Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-07-05
WOMAN IN HER SPHERE.
For the DEMOCRAT.

His ne plsS ultra. Fashioned by the
hand which alone knows perfect grace
and symmetry; receiving vitality from
the very fountain of life; having her
heart throbs measured By Him who is
love; endowed with intellect by the
one who has perfect wisdom. So was
woman created; yet she is no prodigy.
no caprice of the Creator, no supernat-
ural being, but flesh of mans flesh and
bone of his bone by Gods creation.
The component parts of her heart and
mind are similar to his; perhaps finer,
perhaps more fragile, but enerFingly
the same.
Her nature is similar to his own.
She is given like conscience for guild
ance. Both came from the Great Un-
known, are fellow travellers toward
eternity, and will be gathered in the
| hollow of the same divine hand.
Woman so like, so unlike man; the
theme of the poets song; target of the
cynic's satire; herald of the millen-
mum; the worlds first sinner.
Such is woman; not mere append
age of man, but by the eternal fitness
of things given to him as helpmeet.
Since the decision of the allwise Crea-
tor was: ut is not good for man to
be alone, p" being created for each other,
they are necessarily unlike each other.
Creation itself is the union of dissim-
| liar elements; woman is mans wants
satisfied; man is woman's needs COM
pensated. So that each part is a half
and suggests the other to complete it.
So neither is unit, neither Is supreme.
| Man the master, woman the slave, is
tyrannical; woman the ruler, man the
ruled, is anarchistic. Such ideas are
rejected by reason; such a relationship
would not be tolerated by civilization.
Equality is the cry, and yet their
very equality must be inequality. Can
the rose furnish bread or the wheat
yield the fragrance and beauty of the
rose? Yet there is equality as long as
the elements of this universe remain
where God intended them to remain;
so long is there equality. When an
element so far belittles itself and its
God as to undervalue the dignity of its
existence and sphere and become an
| inhabitant of another sphere promoting
so u4Inotion and disorder-be it animate
or inanimate, moral. mental or phys
ical-then, and then only, is there
inequality. Then woman to her
sphere, man to his.
May you alter Gods plan? Is His
wisdom defective? Did he mistake
your capabilities? Away with such
treason against high heaven.
The 10Th century finds a crowd of
women marching up and down the
length and breadth of our fair land
crying: Give us our rights-woman
suffrage" Not alone in America do
we find this class. They are known in
England and Germany and other cor
ners of the earth. But that American
women who enjoy the freest blessings
of God who loves America should leave
homes whose very air breathes liberty
and peace. to strut about the streets
crying give US our rights is prepos-
ferrous, absurd and disgusting. Truly
Vashti has lost her veil.
Give them their rights? Do they call
on man to do this? No man can give
women their rights; no human, no
finite mind can comprehend them.
The God of heaven and earth gives to
woman her rights-purity, truth and
womanliness; holy, inviolate, now and
forever. Let her anxiety be to guard
it, to keep it spotless; let her be watch
full when she ventures.
Shakespeare makes his Portia sigh as
many other women have sighed:
'Ah me, how fraI thing the heart OF woman
is"
Dr.. Talmage declares that woman
sits today on throne SO high that all
the thrones of earth piled on each
other would not make her a foot
STOOL" Is it not true2 Then let woman
appreciate her position man respects
it-and do not allow this silly cant and
cry of "women's rights, women suf-
frage," to sweep from your mind and
heart this dignity, this respect. Do
you not know you are the prime NOV
ers OF the world? The hand that
rocks the cradle is the hand that rules
the world;" and every wife and mother
at each election casts by her womanly
silence vote with infinitely more mai
esty and effect than if she joined a
jostling crowd of politicians and sought
the polls.
How shall women best influence
men? Influence, like charity. begins
at home We are influenced more by
deeds than by words. Familiarity
begets similarity. Then women in
politics will make the men more poIit-
ical. Reformation and conversion is
not formal, not effected by outward
law, but by internal change. Why
! would women vote to reform the world?
a woman in the world would make the
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