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This text has been proofread but is not guaranteed to be free from errors. Corrections to the original text have been left in place.
Title: The Woman's Advocate, Volume 1, an electronic edition
Author: Tomlinson, William P.
Publisher: Wm. P. Tomlinson
Place published: 
Date: 1869-1870
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THE
WOMAN'S ADVOCATEWILLIAM P. TOMLINSON, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.NEW YORK: 
39 NASSAU STREET.
1869.CONTENTS: PAGE.A QueryLily Nelson12A ThoughtFrederick Douglass16A Visit to a HaremMary J. Safford34At the Grave of the Year.George S. Burleigh39All the Year Round.Mary R. Whittlesey73AddressElizabeth B. Chace138A Country Girl in St. LouisAgnes Howell149Another ChapterIda Whipple196A LetterPaulina W Davis211A New Song, to an Old TuneFrances Dana Gage245An American VulgarismJane O. De Forest247An Evening at a German Professor'sMary J. Safford289An Average WomanC. Clark296A Woman's Mission314A Kansas HeroineWm. P Tomlinson315BreakersCaroline H. Dall117,179ContrariwiseW. J. Linton35Cheer59Correspondence233Duality in UnityDavid Plumb87Editorial49, 105, 166, 226, 276, 322Education for WomenE. M. Powell143EmancipationM. F. Burlingame311Gently and FirmlyCharles K. Whipple13Home Intelligence54, 112How to Train GirlsRebecca W. Brinton103Harriet HosmerPhebe A. Hanaford259Industrial ReconstructionAntoinette B. Blackwell41Immunity of SexCaroline A, Campbell128Looking BackFrances Dana Gage1Literary61, 174, 282, 329Life's NoonAugusta Cooper Bristol189Life's ContrastsM. W. Campbell271Large Roots--Ample FruitsSamuel C. Blackwell99Married Women in MassachusettsLucy Stone273Not YetJ. W. Chadwick17Notes50, 107, 168, 228 278, 325Nearing ItW. J. Linton319One Hundred Years HenceFrances Dana Gage130Our FutureE. A. Kingsbury190Opportunity of DevelopmentM. E. J. Gage255Political JusticeLucy Stone98Principles and PartiesHenry B. Blackwell155Political CorrelationsAntoinette B. Blackwell161Political EqualityW. J. Linton192Rebels and WomenLucy Stone45Remembrances of MoscowMary J. Safford89Right versus WrongHelen Rich124Reasons for the FranchiseSamuel J. May215Report of a ConventionS. S. Henry219SuffrageHenry B. Blackwell94Suffrage at the CapitalGiles B. Stebbins141Sister Anne's VocationNora Perry235, 302Suicidal LogicGeorge S. Burleigh293The Era of ReconstructionHenry B. Blackwell7The Woman's Movement in Great BritainR. J. Hinton19, 74To Anne E. DickinsonWm. P. Tomlinson24The New England Women's ClubKate Field25The Cross and the CrownPhebe A. Hanaford48Two WomenCaroline H. Dall63The Battle of the SexesR. W. Hume69The Scriptures vs The Woman QuestionG. E. Watson80The Ruined HomeGeorge Johnson139PAGEThe Right of Woman to the BallotDavid Plumb186Thoughts for SorosisVirginia Penny193The ConservativeSamuel C. Blackwell197The Two BooksJulia Crouch203The Question AnsweredPhebe A. Hanaford221The Political Rights of WomenAaron M. Powell223To a SculptorWm. P. Tomlinson248Under BanWm. P. Tomlinson131Woman A VoterAaron M. Powell36What do Women WantW. J. Linton147Why Men should not VoteGeorge S. Burleigh151Women in WarAnn E. Brown195Woman and the AlphabetL. J. G. Littlefield206, 249What is WomanContent Whipple264WomanW. J. Linton266Woman's WagesJane O. De Forest320THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATEVOL. I.LOOKING BACK.FRANCES DANA GAGEWHEN a child, I visited my grandmother, who lived on the banks of the Ohio River, a short distance below Parkersburg, Va. It was in the--
"Early times 'Out West,'Fifty years ago,"
and there were few who had the slightest compunctions of conscience against buying and selling "God's image" in the form of man, woman or child of African descent.While making this visit, I happened to see a little girl, a playmate of my own, not quite as light complexioned as I; but having pretty dark curls and dark blue eyes, torn from the arms of her mother and tossed headlong into a flatboat, among hundreds of coffle slaves, that were en route down the river to be sold on the sugar plantations of Louisiana.The shrieks of Minta, for her child, rang in my ears from that hour. "Oh, my child, my child I Give me back my child!"I ran terrified to my grandmother, and fell fainting at her feet; When restored to consciousness, I was told, to soothe me, that little Fanny was a slave, and must be sold. I must not be silly and be frightened and cry about it. 'What is a slave?" I asked and what they told and what I comprehended made me an Abolitionist for life.At ten, I was fond of reading. Books were rare in that new country,

and books for children were not often to be found in farmhouses; but my father, a New Hampshire man, had a small collection of choice. works, Addison, Shakespeare, Milton, Butler, Young, Johnson, Sterne, Blair, etc. All these, I pored over with childish avidity. Among them I found Blackstone's Commentaries--rather dry reading for a little girl--until one day I received therefrom the startling intelligence that "In Common Law, husband and wife are one; that during coverture the wife has no legal existence; that she cannot buy, or sell, or make a will, or do business in her own name." That "a wife may be whipped with a stick no larger than a man's thumb," be "gently coerced." These were difficult words for a child, but the dictionary was at hand and my curiosity was excited. My mother was a wife; had my father a right to whip her? I knew old Jones, the shoemaker, whipped his wife, and turned her out of doors with her children, and everybody blamed him, and the boys threated to give him a ducking in the creek if ever he did it again. I knew that Gibson took all the money his wife could earn by weaviog and bought whiskey with it, while his children went barefoot in the snow. Mother and other ladies had talked very much about it, but why should they? It was Law.  Might not every one do lawful things? Not for my best gown would I have asked any questions, for I was already spoken of as a "queer child " always prying into things that did mot concern me.These laws troubled me; so did the restrictions put upon me as a girl. Why might I not go into the shop on my father's farm, and make barrels? I knew I could, for I had tried it once and succeeded, and got my ears boxed for being so smart and going among the hired men; had the satisfaction of having my father say, "Pity she wasn't a boy, she would be good for something." He said the same when he found me curled, up in the corner of his study, reading law. "France"-- he always called me France-" If you were a boy, I would send you to College." When I plead the cause of a delinquent workman one day, I was dismissed with, "You ought to be a lawyer. I wish you were a boy."When I asked to go to school, the answer was, "Girls don't need much schooling. You must spin, and weave, and sew, and cook." Little by little came the conviction that woman, as maid, wife, or mother, was

