The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-01-05

expressed in the faces of its members
Mrs. Emery's note stated that the meeting
was called to consider possibilities in
new field. Besides Mrs. Emery showed
some agitation as she rose, whereas sh'
was usually self-sustained and indifferent
ladies'" she commenced, and there
was positively tremble in her voice
"Bell Bree preached little preach, and
said little say. l wish, with your per.
mission, to do the same, first giving you
my text in the following extract clipped the
other day from magazine" Mrs. Emery
here unfolded scrap of newspaper, and
each member of the committee seemed
then and there to concentrate herself on il
with double-barrel, forty-women-power
of curiosity.
"'The falling off in marriages u.s. -
read Mrs. Emery, "'found in the centres
ofpopulation. where the needs Of life press
hard. The old-fashioned dsinterestedness
has of late years been losing ground in
these places. Thirty or forty years ago it
was plain Sailing; gbbous hat and the
Italian opera were unknown; all worked
for living, and none were rich, as COM
pared with those of to-day. 1t has be-
come evident that in cities Hymen is los
ing his power, vet the goddess who came
out of the sea-foam continues to exercise
her wonted charm over men, though they
refuse to follow Hymen. There is hide
| and-seek process on the part of man to avoid
supporting the woman, which would be 10
the last degree ungenerous il it were not in
some measure compulsory. Fathers en-
deavor to dispose of daughters to those
who stand upon conditions, and each tries
to shirk the expense of keeping them.
Thus regarded, the woman be-
comes a possible incumbrance to
o marrying man, and always q
parasite in her own family. A great num-
Der of those who live in the metropolis
make both ends meet with difficulty. The
head of the family is stretched on fnan-
cial wheel, which never ceases to turn every
day in the year. He is pressed for what
he considers the necessaries of life, and
spends $4,000 year. The capital of this
man who spends 100000 year at legal
interest would not perhaps yield him a
third Of what he expends. He is not in q
position to help any one but himself, how
ever willing he may be to do 30. The
young man making his way through an
ocean of difficulties, and carrying heavy
ballast in the shape of club and social dissi-
patton, may like the daughter of the poor
rich father, but he has not the audacity,
even if she were willing to make the sacri-
flee, to take her out of her handsome nest
into an inferior one. In resisting the matri-
monlal temptation he has something to say
for himself. His knowledge of life tells
him that there are scarcely any hours of
happiness which are compensation for the
rasping, wearing, daily want of means to
provide for everyday necessities and com.
forts, and that it is not long before domes-
tic peace gives way to this terrible pres
sure.'"
Mrs. Emery stopped and looked about
her. The ladies looked at each other, and
then, by one consent, at Miss Dinsmore.
Miss Dinsmore was forty, and was UNDER
stood to indulge in woman's rights pro-
clivities.
SIS it possible ?" remarked Miss Dins-
more, coming promptly to front. "What
next, l wonder? Mrs. Emery, UiN you
have the kindness to let me look at that
paper? Parasite, indeed In the old
times they tried at least to reconcile us to
our fate by telling us we were angels, but
now they have thrown the last shred of
decency aside, and call us to our very
faces parasites y" This last with a
stiff shudder.
"Just as / tell them," cut in Mrs.
Honey, anxious to show as approaching
the question. "Women are not too an
gelic. tell Mr.. H., to help make money,
but it would let them down to help spend
or invest it,
III think we do help in the spending of
it, Mrs. Honey" (Mrs. Tillinghast, anti
progressive, and with q stiffness equal to
Miss Dinsmore's best state manners).
ladies There was decided ring of
annoyance in Mrs. Emery's voice-''this
is all from the point. Besides, unhattering
as are the differences in this article, they
are true, at least in my belief, and if we
live our half of life as we are doing now,
men are justified, or, rather, it is only natu-
raj that they should lead their half as it is
set down there"
"You think so?n swell, / never
II wonder how you make that good!"
And high above the little patteriDg storm Of
EXPLANATIONS Miss Dinsmore's voice: II
should have not expected to find you, Mrs
Emery, in the ranks Of the enemy, arrayed
against your own sex!
sit is your enemy, Miss Dinsmore,
who tells you that there is o hole in
your stocking or powder on your nose,
or that your bonnet is not straight? Or
is it friend who assures you that you
that you are charming, and sends you
with the assurance to meet the criticism
and ridicule of the street? A large num-
Der of us are non-producers of anything.
The highest ambition of many among US
is to be non.producer. To have cook
ing, stitching, domestic work, child-tend-
ing, walking. thinking, and amusements
all involved by united labor of other
women, brutes, and men, graduated to
her scale of life in the most splendid
that is, the most expensive-manner, and
presenting her to absorb. If the head of
the family is stretched on financial
wheel, the woman has had her share in
starting it, and helps now to keep him
bound there. We are partially response
BILE for the 'gibbous-hat-Italian.o
condition of affairs, in which men turn
their backs on Hymen to follow Venus
Aphrodite, and for earthquake waves of
panic sweeping over world of men in
mad haste to be rich. We have let the
sacred fire given unto our hands die out,
and despised our trust because it was
homely and lay in humble and quiet
phases of life."
Mrs. Emery paused, her dark eyes full
of fire and tears, and looked around her
at the Deliberative Committee, sitting a