The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1875-10-07

From Governor Dauiss address at the Be
ia Wcs Y Ensr s,ESs't - E.r..a+

Z - 0YEHWOk&AAEAO C<A1SIA1AASSoeVAvNS> y
From Governor Dauis's address at the Be
1oit( Rhl Far. h. c1.s ss IT'D. !
There is another subject upon
which I feel called upon to speak at
the risk Of offending prejudices caus-
ed by an immemorial custom. I firm
" believe that it there is an over.
worked and underpaid class in our
community it is the wives Of the
American farmers. I have reason to
know that the daily solitude and iso-
lation Of their lives'tells fsarfhlly up
on them, and that it viii BY the law
of heridity tell upon their children.
In examining the records Of the
Asylum for the insane of Minnesota,
I was so much struck by the prepon-
derance of farmers wives among the
inmates that I asked men experienced
in sad statistics of mental alienation
what the reason is, The answer was
immediate. 1t is due to this very
solitude and isolation of which I have
spoken. I was told that as a general
rule their resources to while away the
monotonous influences which surround
their lives are far too few; that they
droop and pine without murmuring
in their solitary and unsympathetic
homes, until
Care and sorrow and childbirth pain
Leave their traces in heart and brain.
They entertain
A wish they scarcely dare to own
For something better than they have known,
And drift day by day until to the
surprise of all who knew the cheerful,
healthy and well-formed girl, the
asylum receives a jaded, haggard,
sullen nature, with no hope or care
for the morrow. I fear these words
may not to them have the force that
they deserve, but I know that many
women will instinctively recognize
their truth. The fault is not with
them. 1t is with the husbands and
fathers. The husbands do not do
enough to relieve their wives from the
tedium of their daily life. The man
goes in the evening to the store, or to
q worse place his days have their
frequent intermissions of visits to the
town; he attends the caucus, goes to
the convention, takes part in the cleo
ton. Her days are an everlasting
tread-mill. The father of farmers
family has a son and a daughter
both equally promising. In nine
cases out Of ten q most shocking in
justice is worked upon the girl. The
boy is headed for the Presidency.
He goes to school, to the academy
perhaps through college. His sister
is kept at home waiting to become
what her mother IS. She submits,
adores her brother John-thinks it is
all right; marries the son of some
neighbor and puts her shoulder to the
CALLING yoke. The sooner that men
learn that the function of women in
the social state is equal in Importance
and coordinate with that of mans
though it may not be identicle, the
better for every interest in this life.
From whom, before birth ensues, does
the child receive those inef1aceable
characteristics which will attend him
through life and into eternityf Who
after birth moulds the mind, charac-
ter and morals of the child ? In near
1y every instance when the child
reaches that mature age in which the
father begins to take charge Of him
his character has been fixed by her
who bore him. Can you expect a
perfectly elaborate character, fairly
balanced and attuned from a parent
who has herself been neglected, whose
vision has been narrowed, whose
functions have been dwarfed bv a
system which neither philosophy,
physiology, science, humanity nor
christianity warrants in the least de-
gree?
Woman is not the satellite of man.
She is the hemisphere which makes
up the full, round orb of humanity.
She has its fairest features. Her con-
tinents may not be so great, or pres
snt as commanding victories as those
of her companion, but they have that
without which man is but a hemis-
phere-a halfmade monstrosity in a
universe of harmony and beauty, des-
tined
To stink darkling in eternal night.
I'll should be called upon to speak
the most important advice that l
could conceive, to a people who are
governing themselves, I should say,
divide equally the culture and educa-
ton which you are able to give be-
tween the boy and the girl. Let
them be what their Creator intended
them to be, equals in the great scheme
Of life and being.
HORSE TRAINERS NERVE.
On Monday forenoon last num-