The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-05-18
CONCERNING WOMEN.
The Educational Influence OF the Ballot
Upon Woman.

Virginia A. Belts in Woman at Work
1t is not my purpose to discuss woman as
q politician, ncr the ballot as the magic
wand that is TO dissipate all her evils. But
TO claim for her social recognition as one OF
the business elements of the world, and like
opportunities with man, for gaining living.
The removal of that sex monopoly which
opens to him all occupations, while inter
dieting almost all to her. That the ballot
would accomplish this, l doubt not, and
that it will be the result of our present en-
larged system of education, especially CO
education. But as the hungry soldiers used
to say during the war, when they came to
US for bread with the promise of weeks
rations ahead. 1.-THE provisions may be
coming, but we have to live in the mean
time" The comparative difference of this
TO man and woman, l can best illustrate by
bringing before you sample of 1t,
which came under my observation
not long since. had gone into shop to
make a purchase, and seeing one of the
clerks, a delicate young girl, looking unusu-
ally i'll, inquired the cause. She put cold
nervous hand into mine, and said, Il will
have to give up my place, l can not bear
the constant standing in a cold ROOM" The
door stood open and the stove was in the
y
get?" 1 asked. Eight dollars a month
without board. was sick two weeks and
had SIS doctors bill to pay" I'hsd just
heard of the election of a young gentleman
to the clerkship of the Senate with salary
of 81 day, which, leaving out the Sundays,
counts up Sos per month-made comfort
ably seated In a warm room. A sum it
would have taken that girl thirteen months
and a-half to earn, on her feet all the time
Think Of it, ye Phi]anthrOpists,
who give your dollars to a foreign
missionl Yet we hear that this a prosper
Gus country. A land of freedoml The
South was prosperous, when slavery wound
its hideous coils in among the roses of the
land The kingdom of Louis XVI. was
prosperous, when the streets of Paris ran
blood and the cleaning blade of the
guillotine fell upon the beauty of Francel
England was prosperous, when the limo.
cent feet of Charles IL assembled the scat
fOldl And ours is a prosperous country,
with more than half its people unemployed
and unprovided for. Its wives, mothers,
and daughters, ranking politically with
thieves, murderers and cOnvicts. These,
believe, are the only other disfranehised in
habitants. Even the slaves bore a certain
congressional representation as property.
But the female commodity sinks below
goods and chattels." Still, we are told that
our women are intent. Many of them, 1
fear, are. / said to beautiful girl learn
ing to draw DIV chart at q dressmaker's
counter: "What pity it is, that the same
occupations are not open to men and wo-
men alike " She looked up quickly and
asked, do you think. they
ought to voter" L replied, 81 am disloyal
enough to believe that an intelligent
American woman has almost as good right
TO a voice in the affairs of the Nation as
the old negro who saws her wood, and says
dis and dat, and don't know the difference
between turf and tariff. Not that mean to
speak contemptuously of the colored race.
They have done their best for themselves
and others, both as slaves and freemen, and
they have my respect" She did not vouch-
safe me an answer, and her beautiful hands
went rapidly over the lines of the chart
with grace and power full of expression I;
character in their movements as in the
whole Of some women. Just the girl, 1 had
like to have said, to make a thorough bust
ness man. All her resources fully at her
command, a mind made up for every occa-
sion. ran over mentally few of the oc.
equations that would bring such woman a
sistence, but an opulent and cultivated old
age, and grieved in my very soul to think
other being wasted. Again we aretsld that our
women are cultivated enough to make good
members of society, and American husbands
are proud OF their wives. In reference to
this last we are constrained to ask,
if man, created in the image OF
God, can give himself as wholly as
he does, to this weak, doubling uncertain
creature, that centuries of conventional SER
vitude have made, what might be his feel
ings toward a genuine heart and soul wo-
man, a thoroughly developed, reasoning,
thinking being, whose love Is the fruit of
discriminating knowledge, whose marriage.
the genuine gift of heart to the one pre-
ferrrd above all others. Not blind loyalty
TO husband as an institution, nor sordid
subservience to means Of support. And
need he love her less, if she knew enough OF
jurisprudence to administer upon his estate,
or of medical science, not to physic child's
stomach for disease in the throat? In point
of morals few such marriages would take
q fee out Of divorce statistics, police courts,
orphan asylums, and founding hospitals.
We are aware that even the best of men
are of the opinion that it renders woman
course and unfeminine to come in contact
with the world in business relationships
But our own experience OF those who know
the world through this medium is, that they
know both it and themselves, better than
other women do, and that the friction OF
daily toll rubs off the superfuities of mind
and character, leaving q sweetened and
deeper toned woman behind. Said q good
and noble woman who had eaten the bread
of her own hands: at is not the girls who
work for living that spend their time idly,
And they have none of that greed of show
so disgraceful to our women. Looking al
this subject from as many points as we can
command, it seems that the ides for our
generation is not to exclude women from
public places, but to refine them up to her
standard. And under this head comes the
examination of the occupations most suita-
bic Tor the sex. Setting aside the absence
of precedent, and turning deaf ear to so
cial prejudice. tbs ministry presents itsel
for woman, as FOR man, the first OF all pro-
LESSONS. Excluded from worldly Influences
under the ve-y shadow of Gods wing, the
weakest, tn. saddest. the wisest, may find
here both shelter and sustenence, and hv.
ing not unto themselves alone, reach forth
in the inspiration of Divine Love, hand o.
tender heipfulness 10 all mankind. Mex