unfairly dealt by, and circumscribed in her sphere of activity and influence. And when, at the age of fifteen, I dared complain and speak of the wrongs done to my sex, as well as to the slave, I was looked upon as strange, almost insane, an infidel, talking blasphemous things which any girl should be ashamed of. Not one human soul, far or near gave me a word of sympathy on my peculiar ideas. The intemperance of men, seemed to me to be terrible--I did not then know one drinking woman--but every outspoken word for the slave, for woman, or for temperance met with stern reproof, as unbecoming a girl of my years, from those I held most in reverence. So I closed my lips and bided my time. I had not then sufficient moral courage to speak out the thoughts, burning within me for utterance.At twenty, I married. My husband was a lawyer. One day, years after, a woman called at our home to see him. Her husband had been intoxicated, and had beaten her and turned her out of the house, and kept her children from her. She had married him while he was poor. Her father, dying, had bequeathed her a farm and house, horses, cattle, sheep and money. Into this house the husband moved. Into the comforts and use of the money he installed himself as master, and she soon found herself a pauper dependent on his bounty. He starved her, beat her children, and compelled excessive labor from, her and them. She had come to my husband to learn what she should do.Leave him," said he."But he won't let me have my children."No, in law, they belong to him.""The property is mine.""In law, not one cent of it except enough for your necessary support.""Well, if I could have my say about that--and my children ?""But you cannot. He can keep the children. You must have an, arbitration of men to say what ought to be enough for your necessary support.""I Didn't my father give it all to me?""Certainly. But the law gives it to your husband.""Can't I sue him for beating me?""Not in your own name."Suppose you sue him for me, could I then get damages?"Any damage that would accrue, would go to other parties. If you will leave him, and the children with him," continued my husband as she sat utterly silenced, "I will do all I can for you. But I warn you. He has money and you have none, and public opinion here allows a man to whip his wife out of the house and whip her in again, especially if he is drunk. Are you strong enough to leave your children and abide the issue?""My God, no! The youngest is a baby.'"Then I cannot help you unless you sue for assault and battery, and have him bound over to keep the peace.""If I should do that, he would kill me." "I suppose he might maltreat you."Slowly the poor woman rose from her chair. and in a voice that went to our souls, said, simply, as she went out, "I must go to my children."Then I resolved to speak, and in private circles--no woman spoke in public then--said my say; upon Slavery, Woman's Rights, and Temperance; bore the cold abuse, the ostracism of social life, the slander of the low and vile, and, most cruel of all, the persecution of the church and the church-going community. For had not God "cursed Ham?" and was it not written that Eve was the first to sin, and had not the edict gone forth, "Thy desire shall be unto thy husband and he shall rule over thee?" Did not Christ turn water to wine, and Solomon give strong drink to those that were ready to perish; and Paul advise a little wine for the stomach's sake?" I was denounced as an infidel, a blasphemer. I answered them:--" If your Bible sanctions slavery, the oppression of woman, and the drunkenness of man, I will have none of it. My Bible does not, and I will think for myself."As years passed, friends came to my support. I read of Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Abby Kelly, Samuel J. May and kindred spirits at the East. I lived in sound of the voices of Stone, Putnam, Smith, Emerson and others, at the West. My husband thought with and sustained me on all these points of great interest. A little leaven seemed to have been dropped into the great, cold lump of worldly selfishness, and was working slowly.Remember, dear reader, we were in the West and on the borders of slave soil, and lives and fortunes were in danger. Men and women were imprisoned and whipped--their places of business torn down, and, printing presses thrown into the river. About this time Lovejoy was murdered,; Pennsylvania Hall was burned down; Amos Dresser was whipped; Marius Robinson was tarred and feathered; Torrey died in prison at Washington, and public attention was aroused. Much actual work was accomplished, and thousands rejoice, to-day in freedom whose fathers and mothers were guided towards the North Star by heads, hearts and hands that were never suspected, even by their nearest neighbors.The leaven of Anti-Slavery working thus well, the-loaf at last was ready for the heated oven, and wars dread necessities put an end to the accursed system.All this time the hearts of the people here and there stirred in behalf of Woman. Great politicians said her claims to Equal Rights before the law could not be gainsaid, although it was not expedient to press them. Men and women, seeing the great wrong said, "Let us remodel the law. Do not ask for the ballot." I replied, "that the slaveholder, the oppressor of woman, and the drunkard are voters, and they are all men. They may repeal these laws to-day; but we have no security, that they will not re-enact them to-morrow. All just governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed, and, taxation without representation is tyranny, and women are governed and taxed." Conventions were held, speeches made, newspaper articles written, and for twenty years the leaven of "Woman's Rights" has been working. Let us omit farther notice of these years, (they are known to this generation) and take a brief glimpse of the last four.During that time, leading Radicals have been saying to women: "Your claim is just, but we ask you to wait until we have settled the question of the negro. This is his hour." But literary men and women have written and lectured, conventions have been held, and the question has been fairly and unfairly thrown before the public, until now liberal and educated people are with us. The best journals of the country allow us to plead our cause in their columns, and others devoted to the work are springing up and meeting hearty support.The Independent and its noble and generous editors have for three years sustained our Cause; more recently the Harpers' and a few kindred publications have aided, and now the Tribune and its editor, wielding an immense influence with the people, admit our claim to justice and equal rights. What may we not hope when such paragraphs as the following find their way into its editorial columns? Commenting on the New England Suffrage Convention it says:"The enterprise is timely. The Negro question is virtually settled, and no other great question of social reform has the floor. Good society has shown a disposition to take it up. Yea, a veritable Cambridge Professor compromised his order by signing this call. The new converts and the old believers seem to be of one accord in regard to principles and methods--wisdom, eloquence, zeal, courage, practical talent, social respectability, all on one side, and only ignorance on the other!"We should have rejoiced had the greatest of editors left the party of ignorance sooner; but with outstretched hands we welcome him into our ranks sure that be will enjoy himself better and be more useful in company with the wisdom, eloquence, zeal, courage, practical talent and social respectability; than on the side of ignorance.Readers of THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE, our Cause moves grandly on!FRANCES DANA GAGE.THE "Woman Question" will not be put to silence. It demands an answer of Western legislators. It besets college faculties. It pursues veteran politicians to the fastnesses of so-called National Conventions. Under the sacred sounding-boards of New England pulpits has its voice been heard, and its unexpected ally, the London Saturday Review, introduces it to the good society of English drawing-rooms. That this Introduction comes in the form of diatribe and denunciation is a matter of the least moment. Judgment will finally rest, not on the conclusions of the special pleader, but on the strength of the case of the accused.--Mrs. Lucia Gilbert Calhoun.--Modern Women."THE ERA OF RECONSTRUCTION.Henry B. BlackwellTHE transcendent magnitude and significance of the issues involved in the Enfranchisement of women are not yet appreciated either by its friends or enemies. When they are, the Movement for Woman Suffrage now in progress will assume a character of Epic dignity. The War for the Union will seem to Posterity a stern and terrible prelude to a beneficent and comprehensive Reformation. The years that follow the surrender of Lee and the assassination of Lincoln will be held in sacred remembrance as the Era of Reconstruction. The winter of 1865-6 will be conspicuous in History; an epoch memorable in the political progress of the human race. Then, for the first time, the Rights of Woman were brought into the political arena. The Senate of the United States devoted two entire days to their discussion, and the Legislature of Kansas submitted the question of Woman Suffrage to the vote of its white male citizens. The question has thus become a practical political issue, never again to be ignored until Woman is finally and forever recognized as a citizen of the great American Republic.It is true that in 1776 the enlightened Quakers of New Jersey induced the Constitutional Convention of that young State to erase the words of the Colonial charter restricting suffrage to male freeholders worth £50," and to substitute the words "all inhabitants worth £50," as the new qualification for suffrage. It is true that in the "laws regulating elections," framed under that Constitution until 1807, the words "he, or she" and "his, or her ballot" recognized and affirmed in unmistakable language the political equality of Woman. It is true too that, every year, the Women of New Jersey appeared at the polls in increasing numbers; that, in 1800, Jefferson was defeated and the electoral vote of the State cast for Adams, in consequence, as was generally believed, of the conservative sentiments of the Women; that, as a natural result, the old Democratic party of the State, in its struggle against property qualifications, conceived a repugnance to Women as voters

and that in 1807, the irregularities of a hotly contested "Court-house Election" in Newark were made a pretext for excluding Women and Negroes by an act of the Legislature. So far from believing with more modern opponents that "Women do not want to vote," the complaint of the New Jersey Solons in 1807 seemed to assume that the ladies "voted early and voted often." Yet, so irresistible is the tendency of modern Civilization in favor of the extension of suffrage, that the very same unconstitutional Act, which thus excluded more than one-half of the People on account of Sex and Color in defiance alike of Constitution and usage, proceeded to set aside the property qualifications in their bearing upon poor white men and provided that all whose names appeared upon the tax list should be construed to be worth £50. But this exceptional political liberality towards women in the early history of New Jersey only extended to women of property. The £50 qualification applied equally to both sexes and colors. The government, like that of Holland, knew no political distinctions among the freeholders, but after all it was only an aristocracy of wealth. The Reform was not the legitimate product of an enlightened public sentiment. It was in fact the political expression of the creed few enlightened Quakers. Slavery existed. Women were not geneerally educated. Nor did the anomalous right of suffrage remove, or modify the legal barbarities of the English Common Law, which continued to oppress the wives and mothers and widows of the State, even while they were voters.Far different was the spontaneous movement of the Women themselves, which gave rise to the Conventions of Seneca Falls, New York, in 1847; of Salem, Ohio, and of Worcester, Mass., in 1850, and which has been prosecuted ever since with heroic ardor and persistency.During the War for the Union this movement was necessarily suspended. Amid the clash of arms, the utmost efforts of American women were enlisted in the homes, the business, the hospitals and the Sanitary Commissions of the Republic. But with Peace came the inevitable question of Reconstruction. The sudden enfranchisement of 700,000 colored men, most of them recently emancipated slaves, was demanded by one of the great parties of the country as an imperative political necessity. When the opponents of

the measure urged that the negroes were an inferior race, or at least that they were ignorant, servile and degraded, the Republicans might indeed have based their advocacy of "Negro Suffrage" upon arguments of mere political and party expediency. They might have frankly admitted the actual mental deficiencies of the colored population, and yet have urged their admission to the ballot as a lesser evil than the continuance of military despotism. They might have said, "The Southern population must govern the Southern States, if they are to be States in the Union and not mere conquered Provinces. Unfortunately this population is made up whites, as a class, one degree less ignorant indeed than the blacks, but almost universally disloyal--and of blacks, one degree more ignorant indeed than the whites but almost universally loyal to the flag. The alternative is Ignorance and Loyalty, or Prejudice and Treason. We prefer the former!" They might have enlarged on the necessity of party divisions in every free State as a basis of good government. The Southern whites being almost to a man Democrats, they might have insisted on bringing in the blacks because the latter are almost all Republicans, trusting that one element would be a check on the excesses of the other. They might have justified Negro Suffrage as the only conceivable method of vindicating Loyalty and stigmatizing Treason in communities where Capital, Social Position and Public Sentiment were all in the hands of the Rebels, and where State sovereignty and Patriotism were synonymous in the minds of men. They might have demanded Negro Suffrage as the only means of saving the dusky Defenders of the Union from unutterable outrage and cruelty. And finally they might have insisted on the measure as the only means of putting an end to the fatal controversy between North and South by annihilating at one blow the political Aristocracy of Race.But in the case of Parties as of Individuals Instinct is wiser than Logic. The Radical Republicans were unwilling to admit the facts and to treat the measure as a choice of evils, because to have done so would have been political suicide. At first the Conservative wing of the Party unwillingly consented to submit the question of Negro Suffrage, to the States upon the basis of expediency. They were beaten, as they deserved to be, in Wisconsin, in Connecticut, in Ohio, even in Kansas. Negro Suffrage, as a

