Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-02-15

/ see a woman with stout faith in God, put
ting her foot upon all meanness, and selfish
ness, and goddess display, going right. for
ward to serve Christ and the race by a
grand and glorious service, l say "Tha'
woman is a queen" and the ranks of heav.
en- look over the battlements upon the coro.
nation; and whether she come up from the
shanty on the commons or the mansion oil
the fashionable square, greet her with the
shout, "All hail! Queen Vashti !' What
glory was there on the brow OF Mary Oh
Scotland, or Elizabeth of England. of Mar.
garet of France, or Catherine of Russia,
compared with the worth OF some OF oul
Christian mothers, many of them gone into
glory? or of that woman mentioned IN tne
Scriptures, who put her all into the Lord
treasury ? or of Jephthah's daughter, VINO
made demonstration of unselhsh patriot
ism or of Abigail, who rescued the herds
and flocks of her husband or of Ruth, who
toiled under tropical snn for poor, old,
HELPLESS Naomi or of Mrs. Adoniram Jud-
son, who kindled the lights of salvation
amid the darkness of Burmah? or of Mrs
Hemans, who poured out her holy soul in
words which will forever be associated with
hunters horn, and captive's chain, and
bridal hour, and lute's throb, and curfew's
knell at the dying day? and scores and
hundreds of women unknown on
ITarth, who have given water to the
Ithirsty and bread to the hungry, and
medicine to the sick, and smiles to the
discouraged-their footsteps heard along
dark lane and in government hospital, and
in almshouse corridor and by prison gate
There may be no royal robe-there may be
no palatial surroundings. She does not
need them; for all charitable men will unite
with the cracking lips of fever struck
hospital and plague-blotched lazaretto in
greeting her as she passes, "Hail hail
Queen Vashti ~
Among the queens whom honor are the
female day school teachers of this land. l
put upon their brow the coronet. They are
the sisters and the daughters of our towns
and cities, selected ont of a vast number of
applicants, because of their especial intel
lectual and moral endowments. There are
in none of your homes women more worthy
These persons. some of them, come out
from affluent homes, choosing teaching as a
useful profession; others, finding that father
is older than he used to be, and that his eye
sight and strength are not as good as once,
go to teaching to tighten his load. But
tell you the history of the majority of the
female teachers in the public schools when
|
was settled the family that were comfort
able before are thrown on their own re-
sources.
| It is hard for men to earn living in this
day, but it is harder for women-their
health not so rugged, their arms not SO
strong, their opportunities fewer. These
persons, after tremblingly going through
the or deal of an examination as to theirn
qualifications to teach, half bewilderedNI
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 intractable children, the
suppression of their vices and the develop
ment of their excellencies, the management
of rewards and punishments, the sending
of so many bars of soap and fine-tooth
combs on bengnant ministry, the breaking
of so many wild colts for the harness of life,
sends her home at night weak, neuraglic,
unstrung, so that of all the weary people in
your cities for five nights of the week, there
are none more weary than the public school
teachers. Now. for Gods sake, give them
fair chance. Throw no obstacles in the
way. If they come out ahead in the lace,
| cheer them. If you want to smite any,
smite the male teachers; they can take up
|
hands off of defenseless women. Father
| may be dead, but there are enough brothers
left to demand and see that they get jus
tice.
| Within stones throw of this building
there died years ago one of the principals OF
our public schools. She had been twenty
five years at that post. She had left the
touch of refinement on multitude of the
young. She had, out of her slender
purse, given literally thoT 7
sands of dollars for the destitute who "
came under her observation as school
teacher. A deceased sisters children were
thrown upon her hands, and she took care
of them. She was kind mother to them,
! while she mothered whole school. Worr
; out with nursing in the sick and dying room
of one of the household, she herself cam.
to die. She closed the school book and al
the same time the volume of her Christian
fidelity; and when she went through The
gates they cried: "Thess are they who
came out of great tribulation, and had thei
robes washed and made white in the blood
of the Lamb"
Queens are all such, and whether tht
world acknowledges them or not, heaven &C
knowlsdges them. When Scarron the vii
| and ecclesiasiic, as poor as he was brilliant
was about to marry Madame de Maintenon
, he was asked by the notary what he pro-
, posed to settle upon Mademoiselle. The re
ply was: Immortality! the names of the
wives of kir gs die with them; the name o.
the wife of Scarron will live always" In
higher and better sense, upon all womeI
who do their duty God will settle immor
tality! Not the immortality of earthly
, fame, which is mortal, but the Immortality
f celestial. And they shall reign forever and
ever! Oh, the opportunity which every
woman has of being queenl The longer
, | live the moro l admire good womanhood
And have come to form my opinion of the
character of man by his appreciation ol
non. appreciation of woman. If man have
, a depressed idea of womanly character he il
a bad man, and there is no exception to the
rule. The writings of Goethe can never
have any such attractions for MI
as Shakespeare, because nearly all the wo IL
manly characters of the great German
have some kind of turpitude. There is his
Mariana, with her clandestine scheming
and his Mignon, OF evil parentage, ye
worse than her ancestors and bis Theresa
the brazeu, and his Aurelia of many in
trigues, and his Philina, the term giant, anG
his Melina, the tarnished, and his Baroness
and his Countess, and there is seldom wo
manly character in all his voluminous writ
ings that would be worthy of residence in g
respectable coal cellar, yet pictured, aud
dramatised, and emblazoned till all the
literary world is compelled to see. No. No
Give me William Shakspeare's idea Of wo
man; and 1 see it in Desdemona, and Cor
della, 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 f
male characters. IL
Oh, women of America! rise to your op-
portunity. Be no slave to pride or world
illness, or sin. Why ever crawl in the dust
when you can mount throne? Be queens
unto God forever. Hail, Vashtl!
Again, want you to consider Vashti 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 in 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 il
the shadow, and where the sun does no