The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-09-04

ny uOut UuO HULL: w udhc VU0 WOIuHu
better.
The real mission of woman today is
the education OF her own sex, to fit then
for motherhood. When m is fit to
be a mother, she will know who is fit to
be the father OF her children; and it will
not be the man Of low tastes, Of profit
gate life, or dishonest heart.
Marriage and mo:herhood have the
most intimate relation, and yet what
training Is given a girl that is calculated
to enlighten her as to her responsibilities?
Our customs, thoughts, traditions are
such that if she speak seriously of that
phase OF the question before marriage she
Is rediculed by her friends, and very good
people think her immodest, perhaps in
decent.
Are there terms strong enough in which
to characterize a state OF common opin-
ion that relegates to low impulse the Gre
alton OF a life-the evolution of a mortal
soul? Earnest men and women ask these
questions again and again, and yet but
little is done intelligently to advise more
enlightened and sensible methods.
am convinced that only when women
have achieved a practical equality with
men in wage earning, by brain or other
wise, will this subiect find a solution.
Disguise it as we may, and we do system
atically in polite society, child bearing
has ever been the price women has been
willing to pay for the comfort Of a home,
for the protection and support given her
by man. The paternal instinct is always
stronger then the maternal. Men make
sacrifices and assume burdens for the
sake Of post.rlty, vastly greater then do
women.
Whatever may be the real history OF
the origin OF man. the real purpose in
his creation, nature and revelation
alike point to the evolution OF an incre-
asingly higher type IN which the
spiritual dominates the lower
nature. Enthusiastic reformers are
fond OF saying that this or that
great question will be settled when
women are allowedto vote. Doubtless all
good measures will be prompted in time,
butitw will not be because women vote, but
because educated women will address
their thoughts to vital themes, and hay
ing traced effects to cause, will seek by
practical means to eliminate sin an sor-
row from the controlling place they now
fill in our human economy.
Suffrage is q very considerable force IN
this process. Grant women the right to
acquire an education, the right to accu-
mulate property, it follows logically that
she must be granted the right to use that
education to protect that property. Can
she use her education if she cannot par
ticipate IN the making oflaws which may
sanction institutions calculated to
help or hinder what she would make OF
her child's character. Is her property
her ownif shecannot participate in MAX
ing laws which tax it for the support OF
criminal courts and prisons rather than
for libraries and gymnasiums?
If any woman, from her own point of
view, does not see conditions congenial to
the soul culture OF her child then let her
be free to renounce marriage-renunciat-
ion is the noblest OF virtues; but she can
not renounce marriage unless she can
earn her own living. When she can carr
an equal price for work, when she can
take her abilities into any field and find
compe tltions free, then she is a free and
independent being; then she does not
have to marry for financial support;
then she finds life 80 full OF grand inter-
ests that she does not need to marry in
order to find work for her hand and love
for her heart. "
When women are financially and 30.
cially independent then will love be holl-
est, then will it always be the bond OF
happy marriage. Will any one in u SANE
moment accept the nonsense that is
talked and written about the sanctity o.
motherhood and dignity OF wlfehood
while the reality Of unloved wives and
doomed children is heartbrcaking? The
grand and full destiny of the wife anc
mother can be fulfilled only when womer
become the very flower OF civilization
as she is o%fcreation, when she shall have
attained the ability to understand ant
claim her rights and privileges tx
the best, the purest that manhood
can offer, her privilege OF electing, no
bllndly but int %ligentlv, to become
wife and mother. Virginia G.. Meredith