distinct question was annihilated utterly and forever. Learning wisdom by defeat, the great Republican party rose to the level of the emergency. They ignored the Negro, and remembered the Man. Now, adopting the old Jeffersonian theory, they stand or fall as the champions of "Manhood Suffrage" as a personal right inherent in the human nature of the citizen.The Democrats, too, while protesting against the proposed upalatable influx of dark-skinned Southern Republicans, are themselves forced to become the champions of a disfranchised class. They demand suffrage for the white men lately engaged in the Rebellion, who happen to be all Democrats. When the Republicans argue that it is inexpedient and unsafe to admit the disloyal element to the polls, the Democrats also rise to the old Jeffersonian level and with virtuous indignation denounce disfranchisement even for Crime as a violation of the rights of citizenship.But it so happens that Women also are citizens. There is an  old proverb that "when rogues fall out honest men get their dues." In this case "Man's extremity" is likely to prove " Woman's opportunity." Both parties are compelled by the exigencies of their position to advocate an extension of Suffrage. In all probability they will try to compromise their dispute in Washington this Winter by enfranchising both the Negro and the Rebel.But the matter cannot end so. No woman of intellect and common-sense can regard the modern dogma of mere "Manhood Suffrage" without indignation and disgust. No man with a spark chivalry in his breast can say Amen to Reconstruction on such a basis. That the Negro and the Rebel should vote may be wise and right. We are heartily in favor of both. But when even the basest and meanest men are admitted merely because they are men, if all women - are excluded merely because they are women, it is an insult to every man's mother! It is a direct reproach upon Womanhood. It is a stigma upon the feminine half of Humanity.The spirited Call, recently issued by the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association expresses with great force and distinctness the present situation of the Suffrage question:
THIS IS THE WOMAN'S HOUR. The Presidential election is settled. By Republicans and Democrats the respective claims of the Negro and the Rebel to the ballot are vehemently urged.Prominent leaders of each party propose to compromise by conferring Suffrage upon both.Shall Woman alone be omitted in the Reconstruction?Shall our own Mothers, Wives and Sisters be ranked politically below the most ignorant and degraded men?Let the friends of Virtue, Intelligence, Loyalty, Temperance and Justice answer!No political axiom is more certain than that the representatives elected by any class do, on the average and in the long run reflect in Politics the tastes and principles of their constituency. A certain Ward in the City of New York with great unanimity sends to Congress a conspicuous gambler and prize-fighter. Why so? Because a gentleman of these peculiar gifts and graces is the natural leader and representative of a constituency of "roughs." If such a constituency have a right to be represented at all, why complain that they consult their own preferences and not ours in their selection? That they should do so is the very purpose for which they cast their votes, and our institutions not only justify, but presuppose this very result.So, if any man imagines that any body of voters, ignorant, or intelligent, South or North, will send other than average specimens of their own mental and moral quality to represent them in the National Councils, he is blind to the lessons of experience. Nor can we hope from these hundreds of thousands of ignorant men who are to be made voters, respectively by the Republican! and Democratic programmes, any especially elevating or ennobling influence upon our politics. Quite the reverse. They will protect themselves by their votes against intolerable oppression. That is much, but that is all we have a right to expect.Far different is the case if Women are made voters. Women, as women, differ from men. "Mind has no sex," but in Soul and Character men and women differ. As a class, women are more peaceable than men, therefore Woman Suffrage will be influential for Peace. They are more temperate, therefore their vote will strengthen the cause of Temperance. They are more chaste, therefore the interests of Purity will be promoted. They are more alive to moral and religious considerations, therefore the interests of Morality and Religion will be advanced by their vote. As mothers

they will always feel a deeper interest than men in Public Education. Removed by their position from the corrupting influences of the outer world--occupied as a class by domestic and family duties, they will always bring to "the consideration of great public questions a freshness and purity of Spiritual Insight to which men are less keenly sensitive.Above all, the influence of women upon men, and of men upon, 1 women is reciprocally good. They restrain, yet stimulate each other. God has made them to be helpmates in all the varied pursuits of Life. As there can be no Home without both no Society without both, no Church without both, so there can be no State really free and perfect without both.To meet the vast influx of ignorance and degradation, foreign and domestic, which is daily forcing itself into our politics without adequate preparation, there is one remedy and one only. We must neutralize it by bringing in the counteracting influence of the Wives and Mothers and Sisters of the Republic. Any other Reconstruction will be a disaster and a snare.Well and truly does Lucy Stone exclaim:"There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby this Nation can be saved politically except the name of Woman!"HENRY B. BLACKWELLA QUERY?Lily NelsonTHE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE? Pray will it askWith joy, her life-cup should be crowned?Should she in lap of plenty bask,Run Fashion's giddy round?Nay, higher, truer be its call--The clearer voicing that shall ring!A Woman be she, all in all; No giddy, senseless thing!Doubt not my Sister! never dawn On sky of Reform clearer shone! Earth lights; the gloom will soon be gone, Nor Darkness more be known!LILY NELSON.GENTLY AND FIRMLY.Charles K. WhippleIN the Convention held a few weeks ago in Boston, for the promotion of Woman Suffrage, one of the most noteworthy features was the immense power of persuasion exercised by Lucy Stone. There is nothing remarkable in the fact that the great audience listened attentively as often, and as long, as she chose to speak; three-quarters of them were pledged to the idea before they went there; but the comments of the other quarter on what they heard, and the comments of the secular press on the part taken by the lady above mentioned in the proceedings, show an eminent success on her part in producing those changes in public opinion in regard to the condition, capacity, rights and duties of women, which have lately made such marked progress.Next to her thorough acquaintance with every branch of the subject, and her ability to speak intelligently upon it at all times and in all places, I think this success is mainly owing to Mrs. Stone's combination of gentleness with earnestness in speaking. She never trifles with the subject; she never gets angry about it. How simple seem these two qualifications ! And yet it is they which prepare the hearts of the hearers for a favorable reception of the truth she has to offer them. If there is any one thing clearly established by the public lectures of women for a few years past, it is that scolding does not make conversions. A termagant on the right side very closely resembles a termagant on the wrong side; and in both cases the hearer is far more impressed by the manner than the substance--by the scolding, than the thing scolded about. Of the scolds in private life, very few belong to the class popularly called "strong-minded;" Very few bear the marks either of an intellect naturally superior, or of successful mental cultivation. Their vituperations pass, with those who hear them, simply as manifestations of one sort of feminine character; and some husbands, no doubt, suppose that their private experience is a fair specimen of the common lot, and that thunder-storms are as natural to women as to summer. Yet, as soon as a woman lecturing on woman's rights, or woman's wrongs, falls to scolding, three-quarters of the audience immediately jump to the

conclusion that this demonstration is the natural result of her taking an interest in that subject. This is what comes, say they, of a woman's wandering out of her "peculiar sphere;" as if the habitual dwellers in the peculiar sphere had never, no, never, given vent to their complaints in that manner!And yet, when one thinks of it, it must be very difficult to preserve the desired and desirable golden mean, while speaking of such a subject. If oppression maketh a man, even a wise man, mad, how strong must be the impulse in a woman, more mobile, more intense, more under the sway of emotion, when speaking of some of the legal restrictions and disabilities still imposed upon her, vehemently to denounce the oppression, and assail the oppressors with bitter invective. If, besides, she sees that her audience, men and women, lulled by the benumbing influence of custom, hear those things as if they had no reality, or no importance, the more will she be tempted to speak intensely, and the more will, her energy appear to them exaggeration. We can hardly comprehend the amount of patience, long-suffering and forbearance, it requires in a woman to hear the repetition of the same old objections, childish and absurd in the beginning, and already answered a thousand times, and to be expected to answer them as if they were original and substantial. And yet this is not the worst. When the answers are given, and given unexceptionably in matter and manner, they do not at once convince. And the reason is plain; that which was not reasoned into a man cannot be reasoned out of him; and no force of reasoning will remove the persuasions that belong to a man's mental condition. The ideas now current respecting woman's peculiar sphere are the product of tradition, feeling, custom, habit. They are a constituent of the atmosphere in which we have always lived. One cannot at once shake off this influence; and moreover, it requires time to form a habit of thinking and feeling otherwise. The new conviction, even after having been received by the understanding, must be digested and matured before it can enter into and form a part of the character. If a dread of ghosts has been instilled into our childhood, that dread will be felt pervading our flesh and bones -when we encounter the predisposing circumstances, long after our reason has understood its groundlessness. So in the matter of woman's sphere, her rights, her duties, her relations

to man and to Society. However needful may be a change in the prevailing ideas, time is required to make that change and yet more time to confirm it; and all that time the, woman who clearly sees the whole matter must wait, wait, while working with such patience as she can command, for the rising of the popular tide to her level.There, is another difficulty in the way of the lecturer on woman's rights. The inequality between women and men established by our laws and customs is in many particulars so groundless, so unreasonable, and so open to ridicule, that there is a strong temptation to treat it with severe sarcasm, especially if the lecturer be naturally inclined, to the use of that weapon. And why should she not take this course? If man, claiming higher powers of reason, has made absurd pretensions and drawn false conclusions in regard to woman--if, pretending to give care and protection to her, as "the weaker vessel," his arrangements have been made with a selfish regard to his own convenience and advantage--if, in marriage, he has managed to acquire and monopolize her property in the very act of pretending to "endow her with all his worldly goods"--and if the result of his rulership has been, and now is, that the children she bears are his exclusive property, to be disposed of at his will, irrespective of hers--why should not these monstrous proceedings be openly treated with the scorn they are suited to inspire?It a woman has prepared her lecture under the impulse of this very natural conclusion, she will (probably) not only fall of the desired result, but will produce two undesirable results; she will cause herself to be classed, by the majority of the audience, among the strong-minded scolds, and she will leave upon their minds the ludicrous aspect of her cause instead of the impressive one. There is ample material for merriment in the subject; but purposely and elaborately to appeal to that element would be an error because it would be adverse to the production of that serious thoughtfulness which the subject requires. For this reason, while it would make the thoughtless laugh, it could hardly fall to make the judicious grieve. A grave and earnest treatment of the subject is the one best fitted to secure good results, both immediate and future.If, when a horse shies at some unaccustomed object by the wayside his driver scolds and beats him, and so passes on, the horse will have

