Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-12-20

!
Are not women just what men have
made them?
They are. :
Women attire themselves gorgeously
! because men demand that they shall do
50. This demand does not consist OF
an njuuction to spend money. 1t comes
upon women i'll the requirements of So
cicty, in the obligations of tradition, i'll
the necessities of sex. The moditica-
tions of fashions are us irresistible by
women, as that sex is now socially
placed, as the incoming tide is irresisti-
ble by the sand on the beach. Men
make the fashions men manufacture
them men ind0rse their patronage and
purchase after mauufacture and the
| great bulk of men not engaged III eyolv-
ing bonnct-frames and cutting dresses
and shipping the models and the new
materials to the four corners of the uni
verse, are as abiectly slavish to women's
adoption of the new caprices as are wo-
men themselves.
The men who contrive fashions desire
merely to make money. The men
whose united opinion compcis women
to patronize their cOntrivancCS, are
aware that each succeeding season ne
ccssitatcs the spending of more money
than common sense approves, or the
profits of the years business justify ;
yet the majority of these men will spend
the money, for two reasons:
/. Because they want their wives and
daughters to look us well as other mems
wives and daughters.
.. Because they know that, as society
h1 "a of
hold their rank solely by the eXpendi-
ture of money. Men have made So
ciety.
"Halt, now p cries the indignant
father "let us unmake society,"" Very
well, let us. How? Time cannot be
annihilated. Women must have occu-
patton as well as men. There are
twenty-four hours for her, as well as for
the sex whom kind Providence and
society permit to be daily employed in
active, honorable work work that sat
isfes the brain, that fills the mind to
repletion, and keeps the faculties and
the hands busy. Suppose men did not
work during the day, what Is to prevent
them from becoming the frivolous,
fashionable fools that idle, uneducated
women are? We halt again Women
should not be idle; ; need not be uneou
Gated Very true. But men are re-
spousible for the idleness and they
have insisted on the uneducation. Men
have had the mold in their hands since
the creation. God made men, and men
have made the mold and women. 1t is,
as Milton said, "He, for God only; she,
for God in him ;" and quoted the Scrip
ln frlD
of God she is the glory of the man =
if she be any glory unto him.
The idlcness and uneducation Of
women are directly the result of a sex
policy that policy, begun by men !;
handed down, maintained and per-
sisted in by men. They have COM
PEELED her to be idle ; they have refused
her education. Ii she work, they frown,
and cast her out of-God help us p
out of "society l'' If she seek for
higher education, they turn the key in
the college gate, and one President
says, You are not strong enough y
and another writes, Education would
unfit YOU to be wives and mothers "-is
if mothers ignorance were an essential
quality in milk for babes And another
gravely argues that it is II violation of
religion, as if Gods religion for woman
includes faith only, and he shall adj
nit her to salvation i'll proportion as
she shall lack reason The time is
that women Cry out against the uned-
ucation and the idlenesS which men
have imposed upon the sex by ordl-
nance. The time is that panic comes
and men trace it to womans eXtraVa-
gance, and trace that eXtravaGancc TO
idleness and uneduCatiOn, and men re-
proach women for that vice and this
fault. But who is responsible There
is not active work for all women to
do; it is not desirable or necessary
| that all young women should so out into
the world and work.
Now, We halt again. All young men
do not go into the world and work.
! What is done with Il son who does not
need to go into employment at sixteen
He is sent to college. What is done
with daughter ut the same time? She
is sent into society A young woman S
education is completed just when a
young mans begins The young men
come home mentally robust, intellect
ually arrogant. They patronize their
sisters, and other young mons sisters.
| They are certain women are unable tC
bear the labor of college education.
They are convinced that higher educa-
ton for women is against the spirit OF
Christianity They laugh at women's
weaknesses they sneer at intellectual
inferiority =; they denomce her extraya
gance in dress, while insisting on it
and they publicly insult and defame The
few ultra women who dare tell these I'M
deniable truths on stolen rostrums ant
whose lives, upright, self-sacritcing
honorable, AMI pure as the snow failing
from heaven are living and eloquent il
lustrations that women need not be idle
may not be uneducated. While the sons
have been away at college, acquiring tht
dogmatism of sex, amid the rest of thei
learning, what have the daughters beel
doing? What men demand of them
learning the profession Of extravaganza
making of themselves birds of plumage
with Il proper regard to keeping thei
throats closed, because the voices 0
women are offensive to mans public car
All the birds applaud the peacock
plumes, but they unite III q request tina
, the lovely creature remain silent
The proposition that women hay,
} nothing to say worth saying, is prove,
, by prohibiting her from saying auy
thing The proposition that She is no
capable OF college training is demon
strated by keeping her out of college
; The proposition that she is inferior t.
man intellectually, is established h