Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-09
We'd be talking till quite late,
While our husbands supperless,
With the scraps found in the press,
Try their appetites to safe.

|
The flow of soul in season,
And in Gillead there's balm
10 these intellects we bow,
To this western club here now
Hypatia Yields the palm.
At the close Of the luncheon the ladies
dispersed with the understanding that the
next meeting should be held in Lawrence.
1t was the intention of the Hypatia to
show the guests over the city in carriages,
but the bad weather precluded any such
pleasure. Most of the ladies did not re-
turn home until this morning and they all
declared themselves very well pleased with
Wichita and anxious to return again.
Mrs. L. Houk's paper on 1.-The Political
Evolution Of Women" read on Thursday,
has aroused considerable interest and the
following extracts are taken from it.
In announcing as my subject upon this
occasion the social and political evolution
of woman l am not uumindful that it may
be something OF an innovation to bring
within the precincts of this club topics
which are strongly polemic IN their nature.
an despecially, where the subjects are OF
such character as not unfrequently to
provoke rancorous debate, but in appear
| ing before you in answer to the courteous
invitation which left me free to choose my
own subject l do so with the full under
standing that the club assumes no re-
sponsibitty for my utterances, and simply
gives large liberty to the expression of
| the Individual sentiment of its members.
| From the initial period of existence until
the present there has never been more
interesting time. Our earth, in its eternal
| sweep through the heavens has thrown
back the centuries upon its course like the
dust of travel, but none have been so filled
with interesting men and women as this
century of ours Indeed, it is hard not to
believe that our time lies within the peri
meter of the Golden Age, and that old
Ovid was mistaken in his account of it.
The heavens bend above US in loving i'll
vitatlon and the earth responds in an i'm
pulse of development which has not before
been seen. Men and women are nobler
creations, think grander thoughts, speak
grander words and live grander lives in
this age than in the preceding ones to
which this has succeeded in the regular
procession of the generations.
Professor Donaldson, writing in the Con-
temporary Review, on Woman and the
Gospels" says: ut is when we come to
the writings of St. Paul that opinions are
pronounced in regard to the marriage and
conduct of women. And there can be no
doubt that these opinions are of a stern
and restrictive nature. The Fbionites eX-
planned the apostles conversion by stating
that he was, as he himself allowed, q ma
tive of Tarsus; that he was not a jew, but
a Greek, with Greek father and a Greek
mother; that he went up to Jerusalem aud
stayed there for sometime; that he fell in
love with the high priests daughter; be-
came in consequence proselyte and asked
her in marriage, but on being refused he
was enrased and wrote against circum-
cison, the Sabbath and the law. Some
have thought there is bitterness against
women in the writings of st, Paul which
can be explained only by some such rejec-
ton as that related by the Fbionltes. His |
ton of opinions III regard to women in the |
ancient church. They fell in with the |
tendency Of the times and were made a
ground work and support of the deprecia- |
ton of marriage. which became prevalent |
in the third and fourth centuries. So ex-
ments expressed by St. Paul become in The |
succeeding centuries that, not only were |
women kept in a state Of calling servitude, |
but the Christian fathers who succeeded |
the apostles in the post-apostolic ages, |
constantly inveighed against them in their |
writings as monuments of depravity.
Coming down to the Christian era few |
signs Of ameliOration are GiscOverable. |
Jesus, coming into the world on a divine
mission of love and reconciliation but not
seeking to attack or to Subyert the civil |
order OF things, did not undertake to de-
fine the sphere of the weaker sex with
respect to society or civil law. He pro-
claimed it to be the duty Of all to Render
unto Caesar the things which are CAESARS,
and unto God the things which are God g."
And yet there were the potent germs IN
His teachings OF a revolution. not only of
the moral but of the political life of every
race and people In His demeanor toward
women how infinite was His tenderness.
and compassion, and respect No word
m IN "a bat he |
niZed any exclusive power of control in
either sex. Where the scepter was synon-
ymous with the sword the weaker had no
rights.
| am touching at some length on fuedal
times because it seems to have been the
cradle OF modern laws and free institu-
lions. To the most searching human ken
this was not apparent at the time. Moth
ing could have seemed more unpromising
than the state OF affairs under which the
majority of the people groaned from i'm
position of greater burdens than at any
lime before or since. If it be said that
here were four orders, namely, sovereign,
1obles freemen and serfS, then the serfs
were in the majority, and it would be i'm
possible to eXaggerate the hopeless misery
IF their condition. But the real potency
or ultimate good was the recognition of
Individual rights and freedom of the mid
lie classes. Not the freedom which SIM
bly, means the absence of any restraint as
t existed in the wild forests of northern
md eastern Europe and western Asia, but
freedom founded upon law, and
his freedom of the few was
silent force, was, in the
ILLNESS of time, to work out the freedom
# many. Not the least striking result of
his system was the effect produced upon
women. / mean her condition in the hi CHER
riders
OF course, where the noble enjoyed his
anded domain upon q tenure which exact ,
d of him at all times military service to
he sovereign and the freeman or gentle |
nan had his tenure upon conditions Of the
ike service to the noble-in other words.
' here Drawn and sinew were mainly in :
could acquire but few
olltical or property rights. Socially their ,
ondition was UNNECESSARILY improved. |
Woman ceased to be the drudge or mere
lave of her father or husband or brothers.
he became the cherished companion, and
ven more than this.
With the incoming administration of
braham Lincoln, who in this, as In most | I
ther respects. was broader than his pred I
cessors, the clerkships in the departments I
{ Washington were thrown open to =
7omen; further than this, many situations
f the highest responsibility. requiring
ign executive and administrative ability $
,ere, aud have continued to be filed by {
Tomen under the federal government; v
uch as metropolitan postofices, pension d
gencies and the like. 1t Will be remem- .
cred that short time ago when the pen !
ion commissionershlp, perhaps the most
Important bureau in any of the depart a
lents of government, became vacant there q
aeIned TO be a sort of consensus of opinion v
lat the widow OF the greatest volunteer =
IL ~ L. Ia