Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-08-09

Inc w omen IedCc OohSrcoo AoVo'J
held in London, assumed that all the
blame of war fell upon men, and be-
lieved that it was in the power of the
gentle sex to render war impossible.
The Sabine maidens who were carried
off by the Romans rushed in between
the hostile forces. and by their lamenta-
tons arrested the fight between their
brothers and husbands. During the
Franco Prussian war the French women
wore the tri.color and sung the Marseil.
laise the German women inspired their
warriors to march over the Rhine and
capture Paris. The ladies of England,
France and Russia were enthusiastic tor
the prosecution of the Crimean war.
Even during our own civil war the ladies
of both sides were enthusiastic advocates
of invasion and fighting in the last ditch.
In ancient times the ladies cut no
insignificant figures in wars. A
contemporary says with truth; "One
of the greatest conquerors and deyasta-
tors the world ever saw, was Semiramis,
Queen of Babylon. The beautiful Helen
of Sparta was the cause of the destruc-
ton of Troy. More than half the wars
of the successors of Alexander the Great
were occasionen by the ambition or jeal-
ousy of the Berenices and Cleopatras of
their licentious courts. And the famous
Cleopatra, the last of dozen Egyptian
queens of that name, lost world and
babe a hero Ay.' She occasioned the
disastrous war between Mark Antony
and the two Caesars, though, perhaps, as
Voltaire said, if her nose had been an
atom of an inch shorter, the entire
stream of history woHld have been
changed Plutarch tells us that if it
had not been for the curtain lectures
which the wife of Mardonius was in
the habit of indulging in, that general
would never have persuaded Aerxes to
invade Greece. The famed Peloponne-
sian war was occasioned by the insulting
conduct of some Athenian youths to q
party Of Spartan girls, whose mothers,
in revenge, sent their husbands and
brothers to battle, bidding them come
hack victorious or else borne on their
shields. The Amazons lived by war.
But these ancient heroines sink into in
significance for evil by the side of those
of the middle ages. 1t may safely be
said that women were more or less in
volved in the causes of every war that
took place from the fall of the Roman
Empire to the religious wars OF
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The names of Brunehaut, Fredegonda,
Rosemunda, Pulcheria, Placida, Lady
Constance of Brittany, Philippe of
Hainault, Margaret of ADjou, Joanna of
Naples, Joan of Arc, Agnes Sorel, Diana
of Poictiers, Lucretia Borgia, Mary
Queen of Scots, Catharine de Medicis,
Queen Mary of England, Queen Eliza
beth and a host of others, will readily
occur to the reader ofhistory. The wars
of Louis XIII and Lewis XIV were en-
couraged, if not actually planned, by
Anne of Austria, Madame de Maintenon
and Madame de Montespan, and it
was an insulting remark made by
the Prussian Minister in Paris re-
specting Madame de Pompadour
that caused France to take part
against Prussia in the Seven Years
War. Maria Theresa and Cathe-
rine of Russia devised and carried out
the partition of Poland. The truth is
that the emotional nature Of woman is
swayed by the great events which take
place around her, and as the talk is now
peace and education, and of arbitration
instead Of war, she comes forward
among the noblest advocates of good
will to mankind. But we're the honor
or safety Of the nation involved, even
the Women's Peace Congress would SO s.
pend its sittings, or pass to the order
Of the day." until the difficulty was over.