The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-12-15
COULD YOU HAVE DONE AS MUCH ?

COULD YOU HAVE DONE AS MUCH ?
The deceased was kind and indulgent
mother, who, by her own energy, has raised
and educated three daughters, who with many
friends, she leaves to mourn her loss.
Pausing as this record of a brave and
useful life closed with the above para
graph, we thought of a declaration
made by man but few days since in
our presence-a man, too, of intelligence
and position and honor, "that wom-
ans place is hOBle;' that any attempt to
go outside of that to find her work is
merely a quarrel with the Almighty
because she is not a man, and that wom-
en- never had and never would accom-
plish anything which required endur-
ance"
1t would seem, indeed, that any man
who would use his eyes and ears and
exercise the common wit derived from
his mother might know better than
to make such declarations as these,
and further, that if persons do not
know better that it is of no use to waste
argument upon them. Yet, we have
hope, sometimes, even for these self
blinded individuals-an so, while with
great effort we preserve our soul in
patience, we pick up and cite instances
which mayhap fall under their eyes
and cause them to pause and consider
before they pronounce judgment so ut
terly at variance with fact upon the
brave, struggling, working women of
the world.
"By her own energy she has raised
aud educated three daughters" Is this,
~ sapient law-giver, a merit, and could
yOu have done so much and kept strict
Iy at home? Could you have done as
much, indeed, merely by your town en-
ergy" taking the children from their in
fancy up, even with your enlarged
sphere? Would you not have had to
call in the aid of a woman before the
children were taught to feed and dress
themselves? Could you have toiled at
hardest labor for scanty wages, taking
them with you and caring in every way
for their wants, or stolen time from
your sleep to mend and turn their gar
ments while they slept? No, but you
say you could have hired these things
done. Could you, if circumscribed in
your sphere of action as you assume to
circumscribe the sphere Of these toiling
mothers? If from political and social
disability your place in the financial
world was limited to that of mere beg
gary only, as with almost superhuman
energy you wrung a reluctant pittance
from some already over full position,
whence would have come your funds to
pay for these cares that it were i'm
possible to bestOw yourself?
Think a moment and tell US if this
woman has not done more than you
could have done, and done it in the
face of obstacles that you would not
contend against for a moment. Use
your eyes and your ears and your un-
derstanding, we beseech you, and never
again, in the hearing of a woman who
has performed unaided what you would
never attempt, declare that no woman
has ever accomplished anything that
required steady perseverance and long
continued labor and endurance. Ponder
and tell US farther, whether it would
have beep more cOmmendable, more
womanly, more pleasing to the AL
mighty, who gave these to her charge
and left her their sole guardian, for this
woman to have listened to the senti-
mental twaddle to which you treat
women about staying at home and work
ing solely therein, and helplessly wiring
ing her hands because she was woman,
when her children were put upon the
town or "farmed outn to vigorous task
masters, or to have bravely seized upon
every opportunity to labor away from
home, not stronger in her mother love
than in the determination to do any
thing she could do regardless of what
theorists might say of her sphere. And
never, until all women are provided
without exertiOn on their part with
homes to stay in, be so unreasonable as
to declare "that all women were made to
stay at home"