Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-08-22

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1S.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage cxtols home as a
field of usefulness, and especially encour-
ages wives and mothers; text. Genesis
!. 81, "Malc and female created he
them"
In other words, Cod who can make no
mistake, made man and woman for n
specific work and to move in particular
spheres-man to be regnant in his realm
woman to he dominant in hers. The
boundary line between Italy and Switzcr-
land between England and Scotland, is
not more thoroughly marked than this
distinction between the empire masculine
and the empire feminine. SO entirely
dissimiar are the fields to which God
called them &hat you can no more com
pare them than you can oxygen and
hydrogen, water and grass, trees and
stars. All this talk about the superiority
of one sex to the other is an everlasting
waste of ink and speech. jewclcr may
have n scale so delicate that he can weigh
the dust of diamonds. but where are the
scales so delicate that you can weigh in
them affection, sentiment against senU-
ment, thought against thought soul
against soul, mans word against wo-
mans word?
You come out with your stereotyped re-
mark that man is superior to woman in
intellect. and then | open on my desk the
swarthy. iron typed, thundcrbotcd writ
ings of Harriet Martincau and Elizabeth
Browning and George Eliot You come
on with your stereotyped remark about
woman's superiority to man in the item
Of affection, but | ask you whore was
there more capacity to love than in John
the disciple, and Robert McChcync, the
Scotchman, and John Summcrield, the
Methodist, and Henry Martyr, the mis-
sionary? The heart of those men was
so large that after you had rolled into it
the hcmisphcrcs there was room still left
to marshal the hosts of heaven and set
up the throne of the eternal Jehovah. |
deny to man the throne intellectual,
deny to woman the throne affectional.
No human phraseology will ever define
the spheres while there is an intuition by
which we know Wrcn man is in his
realm and when woman is in her realm
and when either Of them is out OF it. No
hunelng legislature ought to attempt TO
make IA definition or to say, "Ths is the
line, and that is the line"
My theory is that if woman wants to
vote she ought to vote and that if man
wants to cmbroider and keep house he
ought to be allowed to cmbroidcr and
keep house. There are masculine women,
and there are eAeminate men My the
DRY is that you have no right to interfere
with any ones doing ANYTHING that il
righteous. Albany and Washington might
rs well decree by legislation how high a
brown thrashor should fly or how deer a
trout should plunge as to try to seek out
the height or the depth of woman's duty.
The question Of capacity will settle final
" the whole question, the whole subject
When n woman is prepared to preach
she will preach, and neither conference
nor presbytery can hinder her. When a
woman is prepared to move in highest
commercial spheres, she will have great
influence on the exchange, and no boards
of trade can hinder her | want woman
10 understand that heart and brain can
overflow any barrier that politicians may
set up and that nothing can keep her
back or keep her down but the question
of capacity.
Womnn's Best Rights.
know there are women of most I'M
desirable nature who wander up and
down the country. having no homes Of
their own or forsakinC their own homes,
talking about their rights. and we know
very well that they themselves are fit
neither to vote nor fit to keen house.
Their mission seems to be TO humiliate
the two sexes AT the thought of what
any one of us might become. No one
would want 10 live under the laws that
such women would enact. or 10 have cast
upon society the children that such wo-
men would rinse. But | will show Won
that the best rights that woman can own
she already has in her possession; that
her position in this country at this time
is not one Of commiseration. but one Of
Contamination. thnt the grandeur and
power Of her realm have never vet been
nnnreciated. thar she sits today on a
throne so higb that NIL the thrones Of
earth piled on ton OF each other would
Lot mako for her n foots,ool Here is the
uniform on which she stands. AWAY
down below il are the ballot box and the
congressional assemblage and the lerisla.
tive hall.
W.
on'"u Always mas WV" anu az
WHY'S WV, No'c' Our Ire"l- '"uuI".ii''
- ny "e'V ny '"e'' ,V'IS Pui''H7
usuInPtoh mo 'he pres'ue"''a' cha,r
No ms nio'ner' ny ,ne PrinciPles sue
t"uEnt n''I anu oy ule nap'lS sue IN
cuiCnltu' n'"ue nun PreS,HSnt' ~ was