National Republican., 1878-01-18
For the Corner
/" As to Women"

she might nave wed with you or me.
For the Corner.
"As to Women"
A friend asked mo yesterday whether had
seen the article, "As to Women" In one of
our morning papers and when | confessed my
remissncss in that direction, kindly procured
the back number for my special benefit. Well,
since reading II have diligently searched the
papers for notice Of the sudden demise of a
brilliant youth for that any ono merely NOR
tai should produce such literary meteor and
live, seemed utterly impossible whom viewed in
the light Of such memories as Chatterton,
Keats, and Poe.
:. As nothing however lovely, can be perfect
though In this earth-life Of ours l would beg
leave to suggest that the writer may possibly
have been carried Just little too far by his
Pegasus, when, with peculiarly refreshing can
dor he proclaims his conviction that women,
oil the world over, always have been, are,
and always will be, everything that is wicked
and cruel.
Now, although II is considered by some old
fogies to be in rather bad taste to air the delin-
quencies of ones own household before tho
public, ], for one, have no objection to his
saying, to all intents and purposes, that his
mother, sister, wife, or sweetheart would be
wanton, treacherous, yes, everything low and
bad, unless kindly kept pure and wholesome
by such Koh-i-noors Of grace and virtue rs this
their son, brother, or husband. But, although
have no earthly reason to find fault with all
that must confess that the widest stretch of
Imagination could never succeed In placing
my mother, whose gray hair is a crown OF
honor in the estimation Of all who know her,
Into class like that and ! have reason to
believe that a few others, some of them true,
manly men, share my weakness. Further
more, i would suggest that little something
may be thought and said regarding every one
Of those luckless women mentioned by him
which slightly differs from his kindly esti-
mate.
Poor, much-abused Eve, for instance. with
out her fruit-raid upon the tree Of knowl-
edge Of good and evil, we would simply be
brutes, without intellect and shame lin reality
the things that Mr.. Somebody pictures US
and not women only, men as wclD Then, re-
gardng Mrs. Potphar, hold that the evil
dencc upon which he condemns her Is such as
no lawyer would deem sufficient to sustain his
case In court. The woman's story is as much
entitled to credit rs Josephs, and that is
rather different from his. think. As Adam
In Paradise hid himself after gorging himself
with the lions share Of the apples, and then
whined out his cowardly excuse of 'The
woman thou gavest me, she gave me and did
eat" So Joseph, too, tried to clear himself by
an artistic rearTangcment of facts, and the YER
diet of his family was simply that of packed
jury and worth-well, about rs much as some
Of the present day.
As 10 Juel, Wnen we take into consideration
that Sisera was the chief OF hordes who had
playful way of coming down like wolf on
the fold" aud then plundering and numbering
all that came before them, while they carried
helpless women into slavery worse than death,
VIC can understand how the spirit, which made
Charlotte Corday seek to save nation by the
death Of one bad man, guided her hand to the
fatal hammer and nail.
And Jezebol! Well, she was probably not
the only parent who foolishly humored bad
boy in his whms when he pined and fairly
made himself sick, covetng a vineyard or any
thing else. Besides, the standard Of morality
was 6s:.aE the same then as now; and when
we consider at Tsata low ebb purity and good
ness must have been In an age where, by con-
trast with his surroundings, murderer aia
adulterer like David was a bright particular
star In the armament of virtue and goodness
that he Is styled "a man after Gods own
heart !" and when We furthermore add that
women were slaves, with all q slaves disad-
vantages, then only can we approach anything
like justice in judging those whom our sapent
m0ralst censures so severely.
Then, regarding those noted heather queens
he mentions, one can safely reply that they
could not avoid rejecting the age they repre-
sent with both its valor and its vice. Had they
been gentle, lovely beings, on the Lady Jane
Grey order, they would no doubt, have been
severed by their "chivalrOus protectors as she
was. They knew that ito be or not to be-
was "the question" so they chose the "to be, u
and took their measures accordingly. As to
"BloOdy Mary" and Good Queen Bess"
would simply refer to the character and life OF
their father to account for any "crookedness
I'm theirs How could the daughters Of such a
man as Henry VIII, even had their mothers
been full-pedged angels escape the inheri'
tance of evil traits2 Then take the surround
Ing conditions of them all those figuring in
the Scriptures and ancient history were bought
and sold chattels and those later, well, they
were rlaves still; slaves to their priests and
ministers, who held them by the strong, never
breaking chain q: superstition forged around
their minds In childhood end strengthened
with every succeeding year.
Blame the father c0nfessOrs of Mary and
isabella, and the spiritual guides of every
other queen who permitted crueties to be per
petrated in religions name, for them, put keeI
your pity for the poor women who, taught
from their earliest youth that endless tor
ments awaited them here and hereafter uules'
they yielded implicit obedience to theil
gbostly fathers became mere puppets in thu
hands of their masters.
And when We come to the present ex.queer
ofSpain and reflect how she was betrayed by
her own kim the natural guardians OF her wei
fare then the word of reprOach fhlls rathe
weakly from our lips. Forced into q hates
marriage with an imbecile for state reasons
said reasons being the schemes of her uncle l.
draw the succession to the throne into his owl
line by compelling the young queen to rcmail
hciress, is il u wonder that she Tebelled agains
her lot and checkmated him In the only wa,
she cOuld2 Had she been pefmitted to MARI.
the man of her choice she might have boel
smother Victoria in goodness and purity.
1t is just the calm consideration of tn
wrongs Of women contained In the history Q
all time, which makes thinking women o
to-day strive for the improvement of their Sc
hy rnmnyinp tho which mako
fight the world with such weapons US the
can command. A good pure woman cannc
possibly exert any indirect influence" upo
national affairs aud in order to be guidin