San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1884-08-14

stand amazed before this wonderful
people who have maintained theil
national life for 1000 years through
the wreck of empires around them.
But with all this antiquity of civiliza
ton and culture welded to falls,
religions and superstitions, what ha
it done for woman! In the con
sideration of the condition of womel
in lands without the Gospel, we fine
an answer to the question, ".for tcha
do zoe ,oOrk ?" The men of thos,
lands are under tie iron heel o.
tyranny, while the women have added
the severer oppression OF Father ant
Husband. A Chinese mother defend
ed herself for having her five baby
girls drowned one after another by
her husband, by saying, "Girls are
much better dead than alive L wish
L had been drowned. Bought as
wives, and often sold for debts; hold.
ing relation to father and husband
little better than their dogs, this is
their lot in life, if they escape slaugh-
ter in babyhood, or being sold as
slaves in girlhood.
When Hindoo father was asked
to educate his daughters, he replied,
"educate our girlsl Why they will
be talking about educating our COWS
next" Respectable and virtuous
girls are kept secluded and ignorant,
leaving the prison of their fathers
house only to enter that of the
rther.in-law, henceforth to be the
slave of their masters, Father-in law,
Mother in law, and Husband, and it
has been tersely said, with jealousy
and suspicion as her jailors. Part of
the marriage ceremony runs thus,
"Where are you going, my SOM"
asks the mother. 81 am going to
bring you Il female slave, answers the
complacent bridegroom.
The Hindoo laws -giver Menu in his
Institutes, says to woman, in regard
to her husband:
Though inobservant of approved
usages, or enamored of another
woman, or destitute of good qualities,
vet, husband must be constantly
reverenced rs a god by a virtuous
wife" But sad as is the condition Of
the wife, that of the widow is
infinitely worse. "Widowhood in
India, says one writer, sis practically
being buried alive." We can in some
degree imagine the horrors of this
evil when we hear of such sickening
barbarity as fattening young girls,
and selling them, like stall fed cattle,
for food in the public market, (as was
done a few years ago in the FIJI
Islands,) spoken of,in comparison.as
minor evil, and more easily eradicated
than this enforced widowhood, which
hangs like never lifting pail over
the lives of the women and children
OF lnuld. DlGucc VI Wiuo" Coi IL
ing occurred at the rate of HOO a
year, and since it has been abolished
by law, the victims say their only
remedy has been taken out of their
hands.
Joseph Cook says the root of this
giant evil lies in child marriages,
which should be abolished by law as
nave been many of the practices OF
that country We quote his remarks
N regard to action in this matter by
the Womans Missionary Societies:
If the noble women of the various
American Missionary Societies would
mite with their English and Scotch
,oadiutors in sending to her Britanic
Majesty memorial urging the
of child marriages IN India
by the law of the Empire, they would
n my Judgment be doing not only
. benevolent, but also a timely and
lignified act. 21,0O0,000 of widows
N India, and half of them never
wives. How appalling the fact!
When sickness comes, the Hlndoo
women are left to die sooner than be
attended by physician we can
scarcely realize with what strong
letters custom has bound these
lapless women, often not even
cop,en of the household are allowed
20 minister to the sufferers wants;
what agony they must endured No
the call is urgent for Medical
of their own sex, and !
surely this need will silence any one
Who cavils about woman stepping out
If her sphere, for who dare hold a
woman back from such call for help,
IS comes from the fever parched lips
IF the sick and dying in the zenanas
II India, where none but women can
inter either with medicine for the
,ody or to carry them that living
water that they may thirst no more.
Who can deny the blessing, that well
lady physicians would be
o these sufferers, and who can doubt
hat the Masters approval rests upon
he woman who gives herself to TINS
vorki Says a recent writer. ave
avish our sympathy upon a Chinese
ady's conpressedfeet, but the souls Of
be women of Asia are farmore terribly
rushed and dwarfed- The Budd-
list faith teaches that the sins Of one
sonan are equal TO the sins Of 5000
Il the worst men that ever lived
rhat Is soul crushing, isitnotl Her
My hope after a life Of patience.
oug suffering andObeIenceIs.Nhat!
Rest al Iasti No; but 20 be born