The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-08-14

time that will rise above the pillows of
change and of resistless reform that
overwhelms everything that obstructs
its progress.
THE WOMEN OF TEXAS AND
THEIR TRAINING.
Prof. Alex. Hoeg, of the AgrIcu,tI-
raj and Mechanical College, in the
National E iucational Convention st
Philadelphia, proposed that Congress
be asked to endow for women, as II had
for men, an agricultural and mechani-
cal college in each State. The same
general plans for the organization snd
conduct of the female colleges are to
be defined, as have been fixed by the
law creating these useful aud success
full institutions Of learning aud art in
every commonwealth. There Is no
want Of society or of progressive intel
ligence more keenly felt than this af-
fecting the social aud intellectual con-
dition of women. The average soci-
ETY. girl Crews up invested in the finest
possible clothes, and with the idea
that the grandest aim and purpose of
life Is the sale of her person for the
biggest possible price. The education
of women has been accomplished when
they were decked with the tinsel OF
music and plinting, and have az Cql,.cd
smattering of those studies best calcI-
lated to produce startling and pleasing
effects in fashionable society. The
thinking world has b"gun TO il quiIe
into the results of this mode of intGllec'- =
ual and neral training. l. finds that
the butterfly, by marriage, is transform
cd. Its beauty withers, its splendors
vanish, and the gay and the beautiful
lose in single day illusory charms de-
rived from modes of social training ard
education now IN vogue. Therefore
colleges have been instituted in New
York, Massachusetts, and in Michigan,
in which glrls, like men, are trained in
practical and theoretical science and in
ancient and modern languages.
Only last week we adverted to the
fact that the president and faculty OF
Columbia College, with It's 1900 under
graduates, propose to double til mum
Der by having young ladies taught just
as are young men. Only yesterday the
Waco Telephone, adverting to the fact
that Massachusetts, women were little
disposed, outside of the cities, to vote
in school elections, as they were now
permitted by law, forgot to say that
the education even of the masses of
Massachusetts, women is greatly inferior
to that of men. They are trained for
show, for social and dazzling effects
and not for the attainment of practical
and beneficent, personal and public re-
suits. They arc not taught book-keep.
ing, or surgery, or agricultural chemis-
try or inthe mechanic arts. They have
never entered a polytechnic school.
They have rarely he IN admitted within
the walls of ncrmal echool, monopc-
iized selfishly enough by vigorous men
when God made the mother to train
the youth of the son. No wonder
women, when privileged, fail to vote.
What do they know or care about it9
They have not even learned the value
of the rights of citizenship, which half
educated men have died to maintain.
But they will learn, slowly for a time
perhaps, but right acquired and exer.
cised and comprehended Is never sur
rendered willingly by the most i'm
bruted of our race.
We are planting acorns. The oaks
will not appear in majestic beauty until
an age has elapsed and yet we should
plant the acorns. The rivers of Texas,
if trees be not preserved, rather than
destroyed, along their toutsous courses,
will go dry, and yet because we of to-
day may not suffer, the forests th
God planted to preserve the streams
are ruthlessly destroyed. Aud shall
we not protect and guard and ennoble
aud elevate the mothers of our races
They are dependent to-day shall they
not be independent. We haYe no law
providing for their maintenance when
poor, and no eleemosynary institutions
for their support when age and poverty
drag them down to beggary and vice,
and yet we refuse to give them access
to nearly all avocations by which inde-
pendence and bread may be acquired.
1t is not so much ''woman's rights"
that concern thoughtful people, and
especially those having daughters, as
"womsn's wrongs" that are intolerable.
She is not fairly dealt with. She is
subjected to all and the most terrible
pains and penalties incident to wrong
doing, and yet is not suffered to learn
how to protect herself or how to rise
above the temptation to evil, even
when haggard want is the reslstless
betraJer. Prof. Hogg's proposition is
eminently just and wise and Congress
will not dare to deny to the women
Of the several States the boon it con-
ceded to the men, and We may soon
have the most capable and intellectual
daughters as thoroughly and practical
ly educated as are the most favored
sons of Texas.
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO
ABOUT Ira