Part 17 (2/2)

There must have been soe: she was a bad wohest respectability” No charge was ain; and for that, and that only, so far as appears, the court took frouardianshi+p of her own children,--bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh, the children for whoony of womanhood,--and awarded theht have ht, and that where they had no mother to protect theht have ht stepmother after stepmother to control these children, and no court could have interfered The father is recognized before the law as the natural guardian of the children The h she be left a , is not The consequence is a series of outrages of which only a few scattered instances come before the public; just as in slavery, out of a hundred little girls sold away froht ever be mentioned in any newspaper

This case led to an alteration of the law in Massachusetts, but the saht yet happen in sole such occurrence shows that there is still a fundaal position of woman And the fact that --as Dr Channing said of the contentment of the Southern slaves The s, as they formerly passed by the facts of slavery

There is no lasting reive woman the political power to protect herself There never yet existed a race, nor a class, nor a sex, which was noble enough to be trusted with political power over another sex, or class, or race It is for self-defence that wole such occurrence as I have given, I charge that wohts she wants,”

either with a want of all feeling of norance”

SENSE ENOUGH TO VOTE

There is one special point on which men seem to me rather insincere toomen When they speak to wo is usually that they are too angelic But when eneral assumption is, that woh--or, as old Theophilus Parsons wrote a century ago, have not ”a sufficient acquired discretion”

It is an ielic to vote, they can only be fitted for it by beco more wicked, which is not desirable On the other hand, if there is no objection but the want of brains, then our public schools are equalizing that h

Still, there are plenty of people who have never got beyond this objection

Listen to the first discussion that you encounter aate Does it turn upon the question of saintliness, or of brains? Let us see

I travelled the other day upon the Boston and Providence Railroad with a party ofthis very question, and, with the true English habit, thought it was all a matter of property Without it a woman certainly should not vote, they said; but they all favored, to my surprise, the enfranchiseeneral rule,” said the chief speaker, ”a woh to vote”

There it was! These foreigners, who had found their own ririm Mothers had settled, and subdued, and freed for thehters of those h to vote” I thanked them for their blunt truthfulness, so much better than the flattery of most of the native-born

My other instance shall be a conversation overheard in a railway station near Boston, between two intelligent citizens, who had lately listened to Anna dickinson ”The best of it was,” said one, ”to see our minister introduce her” ”Wonder what the Orthodox churches would have said to that ten years ago?” said the other ”Never ed What I think is, it's all in the bringing up If woht up just as ain!) ”That's what Beecher says Boys are brought up to do business, and take care of theht up to dress and get married Start 'em alike! That's what Beecher says Start 'eot just as hter,” and on the condition of her brains! It is on this that the whole question turns, in the opinion of e One will plead that woels Another fears discord in faht,--he hi very likely a non-co, perhaps, in the habit of consulting that authority on any other point But with the others, very likely, everything will turn on the question of brains They believe, or think they believe, that woh to vote They may not say so to women, but they habitually say it to men If you wish to meet the common point of view of masculine voters, you must find it here

It is fortunate that it is so Of all points, this is the easiest to settle; for every intelligent woe, helps to settle it Every good lecture by a woood book written by one, every successful business enterprise carried on, helps to decide the question Every class of girls that graduates frou nine out of ten of the teachers in our Aically to their pupils, and settle the arguh to educate you,” theyclass of boys, ”we have sense enough to vote beside you”

”The ladies actively working to secure the cooperation of their sex in caucuses and citizens' conventions are not actuated by love of notoriety, and are not, therefore, to be classed with the absolute woists”--Boston Daily Transcript, Sept 1, 1879

AN INFELICITOUS EPITHET

When the eloquent colored abolitionist, Charles Reton, having been a slaveholder, was a villain, Wendell Phillips re, ”Charles, the epithet is not felicitous” Reformers are apt to be pelted with epithets quite as ill-chosen How often has the charge figured in history, that they were ”actuated by love of notoriety”! The early Christians, it was generally believed, took a positive pleasure in being thrown to the lions, under the influence of this motive; and at a later period there was a fir broken on the wheel, or sawed in pieces between two boards, and felt a the whole anti-slavery movement, while the abolitionists were ood society, depleted of their money, kept out of employment, by the mere fact of their abolitionism,--there never was a moment when their motive was not considered by many persons to be the love of notoriety Why should the advocates of woe expect any different treatment now?

It is not necessary, in order to dispose of this charge, to claim that all reformers are heroes or saints Even in the infancy of any refor with it some poor material; and unpleasant traits are often developed by the incidents of the contest Doubtless ht, at last: it is one of the dangerous tendencies which those committed to this vocation age in reforenerally hurt the reform so much that they render it their chief service when they leave it; and this happy desertion usually co sin of refore, the love of notoriety, but the fate of power and of flattery within their own small circle,--a tein and its results

Notoriety comes so soon to a reformer that its charms, whatever they may be, soon pall upon the palate, just as they do in case of a popular poet or orator, who is so used to seeing himself in print that he hardly notices it I suppose there is no young person sohis nae with a certain tender solicitude, and perhaps purchase a few extra copies of the fortunate journal But when the same person has been battered by a score or two of years in successive unpopular reforms, I suppose that he not only would leave the paper uncut or unpurchased, but would hardly take the pains even to correct a misstatement, were it asserted that he had inherited a fortune or randmother The moral is that the love of notoriety is soon amply filled, in a reformer's experience, and that he will not, as a rule, sacrifice hoer inducement This is certainly true of most of the men who have interested themselves in this particular movement, the ”weak-minded men,” as the reporters, itty antithesis, still describe the-minded women” who share their base career

And it is to be reine for obtaining notoriety, the woy The same net result could have been ith far less expenditure in other ways There is not a woman connected with it who could not have achieved far er of charity fairs or as a sensation letter-writer She could have done this, too, with far less trouble, without the loss of a single genteel friend, without forfeiting a single social attention, without having a single ill-natured thing said about her--except perhaps that she bored people, a charge to which the highest and lowest forht have done even ht have becoht have written a scandalous novel; she ot somebody to aim at her that har actress, while its bullet soht have done, and obtained a notoriety beyond doubt Instead of this, she has preferred to prowl about, picking up a precarious publicity by giving lectures to willing lyceu schools, setting up hospitals, and achieving for her sex sohts before the law Either she has shown herself, as a seeker after notoriety, to be aperson,-- or else, as was said of Washi+ngton's being a villain, ”the epithet is not felicitous”