The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-04-26
NUMBER 81.
wOman's Natural Protectors.

OF the ten applications for divorce re-
ported by the city press, as coming before
courts on Monday Of the present, week
nine were made by wives to be released
from the protection of their natural Sc
leeted guardians. These facts reveal
sad state of affairs. Woman, from her
natural diffidenee and retiring DISPOSE
ton, will, as q general rule, suffer long
and much before she can make up her
mind to publicly complain. She is rap
idly outgrowing the slavish and depend
ent condition to which custom and
tradition have assigned her. She is be-
ginning to aspire to something higher
and nobler than to be. serving drudge
or embellished puppet, to gratify the
eupidity, ambition or personal pride of
some man, who may feed her, house
her, dress her elegantly and introduce
her to his friends as an evidence of his
good tsste and capacity for display.
Such women may be the envy of their
what are generally termed-less FORUM
ate sisters, and yet they may be not
only dissatisfied and discontented, but
wretehedly miserable. Woman, as well
as man, is entitled 10 a personal indi-
viduality, both before and after a mar
riage. There is no more reason why
the wife should be satellite revolving
i'm n prescribed orbit about the husband,
shining by borrowed light, to be eXtin-
guished when he departs, than that the
husband should be the satellite of the
wife. With reciprocal love, the depend
ence should be mutual. Each should
be allowed to struggle and labor to
achieve knowledge and honor according
to taste, inclination and capacity. 1t is
an evidence of servile mind, to will
lfnorlx- 70 condition,
of inferiority and degradation. We
honor the wife whose aspiring mind re-
! fuses to be bribedwith the flimsy gew-
gaws of fashion or with princely pal
ace, with regiments of servants and all
the means for gorgeous display. We
honor the woman who refuses to sell
/ herself into wifehOOd for these material
considerations.
These frequent applications for di
vOrce on the part of wives are a valuable
lesson to which parents in particular,
and society in general, should pay par
/ ticulaT attention. 1t demonstrates that
there is something radically wrong
somewhere 1t shows that woman, who
is proverbially passive, patient and for
giving, is now the restless and complain
ing party. The fault cannot be justly
laid TO her door, though it is not proba-
BILE that she is always blameless. Many
of the husbands complained of often are
intelligent and kind, generous, and OF
good report in the community in which
they reside. 1t is unreasonable and un-
Just to lay all the blame to their inten-
tiOnal misconduct. The evil has its
/. foundation in the false condition o
things social, industrial and pecuniary
Many of the more thoughtful and intel
ligent women of to-day feel that they
have higher and nobler mission thar
. to be either slave, drudge, personal de
pendent or parlor ornament. They fee
that their intellectual capacities entitlI
them TO something and somebody il
, the world of thought and work, of in
fiuenee and personal power. They fee
that a field of usefulness and honor j:
spread out before them which they car
cultivate without injury to their WON
anly, wifely or maternal instincts.
|. Husbands, who devote their time t
business or pleasure, or both, providing
their wives with ample means for hOm,
comfort and luxury, but using theil
homes more as boarding and lodging
houses, than to invest them with the
charms of theirpersOnal presence, spend
ing the leisure hours, days and evening:
with their masculine chums in clul
. rooms, Odd Fellows, Masonic, Red Men:
or other lodges cannot reasonably eX'
pect intelligent wives in these days o.
, popular education, science and general
, progress, to be satisfied with their lot
The neglect, the contempt expressed oil
implied for their natural incapacity and
deficiency in1judgment, which were for
merly accepted rs matter of course, now
? awaken emotions of distrust, which
r soon ripen into hate against the of
/ Tending parties, be the same husband
r or guardian. Society must adapt itsel
to the growing demands of one new or
der of things Woman must be eman
{ cipated; her equality as to persona
: property and political rights must b.
) recognized, both in theory and practice
5 When this shall be done, and woman
:. placed In o condition of comparativ
) pecuniary independence, unhappy mar
g riages will become less frequent, an
/, divorces will be known more as histOl
t ical than practical facts. +. Ponce
Il