, 1881-12-04

! ing a lady she was backward in ,ascribing it
| to her own sex. .<.' .::@~
| Caste in American society is peculiarly
female Invention, ifswe may apply that term
| to it, and, like many other Inventions Of the
| feluule Kind it Is useless to inquire tie why
or the wherefore of 1t, the part Of fllosofy
being to accept aud endure it as well as pos
sible. American women have established it
upon no rational basis, laid it out with no
| fixed or known boundaries, maintain it with
no cause, and endure it will, no conpensa-
/ tom American ulen have llo Ideas of CASTE
| They naturally separate in fragments for Il
single purpose--thnr Of business. The basis
of these divisions is prosperity, the boundary
is business necessity. Bankers associate
| largely with bankers and bank customers,
ministers with the clergy and people Of their
own sects, lawyers with the legalfraternlty,
doctors with doctors, schoollnasters with
| sci1oolnasters and professors. mechanics
with men OF their trade. and so on to the
street galnins who sell papers or black boots
| and associate with other snail merchants
dealing in their wares. But this is matter of
| necessity, for the banker, or trader, or farln-
er, or mechanic, who did not associate with
his class would soon be out Of business and
company. These dividing lines, however,
| are not kept outside of business. for us soon
and whenever necessity allows the lines i'll
tcrsect in all possible directions. Il mans
dollars ito not commend him to mems socie-
ty except in business circles. Upon his own
merits his orbits run in ati directions, and
| were calamity to happen By which females
| were separated from the males the tlemocra-
| cy of men would be Of the most heteroge-
neous description, aud caste would be a
t thing unknown.
| Men are drawn into caste by women with
| little knowledge of what it means, and never
| certain why they are in it except that their
| wives tell them it is the thing to do, and are
as miserable while they are III it.as fish out
! Of water. For one Potlsnao i'll the world
| there are Thousand Mcrtites. and there are
| not wanting 1neil, even III Chicago, which
| has little caste and less society as compared
| with Eastern cities, who, if you could
| catch their consciences in a corner, where
| their wives could not hear theill, would
| frankly confess that they are afraid OF their
| buffers, shiver before their caterer when he
| takes charge Of tile house, and look upon the
| sImptuous negro who waits at the front
| door OIL grand occasions with :: certain feel
| ing of awe, regarding them all us mysterious
| ceebrants III the temple of easte, with whom
| his wife is on terms Of intimacy, hut as far
| removed from himself Us tue stars above tue
| earth, and quite as mysterious.
| THE mystery Of female easte to the male
sex is the why Of it, what it is for, whittier it
| tends, alld what it rests upon. In other
| countries we can clearly see tile Alpha and
| Omega Of caste. In India caste is 4 reiig-
| ious precedent that has come down through
| thousands of years. fixed upon the inilexible
dogma Of fate and transmigration. Its lines
are iron-bounu and it is accepted by every
| follower Of Buddila or Brahua as something
that cannot be altered OF removed. The low
est parlah accepts his lot, because his rclig-
| ion, ami especially the transullgration Of
| souls doctrine, teaches him that he was born
| into his loi, and so he never complains.
| In Europe especially in England and Ger
many, Spain and Austria, caste is based
| upon monarchicat Institutions. upon titled
| aristocracy, upon feuGal privileges, and
| MONOPOLY of offices. But what is there in
| the institutions Of this country upon which.
| to found castes Our entire system is based
upon the Declaration OF Independence,
which declares that all men are born free
and equal. and upon the Constitution, which
is in full sympathy with it. The men Of
this country have obeyed both these lnstru-'
/ ments, with what ulacrity is shown by the
| pelI-1nell manner in which they temocratize
themselves and plunge into the common,
| when the female leaders Of caste are not
,f t11.-a CAT
up an imperlo imperiHn. They have secuted
at the Declaration and slciied tie Con-
stitution. All men are born free and
equal, all women are born i'll caste,
| and the distinction is drawn just as
boldly between a scullion and cook
as it is between woman who owns coupe
| and woman who allows the public to ride in
her fiye-cent vehicle and get off at the cor
ner. Women are natural-bo-n aristocrats7
men are natura1-born republicans. Men.
who are gregarious By nature find them-
selves "cribbed, cabined, and confined" in
little circles, stripped Of individual freedom
OF action, and, looking at each other and
wondering why they are there, submit to
tile inevitable with as good grace as they
may, but make up for it when they can
Of wisdom; for, inexplicabe, pufposeless,
baseless, and absurd as the female idea OF
caste may be, it is better to recognize it,
even under compuision, than 10 fly at it. and
be set down as dreadful creature and hor-
rid vulgar person. At the SAME time no man
who loves the Declaration and is true to the
Constitution will be untrue to himself. He
may. like Calico, be constrained outwardly
to do violence to his convictions, but inward
ly he will state them with stern emphasis,
and when his mistresscs are not by will illus
trate his convictions with pertinent actions.
-
THAT the police force of this city should
be increased from 200 to 80 men is univer
sally conceded to be necessary. There is
probably not a single law-aOidng citizen who
does not agree to this proposition. The
present force is inadequate to the protection