The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-12-26
LOVE, HONOR AND OBEY. +"
BY MRs. ]. A. IoHNs.

in her natIlre 10 90 speech!eSSly ON doing what
she has to do without aid or counsel. Almost
any one OF our sex is happier II she can talk
things overr with some man on whose dlrec-
tioa she relies; and in married life most wives
10, even in the smallest things, what "he"
likes, and fancy that they like It themselves.
Since Independence has become the fashion,
and strong-minded women have sneered at
their more gentle sisters, there Is a great affee
iation OF despislng the opinion OF the gentle
men, but 1t is all sheer preience. Almost every
wife chooses her gloves and her ribbons OF the
tint her husband admires, and the man she
loves almost inevitably gives her her political
opinions, and biases even her religious views.
Her speech, her dress, her manner, change I'M
der his Influence. What he desires her TO do
she does, in nine eases out OF ten. The tenth
case we find in the divorce courts. You may
rule your wife while YOU please, good married
reader, 10 you only love and pet her enough.
Haushtiae,s aud fauli finding alone will make
her n-stiye. Aud you, dear girls, remember
it will be we'll 10 choose Il husband good and
noble and upright, 50 that you may obey him
10 your hearts content without losing your
self-respect; FOR you will obey him Il you love
him and II he he low and mean, you will sink
10 his level slowly but surely in the course OF
years. All the Papers.
Will you, Mrs. Duniway, or some one
else, be Kind enough to introduce the
readers OF the NEW NORTHWEST to q
real woman? / gather, from reading
the above, which I clipped from the
Mercury in order TO give your Portland
contemporary of the Nelcs another scare
about "shrieking females" that there
are such women somewhere, and that
their "real womanhoodr consists in
"being ruled"
Now, il one of these ''real women
really does exist, have few words for
her, as follows: The word "obey" In
the marriage ceremony, when clearly
comprehended, implies an abject SER
Witty which no real man can respect
woman in carrying out. It confers the
right (?) upon the husband to use the
most dreadful cruelty toward his weak
aud helpless wife, provided he may be
so minded. 1t compels the wife to lay
aside her own conscience and conquer
her own reason, provided it in anyway
clashes with his whims or caprices. If
a woman complains to her husband of
injustice or cruelty he can reply, 81 am
to command and you must obey" Such
n man may legally deprive his wife of
the right TO see her near and dear
relatives. His wife may be sick and
dying, and from some grudge, real or
fancied, which he holds aginst her
mother, forbid the mother TO visit her
dying child.
The wife, compelled to obey, may be
utterly unable to obey and endure. The
conditions which her master imposes
upon her may be such as to destroy her
mental and physical faculties; yet, no
matter; If you refuse to 'obey," some
pert generally an old maid
will say you are not "real woman"
and then all the mems papers will take
up the refrain, and quote and make q
fuss over her, and other silly women,
seeing how she is praised for her non
sense, will ape her and repeat it, and so
it goes.
/ am we'll satisfied that there is not a
woman of the age of thirty, who reads
these pages, but can recall more than
one instance, that has come under her
own observation, in which wives were
hurried to their graves, leaving mother
less children to the charities of the
world, because of this self-same obedi-
ence.
How often we hear il said Of an over
burdened wife who has yielded up her
spirit in what should have been her
youthful prime, "Poor woman, she is
done with her troublesw Yet all was
not well with her or she would not have
had "troubles'' greater than she could
bear.
The system of "obedience' has taken
countless numbers of rosy, happy
hearted, healthy girls from the paternal
home and placed them in the homes of
their husbands, where few short years
of sexual servitude and bodily toll and
suffering have suiliced to send them to
their graves. Then you have seen the
widower, who never went i'm company
while the pale wife was living-at least
never with heT-go searching for an
other woman who may likewise ''obey''
him to her destruction. He never
thought To make himself attractive as n
husband, but rs a widower, how daint-
lily he dresses, and how polite he Is
But some young, inexperienced girl
will soon become his willing victim, for
doesn't real woman delight in oJeii-
eRce
This injunction TO ''obey" bas caused
more misery and hardship and suffer-
ing and death than have been caused by
war and intemperance and pestilenee
and famine
Servile obedience in man or woman
destroys self-respeet. It teaches its vic
tim TO be deeeitful, TO seek by covert
means to compass ends which honor
dictates should he sought openly if at
all.
once knew a dear, good woman,
real woman, suppose, whose husband