Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1871-02-03
What Gail Hamilton Thinks of
her Sex

Oan Hamilton, IN the NdspCHdcHt, has a
confidential chat with her sex. She says:
Perhaps 1 may be permitted to say, at tie
outset, that this paper, and several others
which will follow it, arc intended exclusively
for women. Men may consider themselves
not only discharged from any fanciei obliga-
tion to read it, but respectfully requested no;
to read 1t, for to them it will be but SAVIOR
of death unto death. The truth which it
contains, and which it is hoped may be
wholesome when applied in the proper quar-
ter, will only minister 10 their selt-loyo, and
tend TO turn away their eyes from beholding
their own yanities, and fix them upon the
yanities Of their sisters, result which is
beneficial to neither
To women only let me suggest that, in
planning for the world as it ought TO be. VIC
should never forget the world as it is If
woman has never vet been ranked according
10 the real standard Of valuation, We may
vet make the most Of her according to the
lower standards. Always remembering that
a state of repose, ease and leisure is that for
which woman was dIyinely designed. let u
lay aside for ;he present all thought and all
talk Of what would be necessary or unneces-
sary for her in that condition. and speak only
of woman as they are in this hard, exacting
present stage of the worlds progress.
Granting and affirming that woman ought 10
live outside of the law of trade, it is none the
less true that, If she puts herself or is
brought within the scope Of those laws, she
must conform TO them. Granting and assert
ing that woman ought not to do mans work,
it is none the less true that if she docs it.
she must do it in mans way, or suffer the
consequences. The products Of her toll the
value Of her labor must be brought into
direct comparison with those of man, and he
Judged solely by their worth, not by the
weakness surmounted in the doing.
The ignorance. the inexactness, the un-
trustworthiness, the unbusiness-like ways of
women are appalling when You look at them
from the commercial point OF view Men are
as bad rs they can be, one is sometimes tempt
ed to say but apparently they cannot be SO
bad as women in these respects. Long ages of
experience have, at l. asst, educated them into
a consciousness Of the difference between YES
and no; but women have yet to learn that they
are not one and the same word. The carpenter
promises to finish your new porch by a GER
tain time. lie runs weeks behind hand
and when. at length, the porch is finished,
the rain sweeps in at every seam and pours
in at every JOINT But he has the grace to
be ashamed. lie knows that it is poor work
and tardy work. and he takes care to bring in
his bill when you are not at home
But women Look you blandly in the face
and are not ashamed. They seem to lack a
moral sense, or a mental PERCEPTION, or what
ever faculty is which makes one capable Of
contracting an engagement. They DO not
comprehend its nature. 1t has for them no
more binding force than a rope Of sand.
They break it with a serene unconsciOusness
that anything is broken, or that there was
anything to break. ! do not refer now to
the female portion of our foreign population.
No one expects to find there scrupulous
adherence to truth. But the Anglo-Saxon
race is, | believe, considered to be beyond all
other races truthful and when a we'll
dressed and respectable American woman
who knows how to read and write, and be-
longs to the church, and goes to the sewing
society, and changes her gown in the after
noon when she promises to 20 east, and
calmly turns about and walks west, and does
not see that there is anv discrepancy, does
not tear her hair, OF send in her confession
to the church, You say at once that there is
missionary ground. Such a woman. after as
much deliberatiOn as she may choose, engages,
without condition, to come into your service
on a certain day, to remain for a fortnight on
trial. and then to decide whether she will
continue or reliuquish it, This Is not an
ordeal 50 severe that human nature cannot
be expected to meet it. 1t is not promise
for life, but for a fortnight. Yet, day OF
two before the appointed time, she sends YOU
word that she cannot come, because her son
wants her to keep house for him She does
not see that her word is of more consequence
than her wish, let alone her sons She does
not see that, even if she repented of her bar
gain, it is too late to withdraw from it, She
does not see that her engagement to
stranger is a reason why she cannot make an
engagement with her son, but that her wish
to make an engagement with her son is DO
reason why she should cancel her engagement
with the stranger. The very slightness Of
her promise increases the enOrmitY of break
ing it. 1t is but small thing for the sons
housekeeping to be fortnight delayed, and
her engagement only lasts so long. Doubt
less request on her part for release from
the promise would be instantly granted but
she does not value her word highly enough
to make that little exertiOn to keep 1t.
A young woman, bright, sensible and
American, makes a similar promise, and breaks
it in similar manner; except that she gives
no reason at all. She simply and succinctly
says. ." | have concluded not to work for
YOU" But he has formally concluded and
engaged that she would work for you. To
person properly constituted or properly
taught an engagement could not have two
conclusions.
" her the first promise was made, there
was an end of the matter. 1t was no longer
an open question. 1t had passed beyond her
control No matter how much she might
have regretted the decision, woman who
comprehend the nature of an engagement
would not recall it. Ii takes two persons to
make bargain, says the old adage; and 1t
also takes two honorably to break it.
And. still further, to show how completely
childish they are in recognition or non-recog-
milton Of obligation, these very persons will
come 20 you, who have come to me, and,
repenting themselves of their change of mind,
ask you second time to take them into your
sersice, Just as innocently as if no display OF
Punic faith had ever been made
Now. the first thing which would do to-
ward the amelioratiOn OF the condition OF
woman-the redress Of her wrongs and the
eniorcament of her rights-the very FIRST
measure | would adopt to enable her to OBJ
tain an honorable independence when an
honorable dependence was not possible.