Year: 1874




1t Is useless to assert that women are
what they were one hundred years ago,
but IS there need that they should be 4?
Then, every man was In some sense a
pioneer. Then, as much depended upon
her efforts-often upon her actual labor
AS upon his. II hands must minister
to the comforts of her household, she
must be both mistress and servant. Not
only did she prepare their daily bread.
but the linen for the house, and the
clothes worn by every member of the
family, from the crude wool or fax. to
the last stitch III them. She was equally
at home in the dairy, the spinning and
weaving room, the parlor, the kitch-
en-, the garden, or the field. You ask
" Where are they 2 Gone with the
times in which they lived, gone with
the need for them, gone as are the
streng, sturdy, helpful, brave, whole
souled, honest men to whom they were
helpmeets.


It may not be too much to say that it
is as surely folly and weakness to mourn
for the people as for the thirgs of the
past. or, indeed, for the past itself. The
day has gone by when women can be,
at least here, what our grandmothers
were, and the day is but a memory when
men required or wished them to be
that.


am not in favor of Sinking any
blame which properly attaches to use
le ss, wasted, purposeless lives that are
burden to husbands, a curse to chill
dren, and a disgrace to woman, but
want to ask who made them what they
are? Men know as well as I do that It
is their own work, and having done it,
why are they not satisfied?


If women are dolls, I repeat who
made them SO, or what are men doing
to make them anything better So
long as you show in every possible way
that you give all the admiration you
can spare from yourself to the vain,
! pretty, senseless fs doll, rather than to
more quiet, sober, earnest women, why
should they not be dolls, and earn the
premium you offer for folly? So long
as the belle of the ballroom and the
nymph of the pave are more attractive
than the gentle, modest woman who
/ would blush at a rude stare, why should
not all be attractive?


So long as art is considered fairer than
nature, and woman's beauty depends
upon her toilet, why should she not
make it study?


So long as she sees the bold, fast,
/ girl of the period the universal favorite
/ because sne is DOlQ ana Iast, why should
she not be bold and fast too?


| 1 have any amount of pretty theories
about these things, but there is no use
/ in talking, for so far as she knows how,
woman will be the thing. she believes
you admire and desire.


| am far from denying or iustifying
/ facts, but there is nothing true under
| the heavens than that women aim at be-
| ing what they think men wish them to
| be, and initiate what men seem most to
admire.


You ask what can be done-this :
Help her to be something better than
she is now-take your young wives out
of hotels and boarding houses, let them
be the honored mistress of a neat, plain
cottage home in which they can feel
| pride and interest, and which will give
! them occupation for hands and brains /;
| give up your extravagant habits, Jour
cigars, cards, billiards, wine, and the
numberIess ways in which your small
4 change goes, in order that you may pay
for your homes, and then you will find
her a willing, loving, generous, patient
/ helpmeet, ready to sacrifice as much or
| more than you, jewel whose price is
| above rubies. Be what your grandfath-


er was-that was good, honest, and


manly, and she will be what the women


of her time Garnet b. Freeman.