Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-12-15

tnC annual gdtnCGlug was CLOSED by Inc singing
Of "Auld Lang Syne, in which all joined
Mrs. LIvEMoRE's LECTURE.-The lecture
in the Mechanics course last evening drew as
many to the hall as could find room in the seats,
and OF those who were compelled to stand a
sufficient number TO fill the space under the gal
eres on each side. The time from the opening
Of the doors until Mrs Livcrmore began her lee
ture was occupied by Mr.. VIM. 3. S+eekwell of
MHlbury, at the organ. Mr.. Stockwell has
never before played in Mechanics hail; but his
efforts of last evening so pleased the audience
that he will undoubtedly be in demand on flu
ture occasions.
Mrs. Lvcmorc was introduced to the audi
ence by Mr.. d. 5. Goddard, who announced the
fact that the next lecture would be in just two
weeks, although it was not yet known by
whom, for Hon. Thomas Fitch, whose name is
on the ticket for the 2Sth, has been retained as
counsel for Brigham Young, and cannot for that
reason keep his engagement TO lecture here The
lecture at that time will nevertheless be one of
equal interest, Mr. Goddard assured the audience.
The title OF Mrs. Livermorc's lecture was ),
"What shall we do with our daughters" and
her answer to the question, as it appeared
through the lecture, left the impression that
what she would have done, would be to give
them better physical training, dress them more
seDsibly, admit them to all the institutions of
learning, on an equal footing with boys, and (of
cOursel give them the right to vote. In pre-
senting the necessity for all this, she gave her
listeners most interesting lecture, something
over an hour in length, full of animoton, and
repIetc with beautiful passages.
Before coming directly to the question, she
spoke Of the opposition which Margaret Fuller
met quarter Of century ago, when she put
her writings before the public, claiming for
woman what reason shows plainly to be her
natural right; and traced the condition of
woman through the different ages of the world
from abject slavery to the age of their treatment
as something ETHEREAL by the chivalaous knights
Of the middle ages Both extremes she sad,
had prevented woman from showing what she
really was; but now woman's hour has come,
and she was determined TO plead for the girls
who are growing up. She had a desire, she
said. to lecture upon this same subject two
years ago, but was held back by her friends; and
again last year she had the same intention,
but was told that she would do more harm than
good-that the time had not come, and like dis
couraging things; but now she determined at
all hazards TO raise her voice for our daughters.
The adult woman, she said, has her future al
ready forecast, she is chained down, and cannot
rise above her fate, but of the daughters grow
ing up there is some hope; and mothers must
be shown what can be done, that they may
strive to see their daughters and their daughters
daughters enjoying their rightful places in the
community The question is not making an
uproar and commotion; it is working itself into
prominence more silently than the vexed one of
the Alabama claims, but although it comes with
out connection, it is one OF the strongest ques-
tions of the dav she assured her audience.
She had nerved herself to meet opposition, she
said but had met with none, and found that she
could safely lay by her armor and go on with
the work. Her experience had been one of fifty
one years, and even before she had daughters of
her own, she had experience to enable her to
gain knowledge on the sublect-for she had de-
voted much of her time to teaching the children
OF other mothers. There were some, she doubted
not, who thought that the time bad not come
for plain talk upon the matter, and that it was
not wholly proper before an audience. but she
saw immodesty in such modesty, and felt that
the time had fully come for plain talk.
That there was plenty to do for men in tbc
way of making them better, she was aware
but they have had the world to themselves and
have done as they chose for all past time, and
therefore she would devote her remarks to the
correction Of some faults in the training of wo-
men. She had been many times to agricultural
and horticultural meetings, and seen the earn
estness with which people discussed the meth
DDS OF improving stock and fruits; but had
never seen the least effort of inquiry into the
matter Of raising better race Of men and wo-
men. She dwet upon the condition of degrad-
ed and fallen ones, whom she said were in many
cases mortgaged to the devil when they were
born, and find their sinful lives inevitable; they
were doomed to go through the world suffering
for the sins of their parents, and classed them
with those born delormed and dotic, of whom
she said the best thing God could do for them
was to give them death. Their condition was
due 10 the violation of some law of nature, and