The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-04-05
VOLUNTARY BONDAGE.
Numerous Disadvantages to Which Wo
men Are Put Through Force Of Custom.

States to-day Is in striking contrast to
that OF by-gone centuries. or, indeed, to
that of women in Eastern countries at
the present time. American women,
for the most part, can do pretty much
as they please. If they fail to enjoy
privileges, it is because they choose
not to take them. The flower of Amer
lean manhood is the embodiment of a
perfected chivalry. The American
man. as a general thing, is trained to
yield to the wish of woman. Neverthe-
less, women are content to remain in a
certain degree of bondage, voluntary
bondage in which are found some OF the
most powerful classes of delicacy and
lack of physical force which has led one
Of the foremost novel writer's of the day
to speak of 'that state of permanent
disrepair into which sooner or later
every American woman falls"
The voluntary bondage of women is
threefold-political, intellectual and So
cial.
Women are awakening to the fact that
they have permitted their intellectual
faculties to lie dormant and have willing
ly remained in intellectual bondage.
1t is only about twenty years since the
first woman's college appeared in the
land. As a gauge of the difference be-
tween feminine and masculine mental
training, contrast the hundreds and
thousands of young men who go to COL
lege to the one young woman. The
son of the family goes to college as a
matter of course; the young woman of
the family after great discussion and
consultation. How much Oftener is she
sent to some inferior school, where in
stead of broad, thorough collegiate
training, she is content with a smatter-
ing of many things and general
finishing-off process. Many young
women of the present day, after
leaving school. CLEAN sort of
aftermath of information and culture
which stands them in good stead; but
the reason we have not Shakespeares,
Bacons, Humes and Carlyles among
women is, not because they have not
intellectual caliber, but because wO-
men, having been held in domestic
bondage, which is now in measure
cast off, voluntarily remain in somewhat
the same condition. We most firmly
believe that the body is all the more
sound and healthy if it is the abode of a
ind fb,f ~ br,p cd
justment of physical force found in our
homes, especially among the daughters,
is due to the fact that the powers of
their minds are not properly developed
and trained. A strong will. an absorb
ing purpose, a high literary or artistic
pursuit, exalt the spirit, and listlessness
dyspepsia, imperfect circulation, which
breed hysteria, melancholy and hypO-
chondria, pass into oblivion in conse-
quence.
The iron rule of custom and tradition
governs women. 1t is simply amazing
to think of the submission and defer
ence which all women pay to Mrs.
Grundy. 1t would not so greatly mat
ter if women were not so physically
crippled by it. Let us take hasty re-
view of the voluntary social bondage to
which all women bow in a cheerful,
glad submission, and note its relation
to health.
Let us first take the matter of etiquette.
1t must be remembered that there are
two kinds of etiquette-that founded
upon the golden rule of do unto
others as you would have them do to
. THE sweetest. most perfect bios
som of a Christian civilization and that
which is the dictate of a punctilious and
overweight ceremony. 1t is the
broadening of the phylacteries which
tells upon the physical strength of wO-
men. Take the matter of ceremOnious
calls, OF dinner-giving, of formal festiv-
tiles. The truth of it is, the men, in
the rush and hurry of business and
money-getting. have thrown the for
malities upon women, and they have to
do tedious, thankless. joyless task.
The visiting list of many ladies. con-
sisting, as it often does, OF several hun
dred names. consumes time. thought,
strength. without any adeqate recon-
pense. How few of the dear four hun
dred are worth the trouble bestowed
upon them! Why can not all this be
simplified?
The universal custom of women to
remain within four walls after dark I'M
less they have masculine escort-the
bondage that this is to women who are
deprived of natural protectors" only
women know. They fail to go to
places of amusements, of instruction,
of social and religious enjoyment. in
Vulnerable times because of lack of
suitable escort. 1t is all matter of
custom. The electric lights render the
streets of cities and towns as light as
day. If all women went out in the
evening just as in the day, as they well
might do, they would make an innOva-
ton which would show another step in
the direction of freedom and advance
ment; and it would not be long before
it would seem as strange to think Of the
present opinions with reference to wo-
men venturing forth alone after dark
as it seems to American women to think
of the women in the East who never
appeared unvailed in the street.
1t is not the custom for women to
take physical exercise as men do.
There is a beginning awakening
in this respect, but muscle re-
ceives by no means the same worship
full attention from women as from men.
A man with an iron biceps is proud Of