Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-06-01

| AShciJ -s-7 na1itA pens, ana lack every
thing for comfort Here, tonight, | am
shiverIng II the house before a wood fire,
| yet am well clad. These people have
little more than light, cotton cloth, and
hre-places and chimneys are unknown in
the native house. They wrap up their
head and vital parts of the body, leaving
| the legs nearly bare, and rarely cover the
feet at all. They squat before their
little huts around q mere skilletful of fire,
and few put small pot of Goals under
| tne1r cotton covering and drawing this
about them, husband the scanty heat.
| The pay of cab or cart driver Is from
to rupees month. A rupee is at pre-
sent rate of exchange 81 cents of our
! money. Out OF this he has TO clCthe and
| feed himself. We give our English speak
| ing servant rupee and 4 anas a day
for food. An ana is worth 2li cents
mus he gets his food, even while travel
| ing with Us, for cents a day. But his
wages are quite princely. The pay of
the laborer on ths construction of rail
roads Is anas d day. That, too, be
tween this and Lahore, where there is
frost nearly every night in December to
| February. It will console our trades
unions that eight hours is q days labor.
STRANGE VILLAGES.
One can scarcely realize, when passing
! through much of this country, that it is
thickiy peopled. One sees large areas of
cultivated lands. but parently no houses.
But every now and then, half hidden
! among trees, one sees a mud wall ten to
twelve feet high and covering, say, from
hundred feet to four or five hundred
feet square. This mud wall contains
| farm hamlet or village, and has within it
| little novels and cow-yards for a dozen,
| twenty or more families. Women and
children constantly ask for "backshish"
| (presents). They do it most good natur-
eddy, and never get angry when wa drive
them off with a good humored thrust
from our canes About the large cities
the old ruins cover May miles more or
less cultivated. Along the roads these
children by the dozens ran by cur car
| riage crying 'backshish" in all the tones
| possible TO youngsters from 3 to years
| old, up to ten or more. Boys half naked,
| girls with rings in their ears and noses,
and bracelets and anklets jingling. All
have beautiful teeth, and grin and laugh
and pat their stomachs to assure Us they
are quite empty. None are so poor that
they do not put rings and bracelets on
the girls. l had a woman beg of me to-
day, and yet she must have had dozen
or mora of these ornaments. Much of
the wealth of a family is thus carried on
females. When necessity pincnes they
sell or pawn them. The women are thus
the bankers of the men.
FEMALE CUSTOMS.
The women IN towns and villages above
the cody class rarely show their faces,
and the better class never. Some travel
ers speak of their peeping at one from
their wells or from behind their laticed
windows. From what l have seen aud
can learn from people who have long
lived here such coquetries are only in
dulged in by Nauteh girls dancing girls)
of low order, or by still worse class.
The education of g woman is such that she
| honestly thinks herself degraded should
she permit her face to be seer by man;
rarely is it done even 20 a father-in law
or brother-iu-iaw especially if her
| broth er-in-law, be older than
her husband. A we'll TODD Hindoo,
with SIX brothers all younger
than hims alf, told me he had seldom ever
seen the face of a single one of his sis
ters-in-law, aud when he had done so it
was under a social custom, but it is
mixed up with their religious require
ments. Religion has very powerful
hold even on the men, who are generally
more or less educated, for now common
the women are wholly uneducated except
in religious rites and duties. With them
their religion is all despotic and power
full, leading them in the past to the burn
Jig pile of their dead husband.
Woman Progress in Denmark.
The following brief sketch OF the pro
gress of women Ia Denmark was given by
Kristme Fredericksen, delegate to the
International Council:
1t was the social and political storms
of the French revolution which aroused
Mary WolstOnecraft and generally called
forth an examination of womans position
in society: and it was the movement of
l040 in Denmark givingito men their poll
teal rights, which drew attention to the
question of woman's rights. Under the
pseudUnym of Clara Raphael and IN the
form of a collection of letters, Miss Ma
tilda Fibiger, girl of 10 summers 1880
1922 gave q general outline of those de-
mand5 for woman's personal indepen-
dence which afterwarL, by other persons
| and under other forms, have received
| more precise and more definite express
sions. she was evidently strongly moved
| by that national enthusiasm which during
the three years war with Germany, per
vaded the whole Danish nation, and for d
time her book was borne aloug by that
current. But when the enthusiasm sub
sided and her ideas were viewed as purely
practical issues, they met with an all
overpowering opposition.
SHE WAS ACTUALLY FORCED
| to lay down her pen, and she sought res
cue in a practical position. She became
the first female telegraphist, position at
that time by no means agreeable, Miss
Pauline Worm (1S25.1863) had stronger
nerves Always ready for battle and
everywhere at hand when needed she
fought bravely with pen and tongue for
woman's rights. Before her no woman
! in Denmark had dared to appear in pub
lie as an orator; she broke the spell.
| Nevertheless, though her poeticaI talent
| and the clearIless of her intellect ought to
| nRve given her rank among our best men,
! she had to wear out her life as school
teacher in the provinces. Another at
| mospherc was needed the barometer
must fall before the birds will fly. Those
| two women stood as Outposts so far i'll
the front of their time that they could not
expect to live and see the victory.
Some progress, however, came with the
! political reorganization of 184S. In 1857
! daughters acquired equal rights of inner
| itance with sons, and, like men, women
| became of age at the 25th birthday. In
| 1850 an important step was taken toward
| opening up the way for women to eco
nomical Independence; they were admit
ted to graduation and appointment as
! teachers in the public schools. Miss
Pauline Worm had often agitated this
! question in her own circle, but it was
| Bishop Monrad, at that time Minister of
| State, who, without any connection with
| said agitation, took up the matter, made
! it practical issue, and carried it through
| Gradually people also began to be used to
| see ladies as clerks in the offices,
PRIVATE AS WELL AS PUBLIC.
With 1870, which year is generally des-
| ignated as literary new birth in Den
| mark, brighter day also began to dawn
over woman. Stuart Mills book was
| translated by DR.. Brandes and extensively
read. The poets, Jens Hostrup, Rjornsen,
Ibsen, etc, took up the question of WON
ans rig hts, and treated it in their best
books, and from very liberal point of
view. In 1879 women were admitted to
the university, that is to participation in
the highest education the state offers
Most, however, of what has been done in
| Denmark for the education of women is
due to one single lady, Miss Natalie Zahle,
who, without any support from the state,
hoS