO render motherhood the rare luxury
which it has become in New England. let
| U.s. in the name of the good, pure God, go
humbly back to the stagnation OF our grand
mothers.
know quite well the answer ready for
me. 1t is not women who have first faint
| ed society and literature; it is not weak,
starving, ill-paid women who are to blame
/ for this Gehenna Of prostitution that under
lies our social fabric.
do not think that the guilt of man has
/ anything to do with the responsibility of
women To our own master we stand or
| fall. We have always claimed TO be the
moral element in humanity. The claim was
never made so loudly as it is now by our
| spokeswomen. Her right" says one of
| the most Tnest, lis to be ministered unto
in spiritual things" Another portrays We
| nality disappearing from thu courts, bribery
| from the halls of legislation, trickery from
| trade, so soon as her pure foot shall be ad-
United over the thresholds. Evil shrinks
away abashed before the steps of the ideal
| woman
But the real? Men have a right. when
claims like these are made, ~ demand their
proof. We who boast of white garments
must show them white. How can we ask
for the ten talents to be given to US, when
we grow less and less able TO hold that one
talent of purity committed to our keeping 7
| Here is a reform more urgent than any
which will follow suffrage; yet women shut
the eyes to the bare facts, and hurry by.
We have heard OF painful rumor to the
effect that one evening last week in quar-
| rel between them, at the house Of DIR. Ham
met, at Maryland Landing, in Issaquena
county, Mr.. AlfSmith was killed by Doctor
Hammet- We were unable TO learn the
cause which led to the commission of this
melancholy and lamentable act, and have
only the bare statement that for some cause,
DR.. Hammet, shot and killed the gentleman
named. Mr.. Smith was q son Of the late
senior member Of the well known legal
firm Of Smith & Nugent. who was himself
killed few weeks since by negro-vicks-