The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-04-24

Every movement of progress or reform
must meet with opposition; and just in
proportion to the grandeur of the cause
or object, and the amount Of good to
accrue from its success, will be the OPP
position.
This is perhaps well. Otherwise
the lukewarm and Indifferent, who
might be attracted by novelty, and who
would retard and degrade the cause, are
kept aloof from the conflict, and only
those whose hearts are filled with phil
anthropy, less human than divine,
whose kindly sympathies are always
with the injured and oppressed, and
whose minds are ever attuned to the
pure music of the magic words, God and
the right, are left to give battle right
loyalty to tyranny and wrong.
OF all the reforms of custom or law,
none perhaps has met with such pro-
longed and determined resistance as the
one represented here to-day-resistance
clamorous at first and loud-mouthed,
hurling invectives aud anathemas upon
the devoted heads of those who were
morally courageous enough to assert
that woman did not then enjoy all the
rights aud privileges heaven ever in
tended her TO know and exercise.
Undismayed the few persevered in
showing up the wrongs of their sex to
as many as would listen, till the scales
fell from many eyes, and the ranks Of
the so-called strong minded mORstrosi
ties, from numbering two or three, have
increased TO a host, whose power is felt
and feared in the land, whose weapons
are truth and justice, and whose indi-
vidual watchword is "God and Dly
right"
No ignorant mass Of demoralized mall
contents are these, aiming at disruption
and strife, but intelligent, respectable
and law-abiding citizens, who are anx-
ious TO benefit humanity and bestow
upon all the God-given right of freedom
in its truest sense.
Concession after concession has been
made by the enemy; one barrier after
another has been destroyed, and the
boundary of woman's sphere enlarged,
until moral and mental culture, widen
ing her range of thought, ennobling her
character, and refining the sensibilties
of her soul, have rendered her aeutely
sensible of the wrongs still inflicted on
her sex.
Restricted to the narrow limits of her
kitchen and the nursery, it is not strange
that she should deteriorate, to the
great advantage of the freer sex, that
he should become superior in intellec-
tual and physical strength, or assume
the dictatorship. But once permitted
to go beyond, and vie with him in in
tellectual pursuits, she becomes aware
of her capabilities, eager to indulge her
tastes, and unwilling to submit to a
prescribed rule Of action. Ambition,
that almost universal attribute of man,
is hers also, tempered usually by q
greater amount of conscientiousness
than is possessed by him, but still urg-
ing her on to greater heights than she
has yet attained, and spreading before
her delighted fancy glorious visions, il
may be of arts or sciences, of which she
has yet only slight conception.
Tremble, then, o, vain, glorying
brother! for even your richest, choicest
laurels may yet droop before sister:
well-earned superiority, and your proud
soul be humbled because in the march
of intellect you have been out-done.
But though the door to literature has
been opened to woman, it will, of course
not be available to all; nor would every
woman wish to follow literary pursuits
even if there were room for all, for among
women, as among men, there are diversi
ties of tastes and capacities. Woman has
! wants and necessities to be provided for
and the question of how they shall b'
: provided for or what she shall do, is on
which is undecided, the sterner sex for
! bidding and repulsing any innovation oI
what they deem their exclusive right
} and the other claiming that if in an.
: honorable way they can support them
: selves, they have an inalienable right :
E do so. Innumerable avenues are opel
! to man, that he may choose from then
I a business or profession, but to woma
: there are few available which will yiel
. her more than pitiful and precariOu
: support, and these are the most arduou
4 and undesirable. In culinary employ
2 ments it is true she has few rivals anon
t white men; but such occupations al
rarely either agreeable or remunerativ'
$ In sewing, too, it is allowed her to com
: pete with man, but while offering bt
e little pecuniary inducement, this kin
i Of occupation, when followed closely,
i fraught with disease and death. Oh
more occupation is allowed to woman
J. that Of teaching; but in this she mu
content herself with the less lucrati'
and honorable positions, while peforn
Is ing by far the greater amount of labo
IS In this capacity she may fill vacanci
TX IN country districts on starvation pa
and equally desirable board, or In citi
u she may teach the primary branche