The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-06-06

THIS. Our race was the last thing
created-the birds and fishes on the
fourth day. the cattle and lizards on the
fifth day and man on the sixth day. If
biologists are right. the earth was a
million OF years in the possession of the
insects, beasts and birds, before our race
came upon it. In one sense, we were
innovators. The cattle. the lizards and
the hawks had pre-emption right The
question is not what we are 70 do with
the lizards and summer insects. but what
the lizards and summer insects are to do
with us.
If we want a place in this world, we
must earn 1t. The partridge makes its
own nest before 1t occupies it. The lark.
by its morning song, earns il breakfas st
nation that the first duty Of an idler is
to starve when IL 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 him.
Society is to be reconstructed on the
subject Of womans toll. A vast majority
Of those who would have woman in
dustrious shut her up to a few kinds of
work My judgment in this matter is that
a woman has Alright to do anything she
can do well. There should be no depart
rpent Of merchandise, mechanism, art or
science barred against her. If Miss Hos
mer has genius for sculpture. give her a
chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a fondness
for delneating animals, let her make
The Horse Fair" If Miss Mitchell will
study astronomy, let her mount the starry
ladder If Lydia will be a merchant, let
her sell purple. If Lucretia Mott will
preach the gospel. let her thrill with her
womanly eloquence the quaker meeting
house.
The Toll of the Needle.
II is said if woman is given such oppor-
tunities she will occupy places that might
be taken by men. 1 say. If she have
more skill and adaptedness for any posi-
ton than a man has. let her have it! She
has as much right TO her bread. to her ap-
parel and 20 her home as men have.
But it is said that her nature is so deli
cate that she is untitled for exhausting
toll / ask In the name of all past history
what toll on earth is more severe. ex-
hausting and trNnendous than that toll of
the needle, to witch for ages she has been
subjected? The battering ram. the sword.
the carbine, the battleaX, have made no
such havoc as the needle. I would that
these living sepulchers IN which women
have for ages been buried might be open
ed. and that some resurrection trumpet
might bring up these living corpses TO the
fresh air and sunlight.
Go with me. and l will show you a
woman who. by hardest toll, supports her
children, her drunken husband, her old
father and mother. pays her house rent,
always has wholesome food on the table.
and when she can get some neighbor on
the Sabbath to come in and take care of
her family appears in church with hat
and cloak that are far from indicating
the toll TO which she is subjected.
Such a woman as that has body and
soul enough to fit her for any position.
She could stand beside the majority Of
your statesmen and dispose Of more goods.
She could go into your wheelwright shops
and beat one-half Of your workmen at
making carriages. We talk about woman
as though we had resigned to her all the
light work. and ourselves had shOuldered
the heavier. But the day Of Judgment,
which will reveal the sufferings of the
stake and inquisition. will marshal before
the throne Of God and the hierarchs of
heaven the martyrs Of wsshtub and nee
die
Now, say, il there be any preference
in occupation. let woman have it, God
knows her trials are the severest. BY
her acuter sensitiveness to misfortune, by
her hour Of anguish, / demand that no
one hedge up her pathway to a liveli-
hood. Oh. the meanness. the despicabil-
fty OF men who begrudge woman the
right TO work anywhere. in any honor
able calling!
I go still further and say that women
should have equal compensation with
men. BY what principle OF justice is Il
that women in many of our cities get
only twO-thirds as much pay as men, and
in many cases only half2 Here is the
giantic injustice-that for work equally
well IL not better done woman receives
far less compensation than man. Start
with the national government For a
long while women clerks in Washington
got 5000 for doing that for which men
received $500.
One Grim Alternative.
To thousands of young women in our
cities today there is only this alternative
starvation or dishonor Many OF the
largest mercantile establishments Of our
cities are accessory to these abomina-
tons, and from their large establish
ments there are scores Of souls being
pitched OF into death. and their en-
plOyers know it,
Is there a God? viii there be a judg-
ment? / tell you. If God rises up to re-
dress woman's wrongs. many of our
large establishments viii be swallowed
up quicker than a South American earth
quake ever took down a city. God will
catch these OppressOrs between the two
millstones Of his wrath and grind them
TO powder
I hear from all this land the wall OF
wOmanhOOd. Man has nothing TO answer
TO that wall but batteries He says she
Is an angel. She is not She knows she
is rot. She Is a human being, who gets
hungry when she has no 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 l hear their death
groan. 1t is not such a cry as comes
from those who are suddenly hurled out
of life, but slow, grinding. horrible
wasting away. Gather them before YOU
and look into their faces, pinched, ghastly
hunger struck! Look at their fingers
needle pricked and blood tipped! See
that premature stoop in the shoulders
Hear that dry, hacking. merciless cough
At a large meeting of these women
held in a hall in Philadelphia grand
speeches were delivered but a needle.
woman took the stand, threw aside hel
faded shawl, and with her shriveled arm
hurled a very thunderbolt of eIoduence
speaking out the horrors of her own ex-
perience.
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 thai
were left over from the night before OF
a crust they chew on their way through
the streets. Here they come, the work
ing girls of the city! These engaged in
beadwOrk, these in flower making, In
millinery. enameling, cigar making
bookbinding. labelling, feather picking
print coloring, paper box making, but
most overworked Of all and least com
pensated. the sewing women. Why dc
they not take the city cars on their way
up? They cannot afford the centsi III
concluding TO deny herself somethint
else, she gets into the car. give her z