Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1889-12-19
EQUAL FREEDOM.

EQUAL FREEDOM.
What Women Need to Broaden Their
Minds and Increase Their knowledge
of the World.
The husband of the future will doubt
less be quite as happy as the husband
Of the present says Mary II. Krout, in
Chicago lnter-Ocean, but he will have
accustomed himself to some radical
changes. One who has already felt the
touch of the new spirit said the other
lay:
II do not wish my wife to stay athome
all the time. She has an angelic tenn
per naturally, but when she remains
within doors for three or four days or
a week, find that she becomes too much
absorbed in domestic matters, which l
do not believe ought to consume any
woman's entire time. When she goes
away to public meeting or to conven-
ton, to be gone week or so, she comes
back refreshed, enthusiastic and ready
to take up the old duties with sufficient
interest and energy. She has met many'in-
teresting people, she has had the benefit
of an exchange of ideas, and the family
have the benefit of what she has seen,
told with the vividness and sympathy
which makes the conversation of a
bright woman, who has both heart and
brain, always delightful"
And this is one man who is already ac-
cepting cheerfully and philosophically
the new order of things, which is as in
evitable as the rising of the sun. He
was not the head of a wretched, disor-
derly household, where unruly children,
ill-temper and selfishness held sway.
His home was luxurious IN its appoint
ments, and the sons and daughters had
grown up in the midst of cultivation,
with an example of gentle manners,
considerateness and purity of thought
and speech, daily exemplified in both
parents. The mother was an ardent
equal-suffragist, but she was no less
womanly on that account, and she had
the hearty approval of her husband in
all that she did, relying upon him for
counsel and advice. There is deal of
truth in this mans opinion. To SYM
metrically developed mind, a knowledge
of the world is as necessary as knowl-
edge of books.
The gad-about has always been con-
demned by press and preacher, and the
woman who stays at home held up as
the pattern Of wifely and womanly per-
fection. But it has never occurred to
any one that the woman who gets no
glimpse of the outside world, who has
no opportunity to measure her mental
and moral stature by the mental and
moral stature of others, grows narrow,
querulous, and exacting. She is an alb
solute authority in her own domain, and
there is no appeal from her decisions,
however ill-advised. She sees nothing,
and, unless she has love for books,
which, strangely enough, such women
rarely have, her mind is concentrated
upon the petty details of housekeeping
and the affairs of her neighbcrs--wha'
Mrs. Brown wore, what Mrs. Smith had
for tea when she entertained the minis
ter, what dreadful creatures the John
son children are, and how shockingly
that Miss Thompson carries on. These
are the themes that occupy her tongue
and the mind that, from want Of use
grows feebler and narrower from day tt
day.
A wise old man remarked that ths
reason so many old people lost theil
memory was because they had nevel
learned any thing worth remembering
The same is true, with difference, o
women. If they go from home, not I,
the neglect of home and children, bu
enough to see what life is like, they arr
laying up fund of knowledge that shall
keep them young at threescore. TIL,
centennial was of incalculable benefit t,
the country. Thousands of women wen.
saw the magnificent display, had
glimpse of the civilization of other ma
tions, and took the keen memory of /
all back to their homes in the hills o
New England or the farms in the West
ern prairies. Had there been any mean
of getting accurate statistics, 1t coul
have been demonstrated that the amour
of gossip for the following year in thei
respective neighborhoods fell of at ieas
sixty per cent. Their talk for month
afterwards was of the great picture
they saw, the wonders of art, the mai
velous mechanical contrivances, and al
the beauty and splendor and ingenuit
that was concentrated there. 1t CAV
their minds healthful and natural food
and more was accomplished to abate th
sin of slander and tackbiting than coul
have been done from thousand of tn
minister's best sermons.
1t is observable that when even an o.
dinary woman goes from home for fe
weeks or few months, she comes bac
enlightened with what she has seer
and it is Of this that she talks. Tn
women who are the most entertaininI
who are most agreeable and whose s.
ciety does not tire, are not those WI
have spent all their days knitting In Il
chimney corner, or within the fol-
walls of a kitchen poring over cool
book. However men may profess to 10,
this purely dor-estie character. they I'll
Of it IS they would tire Of an unrelievs