Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-04-21
Women in Old and New Times.


The following is the abstract of lee
ture recently delivered by Geo. William
Curtis before the Young Women's Christian
Association of New York
The past is always the golden age The
glamor OF distance makes beauty more beau.
tifu, and va!or more heroic and prosaic
fate seems to have thrown us on the lees Of
time and in the worlds decrepitude. While
we read. history and poetry seem full of
the heroic. Philip Sidney, bending from his
saddle to offer cup of cold water to the
wounded soldier, was hero. But see that
gunner at Gcttysburgh, who, falling wounded
and tortued by thirst, called out "Johnny
Johnny for the love of God drop of wa
torw "Ah, Jenny, there is not q drop in
my canteen, and it 60 to get any the enemy
will take the gun" "No matter, Johnny,
stand to your gum" and when the line
moved forward it moved over Jemmy's dead
body. Three hundred years ago it would
have been as beautiful self.sacrifce as
Philip Sidney's. All that was best in the
old times VIC have now. So experience in
torprets history and poetry, and the truth Of
ages have been dcplored. We see to-day
appalling extravaganza and luxury. They
cry, The dress of a fashionable woman
costs her husband thousands of dollars 1t
was not so in the simple old time" Softly,
softly. Queen Elizabeth, happy owner Of
5000 dresses, issued a PROCLAMATION against
extravaganza. We bewail a degenerate
society-so sordid, so gross. Our young
men are only fit, it is said, to smoke cigars
and play billiards and talk slang; our young
women to be French dolls purched upon
high.heeled shoes, prching their waists
almost to vanishing point, piing high upon
their heads dyed tow and horse hair, making
an affectation of simplicity, but were they
simpler in the old times? Dick Steele in
his account Of mock trial of young woman
for wearing monstrOus silk petticoat en-
brodered with diamonds, says that when the
judge ordered it drawn up with puleys, it
covered the place where the judge was sitting
with n silken rotunda like ST. Peters.
We cry out against political corruption,
and Justly fear for the moral foundations Of
the government. have seen a man in the
lobby Of the legislature brandish bank bills
and openly boast, THAT makes the laws !"
While | WINGED, remembered that in the
time of Walpole the British king bought
men rs he would launches Of meat. When
foolish imagination signs for the old times,
1t forgets that the old time was cruel, super.
stitious, and gross, The men of the old time
personal, political, and religious liberty; they
were times when men died faster in the open
,ouutr ,y than in tho dirIiasf lana of our oil u
to-day. The whole progress of civilization
is in the emancipation from the theories and
manners of the old time. We do not excuse
our own age, but when we sigh for the return
OF the past let US remember that its greatest
glory was the divine discomfort with those
times. One commanding the supreme indi.
cations Of the worlds progress is its higher
and better estimate Of woman. The position
of woman is always the test Of society. To-
day as / stand in the ample halls of some
great school, filled with the hum Of industri
Gus and happy life remember that in the
girl Of the age Of Pericles all scholastic dill
geRce would have been accepted as evidence
Of evil design. In the golden age Of Athens
the most accomplished women belonged to al
Outlawed class.
Mr.. Curtis then humorously described tht
discussions that were carried on in Dear
Swlits time as to whether it would be prudent
to marry woman who had good natura
sense, some taste, aud was able TO read I'M
derstandingly the literature of the day. L
was said that there were radical objections
against an intelligent wife that the natura
levty Of women needed ballast Of ignoranc,
and stupidity. And such was the tenderness
of the sex that the woman consented to re
main ignorant that they might be equal Il
their husbands. This was slow to change
Not more than sixty years ago Sidney Smitl
spoke of the disparity between the knowl
edge Of men and women, and intmated tina
women should cultivate household duties Il
the exclusion Of all other requirements
THAT is an insulting idea Of woman" sal
the lecturer, (Which makes her happy whe
her husband brings her home bracelet an
screaming when a mouse hops across tn
floor She is not tho fine lady Of the fashio
plates, but Iebe joyous with health an
pouring nectar, fifty married to Hercules
strongest Of the gods. Is the Portia Shakes
peare has drawn, beautiful because wis
young judge, less truly Of feminine tina
Juliet whispering her love from balcony
Mr.. Curtis sketched the great caution wit
which the Pilgrims and early ssttlers {
New England dealt out little education
their girls, and in strain Of the keene'
irony told how Boston, trembling for Ii
bulwarks of freedom opened Il high schoc
for girls, and stood agast at the immens
attendance upon it aud the eager accePtanC