Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-03-18
GRAND RAPIDS, WIS, THURSDAY, MARCH Is, 1878.

Spend tnclr nVes IN making pretty
things to wear; who read nothing,
not even the newspapers, except the
deaths and marriages and accidents :;
who are utterly unconscious Of the
great political changes taking place in
the world-unconscious Of the great
strides science IS making to whome
art. music, the best literature, are
sealed fountains; whc would be un-
conscious if congress should make a
law defrauding them of half their
rights, an d would be Indifferent if they
did know it. And it is in obedience
to that same sentiment, that when re-
forms are waging war with error, and
great souls are leading on to combat
when the world is hot with enthusiasm
or trembling with fear, these women
sit unconcernedly embroidering worsted
dogs !
And when SCIENCE has the sublime
hope of grand conquest; when ma
tions and individuals have layished
money, and scientific men have given
years of painful study and toll, that in
one sacred moment a secret Of the un-
iverSe may be snatched ere it is too
late9th0Se women are as unconsclO us
or as Indifferent in that momentous
hour as the canary which sings in It's
cage.
But we rejoice that there are many
women who have not been victims TO
this false sentiment-women who have
seen clearly and bravely broken down
barriers and scaled Heights. But at
what terrible costs have they passed
the prescribed boundaries
Hypatia was torn limb from limb by
the inturi ated mob Of Alexandria
Aspasia could find scope for her in
teIlect only at the cost of her reputa-
ton; for Ill Greece the good wives and
mothers and maidens never mixed with
the men in intellectual life. They liv-
ed in obscure rooms, and seldom went
, abroad They cooked and mended
| and they raised families for Greece,
: while their husbands passed their leis-
! ure hours with the educated courte-
zans.
Aspasia, with her grand mind, her
) thirst for intellectual companionship,
rather than be an ignorant slave, &C
5 cepted the lesser curse Of being
: esteemed bad. 1t may be said
/ such obstacles existed only in
: the past, but that in mod
4; ern times public sentiment has not been
4 averse to woman education and free
4 dom. But this is only in measure
7 true. Ask the young woman, who fol
n years has been pleading to be admit.
7 ted to our best American colleges and
: have repeatedly been repulsed, if there
c have been any obstacles In the way O.
: woman's education in modern days
f And since women are determined to be
t educated. and some universities have
Y consented to admit :hemj learned
/ physician, with great apparent kindness
l. has written book to prove that women
n cannot be as thoroughly educated as
y men because their constitutions vii
|, not permit Ask women who fftee I
y years ago essayed to speak in public
It ask the women who have endeavoreC
It to study medicine, if their is any sen
d timent averse to the education anC
It freedom of women to-day. Ask tht
/ lady medical students, who four year;
e ago IN Philadelphia were hooted a
l. and Kissed and insulted with vile Ian
= guage by mob of male students Bu
is as the women persist, and are deter
I mined to master medicine, DR. Val
:, De Walker, evidently disturbed be
+ cause women physicians are gainin!
5, money and laurels, has published i
l. the Popular Science Monthly an in
s sulting article to prove that wome
n cannot successfully practice medicine
r 1t is the old cry, that they must
s. whether they prefer it or not, sta.
oe by the freside and perpetuate th'
er race.
'r Our enemies have hurled the Bibl
n at US, and made Paul stone US whethe
Il he would or not. They have heape
At in our pathway constitutions and laws
L aud now, to oppose Us more etfectually
/, they are endeavoring to bring up tn
|, reinforcement Of science, determined t
at resist US to the death. And scientist
f. and philosophers like DR.. Clarke an
ic DIR. Van DeWalker and Goodwin Smith
r investigate US, and analyze US, and the
orize upon US, intellectually aud phys
| calIy--especially physically-and labt
to us all housekeepers and mothers. The
refuse to recognize any other capacity
rv But scientists have made blunders be
e, fore to-day, and had to be corrected b
C. science herself. They blundered whe
an they said the world was fat, they blul
90 dered when they said the world was th
center of the universe, and they ar
= making a most heinous blunder in the
in theories upon women to-day Ther
is must arise another Newton to discoyt
,r1. .I