The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-01-03
Reported for the REcoRD-UN1oN.l
"0LD CRANK'S" SERIAL SERMON.



TEXT-"As man thinketh, so is her
There are sins of omission, as well as
of commission, and in all of the multi
plicity of super1uous legislation in our
much Wanted country, where freedom
and liberty are said to reign supreme,
certain things have been neglected or
overlooked, and these omissions have
| left the better half of our whole commu-
nifty abject slaves of despotic power. No
legal protection has been extended or
even offered to them. Generations have
! passed since this state of affairs has ex-
| listed. On whom shall we place the
| blame? We hesitate to censure the dead.
| The fathers never dreamed that their
actions were to be copied eternally, and
that no provision would ever be made to
support and extend the liberty which
| they had established, and the sons evil
IDENTIFY believed that tie fathers had pro-
vided everything needful for all coming
time, and 50 this better half Of our people
have remained subject to tyranny as dire
as earth ever produced, but they have
endured it with the sweetness and devo-
ton of Christian martyrs. Not one muir
muir OF complaint has escaped their lips;
not one frown has displaced the smile
which we all delight to see on their beau
tiful faces.
Oh, the sublime heroism of woman!
She will endure with a serene counten-
ance agonieS which would cover the face
of man with contortions.
And you! young men! who boast of
your chivalry and respect for woman
kind, when you have seen as beautiful
women as ever enveloped their charms in
q-DJpC de 6TauupU Jnphns or
of the rich material Of their skirts overI he
dirty sidewalks and dusty streets, did
you ever stop to consider, and think,
what terrible torture their eSthetic souls
endured while suffering the indignity of
hauling such burdens behind them, with
no alienation obtainable, except an un-
calmly twist of the hand to the heels, to
raise the skirt slightly while passing a
puddle or more repulsive filth?
Can you stand complacently by in
apathy, and behold our best beloved
those who double our joys and halve our
sorrows''-victims of such horrible
tyranny, without trying to devise some
means tor their relief?
Shame on you! to compela gray-headed
old crank like me, with both feet hover
ing over the brink of obscurity, to stand
forth in lettering feebleness as the cham
pion of our downtrodden adored ones
Don't try to shift the blame for your
criminal negligence on to your fathers,
and grandtathers, and great-grand-
fathers, by asserting that if they had pro-
vided precedent you would have fol-
lowed it.
Has the world come to such pass that
nothing can be done without precedent?
Arouse yourselves from your lethargy.
and bestir yourselves in the cause of hu-
manity.
And you, Legislators, who fritter away
your time passing statutes, and amend
ments to statutes, which are perhaps the
pink of perfection in justice, but which
are as useless as the undiscovered gold in
the earth, pause in your improbable oc-
cupation, and repent of this great sin of
omission. committed first by your fore
fathers, and because of your pernicious
habit of following any precedent, also
committed by you redeem your self-re-
spect partially, if you can, by relieving
the oppressed, and opening the door Of
freedom and liberty to those who most
deserve to enjoy them.
Pass an Act that no woman shall be
compelled by fashion to drag her skirts
anywhere outside of her own domcile.
and make the penalty for violation of
such Act nothing less than the death of
fashion itself. If you fail to do this, my
only hope is that when this comet fashion
recedes, its orbit will take it so far from
earth that we shall never again behold its
tail.
| will close this sermon with another
text, 'Such as l love, I rebuke and
chasten." OLD CRANK.
(The end.)