New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-01
OF TREE LORE. FIkdLLY.


word to say, and would doubtless continue to
have them forever. if THE TRIBUNE could af-
| ford her space for The qualification of a morbid
| vanity. We print this morning her post-ultl-
mate manifesto, (Which wo shall make her last
word, for the present, IN these columns) and
shall give bat brief comment upon It, AS
she objects to being treated courtcousiy, seeing
only poison in civil words, We viii not waste
any phrases in compliments
| Her letter shows dangerous symptoms OF a
dcarth of catch-w0rGS. She used them so lib
orally in former letters that the vail where
| with she and her class are accustomed to
conceal their ideas has become somewhat tat
| tered, and allows occasional glimpscs of I'M
wholesome fancies which are not fit for the
columns of journal that, like THE TRIBUNE,
goes into tens of thousands of families. There
is sediment of practical principles pre-
cipitated by our criticisms from the muddy
medium where they were held in solution,
which we need simply to state, and which
do not require rcfutation. After stating
that Free Love is the only valid marriage,
Mrs. Davis asks the practical question, "Who
"shal determine where marriage shall exist,
the nan or the woman ?" The answer is
prompt and categorieal-the woman, of course
"She bears and nurses the children Yin fact,
the family is none of mans business. When
the question is asked which suggests it
self to any sane person, what would
become of the fruits of these capricOus con-
nections, Mrs. Davis answers with a serene
faith which makes ordinary human nature
ashamed of itself, a am not afraid to trust
"human nature in freedom. Love will find
ats own way to take care of children" When
the world became one vast founding hospital,
it is possible that the race would have to
choose between organization or extinction.
But it would be hard Oh the babies for the
first century or two.
Mrs. Davis insists upon it that she has q
platform, and this is what it comes to: 1.
Woman Suffrage: moment before she wanted
exclusive control of laws affecting social rela-
tons now she claims only share. 2. She
wants us to assist women in getting an educa
ton and means of subsistence this is an
impertincnce TIE TRIBUNE has done what
it could in this fcld-certainly more than all
the Free Love leaders and Eorgans COM
bined, from their beginning until now. g. She
wants change made i'll the allusiOn to
worldly goods in the marriage service Of
the Episcopal Church This is so deliciously
feminine and foolish that we wish we could
OblGe her. But she must talk to the Bishops
about it. 4. She has a proposition against
children being born under certain circum-
stances which is too sentimental and scientific
for her to explain, or for us to understand
without explanations which we would rather
not hear But the fifth article of her creed
1, TIL &C II
1t embraces everything; each line contra
diets the preceding. Woman has as good
right to divorce as man. Divorced people
are not to marry again. Divorced people are
not to refrain from marrying. If they marry
again, 1t is renewed slavery. They shall do
Just as they like but they had better not,
unless they want to. At this point, Mrs. Davis,
growing desperate in the tangles of her pro-
blem, has a Happy Thought worthy of Bur
nand, and proposes that we shall all stop mar
rying for thirty years-just for a flyer. This
smOOths out everything beautifully, and Mrs.
DAVIS sails to the end OF her letter with a fair
breeze and swelling canvas. II is not possible
for any words of ours to give so vivid an i'm
preston of the utter absurdty of this crazy little
sect, az will be derived from this preposterOus
fantasy of their flattercd and trusted leader.
She says: "FOr myself, firmly believe that
" if not another child were born, either In out
of wedlock for the next thirty years, that, so
far as population is concerned, the world
would be better off than to go on multiply
cling moral monstrosities and physical de-
" formities. During that time, women would
"learn to be self-supporting, self-protecting,
self-contained; making their homes, as
"thousands of single women now do, beauti-
"ful, tasteful, even elegant, with small
"means Women easily gather about
"them the Lares and Penates the Or
"phaned child, the old, WORKOUT parent, the
"helpless and weak, even the Outcast Pariah,
"is cared for and saved in such homes. This
"would teach men truth and purity; such
"purty for themselves as they demand In the
"women they marry. When this obtains, then
"there can be pure love, free relations between
the sexes. If this is all IDEAL, permit me to
"say that, if our ideal is high, our lives will be
"cOrrespondingly elevated After this, does
it not seem that all argument may well be
dispensed With Before a folly so fantastic,
no sentiment is possible but pity not
entirely free from disgust. Here is
woman Of pure heart but limited
capacity, who has been led by idleness and
ennui to amuse herself with the propagation
of this pestilent novelty. In her hands, 1t be-
comes pale, bloodless, anemc insanity, an
absurd Malthusian dream of thirty years of abso-
Lutte conference.-the abolition of love and
marriage from the world for a lifetime. But
in the last issue of the organ of tho faith,
published by her friends and stanch colleagues,
who exemplify untlinchngly in their lives the
theories they profess, the promiscuous COM
merce of the sexes is justified and defended. One
of them, who is man, speaking of the FALLEN
SISTER, says, "Down in her SOUL she Is
conscious that she is as GOOD as anybody