The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-16

church. Wilt thou, in thy goodness,
come down and remove her!'
Woman's Opinion Of 1t.
[New York Herald, 6th.]
Miss Anna E. Dickinson last evening,
in Steinway Hall, delivered her lecture,
"A Woman's Opinion of IT, Despite
the stormy weather, there was quite a
large audience, the major portion of
whom strange to say, were of the gentler
sex. Just before Miss Dickinson made
her appearance on the stage, Theodore
Tilton, escorting young lady, and &C
companied by one Of his counsel, Roger
A. Pryor, entered the hall, and took a
reserved seat in the central row. His
entrance created quite q sensation, and
when the lecture vase over the ladies in
the audience clustered about the door,
ways in order to see him pass out, many,
in their anxiety, budding together out
side the main entrance, exposed to the
storm, where they remained until the
lights were put out. AS Theodore and
his party, after the lecture, made their
way behind the stage to pay their re-
spects, it was believed, to Miss Dickin.
son, there were not few disappointed
women on the sidewalk when the doors
were closed.
Miss Dickinson lecture, it was sup
posed'by many, was to have the Beecher
trial for it's text, but such was not the
case. She only referred to it incidental
~. The theme was the social evil, and
the aim OF the lecture was to arousehhe
attention, as the lecturer intimated to
the necessity Of so educating the boys of
the period as to give them openly and
above board, even before they got
OUT OF THEIR TEENS,
good idea of the evils they would be in
strumental in bringing about in their
maturer years if allowed to follow their
bad inclinations and ''the teachings of So
ciety,' as to their responsibility in life.
There were, Miss Dickinson said, ques-
tiens other than the third term, the
Louisiana difficulty, the Arkansas prob
lem and the national finances which
needed to be discussed-quest,ons which
were Of more Importance than these,
which existed before they became topics,
and which would exist long after they
would be forgotten. People said that
though it was true they were of grave
Importance, yet we were not strong
enough in the present to grapple with
them. If a woman spoke openly about
them she was declared shocking, unsexed,
and PEG PIE said that she must have been
LOST TO ALL DEL1CACY
and modesty before she dragged these
questions up for the inspection of all the
world. ut was very bad taste,'' they
said. Yet it was the correct thing to dis.
cuss iniquity in office, poverty and vice,
because on their discussion depended the
advancement Of the entire human race.
If that were so, how much more the sub
ject she meant to speak about was above
all these! The lecturer then alluded to
the average young man just beginning
life, so to speak. He was a nice young
fellow everybody conceded. ''He is only
sowing his wild OATS people said. s'He
is little gay, but he'll mend in years.
He is a little overload of the ladies, but
that S nothing. He'll be all right in
time People talked Of young man s
sowing wild oats as if he was only pass
ing an idle hour, and that a
good harvest was to come of the
sowing; but it was sowed on a
ground. she said, that was the crushing
out Of a healthy life, the destruction of a
woman's body for all time, and probably
her soul for eternity. Miss Dickins on
then at great length argued to show that
society held a man. mortal crime to be a
venial fault, and a woman's venial fault to
be mortal crime. Even to stumble was,
for woman to fall past all hope Of ris-
ing but man might fall till the end of
his days. yet no one thought him any the
less worthy of society. A woman was
so judged, it was commended, because she
stood as the keystone of the arch of the
home-if she fell. all-home, husband and
children-fell. If a man fell the home
remained intact, for
THE PLEA OF SOCIETY
owns his act only touched himself, and
him but slightly. Because of this teach
ing, she said, moral death was being sown
among our boys. Miss Dickinson then
illustrated the condition of the fallen
woman by describing the fall of young
girl who browns her child because, sac.
cording to the custom of society," her
parents make her get rid of it before they
will let her come home. The lecturer
wildly described the agony Of the young
mother; her persecution by those who
should help her; her attempt to retrace
her false step, and her final resort to
AL1FE OF SHAME,
after being repulsed by society in her ev-
cry effort to do we'll, even by the respect
able churches and the respectable pastors,
and the final death-som etimes on the
gallows. And yet the man who was the
real assassin of the woman's body and
soul went scot free because his act, as So
ciety claimed, concerned himself and him