The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-12-12
THE MODERN WOMAN.


She Has Much Indeed for Which 10 BE
Grateful.
IF any creature on earth has reason for
exultant. fearful, heavenward-rising thank
fitness. it is the modern woman. Never III
all the worlds history has she been SO free
from burdens, SO exalted IN privileges as
TODAY. This nineteenth century is the era
of her coronation. Today she stands queen
Of herself and of the world. In the palmi-
est DAYS of the good old times" the only
woman who was allowed any privileges or
culture was the courtesan. The wife's
home was prison. and her hands alone were
of value. Whether or not she had
any brains, she was not permitted to dis
cover. and this has held substantially true
the world over, until within the last hun
hundred years. and the most convincing
p,oof of this is the character of the books
of the best society. You would not dare to
read aloud in mixed society any cook OF the
last century. Pooks we're not made for
xuoren and so whether they were decent or
not was small consideration. Even the
old preachers INDUCED in coarseness of
language that would not now be permitted
in political haraneue. Some of Martin
Tuther's sermons could not be read in a
modern school, Swearing In the best So
ciety'' was no uncommon thing ninety
Years AGO. Even the ladies themselves not
rarely INDUCED IN it. Dean Ramsey tells
mn anccdote that well illustrates
how it was regarded sister was speak
ing of her brother as much addicted to the
habit, and she said: Our John sweers
awful, and we try to correct him Tor IT;
but" she added, alphabetically, mae doubt
off
"donhie-intendre' and indellcate illusions,
such as now no respectable company would
endure were then quite common III mixed
society. Eighty years ago eminent lawyers
would use language in the court room, IN
the presence of ladies, for which they
would now be arrested by the snetlN. linen
women we're punished by being publicly
whipped on the bare back. Prisoners i'll
pillorles were pelted with eggs and jeered
and tainted by the bystanders. The whip
ping post, the stocks, cropping and brand
ing were common. IL was no very
rare sight to see man and his wife
from the first society sitting on the
callows for an hour, with ropes round their
necks. And those who favor the harsher
forms of punishment might probably take
notice of the fact that mllder councils,
fewer crimes. and the general elevation OF
society are invariably accomplishments Of
each other 10 be poor and insane then
we're .'sold'' at public auction. their board
and keeping knocked down to the highest
bidder who was left to treat them very
much as he pleased. Almshouses were al
most unknown. Tho insane wife of pros
porous man was sometimes fastened IN
room in the house and kept there for wears,
her screams making hideous the public road
on which he lived. The common school,
girl of today is better Oft, in all that makes
life desirable, than was any queen of
200 years ago. Moro comfort,
more purity more 1 hna S.a'th
more refinement more everything worm
hayinc-these mark the advance of our
social life. Never were houses so good,
never was furniture so convenient and
abundant. never was dress so comfortable
and healthful never manners so simple
and sensible, never the means of all enjoy
ment and development so common and so
universally accessible as to-day. And vet,
in spite of these facts, there are large num-
bers of people perpetually bemoanlng our
degeneracy. and signing over the departure
of the "good old times of our early Amer
lean life. The reason Of tine present dis
tressing state of affairs | heard not long
ago. One man thought it was because the
good old doctrines were nowadays not
preached at all. and the other was equally
sure that it was because they We Q preached
all the time. Never was a grander fallacy
than this whole idea. Never was more lg--
norance of the past displayed than by
those who talk of the falling away of
modern times. Never was the church SO
bright and fair as now. and never did the
sky of the future redden with more glor-
ious promise of the coming day. In those
''Qood old tines men lived under the hor-
rid shadows of frightful supsrstitions.
Now it is to modern science only that we
owe our emancipation from the yoke OF TINS
awful tyranny. Scientific explorers have
been over the earth. and finding no mouth
of hell. that is gone. Science has explained
earthquakes and volcanoes, and now devils
fight no longer in the bowels of the earth
Etna and Vesuvius are no longer vent holes
of the pit. Astronomy has shattered tat
follies Of astrology; and people have founs
out that the stars are minding their owl
business instead of meddling with theirs
and eclipses no longer moon swallowing
monsters, are only very natural an
well-behaved shadows. Since psycholog
is studied we know that witchcratt 10 toll
and insanity is only disease to be treate
and cured, Thus science-like mothe
going upstairs to bed with her frightene
boy-has been with her candle into all tt
dark corners that used to make us cree
and cringe. and shiver with terror. Croal
ers always have had a special faculty II
seeing 'sbreakers ahead" and smooth wat
behind. But the sober facts of history lu
tify the statement that never was the sh
of human hope in stauncher trim, al
never was fairer, broader sea ahea
What thenS Why, this: In spite of pre-
ent ills, and difficulties, and corruption
and discouragements learn to see things
they are. How many curse has this servi
unreasoning worship of the past fasten
upon us! As if an evil that has stood
thousand years was not as abominable
one sprung up to-day. We ought, indet
in church, society and state. to reyerel
!. the past as father to the present. But 7
10 biindly as to keep errors and fallacio
eystems simply because our ancestors {
dured them. I'll not carry my Srist to N
with the corn in one end of the sack a
stone to balance in in the other, simply
cause grandmother died. From the c;
With which thu popular chariot gets il
ruts in following the good old ways con
most Of the difficulty of making the wo
give up its wrongs. So evils stand, beca,
they are old. So old good grows not to n
better. So reformers are prosecuted a
tho worlds prophets are cast out.-Rey.
Ninot j. Savage in the Arena for Decemb
TO ESCAPE AN ODOR.
4 Man Jumps From a Moving Train 70
Strange Reason.