Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-12-23
More Plain Talk to Women by sShir-
ley Dare"

"SHIRLEY DARE" says n good many
sensible and truthful things about females
of to-day, some of which we have pub
lshed before. L following is the latest
in letter from New York 10 the Cbica-
60 Republican:
This is the time to say what strongly
stirred me at a late meeting eff some Wo-
mans Rights Society in New YORK -
Two women, married, mothers, cu'tivat
ed and liberalized, both of them in.
Weighed against the notion that physical
strength was essential or even desirable
for tho sex. 1t took away from their
mental power and external beauty, and
made them less vau bic rs companions
Of men, less amusing and fascinating
They were in danger of becoming mere
workers and drudges, instead of holding
the highest inches in society. A great
deaof iuorganized swearing went through
my mind on hearing this; and if the
women who uttered the words had not
been twenty years my senior. they would
have heard an energetic protest against
such heresy. The worst enemy woman
every had brealhed such dogmas into
their heads. In the name Of fascination,
what power, what witchery on earth is
there like health and capability to work
The divinity Of Christeniom is work
ingwomen. Whatever one may say
about the shrewish type of Madonna
usually seen, the physical form is adapted
to lifelong hard work. Such a woman,
with the vitality apparent in her figure,
could not be lille. Were Iitinn's Bella
Donna, with the lovely arch eyes taken
from her portrait, and placed in society
of the middle class to day, by virtue of
her round waist, firm shoulders, and the
perfect health visible in that sha1ess
countenance, she would be capable of do
ing the housekeeping for five in the fami
", and attending .Sorosis beside. What
do the women mean? Don't they know
that their empire of the senses of man,
their lowest, and some say strongest, hold
of privilege, depends on their spirits and
beatty aud endurance, all of which can
not live without physical strength! 1t
is glory to see q we'll formed. healthy
womaa, with spirit in her eye, and the
crimson of health in her check, and
care not what ether charm a woman
may show, his mere rude health, as the
foolish creatures love to call it, will con-
test them all. Strength means every-
thing to a woman. 1t is clearness Of
mind to plan and plot with that admira-
bic artifice which seems to charm men
by its suppleness; it means nerves not
easily crossed, and temper not only
smooth but lively, arch and surprising.
1t means ready head and hand for evsTy
new scheme of delight; it gives the tire.
less dancer, the busy walker, tho noun
tain climber, the girl who can stand two
miles in street car without growing sal
low and faint and ill-tempered. Ele-
gance at thirty, forty. and the embon-
point at fifty; a wife who can be anus.
ing ms well as judieious; mother who
captivates her children, these are gifts of
sublime fascination, for which all men
would exchange faint cheeks and collar
bones, and spirits of high tone," with
any amount of noble unrest, and pro.
erosion, aud spiritual development, as
these things are now. Most of the pro-
gressivo spirit and aspirations of women
mean one of two things-either they
havn't money enough, or they have dys-
pepsia and poor muscles. Their minds
ferment and turn slightly sour-of course
not without some force and explosion.
Never fear becoming drudges IL YOU are
strong enough to work. Women want
to be strong enough to command their
own way. | never knew an active
healthy woman who didn't have her own
way in her own household willingly
yielded TO her. Men can afford to be
unhealthy, but women canuo'.
In = recent ISSUE. the Scientific Anaer-