Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-06-08

chair, but by no means make the
money wherewith 10 buy the chair.
You may, with delicate brush, beauti-
fly a mantel ornament, but die rather
chan earn enough to buy a marble
mantel You may learn artistic music
until you can squall Italian, but never
sing "Ortonville" or "0ld Hundred"
Do nothing practical, if you would, in
the eyes of refined society, preserve
your responsibility 1 scout these
finical notions. tell you no woman,
any mor than man, has uright to
occupy place in this world unless
she pays n rent for it.
If we want place In this world we
must earn it The partridge makes its
own nest before he occupies it The
lark, by its morning song, earns its
breakfast before it eats it; the Bible
gives an intimation that the first duty
of an idler is to starve, when it says if
he will not work, neither shall he
eat" Idleness ruins the health; and
very soon Nature says, This man has
refused to pay his rent; ont with him"
Society is to be reconstructed on the
subject of woman's toll A vast ma
jority of those who would have woman
industrious shut her up to few kinds
of work My judgment in this matter
is, that woman has right to do any.
thing she can do well. There should
be no department of merchandise
mechanism, art or science barred
against her. If Miss IIosmer has genius
for sculpture, give her n chisel. If
Rosa Bonheur has fondness for de-
lineating animals, let her make ''The
Horse Fair" If Miss Mitchell will
study astronomy, let her mount the
starry ladder. If Lydia will be a mer-
chant let her sell purple If Lucretia
Mott will preach the gospel, let her
thrill with her womanly eloquence the
Quaker meeting house
1t is said IL woman is given such OPP
portunitics she will occupy places that
might be taken by meu. / say if she
have more skill and adaptedness for
any position than Il man has let her
have it! She has as much right to her
bread, to her apparel, and to her
home as men have.
But it is said that her nature is so
delicate that she is untitled for eX-
hausting toll. | ask in the name of
all past history what toll on earth is
more severe, exhausting and tremen-
dous than toll of the needle to which
for ages she has been subjected? The
battering-ram, the sword, the carbine,
the battle-axe have made no such
L., h. i ,..A,,1I fl,,
these living sepulchres in which
women have for ages been buried
might be opened, and that
some resurrection trumpet might
bring up these living corpses
I to the fresh air and sunlight
l go still further, and say that
women should have equal compensa-
ton with men. by what principle Of
justice is it that women in many of
our cities get only two-thirds as much
pay as men, and in many cases only
half? Here is n gigantic injustice
that for work equally well, if not bet
ter done, woman receives far less COM
pensation than man. Start with the
national government: for n long while
women clerks in Washington got 5000
for doing that for which men received
81 500.
To thousands of young women in
our cities to-day there is only this
alternative: starvation or dishonor.
Many Of the largest mercantile estab-
lishments OF our cities are accessory to
these denominations; and from their
large establishments there are scores
of souls being pitched off into death;
and their employers know it.
Is there a God? VIII there be a
/ judgment? tell you, if God rises up
/ to redress woman's wrongs many of
! our large establishments will be swal-
! lowed up quicker than South Ameri-
can earthquake ever took down a city
God will catch these oppressors be-
tween the two mill stones of his
wrath, and grind them TO powder!
1 hear from all this land the wall of
womanhood- Man has nothing to an
swer to that wall but fihtteries. He
says she is an angel, She is not She
knows she is not She is a human be-
ing, who gets hungry when she has
/ food, and cold when she has no
fire Give her no more batteries; give
her justice!
There are about $4,000 sewing girls
in New York and brooklyn. Across
the darkness of this night hear their
death groan. 1t is not such cry as
comes from those who are suddenly
hurled out of life, but slow, grind.
ing, horrible wasting away. Gather
them before you ana look into their
faces, pinched CHASTITY and hunger
struck! Look at their fingers needle
pricled and blood-tipped! See that
premature stoop in the shoulders Hear
that dry, hacking merciless cough!
Alta large meeting of these women,
held in hall in Philadelphia, grand
/ speeches we're delivered, but a needle
woman took the stand, threw aside
her faded shawl and with her shriveled
arm, hurled very thunderbolt of
eloquence, speaking out the horrors of
her own experience
Stand at this corner of street in
New York in the very early morning.
| as the women 90 to their Worl, Many