Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1869-07-28
CIT FREEMAN.
MONTPELIER Vr.:
WEDNESDAY, JULY %, 1869.
The Woman Question.

The woman question.
OLIVIA is the correspondence of the Phil
adelphia Press, and not being ambitious 10
have her :" sphere" extended, does not, like
the rival of her namesake, let concealment Of
her views prey on her damask cheek. After
insinuating that well-dressed women drink
and smoke publicly in the saloons of Chey-
enne, she says:
Here is an example of a city in the Union
where men and women stand upon the same
platform. Suppose suffrage for woman a
f~oregone conclusion in Cheyenne. who would
shut up the whisky shops? The brave pio-
neer women of Cheyenne usurp the power
for which their Eastern sisters are clamor-
ing. What is the moral difference between.
a lunch of the I" Woman's Club at Del
monico's, and Bologna sausages and gin at
CHEYENNE? In one case you see the stark
bare hideous claw that grapples the purest
instinct of human nature in the other it is
smothered in velvet and adorned with Jewels
How are we to know where the strength OF
sSorosis begins, and just where the
strength of - Sorus1s " ends?
"Club! Execrable word conceived in
iniquity, and brought forth in sin. Lunch
at D~elmonico's! Pretty woman making
speeches over toast and tea Diluted respect
able wickedness The Sorosis is the weak,
pulling infant the Cheyenne Sisterhood is
the stout, rollicking boy, capable of hitting
straight out from the shoulder. Both are
subjects of sorrowful contemplation but of
the two evils Cheyenne, Bologna sausages,
and gin is the least.
mans club leaves a woman to weep, else
her tears falling inward turn her heart to
stone. Woman's club, more refined and
Handiah vista IFS wrath NM tho hahiaS nf
tho land. Society tumbles Man falls upon
woman, brushes her. Woman falls upon
the children Chaos has come
What about women as public speakers :?
IF the Creator intended women for orators
why did he not give them voices for this
most desirable end? Talking upon the
boards of a theatre in brief sentences can be
done well by a female voice but the pro-
longed strength requisite for an oratorical
triumph, is beyond the ordinary power Of
woman.
1t is true the Lord has made Susan B. An
thony and Anna Dickinson, and a few others
of the same ilk but does it follow that we,
! who are women only, nothing more or less.
should split our Threats in the vain attempt
TO crow? Kate Field takes a chair and reads
her lesson like a dear little schoolgirl, and
if she does it well, let US all unite and give
her a medal ..
Is Susan B. Anthony to be held RESPONSE
bic for trying to lead her more ignorant sis
tiers astray? Let us visit her faults tender
ly. Baby-lips have never pressed her hard,
cold cheek. She has never tasted the sub
Unity of motherhood. She has never bathed
in that Unreasonable sea of glory whose
waves touch the gates of Paradise. Let us
kindly trust that she would not, for the sake
Of hpipn sent 70 COnnrosS knOEtnnlu add 70
the great mountain of ignorance and wrong.
Are we to be gamers by exercising the direct
right of suffrage? From our home under
the dome of the Capitol, watching the daily
scenes in the shifting political panorama, we
answer. No ten thousand times no To
Anna Dickinson's threadbare assertions,
hurled from the platform, and which would
find no ~listners if she were : old and ugly
- ssit ss.a ~ sEa3Ee p e sSSHn b T. A shd ny
does the bear at the menagerie, it certainly
excels anything of the kind ever attempted
before.
Olivia - could offer no better proof than
her own letter that the sex are really in need
of reconstruction of some kind. She starts
with an obscure story for a text. mistakes
assertions for arguments, and makes alto
gether too many of them. To begin with
how does she know who has or who has not
kissed Susan B. Anthony? "Hard, cold
cheek sounds very emphatic, and in this
particular instance may be true, but what
on earth has it to do with woman suffrage ?
Susan B. Anthony, according to " Olivia y
statement, does not neglect any one's babies
by attending the meetings of Sorosis, :" nor
do the unfortunate s sn flor y ~, s,ob oooo
sions than when their mothers pass their
time at sewing circles or any other places Of
wholesome resort for females. Whether wo-
men vote or not, they will c~ongregate for
amusement and chat, and even the dreadful
dissipation of tea and speechmaking, is bet
ter than tea and gossip. The discussion O.
rational topics, even if they are impractica
BILE, is likely to be more economical than dis
putes about fashions, and the copious illus
t~rations of the subject which the " girl o
the period hangs so profusely about he
figure.
The &" Sorosis " is no more to be compares
with the Cheyenne Sisterhood than the qui
ct, orderly community of a New Englan,
village with the rough desperadoes who haun
the outskirts of civilization.
1t is very true that the vast majority 0
women have neither the voice, the ability 0
inclination to make a speech, but how abou
the other sex? One man in many thousand
has a voice really fit for oratory, and not on
man in millions can reach the ears of
mighty throng as can Parepa, or many othe
women noted perhaps only in song, bu
whose natural qualifications are as availabl
for speech-making as music.
NWhen 1" Olivia - thinks that woman shouI
be kept where she belongs 81 she forget
that without the progress of the last few
years, it would have been impossible for he
to have laid her readable letters before tn
public in the Philadelphia, or any other
Press.