double occasion for fear the next time he goes that way. The judicious man stops, soothes his beast, and spends a little time in persuading him to approach the dreaded object, make acquaintance with it, and see that it is harmless. Then the future as well as the present will be provided for.It is a common impression that man is a rational being. It may be so but it is very certain that he does vast numbers of irrational things. He has freaks, takes notions, imbibes prejudices, and often sticks to the wrong as persistently as to the right. But whoever would offer him reasonable ideas in place of those prejudices will do well to accost him precisely as he does the skittish horse. Since men, and women too, are frightened at the very name of "Woman's Rights," let us feel a humane consideration for their state of alarm, and forbear to aggravate it. Let our approaches to that dreaded subject be gentle in manner as well as firm and persistent. If this can be kept in mind, present appearances indicate a more rapid movement towards success than any object of such magnitude ever before obtained.CHARLES K. WHIPPLE.A THOUGHT.If any man can give one reason, drawn from the nature and constitution of man, why he should have a voice in the selection of those who shape the policy and make the Laws of the Government under which he lives, which reason does not apply equally and as forcibly to Woman, I for one, should like to hear that reason. To me, the sun in the heavens at noonday is not more visible than is the right of woman, equally with man, to participate in all that concerns human welfare, whether in the Family, in Reform Associations, Educational Institutions, in the Church or in the State.  Until this Right is admitted, secured, and exercised, count me among the friends of the "Woman's Rights Movement."FREDERICK DOUGLASSNOT YET.J. W. ChadwickIN days long, long ago, when a divine unrest,Was surging like a sea in Europe's mighty breast,And the fierce Hermit's voice proclaimed the dear Lord's will,And drove the nations forth to strike and strive and kill,If haply they might win from Saracenic hordeThe tomb and precious dust of their most precious Lord--As the Crusaders matched upon their weary way,Never was seen, I trow, a motlier disarray;Baron and serf, and dames all beautiful and bright,And women who had strayed far out, into the night;And little children too, on mothers' aching breasts,That heaved with many a sigh for their deserted nests;And as they tolled along, and came from place to place,Now to some little town, or hamlet void of grace,The little children asked of those that carried themIn ever sadder tones, "Is this Jerusalem?"And ever and again, with more and more regret,Heard the disheartening words, "Not yet, my child, not yet.""Not yet, my child, not yet;" I hear the Father sayTo the Crusader true, of this our land and day;"For many a weary league thy feet have yet to treadEre through the City's gates thou art in triumph led."Thou dost not know how high its gleaming spires arise,
If with these village roofs thou canst content thine eyes."Thou dost not guess how wide is every shining street,If here thou think'st to find fit passage for thy feet."Thou hast not dreamed a dream of men supremely strong,Of women sweeter far than poet's sweetest song, "If with these rustic boors thou canst be pleased to dwellAnd with these damsels rude believe, that all is well."Rest in no triumph won; the best is yet to be;.Not yet from half its woe is the great world set free."The victory of to-day, that seems so passing bright,Is but a hamlet rude where thou shalt rest to-night."To-morrow up and on; but not with hope to see,Ere night shall come again, the City rise on thee."Far off, far off, it lies, 'neath the horizon's rim;Enough for thee to know, I see Jerusalem!"I see its pearly gates, its temples rich and rare,Its men divinely brave, its women good as fair."But it is not for man yet breathing mortal breath ,Nor yet for those who know the other side of death;"To see its perfect plan, or catch with raptured earThe accents of that love which casteth out all fear."Only in dreams they see its massive halls arise,And hear its songs of praise, re-echoed by the skies."Such dreams I give to thee, and say to thee, Alas!If thou should'st ever doubt that they will come to pass."For what if many fall with half the journey made,Others shall come to swell the ranks of my Crusade."Let it suffice for thee that thou hast done thy best;As sure as I am God, I answer for the rest."J. W. CHADWICK.WOMAN is a thing of accident and spoiled in the making says the greatest the schoolmen, but we are far from denying her right to vindicate something more than an accidental place in the world. After all that can be urged as to the glory of self-sacrifice, the greatness of silent devotion, or the compensations for her want of outer influence in the inner power which she exerts through the medium of home, there remains an odd sort of sympathy with the woman who asserts that she is every bit is good as her master, and that there is no reason why she should retire behind the domestic veil.--"Modern Women."THE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN.Richard J. Hinton[FIRST PAPER.]UNDER the wittily sarcastic heading of "The Suppressed Sex," the October Westminster Review has an admirable article setting forth the condition of the "Woman's Movement," both in Great Britain and the United States. It has special application to, and an historical statement of, the progress made in Education, and the successful conquest, by Woman, of admission to higher branches of study, and her admittance into what are termed the "learned professions." In the same number there is an article on the "Property of Married Women," which discusses the Shaw-Lefevre Bill;--a measure introduced into the British House of Commons under the auspices of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, Mr. Russell Gurney (the Recorder of London), and John Stuart Mill, designed to abolish the atrocious barbarisms of the Common Law with regard to the Property Rights of Married Women, and put that unfortunate (legally so, at least) class upon the footing of person's having rights in what belongs to them, like those who are fortunate enough not to belong to the "Suppressed Sex."No two other articles could have been written better calculated at once to show what has been and what remains to be done. Much as there remains to be accomplished towards the equitable adjustment of such laws, still there is healthy agitation, and a marked forward movement on this, as well as kindred subjects in Great Britain. The "tidal wave" of Democratic opinion is making itself felt in the Land, par excellence, of social proscriptions, traditions, and oligarchic privileges. How far Great Britain has yet to travel in this direction can be seen by reference to the Debate on the bill already referred to. Mr. Lowe, recently elected member for the London University, speaking on the Shaw-Lefevre Bill said:
"The question is simply this: Ought the common law with regard to the property of married women to stand or not? There is not the slightest necessity for going into minute details or technicalities. It is that large

question which we have before us. Now the common law is this: That the personal property of a married woman, whether possessed before or acquired after her marriage, is not hers at all, but is the absolute property of her husband; and that the land of a married woman is for the benefit of the husband during her life, and, in the event of his surviving her, is his property in case there are children of the marriage till his death. Is that right or not? The question is not that which was stated by the honorable and learned member for Colchester (Mr. Karslake, a Chancery barrister), whether this can be traced up to a long succession of ages. In the most barbarous times of which history gives us any account, and whether it has been confirmed, and consolidated, and built into an edifice. The question is, On what is that edifice founded? Is it founded on justice and righteousness, equality and fairness, or is it founded on injustice, tyranny, oppression ? That surely is a very simple question; and there is no need to talk about disturbing social order in families, and about destroying the husband's influence over the wife, which is saying in so many words that, unless you put the whole property of a married couple into the hands of the husband, and give him, like this House, the power of stopping the supplies whenever he thinks proper, there is no chance of concord and agreement in the married state. Let us dismiss considerations of this kind, because we have to go to others which are much more elementary. The law holds that, when a man or woman has got property, they are not bound to show that they will make a good use of it, so it will conduce to social good, or to any body's good. They have got it, it is their possession, and it is respected as such, with the single exception of married women. If a married woman possesses property, the law, being no doubt afraid the husband might tyrannically take it from her, puts that temptation out of his reach by taking the property and giving to him all at, once. That is the simple state of the Law."It is very gratifying to know that the measure intended to do away with this cruel anomaly (one which I regret to say, exists with but light modifications in several States and in the District of Columbia);--is likely to obtain prompt attention in the Reformed Parliament, and that its chief supporters and framers, with the exception of Mr. Mill, are returned to it and in a position to give it effective support. Mr. Gladstone, the new Prime Minister, gives the Property Rights Bill a cordial recognition, and the supporters of the old order of things fear the new Premier more even than they do John Bright. The very uncertainty of that Statesman's stopping place causes the alarm. Mr. Gladstone, unfortunately for the class referred to, but fortunately for the people,

