The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-04-13
EXTRACTS
From Addresses DeIIvered at sIae an
ternaticnal Council of women, held
af Washington.
SOCIAL rURITY ADDRESSES.

My SISTERS. Go you KNOW Niiat you
represent this morning? Yon represent
ali the centuries of womanhood crowd
ed here under the roof OF this building
who from terrible persecution and shame
and silence have protested against the
double standard for men and women
| There ism t one single woman in this great
| multitude this morning WHO is not a living
protest before Almighty God that while
| life is given to as to breathe, to speak, and
power to touch each other, we will none of
us have part nor lot in that which has
| been the curse of the world and the ruin OF
dynasties Whether you know it or not,
figure of the girl 800 years ago as she crept
| through the cholera stricken streets of
| Naples, with a yellow handkerchief
around her neck to mark that she was at
the liberty of every man who chose to vio-
late the solemn bond of sex, compelled by
the government, backed by the Law made
| by man. There was not a single outcast
woman at Naples who was not TO be
known lay broad yellow handkerchief
| which she wore around her neck.
You are protest against the poor wo-
man in the tribe of the Vandals when they
made war on the Cloths, when she was OBJ
| liged to receive three hundred lashes be
cause she was a woman of light conduct
| but it was not because she was a woman
of light conduct that she received it, bat
| because she was fonnd out in her light
| conduct-in her sin, as it was deemed by
! the superior virtue OF men who administer
ed the lashes upon the shoulders of the
woman who lad sinaed; and cried with a
| language which 1 have not heard, but
which | understand: Give him half;
/ give him half
| You are 4 protest against the women
who have been walking, and | shame to
say it, through the main towns in Eng
| land in fear at every turn in the street Of
having hand laid on their shoulder by a
man and being walked oil, either to the
/ lookup or that other terrible torture CHAM
| Der. on are a protest against the girls Of
! fifteen or sixteen, against a girl who was
! walking through the streets of Dover,
when two stalwart men walked up behind
| her; she was an innocent, bright looking
! girl, but they had the power; and if this
girl was of LIGHT life they had the right
| to do this very thing, TO take her and lock
| her mp ON the charge of light life; and " hen
! the hunted girl had found that there was
no refuge for her in human justice; that
| humanity had 10 help for her, she prefer
| red the great waves of the sea. and threw
| when these two men, guardians of law and
order, " hen they saw the struggling girl
in the water, they said it was all right
and they went away. But a boatman saw
her in the water, and he went to her and
took her out and landed her And when
! the two men saw that she was rescued,
| they hurried to the place, aud took the
girl again and brought her before the mag
istrate on the charge Of suicide; and the
magistrate counseled aud warned her, and
it was only at very great expense that we
got a lawyer down from London to prove
as no man can prove, that She had not out
ragged her OWN purity, but was supporting
her old father in working as a charwoman
at eighteen pence a day.
| ask any woman who may have played
the coward in days gone by in this manner
to proclaim what a coward she has been,
and if she fails to protest against these
wrongs she will fail in her duty. You have
heard how We in England got those laws re-
pealed, and is was a gala day in England
that you hardly imagine when at Wcstmin
lister the votes were taken and we found We
had achieved such All unparalleled victory.
| can hardly speak of it to day, for have
not done with thrilling with what | felt
when telegram came TO me from Mem
Der Of Parliament: THANK God, the vic
tory is Ours" After that came the terri
BILE story in the Pal Nall Gozette, and
then think the whole world was divided
into two great camps, and the one camp
was composed of those who said Never
! mind what is done so long as it isn't
spoken abont,' and the other camp said.
IF these things are done, they shall be
spoken about until they are swept away"
And We had the most magnificent demon
stration in Hyde Park that can be con-
ceived. There could not have been less
than hundred thousand people at it, and
in all probability there were hundred
and fifty thousand. And while tine news
Of it only reached the United States in
| fragments, the reason Of it was this-that
there was a huge conspiracy on the part of
the London press not only to write it
down, but to ignore it altogether.
One paper said there might have been
five Thousand people in Hyde Park that
afternoon, bat only fifteen hundred OF
them had come to witness the demonstra
ton. and we said it seemed as If in trying
to teach the world morality we should
first have to try to teach our men TO count.
That demonstration meant that at last the
silence was broken and the spirit Of God
had moved upon this great sea of human
passion, and justice and silence could be
kept no longer have been twenty five
years engaged Ia behalf Of my own sex,
and my hair is not gray yet, and can say
| that the InarvFlons chance in the char.,c.