“I mean well, sister Minkley; I mean first rate. And I’ll bet a cent if you should speak your mind right out, you would say that you don’t uphold Solomon in all his doin’s no more’n I do. He was altogether too familiar with wimmen, Solomon was, to suit me. Marryin’ seven hundred of ’em. Good land! And folks make a great fuss now-a-days if a man marries two; claps him right into jail quicker’n a wink, and good enough for him; he ort to go. One woman at a time is my theme, and that is the theme of the new testament, and what that says is good enough for me or anybody else; it is God’s own words to us sister Minkley.”
I had been dretful kinder agitated in tone, I felt so deeply what I said. But I continued on in some milder axents, but impressive as impressive could be—for I was a talkin’ on principle, and I keep a tone by me all the time on purpose for that, a dretful deep, lofty, eloquent tone; and I used it now, as I went on and proceeded.
As I said sister Minkley, I have made the subject of wimmen my theme for quite a number of years—ever sense the black African and the mortgage on our farm was released. I have meditated on what wimmen has done, and what she haint done; what treatment she has received, and what she haint received. Why sometimes, sister Minkley, when I have got onto that theme, my mind has soared to that extent that you wouldn’t have any idee of, if you never had seen anything done in the line of soarin’. It has sailed back to the year one, and sailed onwards through the centuries that lie between to that golden year we both believe in sister Minkley. It has soared clear from the east to the west, and seen sad eyed Eastern wimmen with veiled faces, toys, or beasts of burden, not darin’ to uncover their faces to the free air and light of heaven, because man willed it so. It has seen Western wimmen, long processions of savages, the wimmen carryin’ the babies, the house, and household furniture on their backs, while the men, unburdened and feathered out nobly, walked in front of ’em, smoking calmly, and meditatin’ on the inferiority of wimmen.
I never contended that wimmen was perfect, far from it. You have heerd me say in the past, that I thought wimmen was meaner than pusly about some things. I say so still. My mind haint changed about wimmen, nor about pusly. But justice is what I have been a contendin’ for; justice, and equal rights, and a fair dividin’ of the burdens of life is my theme; and I say they haint been used well.
ABOUT A FAIR THING.
Now in the year one, when Adam and Eve eat that apple, jest as quick as Adam swallowed it—probable he most choked himself with the core, he was in such a awful hurry to get his mouth clear, so he could lay the blame onto Eve. “The woman did tempt me, and I did eat.”
“But thank fortin, he didn’t make out much, for Eternal Goodness, which is God, is forever on the side of Right. And Adam and Eve—as any two ort to be who sin together—got turned out of Eden, side by side, out of the same gate, into the same wilderness; and the flaming sword that kept Eve back from her old life of beauty and innocence, kept Adam back, too. Sister Minkley, that is my theme. When two human souls turn the Eden of their innocence into a garden of guilt, punish ’em both alike, and don’t turn her out into the wilderness alone; don’t flash the flamin’ sword of your righteous indignation in her eyes and not in hisen.
“And then, there was Hagar’ses case,—when Abraham turned Hagar and his baby out into the desert. If I had lived neighbor to ’em, at the time, I should have give him a talkin’ to about it; I should have freed my mind, and felt relieved so fur, anyway. I should have said to the old gentleman, in a pleasant way, so’s not to git him mad:—‘I think a sight of you, Abraham, in the patriarch way. You are a good man, in a great many respects; but standin’ up for wimmen is my theme, (and also promiscous advisin’,) and do you think you are doin’ the fair thing by Hagar, to send her and your baby off into the desert with nothin’ but one loaf of bread and a bottle of water between them and death?’ Says I, ‘It is your child, and if it hadn’t been for you, Hagar would probable now be a doin’ housework round in Beersheba, a happy woman with no incumbrances. It is your child as well as hern, and you, to say the least of it, are as guilty as she is; and don’t you think it is a little ungenerous and unmanly in you, to drive her off into the desert—to let her in her weakness, take all the consequences of the sin you and she committed, when she had paid for it already pretty well, in the line of sufferin’?’ Says I, ‘I think a sight of you, Abraham, but in the name of principle, I say with the poet,—that what is sass for the goose, ort to be sass for the gander—and if she is drove off into the desert, you ort to lock arms with her and go too.’
“I’ll bet a cent I could have convinced Abraham that he was doin’ a cowardly and ungenerous act by Hagar. But then I wasn’t there; I didn’t live neighbor to ’em. And I persume Sarah kep’ at him all the time; kep’ a tewin’ at him about her; kep’ him awake nights a twittin’ him about her, and askin’ him to start her off. I persume Sarah acted meaner than pusly.