I wish to have it clearly understood that I am not an advocate of woman’s rights in the full sense of the word, and I have no admiration for a manly woman, but I do advocate that woman has the right to do any and all things for herself and family that she can do with dignity, and without losing any of her womanly delicacy. I am sure that the great majority of women would not enter public life were its doors fully open to them; but I believe that the unmarried woman who pays taxes and has no protector, has the same right to the ballot box if she desires it, that the man has who uses her money for public benefit.
“The woman’s cause is man’s; they rise or sink
Together, dwarfed or God-like, bond or free.”
Half the human race are women, and the true woman, upon whom nature has set her seal of royalty, is now acknowledged to be the finest specimen of womankind upon earth, and she is now fully awakening to her true interests, and great results must follow. Perhaps education and prejudice may retard her work, but the time is not distant when men will “fling around her conquering footsteps more lavish praises and perfumed flowers than ever wooed with intoxicating fragrance the fairest butterfly of the ball-room or opera.”
No healthy woman, from Queen Victoria down to the beggar at the door, has a right to live with nothing to do. God never put a human being on earth to waste a life, or indeed a single hour.
“A creature out of work is beggary;
To Thee I come,
O King of Kings, find room and use for me
In Thy great home.”
Time spent in healthful rest and recreation is a necessity, and of incalculable benefit to all workers, and they are the only ones who know how to enjoy it. I would that all women were pleasantly situated in homes of their own, but such is not the fact, for one-fifth of womankind must be self-supporting; and a question of great importance before us at present is, how shall we make our dependent, respectable women more healthy, respectable and self-sustaining? Many women, particularly widows with children, are feeling the necessity of having a more agreeable work, and their thoughts are taking a new turn. They are reaching out to new fields to claim, and conquer, and may God help them, is our prayer.