Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-05-03
women in the Old Time and In the
New.

MIR. George Wlllldm CuTtlS lcCluiSu III
New York few evenings ago on "Women
in the Old Time and in the New" The
following extracts are taken from an ab-
stract of his lecture published in the n.
Y. Times:
never were men SO alive to it as at this
moment-the dress of q fashionable
woman, says the social moralist, costs her
husband hundreds, yes, thousands OF dol
lars. sit is shameful; it was not SO in
the simple old time" Softly, softly.
Here is Queen Elizabeth, 800 years ago,
who died the happy owner of 1900
dresses, and who issued her solemn proc
lamation against extravaganza in dress.
We bewail our society, so giddy, SO gross.
Young men content to drive fast horses
and play billiards; young women in the
finest dresses, hobbling on high heeled
shoes that pinch their feet into Chinese
deiormity, in bonds that squeeze their
waists 1t is shameful, we cry. But
were the olden times much simpler? In
Smollet's Humphrey Clinker," the pict-
ure of society one hundred years ago, we
see a famous belle dressed for a ball. Il
was not six hours in the hands of the hair
dresser and he stuffed my head fall of
black tow that would have made quilted
petticoat." And yet it was the smallest
head with'on exception.
The position of women is always the
test of civilization, and the great illustra-
ton of its advancing sentiment is the
opening up of every opportunity Of edu-
cation. To-day, as stand in the ample
halls of some great school for girls, hum
ming with Intellectual activity, as | think
of the daily use OF that household, of the
Libraries, of the cloister Of learning, of
the nuns immured, not for solitary and
useless worship, but daily training 10
praise God by the larger and still larger
development of the faculties He has
given, reflect that if those girls had been
Greeks OF the age of Pericles, instead of
Americans of to-day, if they had lived in
what we are apt to call the finest civiliZa
ton, it would have been simply accepted as
an indication that they were fitting them
selves for lives of disgrace instead OF hon
or. In the old times of Greece, the best
educated, the most accomplished women,
women whose wit and intelligence were
like the ladies who are the pride of So
ciety today, were for that reason an out
lawed class.
The lecturer then spoke of the first at
tempts toward the higher education Of
women. He told how a young woman
was mobbed in France for attempting to
establish school in which she might
teach girls; referred to the accomplish
ment OF ladies in the early days as con-
sisting of nothing more than knowledge
of writing and arithmetic and in some
few cases music and dancing. Sometimes
in those early days girls were allowed to
attend school when there were not boys
enough to fill the class -room and in sum-
mer girls were in IA few instances permit
ted to attend the boys school for a few
hours day. The city of Boston was the
first to give girls an opportunity 20 gain u
better education, and after discussion of
three years it was decided by the common
council to establish high school for girls
similar to that for boys. When the school
was opened its doors were actually be-
Sieged by girls, and the city fathers were
amazed at this crowd Of fellows of the
other sex, you know" AT the establish
ment of the school the people were horri-
fed, and began to make suggestions and
to ask questions as to how far this higher
education was to be carried. The ques-
ton suggests itself to those city fathers
Suppose, suppose that Boston women
should come to know more than Boston
men; suppose and suppose, Mr.. Presi-
dent, there should be n Board of Alder
women instead of Aldermen, who should
rule the city, AS the old deacon said,
suppose and suppose, fellow sinners,
you should wake up in the morning and
Ind yourselves dead, what would you say
| then?'
Mr.. Curtis thought that Sidney Smith
would stand aghast could he see how
rapidly these views on education had adj
vanced. Schools and colleges we're being
everywhere established for women, and
even in the shadow of Cambridge Univer-
Slty IN England there stood !, .lmale col
ltge, Tor which examinations were held
throughout the whole land 1t was ar
gued by some, he said that woman
could not stand the strain OF q college ed
ucauon, and 1t was woman who replied ::
/ would like you to take 1900 young
men and lace them, and Lam, ten or TWEEN
" pounds OF clothes upon their waists,
perch Them on three inch heels, and stick
4V,UOO halr pins in their scalps, and If
lAty can stand this they can also stand Il
niue Laun and a little Greek" Among
sdFageS, he said, woman was regarded as
i!lIe more than a child or a beast and
even poets considered her as only tit TO at
lend to flowers and sucn 1iutr things as
mat He considered taat compliment
was an insult to a womal, and in order
!" Illustrate how womaa was sometimes
'ompllmented and at tie same time in
Su.,ed, The speaker ga'1 a very lively
ana very graphic descril on of Il supper,
witch Men, when df intoxicated,
'"sled women, and then ang " We won
nome till morning" He reversed
s , il scene, AID presented one OF halt:iud-
''lo women toasting inca in the same
Fnagucr.
IN answer to the quest which he said
Fl Presumed the audency would put 10
MN " 10 Mhcther home WIS not the nron.