The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-02-16

| hSutS OF the week tnete arc none ul'Te
weary than the public school teachers.
Within a stones throw OF this hui ding
there died, years ago, one OF the princi.
pals of our public schools. She had been
twenty-five wears at that post. She had
left the touch OF refinement on a 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 as n school teacher.
A deceased sisters children we're thrown
upon her hands, and sh, took care OF
them. She was q kind mother to them,
while she mothercd a whole school Worn
out with nursing in the sick aud diving
room Of one OF the houSnhot she herself
came to die. She c,oSed the school book
and at the seine me the volume Of her
Christian fidelity: and when she went
through the gates they cried: "TheSc are
they who came ont of great tr'hu'ation,
and had their robes washed and made
white in the blood of the Lamb"
Oh the opport unity which every woman
has of being queen. The longer live
the more admire good womanhood. And
have come TO form my opinion Of the
character Of man nv his appreciation or
nom appreciation of woman, II a man
have a depressed idea of womaulv char
acter, he is q bad man, and there is no
exception to the rule. Tho writings Of
! Goethe can never have any such attrac-
tons for me as Shakespeare, because
nearly all the womanlv characters OF the
/ great German have som" kind of turpi-
| tude. There Is his Mariana, with her
clandestine scheming, and his Mignon,
! of evil parentage, vet worse than her
anres Tors, and his Theresa, the brazen,
and his Aurela, of MANY intrigues, and
/ Philina, the termagent, and his Mel ina
| the furnished, and his Baroness
and his Countess, and there is sell
dom womanlv character in all his
voluminous writings that would be worthy
of residence in respectable coal cellar,
vet pictured, and dramatized and en-
blazpned till all the literary world is com.
| reled to sea. No, no. Give me William
/ akeSpeare'S idea of woman, and | see II
in Desdemona, aud Cordelia, and Rosa
| lind. and Imo~en, and Helena, and
| Hermione. and Viola, and Isabella, and
! Svlv a, and ferdta, all of them with
/ enough faults to prove them human, but
! enough kindly Chara cteristicS to give us
! the authors idea Of wOmanhoOd, his
/ Lady Macbeth, only a dark back ground
/ to bring out the supreme loveliness of his
! other female characters.
! Oh, women Of America! rise to our op.
| portunity. Be no slave to pr d., or world
/ lineSs or sin. Why ever crawl in the
| dust when You can mount a throne? BE
! queens unto God forever. Hail, Vashti!
! Again, want You to consider Vashti
! the vailed, Had she appeared before
! Ahasuerus and his court on that day with
her face uncov ered, she would have
| shocked all the delcaCies of Oriental So
| cietv, and the very men who in their in
! tuxication 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
| womarlv natures a retiring and unob-
! trtiSive spirit. God once in a while does
call an Isabella t. throne, or a Miriam
to take the timbrel at the front OF host,
| or Marie Antuinstto TO quell a French
! mob, or a Deborah t. stand at the front of
| an armed battalion, CRYING out, Up!
! M! This is the dav in which thu Lord
vii deliver Sie'A 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 lghtnings in their eve,
I
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 sh immering ~appk se,
and all the harpies of he'll sink down to
| their dung con at the stamp of their WON.
AMY ind ignation. But these are excep-
tions. Generally D1Gcas would rather
make garment for the poor boy;
Rehecca would rather fill the trough
for tie camels; Hannah would rather
make coat for Samuel; the Hebrew
maid would rather give a preSCrip-
tiou for Naaman'S leprOSv; the woman of
| Sarepta would rather gather a few sticks
10 cook a meal for tamished Elijah;
Phoebe would rather carry letter for the
inspired apostle; Mother Lois would
rather educate Timothy in the Scriptures
| When ! see woman going about her
daily dutv-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 say: "Ths is VaShti
with a vail on" But when l see a
woman of unbuShing boldness, loud
| voiced, with tongue Of infinite Glitter
clatter, with arrogant look, passing
through the streets with a masculine
swing, gavly arrayed in a very hurricane
of millinery, l cry out: "Vashti has lost
her vail" When l see a woman strug-
Cling for political preferment and reject.
ing the duties of home as insignificant,
and thinking the Offices of wife, mother
and daughter of no Importance, and try
ing to force her way on up into conspicu-
itv, say: "Ah, what a pity;
Vashti has lost her vail" When l see a
woman of comedy features, and of adrot-
ness of intellect, and endowed with
all that the schools can do for her, and of
high social position, yet moving in So
ciety with superciliOusness and hauteur,
as though she would have people know
their place, and an underlined combination
of giggle, and strut, and rodOmontade, EN-
dowed with allopathIc quantities of self,
but only homeopathic infinitesimals of
sense, the terror Of dry goods clerks and
railroad conduct tors, discoveries of sig
nificant meanings of plain conversation.
prodiges in badness and innuendoes-I
say: "Vashti has lost her vail"
But do not misinte pref what l say into
a depreciation of the work of those Il orr.
Gus and divinely- called women who will
not he understood till af e. they are dead,
women like Susan B. Anthony, who are
giving their life for the betterment of the
condition of their sex. Those of you who
think that women have, under the laws OF
this country, an equal chance with men,
are ignorant of the laws. A gentleman