The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-07-10
IN WOMAN'S BEHALF.
THE WISE WOMAN.

In WOMANS BEHALF. |
THE WISE WOMAN.
The Part That woman shoald Perform il |
Building the Households Of Church and |
state.
A saying OF holy writ will provide me
with q text. 1t Is this: "A wise woman
buildeth her house, but the foolish pull
eth II down with her hands" II will
hardly be needful, said Julia Ward
Howe, at tho annual meeting OF the
New England Suffrage Association, to
dwell upon the truth Of this saying in
its more familiar application. All OF
us who have lived, and learned by liv-
ing. have seen houses built by women;
indeed, no house is built up without .
woman's powerful help. It II not al
ways that OF wife and mother; that IL
the best and most complete, but some
times another supplies the woman's part
in the domestic economy, looking out
for every need, supplying every want.
Sometimes the very memory and spirit
OF woman, herself no longer present
in the body. helps to rule and order the
household. She built her house, and It
remains lower Of strength and COM
fort to those who follow her. It's pain
fnl to dwell upon the opposite picture;
that OF the foolish woman who sacrifices
the household peace to the wild impulses
or savage slothfulness Of : mind unin-
formed and heart unreformed. Tho
lessons drawn from these statements are
twofold. should like to consider very
briefly tho social ways OF thinking, which
help the women to be wise or foolish,
and then to consider the part that wom-
en- should have in building our religious
household, the church, and our civic
household. the State; and would say .
word Of the importance Of vistas, Of q
far-reaching outlook into the conse-
qucnces Of woman's actions. II the
foolish woman could see before her,
even as far as the outcome Of things in
her personal earthly life, she would not
pursue the line of conduct which pulls
down her house. instead Of building 1t
up. The greatest OF modern philoso-
piers says that man can not reach his
| full moral development without the idea
of immortality; that is, without the
farthest and widest outlook OF which the
human mind is capable. This doctrine
applies in another way to the moral at
tainments possible to women. They.
too, need the wide outlook, the horizon
OF good and Of evil carried to its utmost
limits. Woman can not attain their
noblcst stature without the stimulus be-
tore them Of the noblest duties, Of the
/, final goal Of their endeavors. Now
wifehood and motherhood, sacred IS
they are, do not in themselves Of neces-
sity afford this outlook. Both may be
very self-limited and limiting relations.
A woman will naturally love her hus-
band and child as herself, as, indeed,
! she should. But this merely personal
!, relation promises no onward step In the
way Of woman's progress, no training OF
! individuals for intelligent service to the
State. Another generation Of men and
women, arriving at this point and get
ting no farther, become morally FOSSIL
ized, and are, to all intents and pur-
| poses, in . state Of arrested civilization.
| Now, the human soul Graves to achieve
more than this; and much of the wild
sin and passion of society comes from
the pentup force OF human desire, for
which no ftor satisfying Objects found
| Under free institutions such an object
is supplied. Every man has not only
o passive, but also An active, duty to
ward the State. 1t Ia his part not only
to endure the laws, but aid in enforcing
them. The cry Of society to him is per
petually, Come mp higher; and that hs
responds to it any one knows who ha,
observed men under the old order and
under the new; and this Is the funda
mental necessity which compels human
itarians to ignore the evils Of popular
government, its capacity. its corruption
We must have It because the man mus
have his outlook. He must see befor,
him the whole moral possibility :.
which his nature IS entitled. lie Cal
not rise worthily without aspiration; h,
can not aspire to what he can not see
It would seem almost snperduous to So,
that the woman Of to-day needs this .
much as the man does. LET us eat ant
drink, for tomorrow we die" reads 70
woman, LOT us dress and dance, for to
morrow we marry-0r grow old unmar
ried." Thank God. the higher education
sets aside this miserable statute Of lin
itations. Its exhortation is, LET u
study and attain, for tomorrow VI
vote" Plato's dream OF Justice is . di
vine truth, and, like every di
vine idea, Is to be real
; ized. Women are to be trained 70
public sentiment. public duty. even i
the sacred retirement of private life
: She who has no gift Of eloquence, bu
has mind, and can study the publ
interest, has will, and can help to prt
. mote it. She can walk with her brother
in the noble ranks of citizenship; sh
can exercise . power which none ca
! wrest from her. What Is this power
The ballot. She has it not At this M
ment, but she has It in the moral visit
before her. The enlargement which thi
already gives. nerves her limbs, stint
! lates her brain. The wise woman bnilt
eth her house. Gentlemen. give her
chance to build il beside you and wit
you. The fate Of ancient Troy. and I
many another city, shows rs what th
foolish woman can do-the woman VIII
40 SAllSucU Win ucI uCuutJ 0u0 uCI -,
cination-and its direful consequence
} TO herself and others. Hut Palla
: Athene was the tutelary deity Of he
city-she dropped her vote ut the urn {
} the Arcopagus. She and the noble si
terhood who, since her time, have ofte
. intervened to save the State from d,
I. struction-these are the feminine idea
: of to-day; the women who build tn
, family, the church, the State, with mel
and as worthily as they.
7 THE LABOR STANDPOINT.
The Ballot - Means Of Securing
the Working Woman Her Rights.
The granting Of suffrage to women b,
always seemed to me, says James Y
Clarke, in the Boston Globe, to be
matter of essential justice and right
! soon as I became of age, ! became
) ! ;Sk Y oh ho~ lcv