Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1890-09-13
Woman Unhappy Without Love.


been what l should call happy. do not think SO.
She may have found the quiet garden of which
Content keeps the keys. She may be reccncied
to her fate; and console herself by thinking how
much better off she is than if she were unhappily
married. but such dull Resignation is not even
first cousin to the rapture of Joy. | am old
fashioned, perhaps, in my ideas; but honestly
think that real happiness comes to woman only
hand in hand with Love.
When she begins to feel that, with one man in it,
the room is full, and empty when he is gone no
matter how many others may remain, she begins
to be TREMENDOUSLY, deliciously, delriously happy.
But that is the only beginning; and if Love holds
Happiness by the hand, Fear stands at the Other
elbow. A word too many or too few-a smile that
does not 60 her way-and the girl suffers as much
as she has just enjoyed. Her very soul hungers
within her for some dear certainty. And when
that comes-when her troth is plghted-ls that
her happiest moment? She does not think so
then; for she is looking forward to her bridal
morning.
The day of day comes, at last and the new life
begins. Is that, then, the happiest moment?
Hardly, for the very most loving people who ever
lived are not quite one, to begin with, and they
must learn to live together. A year-a year of
mutual forbearance; of getting we'll acquainted
happy year; and now they look into each others
eyes fearlessly. They are one at last, and for all
time
Surely that is the happiest moment? had
made up my mind to say SO butts it?
All, | think, after all, the happest moment is
when Love is sweet, shy newcomer, and Hope
leads it by the hand.-Louise Chandler Moulton,
in Ladies' Home Journal
And what does woman suffrage mean in social
life? Health and happiness for women and chill
dren; one code of morals for men and women,
love and liberty, peace and purity in the home,
cleanliness and order in the streets and alleys, and
sanitary arrangements in the homes of the poor;
morals and manners taught in the schools the
Gripping influences of fear of an angry God,
cunning devil, censorous teachers, severe parents,
all lifted from the minds of children so long
oppressed with apprehensions of danger on every
side. We cannot estimate the loss to the world
in this repression of individual freedom and deve-
lopment through childhood and youth. Woman
suffrage means new and nobler type of men and
women, with mutual love and respect for each
other; it means equal authority in the home, an
equal place in the trades and professions, and
equal honor and credit in the world of work.
Our civilization to-day is strictly masculine,
everything is carried by force and violence and
war; and will be until the feminine element is fully
recognized, and has equal power in the regulation
of human affairs.
If woman suffrage means all this surely it is the
greatest question ever before any nation for con-
sderation, and imperatively demands the prompt
action of the leading minds of the day, and women
themselves must make this the primal question in
their own estimation. Home rule is an important
measure to settle for the peace of England. The
success of the Liberal party at the next election,
is no doubt of great Importance, but woman suf-
frage is of more vital consequence to civilization
than either, or both together, because it is the
inauguration of complete evolution in the status
of woman the world over. Home rule and the
next election will have but little influence outside
Great Britain, but the enfranchsement of women