The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-09-19
MEMS OWNERSHIP IN WOMEN.

holland, the old logy OF DcFtOHeT'S
Monthly, who writes very fair poetry,
which is moonshine, but fails utterly
on ordinary common sense when
he undertakes prose articles, treats US
to a mortal column from his fossil pen
and angular brain under the above cap
tion.
Says DIR. Holland, and the Bulletin
endorses him, at least tacitly: "There
is an instinct in the heart Of every
woman which tells her she is his to
whom she gives herself, and his alone
an instinct which bids her cling to him
while she lives or he lives-which iden-
titles her life with his-which makes
him and her, twain, one flesh. When
this gift is once made to true man, he
recognizes its significance. He is to
provide for her that which she cannot
provide for herself; he is to protect her
to the extent Of his power; she is to
share his home, be his closest compan-
ion. His ownership in her covers his
most sacred possession, and devolves
upon him the gravest duties. If it were
otherwise, how is it that a woman who
gives herself away unworthily feels,
when she finds herself deceived, that
she is lost? that she has parted with
herself to one who does not recognize
the gift, and that she who ought to be
owned, and, by being owned, honored,
is to be disowned and dishonored ?
There is no pure, true woman living
who, when she gives herself away, does
not rejoice in the ownership which
gives her away forever to one man.
She is not his slave, to be tasked and
abused, because she is the gift of love
and not the purchase of money; but she
is his, in a sense in which she cannot be
another mans without dishonor to him
and damnation to herself.n
How came DIR. Holland to know so
much concerning the "instinct in the
heart Of every woman" and so little OF
a like instinct in the heart of every
man? There is no instinct in unper-
verted womanhood which does not find
an answering impulse in unperverted
manhood.
When will these angular Drained,
narrow-idead old fogies learn wisdom ?
When will they learn that there is just
as much moral obligation and just as
much natural instinct or desire in man
to cling throughout existence to the
one woman to whom he has surrendered
his being rs there is natural instinct in
woman to do so?
a truth only half told is the worst
possible fabrication, and DIR. Holland,
in telling but half, becomes q dangerous
foe to Human Rights. We quite agree
with him that there is no true, pure
woman who does not rejoice in the own
ership which gives her away forever ia
one man; but we go a step farther and
declare that there is no true, pure man
who, in taking the same step, does not
equally rejoice for the same reason.
Yet this is just what our sagaeious Doc
tor, by implication, denies for man,
though he considers it so necessary fol
the well-being Of woman.
In another half-told truth he saws
"she is not his slave to be tasked and
abused, because she is the gift of love
and not the purchase of money" Yet Dr.
Holland knows that tens of thousands
Of these same women, who would die
rather than surrender themselves tC
other than their legal lords, are tasked
and abused, and that, under mans laws
there is no redress for them but death.
That tens Of thousands of others are
supposed not to be tasked and abused
does not alter the truth of this argu-
ment. 1t is true that wife belongs Ia
her husband ''in n sense in which she
cannot be another mans without dis
honor to him and damnation TO her
self" but o, DR.. Holland, it is equally
true that the husband belongs to the
wife, and she has ownership in him on
precisely the same principle.
The Doctor continues: "There Is moth
ing more menacing in the aspect Of So
cial affairs in this country than the ef-
fort among a certain class Of reformers
to break up the identity of interest and
feeling among men and women. Men
are alluded to with sneeEs and blame. as
being opposed to the interests Of women,
as using the power in their hands-a
power usurped-to maintain their own
predominance at the expense of wom-
ans rights and woman's well-being.
Marriage, under this kind of teaching,
becomes a contract of convenience, into
which men and women may enter, each
party taking along the personal indie.
pendence enjoyed in single state, with
separate business interests and separate
pursuits. In other words, marriage /:
regarded simply as the legal compan.
; ionship Of two beings of opposite sexes
who have their own independent pur
; suits, with which the bond is not per
mitted to interfere. 1t contemplates nc
Identification Of life and duty. The mar
holds no ownership in woman which
gives him n right to family of chill
dren, and a life devoted to the sacred
duties Of motherhood. The man whC
expects such a sacrifice at the hands o
his wife is regarded as Il tyrant, brute
Women are TO vote, and trade, anC
practice law, and preach, and go to Con
gress, and do everything that man does
irrespective of the marriage bonds
IL L