Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1904-06-02


qting classes Of Hardin College
last Thursday night 1t will be
helpful to you to read it carefully:
WOMAN, HER PART AND PLACE.
desire to talk to you a while
tonight on II very difficult sub
iect-very familiar to you, yet un-
familiar; known, yet unknown;
near to you and yet very far off; a
riddle solved by many lin their
own minds) yet msOlved by all
(who have n regard for their repu-
tation), the sphinx Of the ages, by
the side of which the sphinx of the
| Nile is only heap of stone, en-
shrined in literature, apotheosized
in poetry loved, hated, wOrshiped,
damned, a supernumerary often,
and yet always indispensible-the
subject is simply woman, her part,
and place.
Slavery Of the male sex has in all
countries of Europe been abolish
ed, tho very recently. That of the
female sex has been changed to a
milder form of dependence,
In war, in the chase, in nOmadic
life, woman is certainly inferior to
man in all the qualities most priced
for such forms of life. Woman
is therefore only mans slave. Such
a state exists to-day in Courland,
Russia, as recently reported by
one Mr.. Norman, an English trav-
eler 1t is the same in all of the re-
moter parts Of Russia.
Present social conditions are the
product of history. Woman's posi-
ton is. We must therefore look
briefly to history. In very early
times the great majority of the
male sex were slaves as we'll as the
whole of the female. And many
ages elapsed, some Of them ages of
thigh civilization, before any think
en- was bold enough to question the
rightfulness and absolute socla
necessity either Of the one slavery
: or the other. Plato had slavery il
his ideal republic. There were
slaves in Rome. There have been
! slaves in America. Christians
t owned slaves, male and female
they happened to be black il
America.
-, IF a woman is obedient to he
husband, and his relatives, amC
y has borne sons, she may hav,
the happiness TO be returned t.
# this world rs II man, and thus hav
, Il chance TO reach Buddah's heav
:, en-. AS woman there seems t
I be no promise of heaven for her.
Would you hear the Koran of tn
IS Mohammedan! Men shall hav
pre- eminence above women, be
cause of those advantages wherei
'e God has caused the one of them t
m excel the other, and that which tn
re men expend of their substance j
maintaining wives"
:, OF infanticide in these old cOur
!" tries as a means of Kidding then
g selves of too many women, W
- shall have no time to take accoun
Suffice it to say that in nearly a
q Oriental countries the advent of
4 girl baby is a calamity.
4 We have been lifting these dist
4 bilities. The Court of Equity
4 England, dating from the time ,
4 Edward ILL.,, has changed mi
A terialIy the situation in Englant
4 Statutory law has changed the 81
"a uation in America. But we hay
. not yet got rid of all inequaliti
as to property. In Missouri to-d5
$50 it is not safe for a wife to enter il
to a business contract with her hu
- baud In Mississippi where Il
reform began in 1889, the wife
=; property was secured to her, th
= is what she owned at marriage,
her separate property, not h
all earnings after marriage In all
h. our States and territories now e
yal cept seven the wife may have h
rs earnings In Texas a wife may n
Y legally engage ia business on b