The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-12-18
STRoNG-MINDED WOMEN"

NeioS" waking up on the Woman Ques-
tion. We have carefully diagnosed his
case and find him seriously afflicted
with chronic misunderstanding of the
entire movement. He's got new pair
of green goggles that magnify many
and these have reused his
dormant apathy, and caused him to see
distorted visions as through a glass,
darkly. But, inasmuch as we vastly
prefer that he see imperfectly rather
than not at all, we are glad he's got the
goggles.
But did anybody ever see such a COM
bination of disjointed nonsense as the
following "Had not Miss Shepard
possessed a mind strong enough to re-
sist the dictates of her conscience and
the entreaties of friends and relations,
she would never have deserted a kind
husband and family in San Francisco,
to follow the varied fortunes of noun
tebank and charlatan. From ourlimited
experience with the world and its ways,
we are led to believe that it requires a
strong-mined woman to do such things"
Yournaive confession of flimited erperi-
ence in the above connection, was alto
gether unnecessary, obtuse brother. It's
a self-evident truth.
Passing over your allusion 10 Ireland,
which we think rather far-fetched when
we take the fact into consideration that
there are quite as many domestic rows
among the Irish in this country as occur
among our denizens from almost any 9TH
er nationality, we notice that our brother
exhibits faint glimmer of reason in
the following brief sentence: "But we
hope it will never be argued that to be
pure and virtuous it is necessary for a
woman to be weak, intellectually"
What then, in human reason, are you
driving at, We ask in all seriousness =?
You have just said that it takes "strong
mindedness" TO make woman do
wrong, and then, hope such anabsurdity
twill never be argued" We guess it
won't, brother, by anybody but your
self; so please don't be uneasy.
Our brothers. agony over his miscOn-
ception of a ''strong-minded woman"
makes US laugh. Such women as he de-
scribes are the weakest kind of weak
minded mortals. There isn't enough of
saccharine strength in them to preserve
their own sweetness, and so, like diluted
molasses, they turn to vinegar and it's
weakness and not strength that troubles
them. But then, how can we expect q
man of our brothers limited experience
to look through green goggles aud make
due allowance for the distorted images he
sees?
He tells of "thirty-four divorce cases"
at the last term of the Circuit Court, and
thinks that because 'in eight cases out
of every ten, nleR-not women-plead in
fidelity to the marriage vow as their
basis Of complaint, that there is oppor-
tunity given for explanation in these
facts" In this we agree. Listen, brother
and the explanation you shall hear A
man who wishes to get divorce from
his wife has only to prove infidelity
upon her part to secure to himself the
entire property which both have earned
A bad husband, whose wife resolves tC
endure his abuses no longer, will natur
ally desire to rob her of everything, anC
the easiest way to succeed is TO hire mel
to bIacken her reputation.
In conclusion, will our brother please
to point us to just one example wherein
'strong-minded woman has taken tC
the lecture field, abandoned her family
and caused her husband to be disguised
with his home and become sinful ?"
With the exception of Miss Anthony
who has lived long life in loneliness
because true to the VOWS of her early
womanhood, of which death robbed her
not one of the hundreds Of women who
are laboring exclusively in the Woman
Suffrage field, but it is either widow
with large family Of children depend.
ant upon her love and energy, or else
an honorable and honored wife and
mother, whose children arise and call hel
blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth
her.
That they sometimes become "objects
of ridicule" in the eyes of weak-minded
men with ''llmited experience" isn't at
all wonderful. The puppy sometime:
ridicules the moon.