Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-07-29

fessional chair, the exchange, Tie mart,
are vigorously closed against them. The
few exceptions are hardly worth men
tionirg Art and literature alone have
accorded them a qualified admittance,
and already both have been enriched
by their genius. Their statutable dis
qualifications are too many to enumer-
ate. They may not sit on jury, nor in
Parliament, nor be members of town
or county council. The suffrage is de-
MED them, although they are taxed
equally withmeu, and form more than
one-half of the population. If we
would see the spirit in which honorable
men, when their sex mOnOpOllzes the
| legislature, can make laws for women,
we need only to turn to those shameful
enactments (now repealed, thank Hea-
venD which would have been admir-
able had they applied impartially to
| both sexes, but which were grossly
| tyrannous when applied to women
only.
Loyalty is an acknowledged virtue.
And all will willingly admit that women
are in every respect more loyal than
men. As daughters, they are more
| filial; as mothers, more tender and
as worshippers, more devout. They
| forgive much because they love much.
| Offences must be very gross and oft
repeated to ALLEVIATE their hearts from
those who are dear to them. Their
sense of duty is stronger than that of
men, so that, when loyalty does not
spring from love, it proceeds from duty.
What bond is more powerful or more
seryiceable to society than this, which
is one of woman's strongest instincts.
Tenderness is a virtue. Every heart
hungers for sympathy. And the ten
derness of women is proverbial. Who
does not remember the touching story
of Mungo Park, when be reached an
African village in an almost dying con-
dtion? The men took no notice of him,
but the women sang to him, fed him,
nursed and restored him. AS he lay
helpless, they chanted soothingly; HE
has no mother to bring him milk, no
wife to grind his corn"
Patience is another estlmable quality.
Do not women possess it in abundance?
In how many matters are their services
indispensable on account of mems diff
cheney in this virtue? A man may nurse
a friend as Bentinck nursed William Of
Orange, but only woman can exercise
the greatest patience and untiring de-
yotion towards sick stranger.
Woman has proved her courage in
every possible way. If there are few
who would run from mouse, there
have been thousands who have calmly
met the storm of battle, the fires of
persecution, the rack, the sword, and
the cross Many have nursed the
wounded while bullets and cannon balls
flew around them, others have given
their lives for those snitten by loath-
some and deadly disease, and millions
have mounted the funeral pyres of
their deceased husbands. We need not
go through the list of their virtues and
capabilities, which equal, and often sur
pass those Of men. But we are enti-
tied to ask for what reasons are women
counted Eas interiors? By what right
are they as members of free COM
munity deprived of the common privi-
leges of citizens? If on intellectual
grounds, we answer: All men who fall
beneath the intellectual capacity of the
Cleverest women, should be also subject
to their disabilities. We fear, however,
that in such q case, there would be few
qualified citizens left. If physical in
ferlority be alleged, we would apply
similar test, for every one knows there
are weak men and strong women. But
the truth is there is no incapacity what
ever to Justify the present barbarous
condition of things. 1t is male jeal-
ousv, and that alone, which keeps our
sex subservient. Every unselfsh and
every generous man cheerfully admits
that there should be no disqualifcations
on account of sex. And we feel assured
that the time is not far distant when
the laws of the land and the rules of
society will in all ways apply to men
and women alike.
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