Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-12-03
81 WISH 1 WAS A MAN."
Well, III the Women Can't Have Their
Wish, and They Can't, We
Know,
Grant Them All the Privileges that m en-
Have and Let Them Hoe Their
Own Row.
To the Editors of the Appeal:

To the Editors of the Appeal:
In "Mother Goose's' letter, in Sunday
mornings APPEAL, she describes lady en-
| joyipg all the comforts and Injuries of life
that social position and wealth can afford
and the wife of a loving husband, whose
| greatest aim is 10 please her, and asks il
such a woman ever wishes che was a man.
| Now, even if every woman was situated as
| well as this one, are we right in surprising
women have no higher aspirations than "sit-
i ting in rocking chair, with her feet encased
III slippers" preparing to go to Watering
places, or being petted? Have they not the
same feelings that men have? if those feel
ings are allowed to develop. Could man
with particle of ambition or real manhood
be contented with such life? Did "Mother
Goose" ever think how few are well-cared
for as The one she speaks of; not more
than five per cent. OF the American
women have all these advantages. Vast num-
bers of them have to support themselves By
sewing, working In factories, etc, and gem
orally for as little as s. or 81 per week;
when, if they were allowed the same priv.
ileges, TO follow the same avocations, and
paid the same money for their work that
men are, they could easily earn from SIS to
$50 a week, and not have to work as hard as
they do. Many, who have drunken and
trifling husbands, have not only themselves
but large families to take care of, and fire.
quently have to take care of their
husbands, and this class is by
no means small. But, "Mother Goose
rightly say, eve can't make men of them;"
what are we going to do? Give Them the
same privileges as men, the same chance to
make an honorablr living if they have 10
make their Own, the same right 10 help
make laws TO govern their property, the right
to be free citizens aud not the slaves of men.
But this Mother Goose" may say, as many
L - i
cannot help seeing this can be done, and is
being done, Not even science, in the rapid
strides made during the last half Of the CEN
fury, has kept apace with the progress made |
in liberating women from the chains of bond |
age that have enslaved them for go long a /
time, and when we consider how much oppo.
sition this cause has had, the progress seems |
almost miraculous. Not only has it had |
man, the so-called lord of creation,n aciu-
ated by purely selfish motives, as q bitter
enemy, but even the majority OF women
themselves, so educated by the customs of
countless ages, have opposed it. The ad-
vancement made has been principally due 10
I few so-caled "strong-minded women and
Only short time ago women
we're considered out of their places, unless
hey were nursing their children, in the
zi'cheD, or in the parlor. Now we find
hem following almost every avocatiou, and
I
ex. They are admitted 10 nearly all the
allowed 10 practice medicine,
o practice law in seven or eight States of
he Union and in the United States Courts. |
They are allowed to vote on educational
objects in ten or twelve States. Some NAV
SIX, "Why have not the wemen themselves
AIKEN more crest in the question:" 1t {
because they have been taught from their
infancy, and have Inherited The belief from j
heir ancestors, th at they have no rights; the {
anne as the negroes of the South we're
aught before the war 10 believe that their 1
nslavement was perfectly just and right. I
'ut the women are now fast getting /
YER that old hereditary fogyism, as was t
lown by the interest taken by them in the c
tates that woman's suffrage was recently 8
oted on. Although, as was to have been r
rpected, woman suffrage was defeated in
lose States, its advocates may feel proud | 4
lat nearly all the better class of citizens i
pproved it, and that its failure was due TO | .
re whiskymen, gamblers and lower Glasses. d
he selfshness of men IS clearly shown when q
icy object to women being made eligible TO b
ice, and allowed TO hold positions that will e
~ good salaries where there is very little Il
ork to do, but are perfectly willing to see
EN- work 10 cottoufactories, ETC., where the
ork is hard enough 10 kill men, and where
ey have to work for from forty cents to
per day, as many are doing in Men, -.
lis now. But as science and art advance,
will woman suffrage, and ere the dawn of T,
e twentieth century women will be allowed
vote and have all the privileges men have, W
d then will women prove themselves to be a,
e noblest work of God. BOHEMIAN. ~