The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-04-18
In WOMAN'S BEHALF.
A NEGLECTED POINT.


The Secret Of Success in National
provement.
There was once upon q time, says
Mrs. B. Dietrich, a certain vast orchard
where all the nurserymen were women.
Out of an unwholesome soil had grown
the trees they tended, with gnarled and
misshapen trunks and fruit which was
oft exceedingly bitter. Beneath these
overhanging branches the young sap
lings struggled up. deprived of proper
air, and with no chance for freedom of
development, in turn taking their place
in this world of gnarled deformity.
Now these nurserymen cherished no
BILE idea of what the perfect tree should
be. They saw in Imagination its up
right trunk, symmetrical branches, and
delicious fruit, making thing Of beauty
and of great good in the world; but,
alas. everything was out Of joint. be-
cause they had not discovered the secret
for setting wrong things right. Every
effort they could think of had been ex-
| pended upon the grown-up trees to bring
them into shapeliness and improve their
yield Bands were tightly bound around
their rough old excresceuses; high walls
were built to confine the widely stray
Cling branches; doses of sweets were
lavishly sprinkled over the ripening
| fruit. Thousands of years the priest
esses of this orchard had spent upon
their knees, imploring the heavens to
make the crooked places straight" or
to perform the miracle of turning bitter
into sweet.
But the sun smiled down. or the rain
fell at its own pleasure, and the wind
blew when and how it pleased-all, evil
IDENTIFY, without the slightest reference
to the improvement of that orchard.
At length, reused to frenzy of de-
spair bands of anxious cultivators said:
''lt is more laws we need. We must
have laws made to compel these gnarled
trees TO grow in the straightness we de-
sire, and legislation shall force these
stubborn boughs to bear good and pleas
ant fruit" So thousands of workers
devoted their lives to procuring the
proper laws for producing such results
And as fast as law could be obtained,
it was shouted at the trees. or hung up
in front of the tender saplings
But all was vain. Still the starved
roots languished in enfeebled life. Still
the stunted saplings grew on to join the
throng of crooked trees.
Finally, however, day came when a
new idea awakened thought in the
minds of those earnest cultivators. 1t
was the idea Of asking the reason why;
the idea of tracing to it's source the
cause of deformity in trees; and they
began to analyze the ground. After
this first move in the right direction,
other bright ideas came thick and fast
to help them, and in due season time
arrived when from reconstructed condi-
tions every tree had q fair start and
plenty of room to grow.
For over forty years our nurserymen
have been searching for the secret
which will bring improvement to the
individual trees of our national orchard.
Is it not time now seriously to investi- |
gate the soul, to ask ourselves where is |
the most promising point for the con-
centration of our energies, upon those |
stiffened, grown-up trees that fill our |
Legislative Halls, OF upon the tenuer |
twigs that crowd our schools and col
leges.
We have here a republic whose aim is
to produce individuals self-owning, self
governing, respecting the freedom of
others; and yet every child is planted in
q soil imbued with this dogma of pure
despotism: 1.-The male shall rule the fe-
male" Rooted in this universal des-
potism, the individual girl from her
cradle breathes an atmosphere saturated
with the especially despotic law. Thy
husband shall rule over thee whose eff
feet is inevitably to increase her ignor-
ance of and Indifference to republican
principles, just in proportion to her
docility and obedience, while the
brother at her side, reared in the same
unthinkingly mounts
to his place amongst male rulers, much
more engrossed with the pleasant duty
of ruling over some one else than with
the difficult task of learning to govern
himself.