Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-11-12
SuperhuOus Women.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR THEM-wUAT
MAY AND SHOULD BE DONE.

on the lecture platform, recently spoke ell
oquently on "Superfluous Women" at Bos
ton. After a brief preface, in which she
summed up the gains OF woman during
the last twenty-five years, such as the alb
rogation of unjust legal statutes, the open
ing 10 them Of colleges aud professional
schools, their admission to an ever increas-
ing number OF fremunerative employments,
and their recognition in the highest and
best society as the honored peers and be-
loved companions of noble men, she pro-
ceeded: 1t is not of the general elevation
of woman that 1 propose TO speak tonight.
II is rather with the generally accepted
theory of woman's life that propose 10
deal-with the theory that the final cause of
woman, the reason why God created her,
was simply that man needed her, and that
she has answered the end and aim of her
being when she has become some mans
wife and the mother Of his children. The
Boston Congregationaist says: "Female
education, as a rule, should ever hold wife
hood in view, aud should shape its special
culture toward the end Of fitting young
women physically to be good wives and
mothers" "The British association for the
protection OF the franchise against the en-
croachments of women" has its avowed or
igin in the con nviction that the sole duties
Of woman are those Of wife aud IN 9TH
er. 1.-THE problem Of woman's sphere"
says DIR. L. II. Clarke, speaking ez cdthed-
"a for the medical profession, "cannot be
solved by principles of abstract right and
wrong, but by physiology alone" And
thus defined, again is her sphere declared
TO be wiGohood and motherhood. Accord
ing TO this theory, the woman who has
married and given birth 10 a son has full
filed her mission. The celibate woman
though as gifted as Charlotte Cushman, or
Harriet Hosmer, useful as Florence Night
inGale or the Sisters of Charity, as learned
as Margaret Fuller or Maria Mitchell-has
entirely missed IL.
Let Inc not be understood as depreciating
marriage, and setting myself against it.
Nay, magnify marriage True marriage
gives an ante-taste OF Heaven. There can
be no country worth living for that is not
based on nome aud FAMILY, resulting from
ory that marriage is the fnai cause OF wo-
man, the sole onJect oi her creation, be-
cause II Is incorrect ana harmful Inet the
ory mat marriage ~ the only business oil a
"ohiahs NE cannot DE prac'icaily carried
OUT WIN all "otlen' rac's are aGainst H.
"hlie lhere are, on an average, usually
ABOUT loo or loo boys born INTO ihe world 10
every loo glrIs, ihere mas oeen such waste
oi lie among men through war, dangerous
pursuits, drunkenness ana prohigacy that'
taxing Tue worid over, there are aud al
ways nave been sincethe days OF aulhentic
history, more marrlageaoie women IN the
Woria than men, In lo'O tue average num-
Der OF marriages in the United STATES was
seVeniy-hve 10 one hundred marrlaseaole
women. Since then we nave passed through
the hVe years war OF the rebellion, In con-
sequence OF which nearly one million o.
men 1851 thelF IlVes' In addltlon there mas
since theh Deeh growing morDld luxury
among Oo'h men ana women which added
10 tue expens'Nehess OF hNlng, mas tenued
10 greatly festrict marriage Inc STATE cen
sus oi MASSACHUSETTS, just completed, In
forms US that there are now 6S,Ooi more
women IMAM men IN The Stale, anu that The
disparity is increasing yearly.
Ihe theory that marriage oilers 10 wom-
an her only career OF usefulness leads us
10 DO injustice 10 the great army OF the I'M
married. Ihey not only drop down In
general estlmat'on' so That we speak slight
lngly oi them as old maids and superhuous
women Out neglect 10 provide for them,
and 10 give them the training necessary for
their successful living and proper develop
ment. Mr.. Greg, the charming English es-
sayist, calls the unmarried women ire
dundant aud "superhuous women" and
has written an elaborate paper In answer
10 The question, why are women redun-
dantT' lie not only attempts to answer
this question, succeeding only indifferent
~ well' but he raises another query which
he also undertakes to answer, "What shall
we 10 Win lhese superhuous women y
And amer full discussion of the whole
subject, 10 which he carried kindly spirit,
he is unable to suggest any other provision
Tor these supernuous women than exporta'
ton. You must do with them as you dc
win any o'her commodity with which the
market is overstocked,-as Delaware did
last summer, when Its peach crop was over
whelmingly superhuousi you must ex-
port lhem. Inc women must emlgrale'
The difference between the superhnous
women OF the old Time and the new Is this
In the old time the unmarried women,
partly from dullness, partly from abund-
anee Of daily employment, and more from
the absolute submission in which they had
been educated, resigned themselves to theiI
fate and the worlds treatment. But the
superhuous women of to-day breathe freer
and more invigoratlng air. In common
with the whole community in which they