The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1895-06-27
A PLEA FOR WOMAN.
A KENOSHA LADY TAKES ISSUE
WITH CHAS. n. PARKHURST.
MUCH FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
In a Strong Argument in Favor o.
the Self Supporting
Woman.
FOR THOUGHT.
Mr.. Editor:


with. All who have the love of hu-
mainly at heart must approve " The
Home Culture Movement" The Lord
prosper all those engaged therein. But
we would take issue with a few points.
For instance, he has much to say about
adventurous women, whose mutiny
against wifehood, motherhood and do
nestle limitations, is hopeless and
| imbecile attempt to escape the newt
able that God and nature had very
different intentions for her, from what
he had for her brother, etc. Now are
not boys and girls in family equally,
and indeed in the main similarly en-
lowed? Our observation shows girls
not infrequently the superiors in ener-
gy, general ability and attractiveness
| to their brothers. Is it not public
opinion, prejudice and the incubus of
precedent which have in times past re-
suited so largely in the inferior develop
ment of woman and not essentially in
ferior endoWments Man has ten, nay
a hundred developing processes at work
upon him in his daily encounter with
men and affairs, to one woman has in
| her kitchen and nursery. And by this
do not mean that children are not
educators. But may not the father
share her schooling from these vigorous
teachers if he will but take the time
to make their acquaintance and learn,
as some fathers have to do, to love
them. Does he not need this ac-
quaintance, this love, to clear his vision
in regard to the laws and their execu-
ton, and his responsibilities therein?
To quote further from the Rev. Park
hurst: She (the mother) must be
actually all that she wants her children
to be potentially. x She is the sub
stance, out of which the lives derivd-
tive from her, will, in every department
of her being be quarried. If a
mother is going to scatter in her boys
nature the seeds of civic virtue and
achievement, she must be herself alive
to the necessities of her times. No
man can ever be quite safe and COM
petent citizen Who has not had planted
and strengthened in him civic i'm
pulses before ever he moved out into
the open arena, and the one who
can best implant these impulses is the
boys mother" In all this is not our
Rev. admonisher giving us, in fact, the
true mission of man as God made him
Male and female created he them, (Gen.
1:26-27), and put them together in the
home, where his responsibilities were
not less than hers. When did God bid
him to put them all upon the woman
When God made heipmate for man,
meant He that all the Weightiest bur
dens should be loaded upon her trail
| shoulders For what matters are to be
compared in gravity to the developing
of those entrusted souls in all that shall
| fit them for this world and the next /?
| Ii God did so intend, is it not @ marvel
that for her he has made no hclp,,adte !?
| In being citizen one learns the du-
ties thereof; and the true municipal
spirit, disciplined by responsibility, ma
lures, or should. This privilege of
citizenship is still almost exclusively in
the fathers hands. If the mother is to
learn of her own husband at home, why
may not the soGs share the lesson with
her? The father; can he excuse HIM
self from all accountability to God, save
as Dread winner and protector from
wild beasts and savage intrusion. You
preachers who already have an audi
ence, preach to the fathers their re-
sponsibilities, for they have them, and
what they shirk will greatly stay the
| progress of mankind. In the very ma
ture OF things we may not reasonably
expect mothers to be the only ideal
parent, but we may truthfully admit
that they are nearer the mark than our
lords of creation.
A woman was specially endowed
and ordained to bear children and train
them" But how often does nature
thwart this her dear purpose? How
has she prepared her men for hus-
bands? With a noble exception of ten
in hundred, statistics say they are
IOp CuCJOlOs hON NlOcS InlS SlIlhG
you as a background to matrimony
Would you marry such one
to save her? or if it were your
only alternative, would you "mutiny
against Wifehood?" Along side Of this,
put intemperance. 1t makes the heart
sick to think how this vice blights
many poor woman's so-ealled home.
In these latter days the mems club
rooms, with their genial warmth, lux
ury and companionship, hoodwink
their votar1es into sense of homelike-
ness, and narcotise all longings for
domesticity. The desire that parents
have, that their daughters may begin
married life with all the luxuries which
latter day prosperity has brought into
their own home. And the pride men
have, acting their asking a woman,
however sensible she may be, to join