The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-07-10

the nBHlS O1 n-AAbAsAOu AAAAAu tue d@A n
ness Of Burmah?-o OF Mrs. Hemans,
who possed out her holy. soul In words
which will forever be associated with
hunters horn, and captive's chain, and
bridal hour, and lute's throb, and cur
few's knell at the dying day?-and
scores and hundreds of women, an
known on earth, who have given wa
ter to the thirsty, and bread to the
hungry, and medicine to the sick, and
smiles to the discouraged-their foot
steps heard along dark lane and in gov
ernment hospital. and in almshouse
corridor, and by prison gate? There
may be no royal robe-thef7 may be
no palatial surroundings She does
not need them; for all charitable men
will unite with the cracking lips CT
fever-struck hospital ard plague
blotched lazaretto in greeting her AS
she passes: Hail! HALL Queen
Vashtii"
Again, / want you to consider Wash
ii the veiled. Had she appeared be-
fore Ahasuerus and his court on that
day with her face uncovered she would
have shocked all the delicacies OF ORR
entail society. and the very men who In
their intoxication demanded that she
come, in their sober moments would
have despised her. AS some flowers
seem to thrive best in the dark lane
and in the shadow, and where the sun
does not seem to reach them, so God
appoints to most womanly natures a
retiring and unobtrusive spirit. God
once in a while does call an Isabella
to a throne, or Miriam to strike The
timbrel at the front of host, or
Marie Antoinette to quelI French
mob, or Deborah to stand at the front
of an armed battalion, crying out, up!
Upi This is the day in which the Lord
will deliver Sisera into thy hands
And when the women are called to
such outdoor work and to such he
roic positions, God prepares them for
it; and they have iron in their soul.
and lightnings in their eye. and whirl-
winds in their breath, and the bor-
rowed strength of the Lord Omnipo-
tent in their right arm. They walk
through furnaces as though they were
hedges of wild-fowers, and cross seas
as though they were shimmering sap
phire; and all the harpies of hell down
to their dungeon at the stamp of wom-
anly indignation.
But these are the exceptions. Cen
orally, Dorcas would rather make a
garment for the poor boy; Rebecca
would rather fill the trough of the cam
els; Hannah would rather make a coat
for Samuel; the Hebrew maid would
rather give a prescription for Naa-
mans leprosy; the woman of Sarepta
would rather gather few sticks TO
cook a meal for famished Elijah;
Phebe would rather carry a letter for
the inspired apostle; Mother Lois
would rather educate Timothy in the
Scriptures. When l see a woman 60
ing about her daily duty, with cheerful
dignity presiding at the table, with
kind and gentle but firm discipline pre-
siding in the nursery, going out into
the world without any blast of trum-
pets, following in the footsteps OF him
who went about doing good say:
This is Vashti with veil on"
But when / see a woman of unblush-
ing boldness, loud voiced. with a
tongue of infinite cIitter-cIatter, with
arrogant look, passing through the
streets with the step of a walking
beam, gayly arrayed in a very hurri-
cane of millinery, cry out: ''Vashti
has lost her veili" When see wom-
an struggling for political preferment
trying to force her way on up to con-
spicuity, amid the masculine dema-
gogues, who stand with swollen fists
and. bloodshot eyes and pestiferous
breath, TO guard the polls-wantfng to
go through the loaferism and defile-
ment of popular sovereigns, who crawl
up from the saloons greasy and foul
and vermin-covered, to decide Ques-
tions of justice and order and civiliza-
tion-when see woman, / say, who
wants to press through all that horri-
BILE scum to get to public place and
power, say: "Ah, what pity! Wash
ii has lost her veil!"
When l see a woman of comeIy'fea-
lures, and of adroitness OF intellect,
and endowed with all that the schools
can do for her, and of high social po-
sition, yet moving in society with su-
and hauteur, al though
she would have people know their
place, and with an underlined comhina-
tion of giggle and strut and rhodomon-
tade endowed with allopathic quanti-
ties of talk, but only homeopathic in
fnitesimals of sense, the terror of dry
goods clerks and railroad conductors,
discoveries of significant meanings in
plain conversation, prodigies of bad
image and innuendo-l say: ''Vashti
has lost her VEIL"
Again, / want you this morning to
consider Vashti the sacrifice. Who is
this that l see coming out of that pal
ace gate of Shushan? 1t seeTEs 10 me
that have seen her before. She comes
homeless. houseless, friendless, trudg-
ing along with broken heart. Who is
she? 1t is Vashti the sacrifice oh.