The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-10-02
Woman's True Position.

OMAN 4IuO OSALlOus
BY PROF. l. LOCRsTAEDT.
Who are the natural moralists? Who
are the reformers Woman's part is,
wherever there is good work to be
wrought; and for this she should be ed
ucated; 4 mind so fortified would be in
no danger of falling into the follies
which the stringent etiquettes of society
have been invented to curb. Must we
lose another generation by mismauage-
ment ere we Shall acknowledge the adj
ministrative skill of women and emanci-
pate them from the eternal tutelage in
which society insists on holding them
Women, of course, have less physical
strength than men; but it is to the pale
scholar over his midnight lamp, not TO
the rough hunter, not even TO the sue
eessfuI general, that we look for the i'm
proYement of the human race; and when
we take as the leaders of the age those
who have n weak physical frame, why
should idle prejudices any longer shut
out women from taking their place
wherever intellect rather than strength
is required?
Ii will not be till the business of the
world is more equally distributed be-
tween the sexes, that either will thor
oughly fulfill its vocation in life; nor
till that vocation is fully acknowledged
and understood can we hope for high
standard of morality and virtue in our
community. At present women are de-
pressed by an erroneous public opinion,
depressed by the prejudices OF their own
parents till the greater part of the sex
are ignorant Of their own powers. The
habits of society generally prescribe to
women an idle, inactive life, at least as
far as any great purpose is concerned,
and as there is enough Incidence in
every human being to be very soon con-
tent with ease, women have consented
to their supposed inferiority, because it
saved them so much trouble. Nothing
is more shocking than the low moral
standard of one sex for the other which
causes nowadays so many people to
lead a single life.
Vicious propensities corrupt the heart
no less than they iujure the health OF
people, and in order to make society
yirtuOus, make women less dependent
upon men for maintenance. Let our
schools give practice in the modern bat
Z tie of life. Give boys and girls as weap-
Ons an equal education. Let our girls
| learn to design; our manufacturers need
/ elegant patterns to enable them TO COM
pete with foreign nations, who have
seen the necessity of procuring the best
assistance in that branch OF art, and
/ only ask for designs, without asking 10y
whom they were executed. Let oul
girls learn bookkeeping and the higher
! branches of arithmetic, and 1t VIII nol
be long before merchants and banker:
/ find employment for them. Give to thu
ladies the superintendence of hospitals
work-houses and prisons, for in such in
stitutious is want of proper moral su
pervisiOn. At present, especially IL
. houses Of correction, are the most vulga
of human beings set to rule over th'
most vulgar The ignorant govern The
ignorant; and when every softening ant
elevatiug influence is absent or OF rar'
occurrence, when every hardening anG
depravihg influence continues, womeI
should be the refOrmers and act as th'
natural moralists.
The state of our poor-hOuses, whicl
should be charitable refuge for tn,
destitute, is fearful.
What, then, is expected from girl:
brought up i'm such an abode which We
ourselves heard spoken OF by paupel
who had himself been an inmate, in ye
more indignant terms: "I have been II
iaiI more than once" said the man
f 'lneIelOIt 1Ou may COltAhNG hhON
what evil IL; but l can truly say that il
no iail that was ever in did hear ol
see 500 much evil as in the poor-house.'
1t is therefore hardly possible that any
young person should come out of suct
society untainted; yet hundreds of girls
have no other training! Can we won
der at the number of wretches, outcas
females, who throng our great towns
Yet every one knows women OF ;
higher class-widows of clergymen or o
|. other respectable citizens, who arr
scarcely able to find bread, and who, /
a proper salary were given, would be bu
too happy to undertake the care of thes'
houses and superintend the providing
for the moral as we'll as the physica
, necessities of its inmates. Let womeT
see that there are p-iZes in the lottery
of life other than the matrimonial anC
the tone of their minds would be i'm
. proved. They would seek to acquirr
what would have its market value, ant
in doing so would gain an independents,
of character, and confidence in their owl
capability, which it now appears tn
, whole object of female education t
, crush. Let then society open to womel
|, other modes of maintenance, than tn,
few which at present they only can lool
for, AMI they will be more self-support
ing and independent, and fulfill thei
mission as moralists.-SdIltd CT1tS En-
teTprise.