The Russellville Democrat., 1888-02-16


so strong, their opportunities fewer.
These persons, after tremblingiy going
through the ordeal OF an examination as
to their qualifi cations to teach, half be-
widered step over the sill of the public
school to do two things-instruct the
young and earn their own bread. Her
work is wearing to the last degree. The
management of forty or fifty fidgety and
intractiblo children, the suppression Of
their vices and the development of
their excellences, the management
Of rewards and punishm snts, the sending
OF so many bars of soap aud flne-tooth
combs on benignant ministry, the break
ing of so many wild colts for the harness
of life, sends her home at night weak
neuralgia, unstrung, so that OF all the
weary people in your cities Tor fiVs
nights of the week there are none more
weary than the public school teachers.
Within a stones throw of this bu ding
there died, years ago. one of the princi-
pals of our public schools. She had been
twenty five years 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 a school teacher
upon her hands, and she took care OF
them. She was a kind mother to them,
while she mothered whole school Worn
ont with nursing in tho sick and dying
room of one of the hou Sehold she herself
came to die. She cl osed the school book
and at the 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 tribuiation,
and had their robes washed aud made
white in the blood Of the Lamb"
Queens are all SUCH and whether the
world acknowledge them or not, Heaven
acknow lodges them. When Scarron, the
wit and ecclesiastic, as poor as no was
brilliant, was about to marry Madame
de Maintenon, he was asked by the no.
tary what he proposed to settle upon
Mademoiselle. The reply was:
Immortality The names of the wives
of kings die with them; the name of the
wife of Scarron viii live always" In q
higher and better sense, upon all women
who do their duty to God will settle inn
mortality Not the mortality OF earthly
fame, which is mortal, but the immor
tality celestial And they shall reign
forever and ever
oh the opportunity which every woman
the more l admire good womanhood. And
have come to form my opinion of the
character of man by his appreciation or
non-appreciation of woman. If man
have n depressed idea of womanly char
acter, 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 woman characters Of the
great German have SOM kind of turpi-
tude. There is his Mariana, with her
clandestine scheming, and bis Mignon,
of evil parentage, yet worse than her
ances tors, and his Theresa, the brazen,
and his Aurelia, of many intrigues, and
Phiina, 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
vouminous writings that would be worthy
Of res dence in respectable coat cellar,
vet pictured and dramatized and en-
blazoned till all the literary world is com
peled to see. No, no. Give me William
Shakespeare's idea of woman, and see it
in Desdemona, and Cordelia, and Rosa
lind, and Imogen, and Helena, and
Hermione, and Viola, and Isabella, and
Sylvia, and Perdita, all of them with
enough kindly characteristics TO give MS
the authors idea Of womanhood, his
Lady Macbeth. only a dark background
to bring out the SUPREME loneliness of his
other female characters.
Oh women of Americai rise toyour OPP
portunity. Be no slave TO pride, or world
illness, or sim Why ever crawl in the
dust when you can mount 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 uncovered, she would have
shocked all tho delicaces of Oriental So
ciety, and the very men who in their in
toxieation demanded that she come, in
their sober moments would have despised
her. A IS 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 while does
call an Isabella to a throne, or a Miriam
to take the timbrel at the front of n host,
or a Marie Antoinette TO quell French
mob or a Deborah to stand at the front of
an armed battalion, crying out, up!
up! This is the day in which thu 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; ard they have iron
in their soul, and ligbtniugs in their eye,
and whirlwinds In their breath, and the
borrowed strength of the Lord Omnipo-
tent i'm their right arm. They walk
through furnaces as though they We're
hedges of wild flowers, and cross seas as
H.. l..
and all the harpies of he'll sink down to
their dung con at the stamp Of their wom-
anly indignation. But these are excep-
lions. Generally Dorcas would rather
make a garment for the poor boy;
Rebeeca would rather fill this trough
for the camels; Hannah would rather
make "A coat for Samuel; the Hebrew
maid would rather give a prescrip-
tion for Mammals leprosy; the woman of
Sarepta would rather gather a few sticks
to cook meal for famished Elijah;
Phoebe would rather carry a letter for the
inspired apostle; Mother Lois would
rather educat e Timothy in the Scriptures.
When | see 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 / see "a
woman OF unblushing boldness, loud
voiced. with a tongue Of infinite Glitter
chatter. with arrogant look, passing
through the streets with a masculine
swing, gayly arrayed in very hurricane
Of millinery, cry out; 'Vashti has lost
her vail" When l see woman strug-
Cling for political prefermsut aud reject
ing the duties Of home as insignificant,
aud thinking the Offices OF wife, mother
and daughter Of no Importance and try
ing 20 force her way on up into conspicu-
ity, say: "Ah, what pity;
Vashti has lost her vail" When l see a
woman of comedy features, and of adroit-
ness Of Intellect, and endowed with