Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1889-11-08

BY OLLIE I. ROYCE.

In reading an exchange lately, we
came across the old store, that women
were woman's worst enemy. This is
not trueism, but there are a few old /
fogies in the world who have told it |
over SO often and are so far behind |
the times, that they really think they
are telling the truth; others there are /
who repeat the ridiculous assertion /
entirely through a malicious desire
to hurt and defraud woman of her
good name and lofty motives of work. |
If this ever were true, (which we very
much doubt it was in the dark ages,
before woman realized or appreciated
the fact that there was a higher life
for her than the life of drudgery and
slavishness, that rendered her powers
of observation, and her opportunities
for work narrow and limited For
years woman has worked for, and de-
voted her life to the elevation and
higher education of women, as no
man ever did or ever will. We do
not have to go farther away than our
own grand country, to prove this as
sertion. The noble life of woman de-
voted wholly to her sister woman's
best welfare, regardless of the Kisses,
bowls and jeers, Of the men who tried
and yet try in every way to embar-
rass, defeat, and defraud her, of her
natural rights, OF the rights which
her nature, education and cultivation
tit her, is proof enough that we owe
our present hopeful outlook and the
good the future has in store for us,
not to the men but to the women Of
this country. Talk about men being
our natural protectors; whom are
women afraid of if they are compelled
to be on the streets after night, it is
not our natural enemy,' woman, but
our natural protectors, man. Who
has tried to help us to be self sup
porting, to help us to the means of a
higher education, to securing for us
municipal suffrage by petiIoning col
leges, legislatures, by hard, tOiIsome
labor IN season, and out of season e?
Our natural protectors? no, it has all
come from our enemy, women. One
thing that has made our burden
heavier in bringing woman up to her
natural standard Of excellency, is the
awful weight on her heart and hands,
caused by trying to help the migrate
full men along, so that they may not
entirely drop out of sight when wo-
man has attained her goal
My advise to these old fossils who
are in the habit of resurrecting these
old sayings and doing them out to
their fellow men, is to dig themselves
ont of the dark ages of the past
where they have been so long that
they are too contracted to take in any
of the growing, progressing subjects
of the day, and soak themselves il
the milk of human kindness unit
they are elastic enough to grasp some
of the facts that the last few years O.
the nineteenth century present Was
it the men who petitioned the cit
council for Police matrons, that tn,
poor unfortunate women who wer,
taken to the police stations might re
ceive decent treatment and a chanc
for reform? Was it woman VIII
made these women fit subjects for tn
police courts, houses of refuge an,
reform? Not often. As is we'll known
it is nine times out of ten that tn
innocence, virtue, and honor of womel
have been corrupted by men and no
women. Who so pitiful or so tende
as a woman? To be sure there ar
women who scorn, and revlle, an
have no pity for the unfortunate
They are the exception, and blot o.
the fair fame of womanhood; bu
when we want pity, when we need
hand to help us up out of the sloug
of despOnd = when we need PRAYER,
encouraging words and kind deed,
we viii cast ourselves upon the broa
and tender charity of woman, haydn
no fears that we will plead in vail
Long live our blessed worst enemv
say we.