The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-02-09
see. No, no, Give me William Shakes.

see. MOI no! Give me William Shakes
peare s idea of woman: and | see it in
Desdemona, and Cortlelia, and Rosalind,
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, his Lady Macbeth
only dark background to bring out the
supreme loveliness of his other female
| characters.
Oh, women of America rise to your
opportunity. Be no slave to pride, or
worldliness, Or sin. Why ever crawl in
the dust when you can mount throne?
Be queens unto God forever. Hail
| Vashti!
Again: want you to consider Nashti
the veiled. Had she appeared before
Ahasuerus and his court on that day,
with her face uncovered, she would have
| shocked all the delicacies OF Oriental
society, and the very men who III their
| intoXication 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 retiring and unob-
trusive spirit. God once in q while
does call an Isabella to the throne,
or Miriam to strike the tinbrel<at
the front of a host, or Marie Antoinette
to quell a French mob, or Deborah to
stand at the front of an armed battalion,
CRYING out: '.Upi up This is the day
in which the Lord will deliver Sisera into
thy hands. Aud when women are called
sto such outdoor work and TO such heroic
! positions, God prepares them for it; and
! they have iron in their soul and light
nings in their eye, and whirlwinils in
their breath, and the borrowed strength
of the Lord ommpotent in their rigflt
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 dungeon at the stamp of their
womanly indignation. But these are
exceptions. Generally, Dorcas would
rather make a garment for the poor
| boy; Rebecca would rather fill the
trough for the camels; Hannah would
rather make coat for Samuel; the
Hebrew maid would rather give
prescription for Naaman's leprosy;
| the woman of Sarepta would rather
gather few sticks to cook a meal for
famished Elijah; Phebe would rather
carry letter for the inspired
apostle; Mother Lois would rather
educate Timothy in the Scriptures When
l see woman going about her daily
duty-with cheerful dignity presiding 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 foot
steps of him who went about doing good
1 say: ''This is Vasliti with veil on. -
But when l see woman of unblushing
boldness, loud voiced, with a tongue of
infinite Glitter clatter, with arrogant
look, passing through the streets with a
masculine swing, gayly arrayed in a
very hurricane of millinery, l cry out:
''Vashti has lost her veil" When 1 rec
woman struggling for political
preferment, and rejecting the duties
of home as insignificant, and thinking
! the offices of wife, mother and daughter
of no importance, and trying to force her
way on up into conspicuity, l say: "Ah,
what a pity; Vashti has long lost her
veil" When l see a woman of comely
features, and of adroitness Of intellect,
and endowed with all that the schools can
do for one, and of high social position,
yet moving in society with supercilious-
ness and hauteur, as though she would
have people know their place, and an un-
defined combination of giggle, and strut,
and rodomontade, endowed with allo-
pathic quantities of talk; but only home
| opathic in6nitesimals of sense, the terror
of dry goods clerks and railroad con-
ductors, discoverers of significant mean
ings i'll plain conversation, prodigies of
badness and innuendo-I say: "Vashti has
lost her veil. -
But do not misinterpret what I say
into a depreciation of the work of those
glorious and divinely called women who
will not be understood till after they are
dead, women like Susan B. Anthony,
who are giving their life for the better
ment of the condition of their sex. Those
of you who think that women have
under the law of this country an equal
chance with men are ignorant of the laws.
A gentleman writes me from Maryland,
saying: '.Take the laws Of this state. A
man and wife start out in life full of
hope in every respect by their joint eff
forts, and, as is frequently the case,
through the economic ideas of the wife,
succeed in accumulating fortune, but
they have no children; they reach old
. age together, and then the husband dies.
What does the law of this state do then? II
says to the widow, hands off your late
husbands property, do not touch it; the
state will find others to whom it will give
that, but you, the widow, must moi
touch it, only SO much as will keep life
within your aged body, that you may
live to see those others enjoy what right
fully should be your own" And the
state seeks the relatives of Nle deceased
husband, whether they be near or far
, whether they were ever heard of before
,, or not, and transfers to them, singly o.
/, collectively. the estate of the deceased
husband and living widow.
Now, that is q specimen of unjust law
, in all the states concerning womanhood
Instead of flying off 20 the discussion a
, to whether or not the giving of the righ
of voting 10 women will correct thes'
. laws, let nle say to men, be gallan
enough, and fair enough, and homes
enough, and righteous enough, and Coz
, loving enough to correct these wrong
against women by your own masculin'
votes. Do not wait for woman suffrag
! to come, if it ever does come, but SO fa
as you can touch ballot boxes, and legis
latures, and congresses begin the refor
q nation. But until justice is done t.
: your sex by the laws of all the states, ant
r women of America take the platform
E and the pulpits, and no honorable maj
: will charge Vashti with having lost he
4 veil.
S Again, l want you this morning t
!. consider Vashti the sacrifice. Who
s this that / see coming out of that palac
V gate of Shushan2 1t seems to me that
: have seen her before. She comes home
i less, houseless, friendless, trudging alon
# with broken heart. Who is she? 1t
a Vashti the sacrifice. Oh, what chang
q it was from regal position to a way