News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-02-23

She closed the school book and at UEe same
time the volume of her Christian fidelity; and
when she went through the gates they cried:
"These are they who came out of great tl1bu-
lation and had their robes washed and made
white in the blood of the Lamb"
Queens are all such, and whether the world
acknowledges them or not, Heaven acknowl-
edges them. When ScarrOn, the wit and
ecclesiastic, as poor as he was brilliant, was
about to marry Nine. de Maintenon, he was
settle upon mademOiSelle. The reply was:
Immortality! The names of the wives of
kings die with them; the name of the wife of
ScarrOn will live always" In higher and
better sense, upon all women who do their
duty God will settle immortality! Not the
immortality of earthly fame, which is NOR
tai, but the immortality celestial. And they
shall reign forever and ever! Oh, the Opportu-
ity which every woman has of being a queen!
The longer | live the more | admire good
wOmanhOOd, And | have come to form my
opinion Of the character Of d man by his ap
probation or nOn-appreciation of woman.
If O man has depressed idea of wOmanly
character he is bad man, and there is no
exception to this rule The writings of Goethe
can never have any such attractions for me as
Shakespeare, be ause nearly all the womanly
characters of the great German have some
kind of turpitude. There is his Mariana
with her clandestine scheming, and his
Mign0n of evil parentage, yet worse than
her ancestors, and his Theresa the brazen,
and his Aurelia of many intrigues, and his
Philina the termagant, and hS Melina the
tarnished, and his Baroness, and his Count
ess, and there is seldom a womanly charac.
ter in all his voluminous writings
that would be worthy of residence in
respectable coal cellar, yet pict-
ured, and dramatizel, and emblazoned
till all the literary world is compelled to see.
No, no! Give me William Shakespaare's idea
I Il
Cordelia, and Rosalnd, and ImOgen, and
Helena, and Herm one, and Viola, and lSa-
bella, and Sylvia, and Perdita, all of them
with enough faults to prove them human
bnt enough kindly characteristics to give US
the authors idea If womauhood, his Lady
Macbeth only a dark background to bring
out the supreme lOvelineSs of his other female
characters.
Oh, woman of Amari "a! rise to your op-
portunity Be no slave to prile, or wo"ldli-
ness, or sin. Why ever crawl in the dust
when you can mount thron9? Be queens
unto God forever. Hail Vashti
Again: [ want you to consider Vashti the
veile1. Had she appeared before Ahashuerus
and his court on that day, with her face I'M
cacies of Oriental society, and the very men
who in their intoxi catiOn demanded that she
come, in their sober moments would have
despised her. AS some flowers seem to thrive
best III the dark lane and in the shadow, and
where the SIN does not seem to reach them,
so God appoints to most womanly natures
a retiring and unobtrusive spirit. Col
once in a while does call an Isabella
to a throne, or a Miriam to strike the tim
brel at the front of a host or q Marie An
toinette t. Guell a French mob, or a Deborah
to stand at the front of an armed battalion,
crying out: Up! up! This is the day in
Which the Lord VIII deliver Sisera into thy
hands y ETIi hon W. r. llp1 tn SI1ch
outdoor work, and to such heroic positions,
God prepares them for it; ana they have iron
in their soul, and lightnings III their eye, and
whrlwinds in their breath, and tha borrowed
strength of the Lord OmnipotenG in their
right arm They walk throug III furnaces as
though they were hedges of wild flowers, and
cross seas as though they were shimnering
sapphire and all the harpies of
hell sink down to their dungeons at
the stamp of their wOmanly indigna-
ton. But these are exceptions. Generally
Dorcas would rather make garment for the
poor boy; Rebecca woull rather fill the
trough for the camels; Hannah would rather
make a coat for Samuel; the Hebrew maid
would rather give a prescr. .ptlOn for Naa-
mans leprosy; the woman of Sarepta would
rather gather few sticks to cook meal for
famshed Elijah; Phoebe would rather carry
a letter for the inspired Apostle; Mother Lois
would rather educate Timothy in the Script
ures When | see woman going about her
daily duty-with cheerful dignity presiding
at the table; with kind and gentle, but
arm, discipline. pIresiiinS in the nurs- %
put any bla5t of trumpets, following
In the footsteps of him who went
about doing good say: This is Vashti
with veil on" But when l see woman
of uIiblushiI1g boldness loud voiced, with a
tongue of infinite Glitter clFatter, with AFRO iI
CANT look, passing through the street3 with a
masculine swing. gayly arrayed in very
hurricane of millinery, | cry out: "Nashti
has lost her veil.n When | see a woman
struggling for political preferment and r.
iecting the duties of home as insignificant
and thinking the offices of wife, mother anc
daughter of no Importance, AMI trying tt
force her way up on into conSpicuity, L say
'Ah, what a pity! Vashti has lost her veil! ?
