The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-02-17

weary people in your cities Tor i've
nights OF the week there are mono more
weary than the public school teachers.
Within stones throw Of this Lui ding
there died. years ago. ono OF the priuci.
rails Of our public schools. She had been
twenty-five years at that post. She had
left the touch Of refinement on multi
tude OF the young. She had, out OF her
slender purse given literally Thousands
OF dollars for the destitute who came
under her observation "a q school teacher.
A deceased sisters children were thrown
upon her hands, and shs took care OF
them. She was q kind mother to them.
while she mothered q whole school. Worn
out with nursing in the sick and, dying
room Of one of the hou seho.d she herself
came to die. She cl osed the school book
and at the same time the vo'ume Of her
Christian fidelity: and when she went
through the gates they cried: ''These are
they who came out Of great tribulation,
and had their robes washed and made
white in the blood of the Lamb"
Oh the opportunity which every woman
has of being queen. The longer live
the more admire good womanhood. And
have come to form nv opinion of the
misrepresentation of woman. II man
have a depressed idea of womanly char
ac.er, he is a bad man, and there is no
exception to the rule. The writings OF
Goethe can never have any such attrac-
tions for me as Shakespeare, because
nearly all the womanly characters Of the
great German have SOME kind Of turpi.
tude. There 1, his Mariana, with her
Dtn -~kA L.
of evil parentage, vet worse than her
ances tors, and his Theresa, the brazen,
and his Aurelia, of many intrigues, and
Philina, the termagent, and his Melina
the furnished, and his Baroness
and his Coun tess, and there is sell
dom a womanly character in all his
voluminous writings that would be worthy
of residence in respectable coal cellar,
vet pictured. anl dramatized and en-
blazoned till all the literary world is com.
peeled to see. No, no. Give me William
Shekespeare's idea of woman. and see it
in Desdemona, and Cordelin, and Rosa
lind. and Imogen. and Helena. and
Hermione. and Viola, and Isabella, and
Sylvia, and Perdita, all Of them with
enough faults to prove them human. but
enough kindly characteristics to give us
the authors idea Of womanhood. Lis
Lady Macbeth, only a dark background
to bring out the supreme loveliness Of his
other female characters.
Oh. women Of America! rise toyour on
portunity. Be no slave TO pr;de or world
illness, or sin. Why ever crawl in the
dust when you ear mount throne? Be
queens unto God forever. Hail, Vashti!
Again, want you to consider Vashti
the vailed. Had she appeared before
Ahasnerus and his court on that day with
her face uncovered. she would have
shocked all the delicac;es Of Oriental 500
cety, and the very men who in their in.
toxication demanded that she come, in
their sober moments would have despised
her. AS some flowers seem to thrive best
in the dark lane and in the shadow, and
where the sun does not seem to
reach them. so God appoints to most
womanly natures a retiring and unob-
trusive spirit. God once in a while does
call an Isabella to throne, or a Miriam
to take the timbrel at the front OF host,
or a Marie Antoinette to quell French
mob, or q Deborah to stand at the front of
an armed battalion, crying ont, up!
up! This is the day in which tho Lord
will deliver Sierra into thy hands," And
when women are called to such outdoor
work, and to such heroic positions, God
prepares them for it; and they have iron
in their soul, and lightnings in their eye.
and whirlwinds in their breath, and the
borrowed strength of the Lord Omnipo-
tent in their right arm. They walk
through furnaces as though they were
hedges Of wild flowers. and cross seas as
though they were shimmering sapphire,
and all the harpies Of Hell sink down to
their dung con at the stamp of their WON.
anly indignation. But these are excep-
lions. Generally Dorcas would rather
make n garment for the poor boy;
Rebecca would rather fill tbs trough
for tie camels; Hannah would rather
make a coat for Samuel; the Hebrew
maid would rather give prescrip-
ton for Naaman's leprosv; the woman of
Sarepta would rather gather a few sticks
to cook meal for famished Elijah;
Phoebe would rather carry q letter for the
inspired apostle: Mother Lois would
rather educate Timothy in the Scriptures.
When l see a woman going about her
daily duty-with cheerful dignity presid.
ing at the table: with kind and gentle,
but firm discipline presiding in the
nursery, going out into the world without
any blast of trumpets, following in the
footsteps of Him who who went about
doing good-I say: "This is Vashti
with vail on" But when I ses a
woman of unblushing boldness, loud
voiced. with tongue Of infinite Glitter
clatter. with arrogant look, passing |
through the streets with o masculine |
swing, gayly arrayed in a very hurricane |
Of millinery, cry out: "Vashti has lost |
her vail" When see q woman strug- |
Cling for political prefermsnt and reject |
ing the duties Of home as Insignificant,
and thinking the offices Of wife, mother |
and daughter of no Importance, aud try. |
ing to force her way on up into conspicu-
ity, I say: "Ah, what pity; |
vashti has lost her vail" When see a !
woman OF comedy features. and of adro:t.
Ill that the schools can do for her, and of |
high social position, yet movin, in so. I
:iety with superciliousness and hauteur,
Is though she would have people know
heir place. and an underlined combination
II giggle, and strut, and rodomontade, en-
lowed with allopathlc quantities Of self,
,ut only homeopathic intinitesimals of |
'ense. the terror Of dry goods clerks and
abroad conductors, discoveries Of sig
,ificant meanings Of plain conversation.
,rodigies in badness and innuendoes-I |
Jay: "Vashti has lost her vail"
But do not misinterpret what say into |
! depreciation of the work of those glori- |
Jus and divinely.c called women who will |
lot be understood till after they are dead,
women like Susan B. Anthony, who are |
giving their life for the betterment of the /
of their sex. Those Of you who |
hink that women have, under the laws Of |
his country, an equal,chance with men,
ire ignorant of the laws. A gentleman /
writes me from Maryland saving: "Take /