The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-04-02

be no delay in sending our ships forth
fully manned with the most COM
petent specimens of young American
manhood Washington Star
Replies to Rev. j. X. Eegleston.
Editor Nirginian;
Ia your issue of March IS, there is
report OF sermon by Rev. }. X
t;egIcston, OF Petersburg. preached in
the Wesley Methodist church on The
Newly. Coined Americanism.'
This gentleman takes fling at
woman suffrage and thereby explains
his ignorance of the subject IN an
astonishing manner. OF all people,
preacher should be the most circum-
spect in his filings at women. because
his church depends on the women
How much salary would he have II ne
had to depend on what the men paid
him. And what sort of a congrega-
ton would he have If the women did
not come How can any man expect
TO indulge in such scurrilous fnGs
at women's attempt to help their con-
dtion and then have them meekIN
submit to il and hll his collection
plate" NeriIr he should choose his
words with more care
II has been we'll said that the most
painful thing that can happen to some
people Is tRP pam pl Il new tttfs Itt't
Is what must happen to Mr.. tggles-
ton His fallacies are. in part, AS fol-
lows:
/ This movement is Of foreign ex-
traction E" This is false II is a part
of the great movement towards
democracy. our own land is the land
Of the free, where the first step of Civ
ING freedom to half of the people was
tried It was such success that
/.
future before them began TO teach
that the other half of the people were
also citizens and had rights. If democ-
raCy was good for half the people II
was good for the other half too. Susan
h. Anthony. Eliza beth Cody stanton,
Lucy stone and others began TO teach
these truths. and they spread over the
world. The cure for the troubles Of
democracy is more democracy, and in
America the experiment Is being tried
out.
1t looks just now as If American
women would be the last in the world
to be given the vote. Even Russia
has proposed to enfranchise her
women. Swedes and Films a II d
Norsemen have long ago given the
vote to their women. It is because
American men have been prejudiced
In some of tho older states that the
women are still deprived of the vote.
. There was time when women
unthoushtedly lived on higher plane
than men and home was their
imperial kingdom"
Now doesn't that sound real2 Let S
see. In the early days nf this coun-
try women, as we'll as men. had little
education The common schools in
Virginia indeed, date back only a de-
cade or two, 1t was considered i'm
proper In 1900 for n girl to study
geography. II she could read her
Btbte and add her accounts that was
enough.
In the higher schools of the East,
even in the University Of Virginia. that
old idea still holds This state makes
no provision for the higher education
Of its women. beyond q few normal
schools where they are trained to
teach.
In the good old days women had to
work out the beginnings of every mod
ern industry in their own homes.
There were no factories and If the
family were to be fed and clothed she
must do it all at home, and even help
provide the raw materials. She had
the wool and the fax to work into
useable shape, and then to spin and
weave Cutting and fashioning the
garments with no sewing machin es
took weary hours Driving fruits and
storing away the meat supply for the
year was no small task. To be the
queen of home meant about eighteen
hours of the hardest kind of daily
work, in addition to bearing and rear
ing large family of children, tending
them in sickness and IN health.
She was the mainstay in the home
and yet the laws regarded her as an
infant. Incapable Of owning property
after marriage. hayine no right to
the children she gave birth 10. una BILE
10 give testimony in court against a
brutal and cruel husband That was
what II really meant to he a queen of
the homo in the good old days.
3. some of our women look with
disdain upon these poky ways; wear
pants, make speeches, &c to congress-
run banks and a few other things they
can do better than men
Men have found pants very conve-
nient form of dress. If they are unfit
for women they should be unfit for
men Men have always found amuse-
ment in women's dress. When we
wore trains they We're not suited. so
now we wear short skirts, and even
find pants convenient for riding and
for gardening. Still We have to suffer
filings from some men
Women can make speeches. and can
preach wonderful sermons From the
repression of the ages when they were
told TO keep silent, because they had
no brains. and that II was sacrilege to
speak in CHURCHES. and indecent to
speak elsewhere, they have now found
a voice. Il
Women do 20 to congress and to
legislature and do run banks They
can do many more things They fll
many pulpits.
T. Their highest conception of
motherhood Is poodle dogs
Men have always loved dogs and
why should not women do SO? Women
have done more to stop cruelty to ami
mails and to children than men had
over done. The first laws that womsa