is remarkably receptive of new ideas, and being gifted with intellectual and political conscientiousness in a large degree, when once an idea is accepted by his mind, only those few who see its results from inception to full stature can, tell where the English Premier will land. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is the possession of a political conscience in Mr. Gladstone, and the absence of such a function in Mr. Disraeli, that constitute two remarkably important elements in present English politics.One evidence of the growth of Mr. Gladstone's views, forcibly illustrating his character, is found in letters which he has written at different dates upon the subject. Early in the late canvass, the Liberal leader wrote as follows, in reply to a Mrs. Butler of Liverpool:--
"Madame--Pray be good enough to inform my constituents on whose behalf you write, that I am favorable in general to an effective protection of the earnings of married women, and that I think it deserves consideration in what way property in female hands can advantageously be represented in the constituencies. Beyond these points I must ask to reserve, my full discretion."Later he writes in reply to a communication from the London Ladies' Club, and, in a prudent English way, approves generally of the Movement for the legal protection of Woman's property, and is quite emphatic in expression of a belief that women having the requisite property qualification should also have the electoral rights. Now that he is Premier and the real head of the British Empire, a large measure of reform may fairly be expected in the direction we are discussing. In his Cabinet there are Statesmen who are prominent as advocates, of both the Property and Political Rights of Woman.As Mr. Disraeli is in opposition, and it is becoming more evident daily that large numbers of intelligent and responsible Englishwomen are in earnest in their demand for the rights now denied, we may expect that brilliant and able leader to take ground in its favor. Besides, the Movement in England, although sustained largely by Liberals is emphatically, non-partizan, and almost non-political in its character. The late Premier has shown, in his way, as conspicuous devotion to a noble wife as John Stuart Mill himself. The refusal of a peerage for himself, and the bestowal

of it upon his wife in itself, an act as remarkable and noteworthy as the tribute which the greater Englishman we have named, pays to the memory of his beloved companion, in that grand and eloquent dedication of his "Essay on Liberty."All things being considered the "Woman's Movement" stands well before the British Parliament, and even better before the British Public. If there is any drawback in the character of the new House of Commons, it is to be found in the preponderance of merely rich business men who have been able to secure seats therein. Some of the ablest Liberals have been "left out in the cold."Let us look at the details and salient feature of the Agitation--summed up as Protection for Property Rights and Earnings of Married Women; increased facilities for Education and an higher order of Occupation, and the resumption of their Political Rights. These are the principal strategic points aimed at. They stand related in the above named order, although they go forward together if not abreast. With regard to the first, there exists little doubt but that it will become law within a reasonable time. Though it only reached a second reading in a House of 242 members by the affirmative vote of the Speaker, the discussion which has been going on over the question ever since has benefitted the measure greatly. Men who never thought upon the subject are now aroused to a sense of its injustice. Besides, Parliament, in authorizing a code prepared for India, has sanctioned the right, and substituted equity and equality for organized prejudice and cruelty. The necessity of protecting the property and earnings of a married woman, is made plain to all sensible men, when they learn that out of the 3,200,000 wives in Great Britain (as per last census) there are more than 8,000,000 engaged in trade, manual labor and various business and professional occupations, and that all they earn and ought to own, under the common law, is the absolute property of their husbands, no matter how infamous and brutal they may be in conduct. It is no reply to say, that the husbands as a rule are not of bad habits, or of infamous character. Slavery was none the less "the sum of all villainies" because the slave-owners were more often than not persons of kindly dispositions. It was well, for humanity's sake

that this should be so, but none the better for the slave that the atrocious legal wrong remained.In the line of Educational advancement a great deal has been done, though much more remains to be accomplished. Unlike the ideas of popular instruction underlying our own efforts, the progress of England in this direction has not been very broad, though thorough as far as it goes. It, reaches as yet only the governing classes, and in reality but few of them. The presentation of Miss Becker's paper before the British Association at its recent session in Norwich, is considered, by writers in the Westminster and other reviews, as an event of sufficient importance to be regarded as an era in the Agitation. The paper itself is a vigorous protest against the assumption by man of an intellectual superiority over women which he will not submit to all the ordinary tests by which such claims are justified or rebuked. It claimed for woman a mental capacity, for either the acquisition or expression of knowledge, fully equal to that of man, measured by whatever standard there might be erected. It denounced the persistent exclusion of woman from academic advantages and proved her ability to reap their. full benefits whenever they have been made available, by a variety of illustrative evidences; notably among which were the reports of the Cambridge Examiners, before whom, within the past two or three years, female students have been allowed to appear. Following the reading of this paper by its author, was an earnest and animated discussion, in which a number of able men participated. The. salient fact permeating it was this: that the most intelligent and best educated among women are profoundly dissatisfied with the relations in which, as a sex and as individuals, they stand to law and in society.RICHARD J. HINTON.Wm. P. TomlinsonTO ANNA E. DICKINSON.THE prophetess of old,Girt on her thigh the sword,And, proclaimed 'neath the banner's fold,Her Mission from the Lord.And, as with fearless mien,She led those mailed men,'Mid all, was little thought, I ween,Of "sphere" of Woman then.And, lady, well art thouThe Joan of our day;Presses the laurel on thy brow,
That passes not away.For, foremost in the Fight,Thy post is aye to be,And glittering hosts, armed for the Right,Thou. lead'st to Victory.Tongue, pen--the gifts God gaveAre wisely used by thee;For Sister poor, or crouching SlaveAlike thou makest plea.Fair vestal Priestess! well,Thou guardest Freedom's shrine!Forever by its Altar dwell,A Minister divine!Wm. P. TomlinsonTHE NEW ENGLAND WOMEN'S CLUB.Kate Field[REPORTED].A WOMEN'S CLUB! Aye, nor yet a Woman's Club, for men are eligible as well, which is but just, although perhaps there is generosity in the justness when the ostracism of sex in clubs of masculine origin is taken into consideration. But the doctrine oftu quoque never yet redeemed society and New England women have shown a proper appreciation of genus as well as species, in doing their best to remove the false barriers built up by conventionality between fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, lovers and sweethearts. In these times so rich in promise for the ripening of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the good women of Boston are trying to lend a helping hand to their sex. Believing in cooperation, and in the absolute necessity of what has so long been wanting, an esprit du corps, they have established a Club with the following unpretending Constitution:Article 1.--The name of this association shall be the New England Women's Club.Article 2.--The objects of this association are, primarily, to furnish a quiet, central resting-place, and place of meeting in Boston, for the comfort and convenience of its members, and ultimately to become an organized social centre for united thought and action.Article 3.--The officers of the association are to consist of a president, vice presidents, secretaries, treasurer, and assistant treasurer if needed, auditor, and a board of not less than twelve nor more than twenty-five directors, to be chosen at the annual meeting.Article 4.--The officers of the association shall be ex-officio directors.Article 5.--The board of directors shall have entire charge of the affairs of the association.Article 6.--To become a member, it is necessary to be proposed by a member, and accepted by the board of directors.Article 7.--Gentlemen may become associate members.Article 8.--The fee of membership and associate membership shall be ten dollars for the first year, and five dollars for each succeeding year. The fee for life-membership and associate life-membership shall be fifty dollars.Article 9.--Associate members shall be entitled to the privileges of the parlors and restaurant.Article 1O.--The directors have the right of electing honorary members. Article 11.--The annual meeting shall be held on Saturday of anniversary week, and shall be called by the secretary, either byindividual notification, or by advertising at least a week in advance, in prominent Boston papers.Article 12.--The financial year shall begin the first of May. Subscriptions must be paid at the annual meeting, or within a month from that time.Article 13.--The board of directors shall have the right to fill vacancies in their own body.Article 14.-The Constitution may be amended at any annual or special meeting by a two-thirds vote of the members present; the proposed amendment having been presented at a previous directors' meeting, and notice of the intention to amend having been appended to the call of the meeting.With these definite articles as the basis of organization, the Club has become an accomplished fact. The list of officers comprises the names of women of the best intellectual as well as social standing. Honoring itself in selecting as President Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, who has devoted the leisure of her life to every benevolent appeal, the Club has for its Vice-Presidents:--Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Mrs. William Claflin, Mrs. James Freeman Clarke, Mrs. Otto Dresel, Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Miss Lucy Goddard, Mrs. ~ Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Horace Mann, Miss Abby W. May, Mrs. Samuel Parkman, Miss Elizabeth P. Peabody, Mrs. Josiah Quincy and Mrs. Williarn B. Rogers.The Secretaries are:--Miss Lucia M. Peabody and Miss Ellen T. Emerson.The Treasurer is :--Mrs. Jona. A. Lane. The Board of Directors:--Miss Jane Alexander, Mrs. M. G. Browne, Miss F. L. Macdaniel, Mrs. Nina Moore, Mrs. H. M. Pitman, Mrs. M. C. Savage, Mrs. Samuel E. Sewall, Miss Sarah H. Southwick and Mrs. Esther Tiffany.On the sixth day of November took place the Club's first social assembly, when, upon calling the meeting to order, Mrs. Severance made the following brief remarks:"Friends: It becomes my duty to give you a formal welcome in behalf of the officers of our Club, to the quarters, which, as you see, we have selected for our social rendezvous. I bid you welcome in their name, as guests or as members, to the privileges and companionship of our organization. It has no historic past to recall--only a brief record which will be given you in its season; but to its generous and cultivated society, and its great expectations, I may confidently invite you. For, we count among us enthusiasts who dream of finding here the matronly and manly experience and wisdom, the youthful vigor and hope, with which to confront the vexed problems and difficulties which beset woman's daily life, under its best and its worst conditions, enthusiasts who dare to dream that

