The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1895-12-26
NUMBER A.

married women under the common law
almost as degraded as that of the slave
on the southern plantation. The Seneca
Falls declarations demanded all that
the most radical friends of the woman's
rights movement have since demanded:
Equal rights in the colleges and uni
ycrsities, in the trades and professions,
the right to vote, to share in all political
offices, hOnOrs and emoluments, to COM
pletc equality in marriage, to personal
freedom, to property. wages and chill
dren; to make contracts, to sue and to
be sued, and to testify in courts of JUS
tice. Foremost in the advocacy OF ull
these things, Mrs. Stanton was one of
the first dress refOrmers of the country,
and one of the first women to wear
boomers, more than 40 years ago.
Little by little have some of the re-
forms demanded in 1913 been brought
about, though some so gradually that
it seems now as though there never was
Il time when the American married
woman had absolutely no rights under
the law other than the right not to be
murdered.
Mrs. Stanton's public addresses,
whether before conventions of women
or before state legislatures, are classics.
In her address before he New York as
sembly in 1860 on the bill pending to
give woman the right of suffrage, she
spoke of the natural rights of woman as
inalienable: I'VE do not ask man to
represent u.s." she said. 1T is hard
IL. g.
carry backbone enough to represent
himself. SO long as the mass of men
spend most of the time on the fence,
not knowing which way to jump, they
are surely in no position to tell us where
we had better stand" One of her first
triumphs against Legislative prejudice
was the passage of the act concerning
the rights and liabilities of husband
and wife by the New York assembly in
March, 1860.
She was an early advocate of health-
full exercise and of rational clothing
for girls. The girls must be allowed
to romp and play" she said in 1851,
''climb, skate and swim; her clothing
must be more like that of the boy
strong, loose-titting garments, thick
boots, etc, that she may be out at all
times and enter freely into all kinds Of
sports" The young women who now
ride wheels, play tennis, and engage
in other healrhful exercise without be-
ing frowned upon as hoydens by the
community, have much for which to
be grateful to Mrs. Stanton. Speaking
of dress in 1855 she said: "A true mar
riage relation has far more to do with
the elevation OF woman than the style
and cut of her dress"
Nothing ever discouraged her in her
| work except the listlessness and ap-
athy of the women themselves, many
of whom claimed, in answer to every
appeal, that they had all the rights they
wanted. To Lucy Stone she wrote in
| 1856: eve may continue to hold con-
ventions, we may talk of our right to
vote, to legislate, to hold property, but
until we can arouse in woman a prop
er self-respect she will hold in con-
tempt the demands we now make for
our SEX" a hard worker for coeduca-
ton and for equal rights in education,
she has seen the barriers to those rig ghts
| torn away from the doors Of many of
| TIE great institutions of the country;
| and has seen state after state enact
laws giving to married women the right
to control their own property, to vote
at school elections, as well as other
rights long denied.
Some of the fruits of her great work
may be seen in state constitutions,
such as that of Colorado and Texas,
from which the word male" has been
omitted; while in Wyoming and Utah
woman has full suffrage. When she
| began her work the bare proposition
that women could hold public office
satisfactorily was looked upon as evil
dcnce of insanity or worse; but now in
| several states women are eligible as
school uperintendents, and many
women have held the office of postmas-
ter. She has taught the world, as much
| by her noble example and character
as by her writings and addresses, that
character, even womanly character,
does not and cannot suffer from too
much breadth of thought, nor from
too active a sympathy in and too largo
an acquaintance with human interests
and affairs. but must become more and
more enriched by larger ideas, larger
experience and greater activities:
Quoted, ridiculed and abused into
fame, the world will before long come
to recognize Elizabeth Cady Stanton
as one of its truly great women and
one of the great characters of America.
She has fulfilled the prophecy of the
good old friend of her childhood, Rev.
Simon Hosack, who taught her Greek
and said: Dear child, it is your mis-
sion to help mold the world anew"
) w. G. EGGLEsToN.
; Better Late Than Never.