Connecticut western news., 1898-07-07
stamp of womanly Indignation.

| in their sober moments would have de- | spised her. As some flowers seem to | thrive best in the dark lane and i'll the
 shadow and where the sun does not seem | to reach them, so God appoints to most womanly natures retiring and unob- trusive spirit. God once ill awhile does call an Isabella to throne or Miriam i to strike the timbrel at the front of a | host or Marie Antoinette to quell a | French mob or Deborah to stand at | the front of an armed battalion, crying | out "Up, upl This is the day ill which | the Lord will deliver Sisera into thy | hands. " And when the women arc call | ed to such outdoor work and to such
 heroic positions, God prepares them for ! it, and they have iron ill their soul and | lightnings ill their eye and whirlwinds
 in their breath, and the borrowed ] strength of the Lord omnipotent i'll their
 right arm. They walk through furnaces | as though they were hedges of wild | flowers and cross seas as though they 1 were shimmering sapphire, and all the
 harpies of hell down to their dungeon 1 at the stamp of womanly indignation. 1 But these are the exceptions. Gener- ally, Dorcas, would rather make gar
 ment for the poor boy; Rebecca would | rather fill the trough of the camels; | Hannah would rather make coat for
 Samuel; the Hebrew maid would rath-
 CT give prescription for Naaman's lep-
 rosy; the woman of Sarepta would rath-
 CT gather few sticks to cook q meal | for famished Elijah; Phebe would rath-
 CT carry letter for the inspired apos- | tie; Mother Lois would rather educate
 Timothy in the Scriptures. When l see
 woman going about her daily duty,
 with cheerful dignity presiding at the | table, with kind and gentle but firm discipline presiding ill the nursery, go- | ing out into the world without any | blast of trunpets, following in the foot | steps of him who went about doing good
 --I say, "This is Vashti with a veil on. y. | But when I see a woman of unblush-
 ing boldness loud voiced, with Q tongue | of infinite glitter chatter, with arrogant
 look, passing through the streets with the step of walking beam, gayly ar
 rayed in very hurricane of millinery, l cry out, "Vashti has lost her veil '" | When I see a woman, struggling for po- | litical preferment, trying to force her
 way on up to conspicuity amid the mas | culine demagogues who stand with | swollen fists and bloodshot eyes and | pestiferous breath to guard the polls, | wanting to go through the loaferism
 and defilement of popular sovereigns
 who crawl up from the saloons greasy 1 and foul and vermin covered to decide | of o,,1 ro1 oiu | lization-when I see a woman, I say, l who wants to press through all that
 horrible scum to get to public place and power, I say: "Ah, what pity Vashti | has lost her veilp'
 When l see a woman of comedy fea- | lures and of adroitness of intellect and | endowed with all that tho schools can do for her and of high social position, | yet moving in society with supercilious- ness and hauteur as though she would | have people know their place, and with | an undefined combination of giggle and strut and rhodomontade endowed with ! allopathic quantities of talk, but only homeopathic infnitesimals of sense, the terror of dry goods clerks and railroad
 conductors, discoverers of significant
 meanings in plain conversation, prodi- gies of badinage and innuendo, say,
 ''Vashti has lost her veil !"
 OuaenIy Sacrifice.
 Again, I want you this morning to
 consider Vashti the sacrifice. Who is
 this that see coming out of that palace
 gate of Shushan. It seems to mo that
 I have seen her before. She comes homo
 less, houseless, friendless, trudging along with broken heart. Who is she?
 It is Vashti the sacrifice. Oh what
 change it was from regal position to
 wayfarer's crust A little while ago ap-
 proved and sought for; now none so
 poor as to acknowledge her acquaint- anceship. Vashti the sacrificed
 An, you and have seen it many a
 time. Here is home empalaced with beauty. All that refinement and books
 and wealth can do for that home has
 been done, but Ahasuerus, the husband
 and the father, is taking hold on paths
 of sin. He is gradually going down.
 After awhile he will founder and strug-
 gle like wild bedst in the hunters
 net, farther away from God, farther
 away from the right. Soon the bright
 apparel of tho children will turn to
 rags, soon the household song will be-
 come the sobbing of broken heart. The old story over again. Brutal Centaurs
 breaking up the marriage feast of Lapi-
 th@. The house full of outrage and
 cruelty and abomination, while trudg-
 ing forth from the palace gate are Vashti
 and her children. There are homes i'll
 all parts of this land that are in dan
 ger of such breaking up. Oh, Ahasuerus,
 that you should stand in home, by
 dissipated life destroying the peace and
 comfort of that home. God forbid that your children should ever have to wiring ! their hands and have people point their finger at them as they pass down the street and say, "There goes drunkard's
 childp' God forbid that the little feet
 should ever have to trudge the path of
 poverty and wretchedness. God forbid
 that any evil spirit born of the wine
 cup or the brandy glass should come
 forth and uproot that garden, and with Q lasting, blistering all consuming
 curse shut forever the palace gate
 against Vashti and the children.
 Firesides of Christendom.
 One night during our civil war | went to Hagerstown to look at the
 army, and I stood on a hilltop and
 looked down upon them. I saw the
 campfres all through the valleys and
 all over the hills. It was weird spec
 tacle, those campfres, and I stood and
 watched them, and the soldiers who
 were gathered around them were no
 doubt talking of their homes, and of
 tho long march they had taken, and of
 the battles they were to fight, but after
 awhile saw these campfires begin to
 lower, and they continued to lower un-
 til they were all gone out and the army
 slept. It was imposing when I saw the
 uampfres. It was imposing in the dark
 ness when I thought of that great host
 asleep. We'll, God looks down from haoxyo,, bo tho Hro.i1oC of