Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-10-02

bands responsibilities, as your moth
er was of the cares of your father. She
was looked upon as a mere plaything.
toy, human doll, pet puppet, the
chief end of whose existence was to
humor the whims of her husband.
When he called she was to come.
When he said Cor she was to go.
But she was not to go or to come I'M
less he gave the command. And, fur
thermore, in the far east, in the time
Of AhasUerus, not only did a husband
look upon his wife as a mere play
thing. but II he so willed he might
even compel her to honor or dishonor
herself before the world She had alb
solutely no means to free herself from
the tyranny Of bis will.
Read today the tragic history Of
Queen Yashti. No one can truly study
the life Of Queen Esther unless he
places alongside Of her face the beau
tiful face Of Queen vashd, who was
her predecessor In the royal palace Of
the hedes and the Persians. The
great capital OF Shushan, about 200
miles away from Babylon, is ablaze
with lights. ALI the princes and the
governors of the different provinces
are being entertained in the royal pal
aces. The streets Of the city are fes-
TONED with flags and banners. The
bravest warriors of the army of King
Ahasuerus have assembled their
troops for the magnificent military
pageant The bedrooms where the
guests slept seemed to be the sleeping
apartments of an Aladdin. The beds
were of solid gold, the tapestries of
costliest linens, soft and fragrant in
perfumes The floors were all of the
finest mosaic Every cup was a chal-
ice and each chalice of especial work
manship, handmade and formed by
the fingers of a master designer. Not
only that, but every guest for the
seven days could do as he willed. The
chariots of the royal stables were all
his. The most expensive viands of the
banquet tables were his.
81 viii Not Come"
The royal entertainment had been go
ing on for nearly a week. 1t reached
King Ahasuerus and the governors and
the princes were to separate. The
chamberlains were there. Louder and
louder played the music; more and
more hilarious became the sport. Now
1t was an overturned decanter: again
it was a fallen lord, tumbling upon the
floor in his drunken stupor The court
iers were drunk; the king was drunk.
And on the seventh day, when the
heart of the king was merry"-what
happened? The king turns to his
fawning, cringing guests and says:
Now, gentlemen, 1 will show a sight
the like of which you have never seen
in the past and you will never see
again. l will compel my beautiful
queen, Vashti, to come into this ban
quet hall and unveil herself before you
tnebriated men. l will compel my
queen to obey me because 1 am her
master. Ho, chamberlain. Go forth
and bring Vashti to me and let her re-
veal her beauty before these drunken
bruteS." The messengers fastened
away. They went to the queens apart
ments and carried the kings com
mands. Then what happened? The
outraged queen drew herself to her
full height. Her cheeks flushed, her
eyes glittered with excitement, her
hands convulsively clutched as she
said: Go back to your royal master
Tell him l will not come. My honor
is more sacred to me than my throne"
When she spake thus she knew in all
she was signing her own
death warrant. Because she refused
to come Vashti lost her throne She
was exiled in perpetual disgrace. Yet
these were the tyrannical laws which
held women in perpetual degradation
that Queen Esther was ready to defy
when she went to plead with the king
for her Hebrew people. No wonder
when she made her noble resolution
that she should have said, 80 will I
go in unto the king, which is not &C.
cording to the law, and if 1 perish
PERISH
Women sitting before me today, are
you as brave as Queen Esther? Wives
and mothers and daughters, are YOU
ready to be something more than a
plaything, a human puppet for man?
Are you ready to brave the social laws
which would limit your sphere to the
fr1VofftteS of a life of ease and Meas
ure? You should truly be moral lead
ers, moral teachers and noble compan-
ions Of man. AS Queen Esther was
ready to take a share in the response
bilities of her husband, wife should
be a positive quality in the moral
world, not a negative one. An old
English author once wrote: "a good
wife should be like three things in
some ways, but in others she should
not be like. First, she should be like a
snail, to keep within her own house,
but she should not be like the snail to
carry all she has upon her back; sec
ondly, she should be like an echo, to
speak when spoken to, but should not
be like an echo always to have the last
word thirdly, she should be like a