Telegram-herald. ([Grand Rapids, Mich.) 18??-1892, 1891-04-26
ANGELIC FEMALES
A Contributor Answers Gertrude
Gaiety's Letter.
MONEY SHOULD STAND WITH MEN
Not Only in Churches, rheaters aud Con-
ventions, Hat Also ~ the Peiis-Ihs
.-other side stroagly Set
forth by "a. h. u.

"a clever person once compared man
TO the sturdy oak and woman 10 the
cliHglng vine. The simile Was most
beautiful, but il has become contempt
uous through familiarity" SO reads
the opening lines of an article IN last
Sunday's issue of the TELEGRAN-HER-
AID, which is preceded by emphatically
loud headlines IN which some hundreds
of thousands Of our Nations women
are characterized as female mongrels,
shrews and bowling agitxtors.
Observers have not failed 10 not e
there are cllnging meE and cllnglng
women, but Il Is not To either that We
iookf for any great good III this world.
They may be sweet cLn9ers or POISON
ivies. She continues, moreover the
woman OF the present day considers the
comparison odious. She does not enjoy
being told that she IS dependent upon
man for any thing"
Dependent Theory a sham.
Very right indeed. Only they who
are by nature servile will accept the
Besides the dependent theory isa sham.
The husband gives his iite work TO the
business OF the firm. The wife does the
same and nc one 10y any stretch of
logic can make 1t appear that the one
has any less of responsibility IN making
the firms business a success than the
other. Each owes the other the same
abiding faltn the same eherlshing good
will. Neither should attempt 10 hamper
the other by petty dictatons or assump-
tons of superiority. Each owes To the
marriage firm the very best tney have
To give or that through experience and
union of efforts and purpose they may
develop. All should be proudly lain
on the family altar.
"lt is the Creators plan and He
knew what he was dong wien he made
woman TO he the help meet of man."
Well He never told US that He did
make her IL he the help meet OF man.
but He has told us IN tones of infinite
love that he made each for royal COM
panionship for the other.
The Mission of Motherhood.
2 Our experience IN the mother life
only teaches that dear darling innocent
babies are born to human parents, for
whom we would face "rskes and vii
lians" by the millions if thereby we
could destroy their legislative influence
which is always used IN the interest of
indecency and immortality. 1t IS the
deplorable social condition of humanity
that We as mothers are asking for pro-
lection from. We have tried the
talent influence" theory till we
know too well its lack Of value.
q. G. also tells ps that at was far
seeing individual who voiced the senti.
ment the nand that rocks the cradle
is the hand that rules the world. F"
If 1t is a fact that the mother rocking
Is what produces our ]ails and prisons
full of drunken criminals; that II is re-
sponsible for the gambling dens, the
brOthels and the saloons, then so much
is our plea for the ballot strengthened,
that we may rock with unfettered
hands. Surely that would produce a
gentler, steadier motion, more soothing
to this sore tried world.
Failure of the "Silence Plan"
AS an incentive for woman TO still
continue the ''sllent influence" plan OF
work, We are cited to the scheming of
Della and the wiles of Cleopatra. Gooi
heavens, can it possibly he that Ger.
trude would have the wives of today
practicing their method at our firesides
IN order 10 maintain anything like a bal
auce of power in their wIfelv interests?
G. q. asks: "When father and mother
botn enter the political arena who will
care for the helpless innocents at
homer We would suggest that II
takes no longer for woman TO cast her
ballot than it does tor her TO go ana
pay her taxes. and perhaps the same
ole who cares for the innocents on the
one occasion would on the other. OF
the several hundreds OF women who
have voted in Grand Rapids during the
last four years, we have heard no cases
OF death and destruction To infants
theretroin. First We know We will be
told that women must be barred
from church work and church life
because both father and mother can not
be spared from the home.
Defence of = Friend.
Gertrude Gaiety continues at some
length under the head of Good
Housekeeping" but we find nothing 10
note except her reference to woman
of this city, whom she reports as say
ing, Il am so tired of hearing about
home being woman's sphere" Well,
who would not get tired of forever
being told sclf-evIdeDt fact. Women
are distinctively home-keepers, and
wall never reiegate that pleasure 10
man. But IT does not follow that the
home should be woman's prison. No;
the home should be unbarred 10 the
home keeper, trusting always TO the
sweetness and graclousness of
womanhood to preserve her
Alright. They are the best and
strongest guards a woman can know.
II is with n keen sense of pain that We
read the lines in which the public ~ IN
formed that the woman referred To
had at the time "three sons in the re-
formatoiy." For years il has been this
writers good fortune 10 he on terms OF
most intimate friendship with the
mother of those young men and know
her TO he Ioyai mother. She is now
united with them on the far Pacific
coast, realizing sweetly on her invest
ment Of mother faith aud love.
society of Base- sod yniiaas.
Farther on n Gertrude's writing We
find the followIng--"A woman knows
that the man eho loves her would he
=