The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-06-04


money wherewith 10 buy the chair.
You may. with delicate brush, beauti-
fly mantel ornament. but die rather
than earn enough to buy marble
mantel You may learn artistic music
until you can squall Italian, but never
sing ''Ortonville''- or sold Hundred"
Do nothing practical, if You would. in
the eyes of refined society, preserve
your respecta bility. / scout these
fnica1 notions. tell you no woman.
any NOR than a man. has Bright to
occupy q place in this world unless
she pays rent for 1t.
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: out with hin!'
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 we'll. There should
be no department of merchandise,
mechanism, art or science barred
against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius
for sculpture, give her a chisel If
Rosa Bonheur has fondness for de-
lineating animals, let her make 1.-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
M0f Oh he lat her
thrill with her womanly eloquence the
Quaker meeting house.
1t is said If woman is given such OPP
portunities she will occupy places that
might be taken by men. I say if she
have more skill and adaptedness for
any position than a man has let her
have it! She has as much right to her
bread, to her apparel and to her
home 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
havoc as the needle. 1 would that
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
to the fresh air and sunlight
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 a 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 a 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-
Hshments of our cities are accessory to
these denominations; and from their
large esta blishme = rs there are scores
of souls being pitched off into death;
and their employers know it.
is there a God? Will there be a
judgment? I tell you, if God rises up
to redress woman's wrongs, many of
orr large establishments will be swal-
lowed up quicker than a South Amerl-
can earthquake ever took down q city.
God will catch these oppressors be-
tween the two mill stones of his
wrath, and grind them to powderl
hear from all this land the wall of
womanhood Man has nothing to an
swer to that wall but batteries 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 SO. 900 sewing girls
in New York and Brooklyn. Across
the darkness of this night 1 hear their
death groan. It is not such a cry as
comes from those who are suddenly
hurled out of life, but a 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
pricl1ed and blood-tippedl. See that
premature stoop in the shoulders. hear
that dry, hacking. mereiIess coughi
At large meeting of these women
held in hall in Philadelphia, grand
speeches were 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 the corner of a street in
New York in the very early morning.
as the women go to their work. Many
of them had no breakfast except the
crumbs that were left over from the