from hence, in crises of social or national peril, heroic voices may go forth as those which now thrill over the 'olive plumed plains' and hills of Spain, the thousand echoes of a woman poet's inspiration.**Carolina Coronada--instrumental in presenting a Petition to the Provisional Government, numerously signed by thousands of Spanish women, begging with "cries of the soul" that emancipation of the Negro be universal.  Our organization is a novel one, but we do not claim it as the prophecy of a new era. It is the natural outgrowth of the vital, robust, earnest age in which we find ourselves. We do not expect to give the world unanswerable demonstration of the truth of our poet's words, that 
'It is the heart and not the brain,That to the highest doth attain.'But we do indulge the hope that we may humbly illustrate our faith, that the united heart and brain, after the divine order, in counsel and action will help to usher in the coming of the earth's 'great bridal chaste and calm'--'the crowning grace of humankind.'"Then introducing Miss Abby May, Mrs. Severance gave way to the business report. Miss May is one of the stanchest of women. Her executive ability is unquestioned, and her devotion to the New England branch of the sanitary commission during the war can never be too highly commended. Miss May said:"Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Club: It seems appropriate at this first general meeting that you should be informed of the present status of the Club, of what it has already accomplished, and what it is prepared to do during the winter; and, in behalf of the executive committee, it gives me pleasure to make such a statement. * * * * Organized in May last, the officers at once set about to secure a 'local habitation.' After duly inspecting all the apartments that offered, these were taken as promising--by their central situation, general convenience and pleasantness of aspect--to answer the immediate need as well as any that came within our reach, pecuniarily. They consist of two parlors, in which we are now assembled, an adjoining pantry, and a lodging room on the floor above. The moment an increase of members renders them too small, we shall by that very increase be justified in having ampler accommodations."During the summer, the rooms have been open daily, including Sundays, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and the comfort of a quiet resting-place has been frequently enjoyed. The lodging room has been often used, and many impromptu lunches have been served. Beyond this, we did not expect to go, and our success gives us reason to be satisfied. * * * * To-day, as we begin the first winter of the Club, we number one hundred and eighteen members, and seventeen associate members, whose names are recorded alphabetically in a book always open for inspection. Our treasurer reports that she has received $1,479.63; has expended for rent $350, for salary of clerk $100, for incidentals $366.77; and so has

                                    
in hand $672.86. This sum we hope to increase steadily by the addition of members."Our working organization consists of three sub-committees. The first is of 'art and literature,' with six members, Mrs Julia Ward Howe, in the chair. It is charged with the arrangement of receptions, as well as of literary and other entertainments. The second committee is of 'work,' with five members, Mrs. C. M. Severance in the chair. It has charge of the registry and presenting and arranging any other work which may seem to belong to the Club. ,The third committee, on 'business,' has six members, Miss Lucy Goddard in the chair, and has charge of all affairs connected with carrying out the plans of the other committees, and the general management of the Club. These committees are happy to receive suggestions, each in its own department, from their fellow-members."The committee on 'art and literature' presents the following as its plan for the winter: On the first Monday of every month a literary entertainment will be provided at 7 1-2 o'clock. The ever-welcome names of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry James, among others, are upon their list as having promised papers for these occasions. On these evenings the reading will begin promptly at 8 o'clock. * * * Discussion and conversation will follow, if the company is so inclined, and the rooms will remain open until the usual hour of closing. On the third Monday of every month a discussion will be had, on a subject previously announced, to be conducted by some person especially appointed to that duty for every occasion, who will perhaps open the discussion with a brief paper, or a few remarks. These afternoons are intended to be less formal than the evenings, but the discussions will be upon subjects of real importance and interest. We hope for many a word of instruction, enlightenment, encouragement and good cheer. On the other Mondays of the month the executive committee will hold receptions of a quite informal character, from 4 to 9 o'clock p. m. From 6 to 7 tea and bread and butter will be in readiness for the convenience of those who wish a simple tea at a moderate cost. It is hoped that from the better acquaintance which must spring from these afternoons, much pleasure and profit may result. The members are, for the most part, workers; and though the Club was organized largely for individual pleasure and convenience, it was hoped that good would result from it to a far more extensive circle than its own members If there should occur need of cooperation in any general work, as there was during the war, and as there may be again--let us hope, however, from a different cause--we feel that the acquaintances formed and the relations established at these afternoons, will help essentially in the doing of good work. But let me say that, at present, no work is proposed, and whenever there is, no one is in the least involved in it, because of membership. Some of you look forward to new opportunities for exertion here; others, already overburdened with the cares and responsibilities of life, seek relaxation. We trust both tastes will be met and gratified. Our ideal for the Club is, that it shall be a pleasant extension of home-life, never a substitution for it. And let us not forget that the word 'home' implies duties as well as satisfactions. We hope to combine here the freedom of home, with due restraints. Our large family circle gives us many advantages--it requires from

as corresponding considerations. A small household may lay aside restraint almost entirely, and yet keep within the bounds of courtesy and order; while similar regardlessness here, would surely bring discomfort and disorder. The member of a small family has the rights and privileges of a few to remember and consider; here we have to share our own comfort and convenience with many. We are trying a new experiment for women; and, we have full faith that it not only may but will succeed. Your committee on 'art and literature' invite you, therefore, to set apart your Mondays for 'Club days,' assuring you that they will use their best efforts to make them red-letter days."The rooms, as heretofore, will be open day 'and evening for the use of members and associate members. The clerk will be present constantly, to answer questions, take charge of parcels, and in other ways, to contribute to the comfort of members. She is prepared to furnish tea at any time, and will provide hot oysters, chops, or steak, at short notice. The lodgings and bath-rooms are for members only. * * * Each person, on entering the room, is requested to write his name and address in the visitor's book. It involves, nothing, implies nothing except that the person signing, has visited the rooms."You will be interested to hear a word about the registry. Our intention is that it shall contain the names, addresses, and references of all women offering service of a higher order than 'house-servants. Like the well-known barber, we feel compelled to draw the line somewhere. The registry is open free of charge to all members and associate members. Friends of members may use it on payment of one dollar for each satisfactory employé secured."We hope to keep a list of charities here, such as may be of use and of interest, and will be prepared to answer questions in reference thereto, for the benefit of those of you who may be comparative strangers in. Boston."Checks have been issued at one dollar for a package of ten, by which members may admit children or lady friends to the rooms, the member being responsible for the good conduct of the visitor whom she thus admits. Thus ladies not members may avail themselves of the conveniences of the Club. It is understood, however, that these checks are not for persons living within such reach of the Club as would presuppose membership."This statement is only of our plan for the immediate future. Many schemes are in our minds, which may be carried out as our numbers increase and good fellow ship prevails; but then, as now, success must depend upon the good will and assistance of the members. Chiefly must we depend upon individual exertion to increase our numbers. When we can count five hundred members, we shall feel able to carry into execution all the plans that promise to be valuable for ourselves and others. I will not detain you to specify what these may be. No doubt many plans for usefulness and for employment will have already presented themselves to your minds. We bespeak your good word, your counsel and your friendly coöperation. With these, we feel confident of success."Miss May's frank address was succeeded by the reading of several original poems by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe who, since then, has proved the bravery of her soul in accepting the Presidency of the New England Equal Rights Association. An acknowledged leader in society, Mrs.

Howe had much to lose and little to gain in becoming so prominently associated with a movement ignored by the world of fashion. That she has thus identified herself with the cause of Woman, bespeaks for her the gratitude of all such of her sex as are sufficiently intelligent, to appreciate the noble stand she has taken.Among the poems read by Mrs. Howe was the following, inscribed to the Woman's Club:You will speak for a stately measure, where matron meets with maidIn an equal scope and honor, for a future unbetrayed; You will show me the warlike virgins, with the handy bow and shield,Who bridled their steeds for battle, and held the contested field.Sure, Artemis is your Goddess, I have traced her way in the woodPursuing her winged quarry, through forest and crag and flood; And when the gay world around me is hushed in Well-needed rest, I have watched her silver needle embroider old ocean's crest.But I see the Sabine sisters, unhandsomely borne away With sudden fright and assaulting, a priceless and powerless prey;At the foot of each startled captive, her soldier doth lowly kneel,To proffer the ring and distaff, the emblems of civic weal.Nor arms had they nor defences, to cope with those rugged men, Small use for the tender muscles at the iron grasp to strain; With a sudden grace they yielded, to a certain deep-heard voice; The infant State did woo them with pleading beyond their choice.So, when the brief storm was ended, they turned to bless their foes;And out of the captive maiden, the Roman matron rose. Thrift measured the state of her dwelling, and early and late she span For the weal of the coming nation, the honor of wife and man.The anger and shame of their capture o'ercoming the trance of fear, The city gates are assaulted, and vengeance is quick and near;"You may keep the wealth you ravished from Sabine hill and plain,But the jewels not of our households, our women give us again."But the women said: "Sires and brothers, we show you husbands and sons;If these are the arms that reared us, yet here are our little ones;The hearts that we left were lonely, but darker and lonelier stillWe should leave the snow-piled cradles we guard with unfailing will.This theft shall return in riches, in beauty and strength four-fold,Time shall render back your treasure, beloved above grain or gold:So the word that you bid us utter for patience, reasons and peace;We stand for the oneness of Nature--let rapine and vengeance cease."Since this first social meeting, papers have been read by members on the condition of the Freedmen, on the Woman Movement in Europe, and on Kindergartens. On the first Monday in December, Mr. Henry

