Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-03-25

/ possess these dINduldS6S. nave uO
idea of the outer world of ignorance
in which your lost fellow creatures
live. They know nothing unless they
are rogues, accustomed to prey on
the society of your benevolent schemes
to help them. The purpose of pub
lie charities. and the way to discover
and apply to them ought to be posted
at the corner of every street. What
do we know of public dinners, and
eloquent sermons and neatly printed
circulars?
Every now and then the case of
some forlorn creature generally of a
woman) who has committed suicide,
within five minutes walk, perhaps,
of an institution which would have
opened its doors to her, appears in
| the newspapers, shocks you dreadful
", and is then forgotten again. Take
as much pains to make charities and
asylums known among the people
| without money as is taken to make
new play, a new journal, or a new
medicine known among the people
with money, and you will save many
a lost creature who is perishing now"
And now let us glance for moment
at one of the practical points, land see
how women are regarded at present
by the, so-called, laboring classes
the real bone and sinew of our fair
land. / can only speak for the man
ufacturing village of Bellows Falls.
There many a laboring woman
might fairly be styled the financial
head of the family, while doing full
ly her part in the extended hours of
physical labor. Her husband, recog-
nizing, perhaps, by dearly bought
experience, her superior financial abil-
ity, turns over the greater part of his
hard earned wages for her to eXpend
for the family necessities-and with
what result? By their combined thrift
and economy many of them in u few
years own their snug, but modest
home, and venture to say that more
real happiness exists there than I'M
der the dome of many gilded palace.
Nor are such cases isolated ones.
Who, then, no matter, how gifted or
eloquent they may be, shall dare as
sert the utter absurdity that the hus-
band is better qualified to exercise
the elective franchise than the wife.
No, we can not fight, hence the old
argument, we should not vote; but
this old fallacy will soon have passed
away, for the popular voice is toward
arbitration, and the implements of
war fast becoming so deadly that the
most hardened must needs shrink
from the contemplation of combat.
But be that as it may.
1t has been said, ''they also serve
who only. stand and wait" Then the
thousands of wives and mothers all
over this country, during the late re-
bellion, who kept alive the hearth
fires of home. cared for the Younger
ones left in their charge, watched by
the sick and laid away their dead
who in the face of all these certain
ties, and q heart full of dread for
what the next news from the front
might be, kept up brave heart and
stout courage, sufficient not only
for themselves, but constantly flash
ing along the distance between home
and camp, bringing to the disheart-
ened soldier the strength of which
victories were born, must certainly
have served faithfully. George Will
liam Curtis has asked, s'Did any Eng
glishman who rode into the jaws of
death at Balaklava serve England
more effectually than Florence Night
ingale?" If England has its Florence
Nightingale, America certainly has
its Mary A. Livermore, of which the
same question may be asked, for we
are all very we'll aware of the unprec-
edented aid rendered by this grand
leader, and other of our countrywo-
men in the immense military hospit-
ais, and to speak of it now, is in one
sense quoting history. Then they
showed the highest administrative
ability, and the most unshrinking
courage. Many delicately nurtured
women left their comfortable, and in
many cases, luxurious homes, to brave
the dangers of the battlefield, and
then show to the world the Christian
virtues that form the glory of true
womanhood. Think you that those
brave soldiers, brought back to life
by their tender sympathy and faith
full nursing would question their abil-
ity to exercise the elective franchise
in favor of ''God and home and ma
| tive land?" Yes, friends, it is COM
ing; it is living issue. No great
reform movement is started in this
country to be smothered and stamped
out, mol it is not in the nature of
things; we as people have inherit
ed too much of the righteous blood
which quickened in the veins and
strengthened the arms which unload
ed the tea and buried it in the waters
of Boston harbor. A country that
has loosened and silenced forever the
clanking chains of millions of color
ed men and women, can not much
longer hesitate to grant to its daugh-
tiers their natural right of suffrage.
And especially now is the demand
going to be more imperative and un-