Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10

ID ONE In 304 would seem TO have oeen OH
N like New York and Chicago IN 1880. There
was much TO allure the faithful from the
straight and narrow way.
Here is q rare bit of general advice-as good
now as it then
Beware of itching ears and blaooing
tongue"
Light on the manners Of the old city may
be found in this remark:
I'VE, If our food is less appetizing than usual
get sullen. If the water brought US Is httle e
too warm we break the cup and overturn the
table. and scourge the servant IN fault until the
blood comes"
These DAYS that kind Of q rumpus in
Christian household would have resOunding .
echoes Yet he speaks of this violent behavior
as If it were fashion Of the time. 1t is evil \
dent that even in the metropolis these ladies
Of quality were q crude lot.
Among the sequestered tribes of the Far
North women still suffered from the faint OF
Eve. The provinces were slow to remove the
shackles of ancient custom In the dark history
of the northern peoples We get only flashes
of light on the unhappy figure OF woman. They
are SUFFICIENT, however, to show her tragic part
in the drama of life. The missionaries were at
work there in the North, telling the old story
of woman's sin and the fall Of man, and fine
better story of the great Forgiven and His
atonement. She was dependent and under
tutelage. When Canute reigned. a woman lost
her nose and ears for adultery. think 1t is
true that there was never any law in England
which provided punishment for men guilty Of
this offense. If there be such q law. it is a
recent one. Under Athelstan a female slave
convicted of theft was burned alive by her
sisters. Three times we learn in the ecclesias-
tical legislation of England that If a woman
Scourges her female slave to death she must
do penance. Woman had learned how to use
the lash from which she had suffered long.
wives were sold under Ethelbert. It was en-
acted that If q man carry of freemans
wife, the thief at his own expense must pro-
vide another wife for the aggrieved party.
Under Magma Charta a woman could not accuse
man of murder unless he had killed her
husband
Thus it appears that it was the greatest of
misf0rtunes to be born woman. Is there any
reason for It, save that of her enforced moral
infefioFity because she had inflicted sin and
death and toll upon the world? Bruised and
tFodden like the serpent that shared her sin,
can we wonder at the bitterness of her spirit
when bent and DID, with clawlike hands and
withered face, her tongue became the dread Of
her neighbors and her curse a forerunner of
evil? Then the witch, and the witch finder
going up and down the roads of England and
other lands with divining rod in his hand
the burnings, the hangings, the drownings the
smotherings. What strange and tragic history
eliminating in this horrid Climax Even in the
seventeenth century Cotton Mather, of our own
country, solemnly believed in witchcraft. ssg
CONGREvE speaks of the low estimation Of
~ women In EIizabeth's time as reason for
the small figure they make in Shakespsare's
dialogues; Swift scorned them; Addison laughed
at them as half-witted, amusing creatures made
only to be the playthings OF man.
Until Victoria came to the throne OF Eng
land it's women-save those of wealth or OF
noble and royal blood-still labored under the
ancient curse. Their ignorance aStonishes the
eta dn41f nf IN,
stimulated by their interest in the Bible had
learned to read but even when the nineteenth
century began the ability to read was it would
SEEM q rare achievement among women OF
small means What but the condition OF
woman has maintained and still maintains in
Europe a peasantry dwelling in thick darkness?
The intellectual life of women really began In
the founding of Queens College in 1848 by
Frederick Denison Maurice.
Many of the women who came early to the
colony of Massachusetts Bay were density ig-
norant 1t is surprising that for more than
two centuries they remained in that condition.
They were, I think, mainly high-tempered
lot, some of whom used the scourga too freely
on the indentured females in their service.
Their background had not been one to encour-
age a sweet and gracious temper.
From an essay in the Atlantic Monthly
of February 1859, I present astonishing
paragraph relating to the history of woman in
the colony of Massachusetts, Bay, follows:
1T is well established by early deeds and
documents that a large proportion Iof the
womenl could not read or write and in Boston,
especially, for one hundred and nifty years the
public schools included boys only. After 1888
the girls were sent to school in the Summer
and not until 1928 were all distinctions wiped
out in the Boston common schools
CTIIL stands the old story of woman's sin
~ and "the fruit of that forbidden tree whose
mortal taste brought death into the world and
all our woe." have tried to indicate its
effect unon human history. When