The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-12-05
A Journal for the People.
Sowing and Reaping.


Among the successful business houses
OF San Francisco, Cal, is that of the
Misses Leila and May Curtis, wOod en-
grayers. One of Chicago's leading daily
newspapers, in referring to the fact,
gives the public 4 sample of the way
journalists who are opposed to the
"woman's movement take to delude
unthinking people into believing that
/ the women who have been the most
active In securing a more enlarged
/ sphere of activity for their sex, are
guilty oi an objectionable and alto
( gether unnecessary course of conduct
/ that they are "unsexedr and Aungen-
dered monsters that ought TO be
/ frOwned down by all refined men and
women.
The special paragraph to which refer,
reads as follows:
''Here is q striking instance of what
/ two practical, eOmmOn-sense women
can do. Instead of going about the
country, haranguing the people on the
Ories of women's rights, they have de-
liberately gone to work and taken their
rights. The results OF the labor, and
skill, and sense of these two women are
worth more to the community at large,
and to women in particular, than all
the prOnunciamentOs and speeches COM
bined."
l wonder did it ever occur to the
writer of this paragraph, or of others
who think like him, that if it had not
been for n few brave-heaTted women
persistently writing, and talking, and
haranguing, as they term it, for years,
for the right of their sex to engage in
any occupation for which they were
fitted by nature and education, that
ranhlfa nrainfnn which nOna
look altogether unkindly upon q success
of this sort, would not have permitted
these enterprising sisters to have stepped
so far out of their "sphere" as to engage
i'm such q business. There have been
plenty of young women in the past,
Just as energetic and Just as capable, as
far as natural ability was concerned,
who were equally as ambitious to do
something of the sort for a maintenance,
but they had not the moral courage to
contend with the prejudices of the pub
lie and face the stigma and social os-
tracism that would have resulted from
such departure from established Gus
toms. Yet the writer of this paragraph
would carry the idea that all women
/ had ever had to do at any time, was
simply to 90 to work and take their
rights to get them. If so, why all the
haranguing? People are not generally
such arrant fools as to take trouble to
combat what no one objects to their
taking!
1t is Il common practice of Journalists,
and of men generally, in commenting
on subjects of this sort, to ignore in this
manner what they would very readily
perceive if it were question Of personal
interest, but it is an Obtuseness OF intel
lect that no one credits them with, ut
least those who are moderately intel
ligent. 1t requires no great knowledge
OF the past nor any very extensive per-
sonal observation of the present to prove
that no great social innovations were
ever made, nor important rights of
mankind granted, without some ones
doing an immense deal of talking, either
J by tongue or pen, before the fact was
accomplished. Human nature-in this
I instance il would be better if l said
I masculine nature, for it is men who
have hitherto had the control of matters
of this kinC-has never yet shown itself
Z so unselfisl as to yield without q strug-
! gle what it has been educated into be-
/ lieving a natural birthright of its own;
and men have heretofore considered all
the success and prizes of life in an intel
lectual, political or business sense, as
rightfully all their own.
Inc tIlliC ICltIIeu 10 lillllkS TIE sue
cess of these young women ought to
furnish useful lesson and example to
those whom he sneeringly remarks are
'scolding and whining about their
wrongs" There he very ingeniously
continues TO ignore an important fact,
which Is, that the women who led off as
pioneers in the labor of elevating wOm-
ans material and political status were
most of them persons of middle age be-
fore they had acquired wisdom enough
and freedom from domestic cares, to
bring the subject before the public.
Hence, though their wisdom might fit
them to teach others and point out the
way, they would not be likely to feel it
was part of their mission to attempt
to compete with men who had had years
of preparatory education. Besides, it
takes one class of minds to plan and
point out the way, and another sort to
execute. Women as much need the
auxiliaries of energy and sanguine
hopes as well as rudimentary knowl-
edge, to secure success, as men, and can
no better do without these aids. Yet
while these noble pioneers in the labor
of woman's advancement may have
grown too old before the barriers of
| prejudice and custom were leveled to
avail themselves of the opportunities
they had secured for younger and more
ambitious hearts, they have not neces-
sarily become too old to still continue
actively engaged with tongue and pen
Fin helping on the good cause, for no
knowledge is so good as that won by ex-
perience, and no women so well know
how to appreciate the value OF the OPP
pOrtunities that are opening to women
as those who have been deprived OF
/ them, and to whom they only came
when years had laid an embargo on
their physical pOwers.-BdldI1ce.