Litchfield enquirer., 1871-05-25
8ittg6tl0 Gngairer
LitchfleId. Thursday, May 25. 1871
Ought Women to be Cowards ?

hand, sharply repro7ed the boys and shamed then
 into good behavior. -C0urant.
 Had this brave little Meriden lady beer
 few years older, her courageous ac
 wcnld have remained undone. Cowardic, c IS as sedulously trained into woman as it ii ont of man. The vice which is held mos
 disgracefnl of all in the one actually be comes an '' accomplishment" of the other The chief aim of "the girl of the period ,dbeing to fatter man, she soon learns tha
 her safest made of accomplishing this is te put on the little airs of dependence which are esteemed so becoming in the pretty and young of her sex. The very contempt in which the male Airt holds the female specimen, lays him the more open to this style of attack. She feels sure that how. ever wide.awake he may be to any othe, species of deception, she can always cheat him with the pretty pretence of reliance on his protecting arm." But bye and bye the cowardice which is at first assumed, ! becomes real. and the trick by which wo- man attracts lover or gains husband grows into a permanent defect.
 .1 Itwould be very unjust, however, to at- 7 tribute all, or even most, female cowardice to fraudulent beginnings. Physical weak ness and inexperience combine to produce that efssiaacy which is commonly sup posed to be an ineradicable feminine char acteristic. That there is natural differ ence between the physical courage of the sexes, about equal to that of physical strength. is very probable. That this nat ural difference in strength is far less than would appear from comparison between the average American male and the aver age American female, is evident from a single look at the men and women who emigrate from European countries where the habits of the latter lead to their full muscular. development. And in this case, as we might expect, physical courage keeps pace with physical strength. While the American wife would as soon think of firing a field-piece as of resisting brutal hus. band, the Irish wife always makes plucky and often successful defence. Indeed, the physical courage thatcan fight against 6 preponderence of strength so great as to render the attempt utterly hopeless, is not often found in either sex.
 ef Insxperience, too, accounts for much of woman's cowardice, as it accounts for much of mans cowardice. How raw recruits meet danger is well enough known; and in the presence of every danger, real or seem- ing, woman is the raw recruit, man the veteran. Above all, the public disgrace and secret shame attendant upon cowadice in man, early fortifies his heart against it. Woman has no such advantage. To her, / cowardice may now and then seem incon- venient, she is never made to understand that it is a crime.
 The mischievous effects of this physical cowardice stand terribly in the way of every effort woman can make towards indepen- !denoe and self-support. Imagine young man with his way to make in the world, who dares not go out unattended after dark. who is afraid to travel alone, who can not even prick finger without screaming!
 sa The worst effects of female cowardice are to be seen in cases where their legal and social protectors turn oppressors. Was it the christian duty of the Brooklyn wife, spoken of by Mir. Bacon in the sermon we printed last week, to get her husbands linen ready for his elopement, as com- manded? Or are wives to seek training for the possibilities of their condition at the shooting gallery rather than at the church? A still more striking instance of the evil effects of female cowardice, is to be found in the horrible case which SO lately startled and horriaed the people of Litchfeld Coun- ty. Yet such are the habits of society that the cowardice of a wife who refuses to bring criminal husband to justice, is ex- cused and even justified The law, even now, refuses to allow her to testify against him. Indeed it excuses her for crimes committed in his presence on the degrad- ing hypothesis that such is her physical cowardice that she must be presumed in such case not to be free moral agent.
 If the natural difference between the sexes in physical courage does indeed exist to the full extent claimed by conservatives, then let our girls be carefully trained with special reference to the modification of the infrmity. Let them be taught that cow ardice is wicked as we'll as disgraceful, and let them be gradually accustomed to such exercises as require nerve, steadiness, nrmness and courage. That woman can acquire such virtues, the records of the early settlement of our American colonies and States sufficiently prove. Nothing
 would more surprise the hardy and courage
 sgeous wife of first settler, could they set
 the United States of our day, than the eftem
 macy of their own great-great-granddaugh
 ters.
 While we would commend change o
 of law to the legislature rather than pisto g practice to the wives of Connecticut. VI.