The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-12-27
FURTHER COMMENTS ON as THE
WORLD GROWING BETTER
OR WORSE?"

merating the list of abuses that We
have seen abolished in the brief Pc
ried of our own life time, and the re-
forms inaugurated, we omitted to
mention the establishment of our
free school system, which has become
the chief stone of the corner" in our
political fabric.
When the writer was a boy there
were no public schools in the south,
and the children of poor and INDECENT
parents, and orphan children, were
compelled to grow up without the aid
Of an education.
Now public schools dot every valley
and hilltop, and in towns and cities
there are universities, colleges and
high schools, and to many of which
the doors are open alike to both sex
es, and the tuition, if not free, is
merely nominal sum.
The door of opportunity" has been
flung open wide to woman, and she
is being emancipated from old tradi-
tions which narrowed her scope Of
usefulness, and her opportunities are
now almost on the plane of man
We can remember when, for wo-
man to have been seen behind store
counter or at an accountants desk,
it was presumptive evidence of her
loss of wOmanly modesty, and she did
so at the peril of subjecting herself
to unfriendly and unsavory criticism,
and to have ridden horseback cross
saddle, or to have done any Of the
things that she does now with inn
punity, and even immunity from crit
icism, would then have exiled her
from our social circles.
Then, too. many Of our modern in
ventions have widened woman's linn
itatiOns and wonderfully added to her
opportunities of usefulness.
In the olden time, except those ia
vored of fortune, women were com
PEELED to rely upon her needle as her
only resource; now, a thousand op
portunities are at her bidding, and
in every instance she has shown her
self equal to them. As her plane of
opportunity is lifted higher and high
err she has shown her versatility and
adaptability for her new sphere of
action
Besides the thousands now seen be-
hind store counters and at writing
desks, ever-increasing numbers are
seen handling the keys of the tele-
graph, typewriter and Mergenthaler
machines, and they use them with as
much dexterity as do men; and even
at the guiding-wheel of the automo-
bile and aeroplane they show almost
as much efficiency and as as much
evident courage as their brothers.
In some of the states they have
been given the ballot; they hold Of
fee, administer justice, and, even in
Florida, they are made notaries pub
lie, and in some instances clerks of
court
The citizens of the Golden times"
would have been Mortified at such
state of things.
Really to woman's opening career
of usefulness there seems to be no
stopping place. Her usefulness has
been enlarged in church work; she
now fills our pulpits and is made mis-
sionaries to foreign lands.
1t can be said of her that she is
giving a sweeter and holier tinge to
spiritual things.
And in places of usefulness that she
is now occupying she performs the
duties that they entail without los
ing her wOmanly graces.
In her wider field she more AMI
more commands the admiration and
the alteration of men. so much so that
we are now erecting monuments to
emphasize her virtues.
So we may well ask if it be true
that Rome, in her worst days, never
harbored such conditions of vice as
are prevalent in our highest social
circles at the present time?"
What was the condition of Rome in
regard to vice and immortality in her
worst days?
Draper. in his intellectual Devel-
opment Of Europe says:
NO language can describe the state
of Rome after her civil wars. The
accumulation Of power and wealth
gave rise to universal depravity. Law
ceased to be of any value. A sutton
must deposit bride before a trial
could be had. The social fabric was
a fostering mass of rottenness. The
people had become a populace; the
aristocracy was demoniac; the city
was hell. No crime that the annals
Of human uy;oIyo1pocr CON ebnvv NO,