The record-union., 1897-10-03
MANS INJUSTICE TO WOMAN
THE THEME OF MRS. ST. JOHNS
LECTURE.
Some Wholesome Truths Set Forth
by the Woman From
Kansas.

A small audience gathered at the
Sixth-street Methodist Church last
evening TO listen to the lecture deliv-
cred by Mrs. Eugene ST. John, the gift
ed W c. T. .. worker from Kansas.
The lecture was replete with good
advice both to women and men, and
illustration followed fact with such ra-
pidity that the scene shifted with each
moment.
Mrs. St John called attention to the
fact that men are prone to say that
churches are good things for women
and children, but that men have no
use for them. She said that, as mat
ter Of fact, men have much more need
for the influences of the church and its
associations inasmuch as they daily
rub shoulders with the world, and nat
urally absorb its wickedness.
The woman who does the work of a
man, the lecturer said, ought to receive
a mans wages, and ought to insist on
the point. In order to do that consist
emily the girl ought to be educated so
as 10 fill the position as acceptabIy as
man. Personally, she said, she had
never worked for a dollar less than a
man received, whether in the pulpit or
in the school, and never intended to
do so.
Young women, the speaker said. Of
ten prefer to do clerical work in stores
for small salaries, instead of earning.
their living otherwise, and numerous
instances mad been brought to her at
tenton where they had been asked by
those in authority to throw their viz
tue into the scale in order to clothe and
feed themselves properly. In such
cases, she said, it is perfectly right and
proper that Christian organizations
step forward and protect their girls
In the East the W. c. I. L. had in a
number of such instances visited the
firm, the member or employe of which
had so offended, and had fatty threat
ened TO boycott the establishment un-
less saeh proceedings We're stopped.
and they were stopped.
The laws of the State. and Of the
country the speaker said, ought to be
remodeled so that man would receive
the same punishment for crime as that
meted out to woman. Had woman help
ed to make the laws they would have
been so arranged, but it is probable that
for that very reason she was shut out.
None but teachers above reproach,
the lecturer said, should be employed
in the public schools, and politics ought
! to be carefully kept clear of our edu-
cational institutions
Mrs. St. John also touched on the
fact that most of the boys sent to col
laoa from tho fa rro caT7oy,o o1-ar ,,-op+
back to the homestead, and from it,
deduced that something must be wrong
There are, she said, thousands of quack
doctors and shyster lawyers who would
make excellent farmers, but they have
been transplanted out of their sphere
of usefulness and never get back.
Children, she said, should be taught
to climb slowly round by round, and
not to rush rapidly to the top only to
fall into the deepest pool of the gutter.
Above all, will power in children ought
to be educated.
In conclusion, Mrs. ST. John turned
her attention again to women, and said
the highest class of work a woman can
do is housework. Many girls nevet
learn to do housework and many men
are sorry they ever married. 1t is an
invariable rule that servant girls in
good families are much better off than
the girl who stands behind a counter
and gets from So to S5 week.
She also scored the public for de-
manding that theaters put immoral
dramas on the stage, and deplored the
decline of the demand for the classical
drama, destined to never again assume
its proper place, unless by educating
the masses to protest against immoral
ity.
Mrs. St John WIFI speak at the Six
teenth-street Lutheran Church to-
night.