The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-07-15
A Higher Culture for Woman.

In his speech at the anniversary Of the
Packer Institute in New York, George
William Curtis said:
All that was best in old times we have
into the Packer Institute and find Lady
Jane Grey studying the classics. l go
into households and see Titania embracing
the ears of her beloved Bottom. The
stern critic denounces extravaganza of the
woman Of the present day. But here is
Queen Elizabeth, with three thousand
dresses, denouncing extravaganza. We
have fears for the preservation of our form
OF our Legislatures. And yet, in those
days long ago, Robert Walpole was heard
to say that every man in the British Par
Lament had his price. But here, last fall,
heard Mr.. Mundilla say that Mr.. Glad
stone, the real King of England, has not
even power enough to appoint post Office
clerk. l do hope that the time may come
when, with reformed civil service, our
Senators and Representatives can say that
they have no time to appoint treasury
clerk.
We shudder at the horrors Of Paris, and
think of modern civilization. And yet
here we have the two foremost constitu-
tionally ruled nations of the earth peace
iully settling differences that it seemed
would never be settled without war and
endless hatred. Of these omens of new
and better time, the constant and higher
estimate of woman in modern society is
the most marked indication. Why, when
I see these nuns behind me, reflect that
if they had been Grecian maidens in the
time of Pericles, their presence here would
have been esteemed as preparation for
life of degradation. That the highest
intellectual development was the exclusive
prerogative of men has been until lately the
opinion of the world. But now we have a
higher culture for women marked out.
There is no inhumanity so revolving as that
which says to another, "Yeu shall learn
what 1 please, do what command, and
your moral and physical nature shall be
subject to my pleasure
The reasons against selecting cultivated
wife are many. Dean Swift says that the
natural levity of the sex will, if woman is
educated, upset her reason, that she will
be very apt to despise her husband, and
the more she knows the worse she will
become. In Dean Swift's time they con-
scented to remain ignorant, so as to shame
their husbands. have no doubt that the
indeeeney of that period of writing was
induced by tpe fact that men only wrote
books, intending them to be read only by
men. The prejudiees against woman have
been very slowly relaxed. We are told
that woman can make light bread without
knowing Greek. Is it, then, true that the
most ignorant women make the best wivese
Is it possible for such a woman to be as
fully mother to her children as one that
is intelligent enough to answer their eager
questions on every topic? The most nota-
bio woman 1 ever knew fitted her sons for
college.
Now, ladies, your presence here tonight
shows that you don't believe your greatest
empire is simply to please men. Is not
your womanhood as precious to you as my
manhood is to me? The only law by
which women and men can be truly gov
erned is the liberty of perfect development.
You cannot know the sphere of any being
until he has the liberty of choosing sphere.
Give women every opportunity of educa-
ton that men enjoy; and if there be =
woman with an overwhelming love oflearn-
ing, then that woman's true sphere is not
tho nursery, but the shrine of science
When miss of Vassar can educate herself
in medicine, she has the same right as any
longhaired, sallow-cheeked boy in specta-
cles who Kisses at her womanhood. The
Goldn age lies before us, and not behind
us. We hear the words of promise to the
chosen people, and every nation hears the
command, "Children of Israel 60 forward"
and the battle standard is the advancement
of woman. We have left the idle toy.
Forward, forward, we 60, to find tho true
woman in the free American home.
The Wonderful Grove Of Palms at Rio
Janeiro.
hardly know how to describe this gar
den. There arc one hundred and ten palms
in two rows-a fine gravel walk about forty
feet wide running between them. These
palms, set out as straight as an arrow, are
crossed at one end by another path with
about as many palms on each side as in
the first row the whole forms the letter T.
A fountain from the aqueduct which sup
plies the city plays in the centre of this
grove. The trees are perfectly straight,
with no branches until near the top, where
tho whole cluster is. The whole tree is, /
should say, about seventy-five feet high ;
| the upper part of the trunk is perfect green,
the lower part is bottle-shaped. Every
variety of palm is to be found in this gar
den. Plots of flowers are between every
walk, and of the brightest colors most Of
the walks are lined with hedges, trimmed
up to square corners, flat on top, and are a
little larger than at the ground. These
hedges are in perfect line in their trimming.
So true and perfect are they that I first
took them for blocks Of wood cut out and
painted green. Every kind of tropical
fruit is found in this garden. Tho orange,
lemon, pineapple, cocoanut, fig, mango,
bread-fruit, guava, caju, plantain, banana,
and l don't know how many more, whose
names do not remember, and the fruit
never saw before. Bowers covered with
running vines, having seats under them,
were filed with humming birds of gayest
plumage. Bamboo canes, in spots, were
growing so thick that mouse could moi
have crawled through the clusters. The
canes we're forty feet high, some of them
and perfectly straight. Think of a fishing
pole as straight as an arrow, thirty OR forty
feet long, not as large as your wrist at the
butt, with perfect taper down to nothing
This garden is about one fourth as large al
Central Park, New York, or about as
large as Boston Common. Like the park