Claiborne guardian. [volume] (Homer, La.) 1877-188?, 1880-04-28
PRACTICAL-OR UTOPIAN7
BY MARION HARLAND.
Published by permission. J
PART I.

PART I.
III am going to think this matter
ont to a practical issue, if it takes
me all night" said Mrs. Hitler, posi-.
lively. at may be that ! am rowing
against wind and tide, as you say,
but | will hold to the oars until !
am hopelessly swamped, or reach
land.'
Her husband laughed. Not sneer.
ingly; but as good natured men al
ways do laugh when women talk Of
finding their way out Of Labyrinth
by means of the clue of argument.
"You will accomplish no more
than yon. conventions and womens
rights books
Don't call them mine" protested
the wife.
IL speak of the sex at large, my
love. No more. then than womeu's
rights books and conventions have
achieved. All their battle for the
equality OF the sexes; the liberation
Of women from the necessity of mar.
rage as a means of livelihood; tor
more avenues of remunerative Ia.
Dor, and the acknowledgement of
the dignity of the same-now that
the smoke has cleared away. and
combatants and spectators can look
about them-is seen to have result.
ed in nothing, or next to nothing.
You have encouraged q few more
women to paint poor pictures, and
spoil blocks and plates in attempts
to practice engraving; put some at
bOokkeepers' desks where they are
half paid; crowded the board rooms
of our public schools with appli
cants at the rate of hundred for
each vacancy; induced similar
rush on telegraph offices, and every
other place where light, lady.like
labor can be procured; brought
down, rather than raised the sala.
ries in each of these departments
of industry-and made marriage
more than ever the summnm bOnum
of every thinking workwoman-
the shining gate that is to give her
liberation from i'll requited toll"
"Phlip, how you exaggerated
"Not in the least, my dear, san.
guine wife! Who puts OH her rose
colored spectacles whenever the
subject of 'woman's emancipation
is brought forward. | have studied
this matter as closely as you have;
hopefully, for awhile, but, of late,
with the fast-growing conviction
that Nature and Society yoked are
too strong a team for you to pull
against. Combat the assertion as
you Whit is natural for a woman
to look forward to matrimOny as
her happiest destiny; to desire, and
to bring it about by every means
which seems to her consistent with
modesty and self.respect. And to
this conclusion Society holds her BY
the refusal to receive into the best
circles her who earns her living BY
her own labor. Mrs. Million treads
the charmed arena by virtue of her
husbands wealth. But, when Mrs
Sangpur is envious of her dear
friends latest turnout in equipage,
dress, or furniture, she recurs
tauntingly, to the time when Mrs
Million was a worKgirl in Miss Fit
wells establishment, and shrugs
her patrician shoulders over new
people, As Miss Fitwells assist
ant, forewoman, and successor, Mist
Bias-now Mrs. Million-were she
rich, refined, beautiful, could YET
never hope for card even to one
of Mrs. Ssngpur's mass parties"
"But there are distinctions Of
social degree, Philip, which must
be maintained. You dOn't bring
your bOotmaker home to dine with
Judge Wright, or Honorable Sess
tor Rider"
~ am not Q reformer, my lore
When ny bootmaker hts himsel1
for the society you name, be will b<
welcomed By them, and his eariy
history referred to - IN honoe, moi
q diagrace. The annals Of C0ur'
and Congress win tell you thiA X
return to the original queseios;