Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-11-13
s What Shall We DO with Our
Daughters ?''


MRS. LIvERMoRE AT THE OPERA HOUSE.
The second lecture in the course,
given under the auspices of the Y.
NJ c. A., was delivered at the Opera
House last night by Mrs. Mary A.
Livermore, of Boston. The lecturer
was greeted with a full house, and
listened to attentively, and frequently
applauded Mrs. Liyermore is tall, and
has a commanding presence, and pre-
sents a fine appearance on the plat
form. Her lecture, however, was too
long by half, occupying about two
hours in its delivery. She spoke off
hand, without any notes whatever, and
we give below short abstract of the
address n
A little more than quarter of cen
fury ago Margaret Fuller, then in the
zenith of her power, launched little
book into the world, creating a great
deal of discussion and enquiry. Two
notices in it, directly contradictory to
each other, arrested my attention and
thoughts, The first was, "Frailty thy
name is woman" and the second ''The
earth waits for her Queen" The first
was descriptive of woman as she has ex-
listed, and the second prophetic of the
grand type of woman to which we are
all setting, consciously or unconscious
ly. In some ages of the world woman
has not been considered the handmade
and co-worker of man. The treatment
of woman has vacillated between two
extremes, she is now a slave and now
an idol. Both have Kindred the devel-
Opment of woman. The result of the
treatment to which woman has been
subjected, is that the world does not
know what she is capable of. When
woman have lowered above their sex
they have been treated as phenomenal,
and masculine; as if it was not possible
for God to put brand of royalty on a
woman. There is demand, to-day, for
a superior order of womanhood. To-day
the woman question is knocking at the
doors of colleges, schools, trades, pro-
LESSONS and business. What is true of
the woman question here is true in Eng
land, but they are in advance of us, for
unmarried women if they are tax
payers can vote at all municipal cleo
tions. Henry Wilson says that in tray
cling through Germany he saw, with
amazement, woman blowing, reaping,
carrying hods, and paid a pittance. In
all the countries of Europe the woman
question is agitated. There are women's
papers established in Constantinople,
Milan, Paris, Venice, Florence and other
cities, and edited wholly by women.
In India the whole country is being
covered by numerous hordes of missions
for the purpose of elevating the Indian
women The interior of India has been
a sealed book, they are penetrating to-
wards that point, educating female ply
sicians, as male physicians are forbid by
the laws to prescribe for females, unless
it is by merely examining their pulse or
tongue, with all other parts of the per
son covered The Indian women are
progressing upward out of the barbar-
ism of centuries and they also have a
| woman's paper, edited by women. Wo-
men are feeling the Divine impulse to
come up higher. The question comes
to me ia a different form to some,
".What shall we do with our daugb-
tiers ?" Our daughters, for whom we
would mark out a great future, what
shall we do with them? They are to
be the mothers of the next generation.
They have not yet learned. to take their
stand on the groundof immutable right
First give them better physical training,
As | travel over the country, / feel de
pressed, owing to- their physical feeble
ness. There is no. excuse for it. Ply
sicisns say it ought not to be SO. God
has not given the boys a monopoly of
health, When a crowd of boys go out
to play, you can hear them before you
can see them. They are running, shout
ing, playing and filling their lungs with
fresh air. Their clothing fits perfectly
and is not pinched at the waist or Shout
ders. 1t gives them no trouble. from
morning until night Boys are well shod
with thick soles and broad heels ON their
boots. Turn to girls Let the weather
be ever so fine, they are very rarely out
of doors. If they are out, they are SIM
ply walking arm in arm, talking, talk
ing, talking or inside, they are knitting
or crocheting, and simply talking, talk
ing, talking. We should see that the.
girls get the exercise. which all growing
things need. 1t is only thus the muscu-
lar system gets developed. Papa won
ders what is the trouble with the daugh-
ters appetite at breakfast. If he lay as
she did, on head of crumpled hair,
which is equal to pillow of burrs, he
would have poor appetite,
We seem to be equally settled in the
opinion that God does not know how to
make a girl, or when he does, he is
bungler Corsets begin the downward
road to i'll health, and even babies are
pun 1ubo li1Jllls w liCA 1dtilC5 VI HtO LeihC
off corsets, they feel as if they were all
gone, owing to the corsets being put on
before the bones and muscles were de-
veloped. Keep corsets off your girls I'M
til they are twenty-five, then the system
is developed. We put too much dress on
girls, and put the weight on the waist
Women can't improve much in health
until there is a change in her dress. But
we would not advocate a bloomer cos
tune and pants. Woman should dress
so as to appear beautiful, and she owes
it to herself, her sisters, land every man
to do 50. Freedom at shoulders. Free
dom at waist, ard dress short, especially
for the street. The lecturer commended
Mrs. Grant for the order she issued that,
at no reception were any of her girls to
appear in short sleeves and low
Il