James, author of "Substance and Shadow," an author who stands deservedly high in the Republic of Letters, was the essayist of the evening. Mr. James is so intensely individual in his ideas and in his mode of expression, that no one unless born for the purpose and then steeped in Swedenborg, can adequately report him. The following resumé therefore, gives but a very thin skeleton of a well filled out essay evolved from much thought:--The subject of Mr. James's Essay was the historic significance of Woman. He began by saying that a man of fervid intellect whom he knew in his youth, and who was run away with by the idea of Woman, used to say to him when he (Mr. James) appealed to history in their discussions: "No more of history if you please; we have had vastly too, much already of his-story, for a very disreputable one it is; what we want now is her-story alone, and if you can't give us that, pray be silent." It was her-story then that Mr. James proposed to tell in his essay. He set out by sharply discriminating between woman in the abstract and woman in the concrete, or between woman and women. There was more in man and woman than there was in all men and all women. The more you multiplied those latter the further away you got from the former. Man and woman are both infinite with all God's infinitude; while men and women are finite--the former with all nature's finiteness; the latter with man's finiteness superadded thereto. Man expresses that descending movement of the creative providence which results in nature or the world; woman that ascending or return movement of the same providence which results in history or the Church. Woman expresses what is private, sacred, divine in our nature; man what is public, secular, merely human. Man's distinctive activity is physical and moral, being more particularly identified with the civic consciousness of the race. Woman's action is of a higher or more spiritual scope, being identified with the social and aesthetic life of the race. It would be absurd of course for women to claim to be woman in any such sense as to exclude men for woman herself presupposes man, or starts from the low level of his personality, to lead the consciousness of the race up to God again, whence man has previously brought it down. In short men are nothing but conscious forms of life, reflecting each in his puny degree that divinely created man who is one with all

mineral, vegetable and animal substance, being identical in fact with nature:  and women are only like forms of consciousness, reflecting each in her petty measure that divinely redeemed  man, who is one with all regenerate human form, being identical in fact with spirit.Mr. James found it necessary to remove from the way of his thought a deep-rooted prejudice in regard to creation, which, wherever it is operative, hopelessly enfeebles the mind's action. He said we were wont always to put the cart before the horse. In our estimate of spiritual or divine things,, by making what is first in creative order--the creature--last; and what is last--the, Creator--first. He went into an argumentative detail, the purport of which was to prove that the objective or formal element in all our familiar life and action, which is what we outwardly do, rightfully controls or determines its subjective or substantial element, which is what we inwardly are; and hence that the great epic of creation, which we call nature and history, amounts after all and at most only to a revelation of the creative name in the created nature, and has no manner of claim consequently to exist absolutely or in itself. Having demonstrated this to his own satisfaction, Mr. James proceeded to apply it to the interpretation of nature and history. Creation was not a simple but a composite effort of the creative energy, what we call nature or the world, meaning thereby Man, constituting its downward or centrifugal tendency, its tendency to go out of itself; what we call history or the church, meaning thereby Woman, constituting its centripetal or return tendency, its tendency to abide in what is not itself; and finally what we call human society or fellowship being the grand synthesis of these opposing tendencies, the grand unitary result in which they become eternally reconciled or married. We have had no true society as yet upon earth, for society means the ample and exact harmony of the universal and the individual life. We have had only the two memorial pillars of such society, in the State and the Church; the former proving itself void of all positive worth, and instinct, with only a typical virtue, in making one man rich at the expense of penury to a thousand others the latter by blessing a small minority of mankind, at the expense of cursing to the vast majority. All this disorder has come out of the fact that the masculine or material and generic force in life has dominated its feminine or spiritual and specific force. Accordingly when

true society comes it will reverse this state of things, by giving primacy to the feminine element in existence, and reducing the masculine element to a subservient Place. Mr. James begged not to be misunderstood. In exalting woman's historic function above that of man, he had no intention to take part in the petty altercation which was springing up between men and women. He thought that men would probably continue to claim the highest place in the synagogue, because in Man himself we see the infinite dragged down and obscured under finite conditions; and that women would continue to accept the lowest seats, because in Woman herself we see this conceited finite restored to its right mind, and exalted to infinite dimensions: and surely what is high always gives precedence to what is low. Nothing could be smaller than to keep up the statutory disabilities under which women now labor, and which subject their material interests so much to the abusive control of men.Mr. James would have every barrier destroyed to women's freest activity in any line they themselves pleased. He had a firm conviction that if woman had been womanly in the past in spite of man's degrading tyranny, she would be much more womanly in the future, when relieved from it and left to her own divine instincts.The only possible stumbling block in the way of the New England Women's Club, is the most important one of money. Emerson has said somewhere, I think, that no woman is as rich as all women ought to be, and there is a solemn truth in this dictum, however foolishly money may at times be squandered. The majority of the women composing this Club are poor; the majority of those women who are most valuable to the Club and for whom it is organized are poor; for this reason the fees have been reduced to a minimum, in consequence of which the Club must necessarily slowly crawl when, were it properly endowed, it might take wing and soar. That any wealthy man or woman of radical proclivities should come to the rescue and make hundreds of women happy by giving them the, means of doing unto others as they would be done by, is a consummation' as unlikely as it is devoutly to be wished.KATE FIELD.A VISIT TO A HAREM.Mary J. SaffordOUR native cicerone conducted us to the palace, and left us at the entrance of a spacious court, in the charge of an attendant upon the household who spoke French.By him we were shown into an ante-room, where we waited until he had announced us. We then followed him into a small room, with alcoves upon three sides. In these alcoves, reclining upon couches, were the inmates of the Harem. They were variously occupied, one in adding an extra touch of henna to her finger nails; another in cutting the designs from bits of flowered silk; a third was at their favorite occupation--preparing candy. A brazier stood upon a tripod before her couch, and she was lazily shaping the sweet compound with more the air of a time-killer than that of one desiring to accomplish aught.Their gross, uncouth figures were covered with illy-shaped robes of thin material; the braids of their black hair were disheveled; the barbarity of barbarism was typified in the massive appendages that dangled from their ears; bracelets were upon both wrists and ankles; rings in profusion were upon their fingers; their bare feet were carelessly slipped into sandals;--making a tout ensemble indicative, in the highest degree, of vulgar, low-bred luxuriousness. Upon being presented to them, they expressed much cordiality, and beckoned us to sit beside them on their couches. The red hair of one of our party gained for her the greater share of attentions. They were curious to know if any application would convert their own jet black locks into so beautiful a color. From the surprise and admiration they manifested, it seemed they had never looked upon the like before. Our complexion, features, and dress were marvelous to: them, and we thought to add to their surprise by telling them we were from America, but the name had evidently no significance for them. They made no inquiries respecting our country, our home, or our customs--only our apparel excited their inquisitiveness.The effect of this aimless life was visible upon all the inmates of the Harem. Not a countenance was lighted with intelligence. Large, lustrous eyes; long, silken lashes; arched eyebrows, pearly teeth, alabaster complexion--these fairest daughters of Circassia were to me, compared with thinking women, as wax fruit to nature's own sun-ripened. Had our journey been direct from busy American homes, whose labors and interests are shared equally by women, the sense of these luxurious surroundings, so wanting in all that make of life, living

would have seemed even more appalling, but sojourn in the centre of so-termed European civilization had prepared us to meet more stoically serfdom of soul as well as body. Swaddled in the wrappings of ages of degradation, of ignorance and superstition, shall we ask of these women, bought with a price, if they will accept freedom and education? And if they say No, must they still bear the sacred name of Mother, when every tendril they give forth adds to the Upas shade that makes the whole land pestilential?Yet, with heaven's own approval stamped upon its face, this Eastern land only awaits a regenerated government to become an earthly paradise. And this it will be when Mothers worthy of the trust rear noble sons; a principle holding true with Christian as well as Mussulman nations. Ye who would have the stream pure, so make ye also the fountain!MARY J. SAFFORD.CONTRARIWISE.W. J. LintonI would not have thee stand by me to voteFor one who must misrepresent us both;Nor wish I, Dear! to hear thee take an oathTo some dead constitution, or by roteRepeat old formulas with cuckoo note,To which even I am something more than loath.Meseems, indeed, that I might well be wrothShould'st thou thy life to tricks of law devote;I do not care that thou should'st preach to me;And nursing hold I more than the doctor's part.And yet, good Wife! I would with all my heartThat thou should'st always as myself be free For all good work, for each ennobling art,Whatever, wheresoever, it might be.W. J. LINTON.WOMAN A VOTER.Aaron M. PowellAMONG the hitherto unrecognized rights of Woman, the most important is her right as a citizen, to vote. Unjust usage closes against her many avenues of labor wherein she ought freely to enter, and accords to her unequal and inadequate compensation for work well performed. Her opportunities for industrial and scholastic training are restricted and inferior. In the home, to which she is assigned as pre-eminently her "sphere," she is less frequently an equal co-partner, than a subordinate and menial. In important particulars pertaining to her own, and, if a mother, to her children's rights, she is the victim of gross and semi-barbarous legal inequalities. But underlying all, the most aggravated of her wrongs, that which is most fruitful in sorrow to herself and most damaging to both sexes in its general results, is the denial of her right, as an equal citizen, to participate directly in public affairs, to vote and to hold office. This radical wrong is the parent of many others which involve the common welfare of both men and women. What the exclusive, selfish club life of men is compared with the symmetrical, well-ordered home wherein the two sexes constitute a natural unit, that is a government made up of, and administered by, men alone. Men and women are naturally appointed helpers of each other. When they go counter to this law they are each sufferers and losers. The affairs of State are no exception. Nor is there any necessary conflict between woman's rights politically, and her-- duties in the home. The best type of home-life demands the very superior personal qualifications in woman which would add to her strength and usefulness as a member of the body politic.The value of the ballot ought neither to be over-estimated nor under-rated. It is not claimed that it is a sovereign universal

