The San Francisco call., 1895-05-21

school, the pulpit, the press 1t is found In the
| the safeguards OF virtue. We may keep silence,
put myriads OF voices are proclaiming truth or
ialsehood in regard to purity. In city streets
or court, from printed page or the book OF ma
| ture the facts OF sex are being taught. Shall
we turn away in confusion and leave the
| world OF innocent childhood TO learn these in.
evitabe lessons from the evil book or impure
com panion or shall we, believing In God, pro-
claim his truths with dignity and purity. not
abashed before the pure eyes of our children
because the truth hath made US free" and God
himself is justified through his works.
Rev. Ada c. Bowles, speaking to the
paper. said she had been a stepmother, a
mother and also a grandmother of both
boys and girls. She believed that the sug-
cable, trne and app licable as stated
81 believe that it is possible for moth
ers," she continued, land not only pos
sible but obligatory upon mothers TO train
their children along these lines. Espe-
cialiy do believe that it is the mothers
duty to train her sons.
- was very happy in being the step
| and of being, think, very happy mother
TO him until he was % years old, until he
passed over the river. l do not feel that
the bond is broken. l believe that the
pleasant hours of comradeship and of
counsel we held together will be the
| IllediS Ol uniting us more truly III
the land to which we go than if
had neglected my opportunity to
instruct him. believe that my own boy,
| separated from me to-day by 5000 miles,
having just attained his majority, is bet
| ter man to-day and better citizen of the
| United States because his mother took him
on her knee as little boy and instructed
him In regard to the sanctity of his own
body. believe that boy has a truer rev.
| erence fer women. I believe that the
| young women with whom he will asso-
| ciate through all his life will receive from
him the chivalry, the regard and the honor
| that would hardly have been possible
without this scientific instruction from the
| mother who loved him as no other person
could.
| ~ tell you, we need to come little
| nearer to our children than we have and
guide our lives along this right kind of in
| StructiOn."
Mrs. Lila F. sprague and Mrs. Arm
strong made brief remarks commencing
the views laid down in the paper and
were roundly applauded. Rev. Anna H.
| Shaw had some very clear views on the
same subject and expressed them force
fully amid salvos OF applause. She said:
| think the first thing necessary in teaching
| the higher laws of life is to teach boys and
! girls reverence and respect the first thing OF
| all, for themselves and then reverence and re-
! spect for each other. Now when that is done
! the problem Will be solved. But the training
of girls, from the time they are able to todde
about. is that they are nobody to be respected,
and that all Difference and respect must be
| shown TO boys. The training of boys, as far as
my experience goes-and I've had good deal,
/ taught school when / was Is and boarded
around and have been boarding around ever
| since-in all the homes ] have visited I find
that forever and forever boys are taught that
the principal service of girls in the world is to
! walt on boys when they are little, and men
when they are big; and through this training
|
erence for their own opinions, for their own
| judgment, for their own self-reSpect. Our girls
| are taught to yield to boys when small, young
| girls yield to young men and older women 10
| older men, and to have no deierence for their
own opinions.
! 1 believe, if you are going to have more
purity In the world, you must first teach the
woman that she is endowed by God with
opinions OF her. own, and mind OF
ence is as much due to her opinion, her
mind and her judgment as to any other human
being under the sun, and that this continual
Difference to man and being led by his opinions
| is the weakest thing in all the world
| We can teach girls this--that woman
| is the daughter of God the King, and that no
| daughter OF royalty must stoop to anything
low, no matter who it is that proposes
| it, no matter who it is suggests 1t; that
| the highest duty OF the daughter of the King
is to recognize her divine descent. And we
| have never, never done it in the past We
must in the future, and the new woman will
be new woman because she recognizes the
| fact of her individuality above and over every
| thing else.
| Now, 1 do not know how much we shall
teach the laws of life to little children. l have
| taught the most absolute nonsense to children
| in trying to teach the laws of life.
Ny idea OF motherhood is this. that every
woman is not intended to be mother, as
every man was not intended to be father.
| do not believe that everyb body was intended to
| marry. II God meant that all should marry
he made some awful blunders in making some
/ of us up.
| believe it is only the rare and exceptional
women who should marry; only the rare and
exceptional man who is fitted to be father
! They are not born for fatherhood and not born
| fol motherhood. First of ALL where O woman
| has the intuition of motherhood in her soul
motherhood is the wisest guide as to the best
| methods of instructions for the children, and
| every mother should follow the instincts of her
own nature IN reaching her own children.
| But what we are to teach now is not that
woman who has not experience enough to
| measure Off tape at a counter, TO sell buttons,
or run typewriter, or be preacher, as 1 am,
or Is not fitted TO do anything else, is fitted to
| become mother.
| Mol The highest, divinest thing in ali the
world is fatherhood and motherhood, and no
| human being is fitted to enter upon this rela-
| tion who has not been selected by God for that
! purpose. 1t requires health of body, health of
and hottest relationship of life, and then we
will have the home as it should be. We will
! not have It, however, until the women have
! the vote and have voted a thousand wears
| Then we will have the right kind of training
| for children, but never SO long as the laws
make an unequal distinction between fathers
and mothers, men and women, boys and girls.
| Until we have had few generations of homes
] we will not know what children ought to be-
| The world will never see the kind of homes, the
kind OF children God meant to have here until
we work them up. The first essential is that
| no man and no woman should marry unless
| they desire to live with each other above all
other things in the world.
A generally expressed desire on the part
of the audience about this time to again
!. hear Miss Anthony was gratihed by an
announcement from the chair that the
evangel of woman's rights would respond.
Again there was applause as Miss Anthony
rose to her feet, waving of handKerchiefs
and ciapping of hands. She said, speak
| ing of the training of children:
| Every woman who marries the instant
she enters upon the relation she is legally
| robbed OF her right to the custody and con troll
| of her own person. More than that, she is
robbed of the right to the ownership and con-
| troll OF the services of her own hands, The pro-
| ceeds OF the labor Of her own hands inside of
the marriage copartnership belong to another,
| not TO herself legally. Another feature OF the
relationship into which she enters is that if
children are born unto her she has no right to
| the guardianship Of those children.
4 Iyox.- nav eI~-