When [ see a woman of cOmely features
end of adrOitness of intellect, and en-
dowed with all that the schools car
do for one, and of the bigh socla
position, yet moving in society with super
ciliousness and hauteur, as though she wOulc
have people know their place, and an unde
fined combination of giggie, and strut an(
rOdomontade endowed with allOpathic quan
titles of talk, but only homeopathic lHtintesl
mails of sense, the terror of dry goods clerk
and railroad conductors, dlScOyercrS OF sig
niicant meanings in pain conversation
prodigies of badinage AMI innuendo-l say
''Vashti has lost her veil.
But do not misinterpret what 1 say into
depreciation of the work of these gtorou
and divineiy called women who will not
understood till after they are dead, womel
like Susan B. Anthony, who are giving thel
life for the Improvement of the condition o
their sex. Those of you that think tina
women have under the laws of this countr
an equal chance with men are ignorant o
the laws. A gentleman writes me IRON
Maryland, saying: Take the laws OF thi
state. A man and wife start out in life fui
of hope in every respect; by their Joint effort
and, as is frequently the case, through tn
economic ideas of the wife, succeed IN &C
cumulating a fortu1te, but they have n
children; they reach old age together, ant
then the husband dies. What does the faV
of this State do then! 1t says to the widow
Hands off your late husbands property; d.
not touch it; the State will fin others t.
whom it will give that; but YOU the widow
must not touch it, only so much as will keel
life within your aged body, that you MAJ
live to see those others enjoy what rlghtfull,
should be your own" AMI the State seek
the relatives Of the deceased hu Sban1, whethe
they be near or far, whether they were eve
heard of before Or not, and transfers to them
singly or collectively, the estate of the de
ceased husband and living widow
Now, that is q specimen of unjust laws IL
all the states concerning womanhood. In
stead of flying off to the dis cussion as t.
whether or not the giving of the right o
voting to woman will correct these laws, lie
me say to men. be gallant enough, and fai
enough, and honest enough, and rlghteou
enough, and God loving enough to correc
these wrongs against women by your owl
masculine vote. Do not wait for Womal
suffrage to come, if it ever does come. but S
far as you can touch ballot borcs, and Legis
latures and Congresses begin the reforma
ton But until Justice is done to woman
by the laws of all the St1tes let tie women o
America take the platforms and the pulpits
and no honorable man will charge WASN'T
with having lost her veil
Again: | want you this morning to con
slider Vashti the sacrifice. Who is this tina
see coming out of that palace gate of Shu
shan? 1t seems to me that | have seen he
before. She comes homeless, houseess
friendless trudging along with broker
heart Who is she? 1t is Nashti the sacra
flee Oh, what a change it was from rega
position to wayfarer's crust. A little whll
ago approved and sought for; now none 81
poor as to acknowledge her acuuaintanceship
Vashti the sacrifice. Ah, you and L hay'
seen it many a time. Here is home empal
aced with beauty. All that refinement
and books, and wealth can do fol
that home has been done; but AhaS
uerus, the husband and the father, is TAX
ing hold on paths of sin. He is gradually
Going down. After while he will founder
and struggle like a wild beast in the hunter.
net-further away from Go1, further away
from the right. Soon the bright apparel o
the children will turn torags; soon the house
hold song will become the sobbing of broker
heart The old story over again. Brutal
Centaurs breaking up the marriage feast O
Lapithe. The house full of outrage, anC
cruelty, and abomnatiOn, while trudgins
forth from the palace gate are Nashti anC
her children. There are homes represented
in this house this morning that are in DANCE
of such a breaking up Oh Ahasuerus
that you should stand in a home, b,
disspated life destroying the peac
and comfort of that home. GOr