The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-01-17

around, loving each one the best. The
woman is placed by the rule of society
in little different situation, but her
heart Yields to divers attractions also.
Harriet Martineau says that ''prOxim-
ity makes more matches than Cupid'-
another evidence of the natural affinity
of the sexes without regard to selection.
Some very well meaning people think
that because love is q blind impulse it
must be obeyed as blindly-a very blind
inference at best.
There is no natural selection by the
love faculty. Selection is the province
of intellect; but how can there be
proper selection without preparation
and information?
The fact that Miss Ellen Shadden was
enticed away from home and ruined is
only an evidence that her mental ma
ture had been neglected by herself, par
ents OF guardians. Is there any good
reason why she or any one of the thous-
and others should be entrapped to her
degradation and ruin except it be be-
cause the ways of enticement are not
well understood? The declaration al
love you" ought to deceive no one, for
1t is known to be universal. The thief,
robber, murderer, rake and all the lesser
villains love with great intensity, and
some of them with constancy, but is
that any reason why a good woman
should mate with malefactor? Miss
| Shadden, like other women, desired to
love and be loved-longed for happi-
ness; but, lacking discernment to choose
proper object, and ignorant of the
conditions on which happiness depends,
she bestowed her affections upon man
who gave a thousand evidences, in
looks, words and actions, that he was
villain, and yet she was oblivious to his
true character until she was most heart
lessly betrayed.
Parents, and especially mothers, COM
NIT great error in Withholding their
own knowledge and experience from
their daughters, under the mistaken
idea that such things are improper.
There is no knowledge which is proper
for boys that is not equally proper for
girls. Grant, good mother, that we de-
sire our daughters to be pure and virtu-
ous-can there be anything wrong in
their knowing how to maintain them
selves in that condition? Do YOU SUD-
pose that any ordinary girl of fifteen
years who has had the counsel of a dis
Greet mother or father, or the reading of
proper books, could be enticed away
from an honorable place in society bv
an ordinary man? Not at all. Yankee
school mistresses, the self-confident,
self-supporting girls of general reading,
all over the United States, never get
into such traps. They know that lore
Is very variable compound, partaking
of all the hues Of human character. and
that the love of a benevolent, sympa-
thetic, patient, constant and Just man
is very different article from the love
of one who has little except the animal
propensities to recommend him. Let
/ SiAA7 DC taught " ulSScCb the nelu anu
heart of the animal man, and the same
old story will become beautifully less,
and 'ce shall hear no more Of arOnlalts s
'Cedk and defcHSeless nature. If parents
are too ignorant to instruct them in
matters so vitally important to their
happiness, then would be in favor of
select schools where girls can be taught
the tcoHdllly art of self-defense. There
are plenty of wise women in Oregon
who can teach such q school, and they
should commence right away, for il
girls are fit subjects for entieement at
the ages of Is, 10 and IA, it is very evil
dent that their schooling must COM
mence at 10, or not later than II. Rec
olleet that the common school, Sunday
school, female seminary or college does
not afford the instruction needed. 1t is
not arithmetic, grammar, geography,
the mathematics, the classics or the
sciences (so-called), but phrenology,
physiognOmy, sexual science, sociology.
etc., which are taught nowhere in the
schools, and indeed secuted as heresies
by most of the institutions of learning.
t. w. D.