Litchfield enquirer., 1870-09-15

ways. Would you feel justified in reason ing to yourself thus about your sons? Would not your conscience upbraid you if you were to destroy their future prospects l in life for the sake of selfish pleasure and qualification in their society and assist ance? Of course it would. Now, to adopt the words of a recent writer on the sub ject, "i it is adding insult to injury to sim ply tell a girl, without giving aid or en- couragement, that the law will not prevent her from following the pursuit she wishes to, when she we'll knows that society will stare at her and hiss, like ill-mannered geese; that peacock men with microscopic souls will yelp like dirty CUTS; and last, but not least, that her time is occupied with domestic affairs, which she cannot leave without being accused of ingratitude and neglect, but which could be hired done, and would be, if she had hoppened to be . boy instead of girl"
 If the right of woman to work on equal terms with men, and as human being, is not recognized, what shall be done with the vast preponderance of women in the eastern States? The disproportion of the sexes IS growing larger every year, and some means must be taken to remedy. the evil, for evil it is, ln it's consequences. These women must labor, and if their la- bor is easy, hon norable, and remunerative, they will no longer be class to be regard ed with commisseration. They will all be merged in the great army of workers, of both sexes, but with identical interests. Then, too, another result is certain to fol- low. As these women workers go from shop to shop, from town to town, and from State to State, in pursuit of employment, we will find the number of the sexes be- ginning to equalize. There will be fewer women in the east, where they are not wanted, and the west, which is calling loudly for them, will becom supplied Then, in the natural order of things, Wo- men will find husbands, and men wives. l know of nothing more revolting to ones ideas and perceptions of womanly delicacy, than shipping women off by the hundred to the western States for the sole, ayowed purpose of getting them married. Yet what else can be done with the women, if their single object and vocation in life is to be married, and the women are on one side of country, and the men on the other? Obviously, if the men will not come for the women, the women must go to the men. But all this offending of wo- manly instincts will be avoided, if women are taught that it is possible for them to have some other object in life than the se. curing of a Husband. A woman may go to the antipodes in pursuit of business, and if there she meets the man whom des- tiny has intended for her, she may give herself to him without confusion, and he may receive her joyfully, thanking the means that brought her to him. If she does not meet him, she may walk on se- renely to the end of her life, feeling that it has not been marred by disappointment, and conscious of no shame which waiting without being sought is sure to bring.
 ! There are certain class who fear that in thus opening wide the doors to women, they will change their natures and be- will suffer by it. Do these people believe that women are only virtuous because they have no opportunities to be otherwise. A compelled virtue is scarcely better than no virtue. Be- sides if confinement and seclusion are the proper circumstances in which to de. velop womanly attributes and graces, the Odalisques of the harem ought to be pat tern women, but never heard that they were.
 | Women, it is safe to believe, will never leave their womaniness behind them, and wherever and whenever they come in con- tact with men, the influence of each upon the other will be restraining and benefi- cial. As have already said in previous essay, would have the two sexes educa- ted together, so in all positions in after life, l would have the two work side by side, mutually helpful and mutually help ed. -- ,...
 I That everything would not move smooth. ly in the first carrying out of this plan, it is possible to imagine. Indeed, we know it. The pioneers and heroines in the great struggle for the right to labor can tell us this. But they have fought, and constant ly conquered, and other recruits should come forward ready to fight to the end There may be brutes who. in their homes, abuse their mothers, wives, and sisters, and who, having no particle of chivalry about them may sometimes venture to in- suit those women with whom they come in contact in the work-room. But the popular sentiment would always be against them. And it should always be remembered that it is no harder for their workfellows to bear their abuse than for the women with whom they hold domestic relations-prob- ably not 80 hard. I:think, in strict justice, the question should be, not whether the victims should, on their account, be de- barred from an honorable and profitable means of support, and from the really ben efcial influence of the society of honorable men, but whether the offenders should not be banished from all places where they can give offence, and become the pariahs of society. If strict decorum be required, and the same riged rules for it's preserva- tion be enforced against one sex as against the other, the punishment to fall upon the guilty instead of upon the innocent, there will be little difficulty in the matter. The we'll disposed will not be molested, and the evil ldisposed will be cowed into sub- mission.
 It is not what woman does, but how she does it, which must be considered. It should be required only that she should do her work in 8 womanly way. Endurance, rather than strength, is her portion-feet- ness and delicacy rather than powsr-soft womanly graces, and virtues, instead of masculine boisterousness and masculine vices. In following the latter course the woman is lowered; in the former, the man who is her associate is palpably, though almost insensibly raised.
 The world needs women-true, generous, earnest, wise, and womanly, working wo- men. It needs them in it's public as we'll as it's private places, and it is calling for