Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-09-15
TEACH WOMEN TO CsE FIREARMs.

A Suggestion for Southern Women to Defend
Themselves.
Louisville Commercial.
The account in our Jeffersonville CORES
pondence of the assaults committed by a
single scoundrel upon four ladies, which
by the merest accidents we're frustrated,
impels the Commercial again to insist that
husbands and fathers and brothers shall
teach the feminine inmates of their house.
hold the use of the pistol. A woman who
can shoot a pistol is as powerful
as a giant that little weapon levels
all distinctions of strength. Sergeant
s. Prentiss, the brilliant orator of Mis-
sissippi, once got down upon his knees
and thanked God for the invention of
gunpowder. All Of US might do it if
women were made so familiar with its
uses as to be measurably secure from the
unutterably horrid crimes perpetuated
against them by black and white demons
crazed with lust. Think of that poor girl
down South who seized whilst working in
her fathers field, dragged into thicket,
outraged and mutilated with razor cuts.
If she had had pistol she could during
the struggle with the fiend who had
seized her, have managed to send a
bullet into him. Let it once be known
that women in exposed places or
situations are in the habit of carrying
pistols, and that one fact will give them
additional security. Do away with your
petty archery practice until you have
learned the management of weapon that
will guard your honor. Shame on it that
grown up people and people assumed to be
rational shall permit themselves to be So
defenseless that any brute may over
power them at his own fiendish will. Bet
ter a race of am&zOns than race OF such
helpless creatures. There's no difficulty
in learning how to handle a pistol.
Three days practice would teach women
how to load, to aim skillfully and to hold
the weapon without tremor. 1t would also
enable them to handle it without danger OF
accident; in short, to be careful. Now we
do not mean that women should 60
armed all the time, with pistols in
their girdles. Let's be reasonable in the
discussion of this delicate topic. Whilst
their male protectors are about tho woman
can forego the pistol. What we do say is
that women who are left in their homes
with or without little children in their Gus
tody, the men folks being absent, OF
women who are obliged to make journeys
from home through secluded spots, ought
to have some weapon OF defense. 1t a
great big strong man deems it necessary to
keep such weapons, how much stronger
the reason that gentler and weaker persons
should be so fortified. Do our women
read of the terrible details of outrage SC
common in the dispatches without realiz'
ing that it may be their turn next? Nothing
is much more contemplate than the
failure to display copmon prudence. Even
the dog is endowed with teeth by which
he can defend himself, and does
defend himself. Woman's only defense il
her scream, which can speedily be smoth:
cred. A II year old boy shows more
sense. He at least can pull out his little
jack-knife and make some some show OF
defense. A woman can have belt made
in such way that she can carry pisto
concealed, and in such way that she car
readily draw it. Give her this chance fo1
the protection of what is most precious te
her, and We shall have fewer accounts O
the dreadful and mournful wrongs that
are perpetrated upon her. This is not Z
| theme which We mean to leave untouched
1t is vital one in country which is
flooded with tramps and Williams Of every
| stamp.