Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-23

SpectlNe glance over the marve,ous
achievements of the past 100 years
which, without doubt. register the high
water mark of human development. /,
is with pardonable pride that we point
to the wonderful transformations that
| have taken place and while these
achievements have been reiterated from
press. pulpit and platform almost with
out exception no mention has been ma d.,
regarding the greatest progress of them
all-the progress of the women of tbs
nineteenth century. In all the progress;
of these wonderful decades. there has
been none SO marked as that made by
women
One hundred years ago women were
not a factor in religious. Industrial com
mer,al or no,itical life to be considered.
At the beginning of the nineteenth CEN
fury she had no legal rights that man
was bound to respect. She belonged body
and soul to some man. She did not own
the clothes she Wore. even if she had
earned the money with which to purchase
them: she had no control over her own
person. earnings or children.
Women were shut out OF the schools
and colleges. the trades and professions
paid the most meagre wages in the few
occupations open to them and denied
everywhere the necessary opportunities
for their best development. Worse still
women had no proper appreciation OF
themselves as factors in civilization and
the few noble souls who We're possessed
with a prophetic vision of what the flu
ture held in store for women were held
in ridicule and cont empt. Believing self
denial a higher virtue than self-develop-
ment, women ignorantly made ladders OF
themselves by which fathers, brothers
ana sons reached their highest ambitions
creating an impas sable gulf between
them
Nothing was more common than to see
the sons of a family educated While the
daughters remained in ignorance.
Dr. Gregory. who was a standard au-
thority upon female propriety in the 18th
century. in his work entitled Legacy to
My Daughters" says:
should you be so unfortunate as to
possess a robust constitution. by nature.
assimilate such sickly deicacy as is nee
essary to keep up the proper female
cha.rL" He cautioned all women to
carettlly hide any good sense or learning
which they happened to possess. as men
locked with malicious eye upon woman
of sense or learning.
For over one hundred years after pub
lie schools We're established in Massa-
chus9tts. girls were not a ,owed to attend
and when the effort was made on the
part of one of the trustees of Hatfield
School to admit girls the chairman
sprang to his feet eXclaiming What.
Shes in Hatfield school? No. never!"
II is Cniy little more than half a GEN.
fury since a bill was introduced into the
legislature of the state of New York for
an appropriation for the erection of GER
tain seminares and high schools where
young ladies might be instructed for
teachers in the public schools of the
state. But the learned statesmen of that
time secuted the idea of committing the
ira ming of the sons of the state to women
and one very learned statesman immor-
talized himself by saying that learning
was a very dangerous thing for women:
II would draw them from their domestic
duties and therefore it would be very
pernicious for the interests of state and
society,""
such is the prejudice that the women OF
the ninetee nth century have been obliged
to overcome.
After the victory over the right of
women to common school education
had been Won the same prejudice he d to
he fought over women receiving higher
education. even by themselves Scientists
measured heads and weighed brains TO
prove that girls could not master col
lege education. Clersymen read the
scripture to prove that they must not
and public opinion echoed the OPINIONS
of both. But the girls did master the
college curriculum and today we nave
over five hundred colleges and universl-
ties where women are receiving instruc-
ton in the higher branches of learning
and the greatest university in the world
has just conferred the degree of doctor
of philosophy upon an American woman.
In law. medicine and theology. in
music, art and litera ture she is rapidly
coming to the front
AS late as 1S47, when Lucy. Stone
graduated from Oberlin college, the
FIRST college to open it's doors to women,
they would not allow her to read gradu
ating essay. but said some professor
would have to read it for her as it
would not be proper for a woman to
read in public. Nearly forty years later,
when Oberin celebrated her Semi-cen-
tennial, Lucy Stone was invited to be
one of the speakers at that great gath
ering. AT one time when a minister was
asked to announce that a woman would
speak in the town. he announced that
woman would attempt to crow like
cock.
In the same newspapers which nova
days are devoting whole columns to the
great federations, congresses and con-
ventions of women, reporting speeches,
interviewing the speakers and publish
ing their pictures with fattering bio
graphical sketches a generation or two
ago We're denouncing the women who
dared to speak from the public plat
form. declaring this was the entering
wedge which was to break up the home.
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