The Portland daily press., 1895-01-23

negro Freedom and better opportunities
may have done it. The ballot alone
| often proves a means OF corfuptlon.
The women, it seems to me, VINO ask
| for suffrage are dazzled by word, ana
| attach to the franchise value tha6 IN
their case, would be hctltous, iof tnev
| would only hold the right by the force
of the men who were willing to DEFEND
| it. If men should withdraw women
| would scarcely be able to exercise tnelf
| rights. They would nave to appeal to the
| stronger sex for defence. Men nave ueiip-
| eraJely taken upon themselves the du6les
of the state,- finding that by giving every
man voice without distinction OF per-
sons or property they got, as they
believed, more just administration Oh
| the laws. Such duties women were eX-
empted from; because the duties I'M
posed on woman by nature kept ner
secluded part of her life, and were mosJ
burdensome when she was in the prime.
To them the heavy work, the defence
of the state was, was offset by the care
of the hearth-fre. AS we advance the
woman finds wider home IN all the
true "Humanities"-in the case OF the
idiot, the lunatlc, the pauper, the cr1ml-
nal These are in the noblest sense her
companions, for she helps them through
their bitter years and gives them all the
JOY they now have. All educations, all
philanthropy, all society, are her
demesne, and it seems to me 1T is VIDE
enough without pretense OF governing,
| when she could only drop a-ballot ana
could not enforce the law. that ballot ls
meant to stand for
But they say it would educate women
up to an equality with men, and then
they would be Of greater value as social
| factors. Does any woman really belleve
| that her power to vote would make a son
obey his mother, or a husband love his
wife? Even in happy households IL
would strain the family relations when
| both or all members of the family were
| truly interested, and in those IN Wnlcn
| discord had already found footing IL
| would be another source of bitterness.
Think of the lack of dignity before their
| children, and the world to see Mrs. ones
| presiding at Republican caucus, while
MIR. Jones was urging the Democrats TO
| hold together in this election!
| If men have burdened themselves Win
the state, they have left women Tree to
be their critics, their intelligent advisers;
Educate them SO far as you can a1oI9
| but not as men, not to take tine uelu
shoulder to shoulder with the harder
nature. TIE stronger must protecG tne
| weaker for she is the promise OF the
| future and the precious yet frail vessel
| in which the flame of life is carried.
Take away from men the task of protec-
| ton and you cast them back two thous-
| and years-yon make them savages.
| Men love the struggle for mastery with
one another; it makes them better,
| stronger. wiser; if they struggle with
women il brutalizes them and degrades
| them while it robs women of their es-
pecial superiority. / have not mentioned
what as an artist feel to be the strong
| est argument of ALTO MAKE little men
of women is so ugly; to unsex them SO
| intensely inartistic. Sex. being Gne one
| fact or in the question of any consequence
| is in our northern speech passed over
| without comment. In these parlor speeches
| no one uses the word sex in the true
meaning but always as compliment or
| slur. But it is a fact and the most
| complete and stubborn one in nature
and you have to go down very low before
| the two sexes become one in the same IN
diyiduaI. You cannot make the child
| bearer the bread-winner and she ougnt
not to be made so. She must stay with
| in and elaborate her work in silence ana
| in mystery, and the whole masculine
| world must wait for her and upon her
| and help her to do her work well by DO
| ing it's own work.
| Now some, misled by words, wish to
drive her out to help in the worlds work.
| Yet expect of her the old grace. the deli
| cate touch for babyhood and death, the
ready emotions for sorrow and pain. For
| it follows that this painful duty OF
| guiding the state means in our cIv1l1za-
| tion that she must fight and tight hard,
must learn who and what the menH are
| for whom she casts her vote, must go TO
| the primaries, must sit on juries, and yet
| never give I'D the real rights, those that
are "the Lords work." of being the life
giver, of keeping happy corner where
| the weary can rest; of keeping men who
| naturally relapse into barbarls:n when
| left too long alone keyed to the more
| delicate harmonies of life. Can they do
| itp | say they cannot. And some of the
| very women who are working hardest in
| this matter are proofs to me OF the I'M
| nossibiIity of com bining all the work OF
| ali the world in one frail sex. Nature
| has made man the superior in strength,
| in grasp of intellect, in nervous energy,
| but we have the one gift without which
all his achievement goes for naught. We
| are the true transmitters, the trans
| mitters of all he has accomplished. He
| is bound to protect us, TO defend us.
| Vaguely and unconsoiously ne feels 1t.
| The toughest of humanity will help
woman first out of a burning building,
| sh altered railway car, for he feels IN
| stinctively that she is the future that
| idol of mankind-that race, that pos
| terity for which men have passioned and
| died over and over again. She cannot he
| too well guarded nor too well cared for,
since she must be the caretaker of the
world. This is the type of woman for
whom alone the law can be made, for
whom nothing humanity can do is too
| eood-at once the altar, the divinity and
| the sacrifice The Talmud says "God
could not be everywhere, and so he made
| mothers" ii. de K. u.