Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-07-04
MODERN DEGRADATION OF WOMEN.

| MODERN DEGRADATION OF WOMEN.
While the world is congratulating itself
that the status of woman is very much high
CIR than it has been in the past, and that, by
the removal of the restraints and limitations
which have hitherto kept the sex down,
woman is rising more nearly to rightful
equality with man, there is another aspect
of the situation which demands attention,
and may well excite alarm. BY granting
the sex the fullest freedom of action and
removing every barrier to its progress which
convcntionalism has rendered sacred, are we
not exposing woman to new and peculiar
ly subtle temptation?
We are moved to such inquiries by the
| prevalence of a certain shameless independ-
ency and mannishness Of behavior among
| ladies, which finds expression in public
places, in professions where women are as
| ISOLATED with men, and especially in the
| moral atmosphere which surrounds the
young lady of the period. The notion is
growing, that women are no longer to be
| slaves, in any respect, to men, and that the
more emphatically and openly they display
their modern independence, the more honor
and benefit they are comforting upon
their sex. That this msconcepton
of personal freedom should have fol-
lowed so long period of COM
plete repression, is, but natural. That
it should be allowed to pass for either wis
dom or virtue however, is wrong. The
tendency should be made to appear danger.
Gus, as it is in reality dangerous. That it
is of the nature of reaction, affords ground
OF hope that it cannot be permanent or
progressive tendency. Woman has been
credited with lions share of that rare quail.
ity, common sense, and it certainly is to be
hoped that she will assert it before the iudg-
ment of mankind claims forfeit
Among these forms of excess springing
from the new found freedom Of woman, we
would mention one or two of the most dan
gerous. Financial speculation is perhaps,
first. 1t is now no strange thing for ladies
10 fling themselves into the unhealthy ex-
element of stock speculation, of
gambling, betting and other forms
of risking honest money. A New
York journal illustrates the gambling ten
denotes of the ladies of that city by the por-
ularity among the fair sex of betting at races.
Instead of being limited as formerly, to
bon. bons and boxes of gloves, it takes more
mercenary and dangerous form. Women,
it is said, now find it convenient to dispense
with the company of their brothers and
husbands. the work of buying and cashng
tickets for the pools being done more expe-
ditiously by messengers on the grand stand
for small percentage. AT Brighton Beach
the gambling mania is exhibited 10 the most
marked manner, and the result as affecting
their pockets is all that the women who bet
are concerned in. They care nothing for the
races themselves
reporter says that at a recent race at
Sheephead Bay woman who sat behind
him became SO excited during the progress
Of the affair that she nervously clutched his
arm, begged him to tell her the probable re-
suit, and was Mortified at the prospect of
losing. 1t turned out that to make up for
previous losses, she had used fifty dollars
which her husband had laid aside to paw in
terest on loan. Had my horse really
been BEATEN" she afterwards said. 81 am
afraid | could not have faced my husband"
Another dangerous tendency in the modern
freedom of woman is her growing disrepard
for domestic life. Not being kept at
home, as formerly, by her social limitations
and restrictions, she flies TO the other ex.
IRENE, and becomes either a gad-about or a
great public philanthropist. Society and
societies are engulfng the beautiful domestic
life of the ideal woman. Home is to her
but nightly lodging place, and her family
so many guests or hosts, as the case may be.
How sadly does such life as this contrast
with the old-time pictures of the model
home, with its household penates, and its
priestess of love and devotion
One other dangerous tendency in the
modern life of woman is the spirit of rude
competition with man, which is fostered nv
oh'iiO iiceuOiu from bOCldl restraint. There
is practically, hardly a department of labor,
a profession, an industry, which is not now
open to women and while VIC must
admit that she has abundantly Shown
har ability to vie with man in |
every intellectual or skillful pursuit, we |
cannot but regret the evident coarseninp
which such competition produces. A wo.
man seems no longer woman when She
stands shoulder to shoulder with man, and
tolls with him at the forge of life. Her
natural place is at the hearthstone, rather
than at the forge. There is an insensiblr
lowering of character, and of the estimate of
in the constant association of the
sexes In the pursuit of any sordid aim
The associations of society, of church, and
club and neighboorhood and home are en-
lobing and benefcent to both sexes, but
association in the pursuit Of money is moi
md never can be, elevating to either sex.
Surh hpinu Tho tot;ona ord .o,;Ic A.. |