The Opelousas courier., 1897-03-06
The Woman,s Movement

Inc w OE10n>O AAVvCAAChs
for the purpose of putting ourselves just right
before the public, that they may see and under
stand our motives and actions-the following is
| written. Before going into the history OF our
movement, listen to a little fable.
Once upon a time there was a man and Wo-
man who had several children. One night after
talking, when a ferocious bear pushed in the
door and walked in. The man in a jiffy climbed
up on the rafters. The woman looked at her
| hot poker which lay in the fire, belabored the
bear so vigorously that he fell and was soon
kicking in dying agony. The man then came to
his pistol fired into the dying bears skull. He
rubbed his hands in great glee, shouting. "Hur-
rah! old woman, hurrah for us! SEQ what a
great big bear WE'VE killed!!!
The women OF Opelonsas have, with Il hard
pull and a long pull and apull altogether, lifted
the moral standard OF our town. The open
fore, be "fOur bits at the door," He who would
visit our daughters, be received socially, and
allowed to mingle with our girls and boys, must
present other credentials; he must respect him
self and he must respect wOmanhOOd. He must
make himself fit for the society of our daugh-
tiers. not simply by doning a dress suit and pay
and the armOr OF true manhood. We draw the
line clear and sharp, Jew and GENTLE, Catholic
and Protestant, are united in declaring that he
who bids for our social recognition, our bust
ness patronage or our neighbOrly hand of fellow
ship, must respect womanhood and himself and
rank himself on the outspOken side of right,
our good and true men have backed up our
action by sendiug us wOrd-"Ladies, your word
shall be our law; what you say must be done
we will carry out" All honor to our men.
On Feb. 10th, we held our first meeting, cleo
ted officers and appointed a committee to inves-
tigate the condition OF affairs and consult with
our lawyer. Just here we wish 10 publicly eX-
press our appreciation OF the valuable legal adj
vice and uniformly courteous treatment whic.
we received from Mr.. 7. H. Lewis. At our next
meeting the committee reported a most horrible
state of affairs-twO houses OF i'll fame were 10
Gated on the edge of town. There were state
ments made upon the floor which made the red
woman present. From their testimony it was
apparent that Generalization existed among not
only the young men but. alas, that many wives
and helpless children were neglected. Young
men no LONGER cared for the society OF pure and
innocent girls. Much money was diverted
from its legitimate channels and, worst of all
THAT which few undelstOod) the unborn gene
ration was being cursed into existince instead
Of being loved into glowing, godlike life. Some
of our principal stores were regular rendezvous
for these lewd women. Young ladies out riding
or cycling had been impertinently run into by
these women. The bus ran nightly back and
forth between their houses and own with the
child in town had asked what it was for. The
reports given OF the manner i'll which these wo-
men entertained and were entertained at the
leading barrOoms in town are too revolving to
bear publication. THE writer was requested to
make plain and definite our causes for organ
~ization, our object and purpose, hence the
nanseating particulars.
Our next step was an appeal to the town
council. MayOrT thompson was in full sympathy |
with us, and in less than half an hour after the
committee had waited upon them. Mr.. Thomp- |
son reported that the council had passed two
ordinances looking to a better condition of af-
fairs. We found that there was plenty OF law in
our land to keep such indecency at bay, but
what we need is moral backbone.
The ladies resolved that ii the local laws are |
inadequate they would appeal to the legislature.
II the legislature can do nothing, we will appeal
to congress. If congress, too, is up OH the raj
tiers we will have Il congress of our and make
good laws and enforce then. For with the red |
hot poker of outraged and insulted wOmanhOOd, |
we were determined to kill the beasts of i'm.
morality which were within our doors seeking
to devour our helpless children. However, we
ssrre es n0' fo os' as II I 81 stated sp" above nV we n found ! t fHnt
the thing needed was moral backbone. So we
placed ourselves in the vacancy and said: "Wc
will be the backbone"
On Saturday morning the gentlemen of Ope-
lousas marched in a body to these disreputable
places and ordered the inmates to leave. They
such ordersf" The reply was. by the author
ity of our manhood" On Sunday they left
Now let us ask, What is the cause of all this
1t is ignorance. Not ignorance of
mathematics; not ignorance of astronomy; not
of the threesRis; but ignorance of the
great, but simple, laws of ~being-the laws of
sex
Young man, do you want to be a beastf Then
let the flesh rule you; give free sway to lust and
your soul will never awake from Its
enforced and deathlike slumber, while it will he
but a few years before your body will he con-
sum Rind Py the ie raging ge nnes s yo%p hay haze al allowed to
the beast stamped upon your face, bleared eye,
purple blood and swollen lip, you will SIND into
your god-given talents wasted in riotons
living, and those who knew you having only
the memory of the contamination of your I'M
pure thoughts, while, if you leave children be-
hind you, into their veins have you injected the
poison OF evil and vicious tendencies.
There are three sides to your n%ature-the
ru led by the physical feelings. The intellect
ual man keeps the body subject to reason or
mind, but he who would come up to the full
measure of perfected manhood needs the voice
Of God within him. and his mind and body are
of God. The most fearful doctrine we
can teach our boys lie, "Being boys, you are
an insult to manhood! There are good men
and true all over the world. Do you, boys,
Join their ranks; learn to respect yourselves
a ao co pon ars yo worshy 81 q, master yourselves Vss
simply making a fearful blunder in your choice
the road to happiness. We are all seeking
the matter, use your abilities and your good
sense but, oh! don't throw yourselves
Our organization has endeayored to steer
HS"A "a III III " lncUduCCe |
they considered that the womanhood of Ope-
lousas has been so insulted that we must pro
a boycott, at least until proper apology
had been made to the organization as respect
ing said womanhood. We can not with any
self respect deal in business or otherwise with
men who have cursed us upon the streets; who
say they prefer the trade OF lewd women to
ours who will not uphold the right, and would
kill us for so doing did they have the power.
Our earnest desire is to injure no one, nor shall
they injure lis or ours. Gladly would we aid
any Of either sex to a higher, purer life.
We tomorrow go into permanent organiza-
ton and hope that our work in future will be
as heartily endorsed by right-minded men as
our first stand. Gentlemen, you have
preached us as stirring and convincing a"wo-
rights" sermon as Susan B. Anthony
herself could have preached. r. R. g..
Papers which have spoken of our movement
please copy.I