Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-12-08
superAuous Woman.

Mrs. Livermore, one Of the most sensible
and practical of all the female advocates
of the more advanced ideas of woman's po-
litcal rights and duties, is delivering lee
ture with the above title in many places in
New England. We present the following
abstract Of it for the benefit of the many
thoughtful women of Vermont, who may
not enjoy the privilege of listening to Mrs.
Livermore.
Woman in the very outset OF the
world was called a slave. The Greeks
held her in everlasting disgrace, from the
cradle to gray.haired old age, and looked
upon her as an accidental being. Rousseau
calls her a play.thing Voltare, q child.
To-day woman is taking her rightful place
in society. In the century which is just
past man has shown what he could do; the
next century will show us what woman can
accomplish.
believe in marriage, but do not think
that the only object Of woman is marriage.
| do not think that woman is q social failure
because she does not marry. Average
women think about the same, run in the
same grooves. are cut after the same pattern.
Men have had more experience hence you
have an Aristotle, Milton, a Drew, Van.
derbilt, Grant, aud, in fact every sort and
kind OF man. You sometimes meet with
women who have only been trained to be
domestic, and who always drag you down
into the pots and pans Of their kitchens, and
bore you to death with their domestic diff.
6culties. do not believe in these purely
domestic creatures. The woman who would
be truly an angel in the house, must have
self-control; she must have wings to take
her above the drudgery Of housekeeping /;
otherwise she will be dragged down. be-
lieve in having women trained to be good
wives, but there is no need of making this
training such a terrible affair. See that
your daughters become cooks, good house.
keepers; and not only train them to be
wives, mothers, and housekeepers, but train
them so that they can live without being
wives mothers and housekeepers bring them
up to some calling or profession so that
they can have something to fall back on in
case of misfortune. More boys are born
iuto the world than grls. During the last
fifty years one hundred and six boys were
born to every one hundred girls. There is
not single country in the world that does
not possess more unmarriageable women than
men. In Prussia there are one aud one half
millions more manageable women than
men. In the United States in 1860 there
were seventy-fve men to every one hundred
women; aud in 1870 there were thirty.three
per cent more women than men. There are
63,0S4 more women than men in Massachu-
sets, and the disparity is said to be yearly
increasing
War has been potent force in lessening
the number Of men. Burke estimated that
thirty-fve hundred millions Of men had been
destroyed by war, and OF course the number
to-day towers high above that. Sixty thou
sand men die from year to year from the
effects OF alcoholic stimuants. Another
thing which brings about the destruction Of
a great many men is the risks that are run
by them in the pursuit OF wealth they will
do anything and everything to gain it, and
as result hundreds and thousands of men
die annually in their attempts to grasp the
coveted prize.
In China they have no superfluous women,
for there the mothers drown most of the girl
babies as soon as they are born, and the laws
are powerless to stop it. Mrs. Livermore
spoke of the low wages which women receive
as class, and instanced cases on the other
hand where they received handsome sums
for their labor, The speaker thought that
industrial schools ought to be established
all over our land and the doors thrown
wide open to women ; then we should sec
the commencing of most glorious work
Whatever elevates woman elevates man, and
what degrades woman degrades man We
rise and fall together.