panacea for all the ills of either men or women. In the hands of either, however, it is the symbol of power. It gives to the opinion of the holder additional weight of authority. From whomsoever it is withheld, he or she is dependent -upon the will of others, and without the means of the most effective protest. One may have the recognized right to vote, and yet, in a given contingency, be disfranchised for conscience sake. In such case, though the ballot be not used, the right freely to employ it acknowledged, lends special strength and significance to the individual protestant. Whether all women would avail themselves of the ballot at the polls or not, it is quite beyond the lawful province of any number of men to deny their right, or to withhold from them the opportunity to use it. The ballot is the representative of both opportunity and responsibility. These belong as fully to women as to men. How valuable they will prove to either, must depend upon individual use. The right to make the best or poorest use of it ought not to be withheld from any not guilty of crime. The better the quality of individual character the better will be the type of the truly democratic government, wherein all men and women are fully and equally represented.The signs of the times are full of promise for Woman's early enfranchisement. To the help of a faithful, earnest few who have given years to the advocacy of the measure many are now coming forward. Mr. Wilson in the Senate, and Mr. Julian in the House, have each recently presented bills, substantially alike, for the enfranchisement of the women of the District of Columbia. Mr. Julian has also presented a bill to the same end, concerning the Territories, wherein the jurisdiction of Congress is complete, as in the District. This is an advance step in the right direction, in good faith, and of great significance. It is important that the friends of woman's enfranchisement in all parts of the country should aid by petitions, memorials, addresses, public meetings, discussion and communication with Senators , and Representatives the speedy

triumph of the measure in the District. What is done here will be a precedent for the country at large. With equal suffrage for women and men attained in the District, the national victory will have been three-fourths won.Beside the bills now before both the Senate and House pertaining to Woman Suffrage is the highly encouraging fact of the pending propositions in each for such Amendment of the National Constitution as will if adopted and ratified, enfranchise the women of the Nation. Embodied in these proposed Amendments, as offered by Senator Pomeroy and Mr. Julian, is, however the question of race as well as sex. The question of race is an old one in politics, and upon it party lines are distinctly drawn. That of sex is comparatively new. It has friends and opponents in both parties. That each question may have the benefit of all the strength that properly belongs to it, and detract nothing from the other, and that the interests of both may be best promoted, each should be presented in a distinct, separate Amendment. There are those, whose sincerity may fairly be doubted, who, if the two questions are embodied in one Amendment, will, as heretofore, endeavor to so use one to embarrass the other. This opportunity for political tricksters may and should be avoided by the division of the questions as herein suggested.To thus amend the National Constitution, so that by its plainly expressed terms Women may vote, and be eligible to office, in every part of the Union, is the objective point to which the Woman's Rights Movement should be mainly directed. There is a strongly marked tendency of public opinion to uniform suffrage. This is as it should be. A recognized Citizenship in one State or Territory should be a guarantee of all its privileges in any and every other State and Territory. It is well for the friends of Woman Suffrage to address their respective State Legislatures for State action, as a good method of agitation, but it is of more moment for speedy, practical results, to concentrate upon the District of Columbia and

secure, if possible, this winter, a precedent there; then an Amendment which shall bring the question simultaneously before all the State Legislatures and the people of the whole country.AARON M. POWELL.AT THE GRAVE.OF THE YEAR.George S. BurleighTWELVE times the sullen midnight bell,Aloft there in her old dim tower,Vibrates her iron lips to tellThe New Year's birth, the Old Year's dying hour.Across the billows of deep soundGlad tones in slender ripples speed,The joy that wrinkles the profoundOf solemn thought, as Life and Death proceed.Twelve vanished Moons, dropped one by one,The heavy clangs, funereal toll;New days of gladness just begunDance in the trills that chase the booming toll.In Winter's frost and Midnight's gloomThe Year begins, where old and newAcross the cradle and the tomb,Clasp hands a moment with greeting and adieu.Young Heir of time, Immortal Soul!Above the dead Past's open grave,Hearing the solemn death-bell toll,Yet listening more the joy trills' lighter wave.Still linger, ere thy wings resumeTheir flight to chase the flying joy,And lay thy errors in that tomb, Thy sins, thy shames, and all that works annoyBury old Hates that stifle Love,The, doubts that blur the lamp of God,The sordid wish unfixed above,Unholy passions grovelling on the sod.Pour there the wine-cup's deadly bane--The lees that reek with evil deedsThere lay the lust of sinful gainThat on the poor its awful hunger feeds!Far down the dark vault lay the liesThat tempt the virgin heart from good,And o'er them heap the crueltiesThat pale the cheek of outraged womanhood.All scorn of alien race and creed,All pride and pomp of wealth and power,Cast in, with every selfish deedThat shuts a brother from the common dower.The sword and chain, and wicked lawWhereby are fenced the throne of wrong, Hurl far adown, that tomb black man--,With wrecks of empires merciless when strong.And ere thou layest the frozen clodOn all, thy dream slip lightly in,That thou art dearer to our GodThan his poor aliens wandering in their sin!Then, o'er that grave forever sealed,Take fast thy young Resolve, and go,So planting in thy every fieldThat Earth shall gladden where thy harvests grow!GEORGE S. BURLEIGH.INDUSTRIAL RECONSTRUCTION.Antoinette Brown BlackwellEVERY boy follows some occupation. He never dreams of getting through life without having some calling to which he must devote time and energy. From his babyhood up he expects this and looks forward to it, and often he begins at an early age to cast about him the right vocation. Now if every girl could have the same stimulus, or something as nearly akin to this as possible, it would remake the whole type of present Womanhood.The question with which we are concerned is would this be desirable? Would it be a good thing to make every girl; expect to follow some distinct craft or profession, and go steadily forward to fit herself for it exactly as her brother does? I should say, yes. Let custom and public opinion enjoin this upon her just as imperatively as it does upon the boy, and let her be as thoroughly fitted for her calling. It should be understood that if she remain unmarried, the respectability of her position will be called in question unless, like her brothers, she follow some occupation. If she marries and takes upon herself the duties of housekeeper and perhaps also of a mother, she only changes the character of her occupation, or perhaps she simply adds this also to her former pursuits.Most men and women marry sooner or later, and it is every way desirable that they do so. Each family, at least in the present state of society, usually desires its own separate home, and to keep this home in order and harmony is a distinct business in itself. It is as honorable and as useful as farming, or manufacturing, or selling merchandise, or practicing law. If to this be added maternal duties, then no calling is more noble or possesses more beautiful compensations! The good, faithful mother of a family is not an idler, and though she may not be herself a money-maker, yet as partner in the matrimonial firm, she is justly fully entitled to an equal share in all profits. The theory that a wife who thus bears her fair share of their joint burdens is yet "supported" by her husband, been the bane of all society. It has made women feel that it is their right to be dependents, and non-

producers; and it has fostered mans conceit of his own independent sovereignty. It has taught women, where this is possible to fold up their hands and complacently give their proper duties over into the keeping of others.Thus, for women, all work has until lately come to be regarded as a degradation, or at best as a misfortune, to be evaded as far as is feasible. While the fine lady disdains all useful occupation, her example must be closely imitated in every grade of society. The humblest servant girl feels bound to leave a good situation, to live in comparative idleness and unthrift as soon as she is married, because she thinks that as a wife she has a right to be supported. The pair may not jointly have saved a hundred dollars from their meagre earnings, yet her credit with her class is at stake. "If he can't keep me I won't marry him at all," is her steady declaration, and as it is supposed to disgrace the husband if he hesitates to bear this burden, his mouth is closed against protest. So, regardless of possible rainy days and the probable small mouths to be fed hereafter, they at once set up housekeeping upon nothing. Afterwards' when she has learned more wisdom and less pride, she is forced to leave her half-dozen children to care for themselves while she goes out by the day as washerwoman. This, public opinion about them says, is no disgrace, since it is merely helping along in the family; but the poor thing now is overwhelmed even with her home-duties.There is never a time when healthy men or women may honorably give up work, either of hands or brain, for any longer period than a good holiday. On the other hand, certainly no one has a moral right to be wholly absorbed in his business. "Man shall not live by bread alone." We need both change and recreation. The real workers work too much, and the idlers play or dawdle too continuously. Almost every one mould be better if he had far more variety in his life, and to women the monotony becomes often most pernicious. Many a housekeeper could give some hours every day to a steady outside pursuit with both pleasure and profit; and to her life-long gain also, physically and mentally. Let the popular sentiment stimulate woman's energies equally with man's and all this will regulate itself. Women generally will then choose callings which are not incompatible with their probable domestic

engagements, and yet none need grow up as now without some fixed aim or purpose.At present the energies of a large class of women are sadly overtaxed--of a far larger class, I suspect, than of men; and the evil prevails to a much more alarming extent. Therefore are there so many nervous, fretful, and feeble mothers! Therefore are there so many children early motherless!No eight hour or even ten hour system can prevail in the nursery! Some supervision is necessary here for twenty-four hours of every day, and the care of the steadily increasing group of little ones often occupies as many as twenty-four of the best years of many a woman's life. Would a merchant who lived all day and all night in his store, ever on the alert either for customers or for burglars, be likely to live through a term of twenty-four years and come out of it at the end much better than an "atomy?" Women fade early, it is said. So do over-worked shopmen and all-shaded house-plants generally."Haven't women, then, enough to do at home?" we are triumphantly asked. God forbid! While they are surrounded by little ones they imperatively need assistance in these nerve-wearing, unceasing parental duties. It was easier for Job to be patient than for Job's wife who had had all those children to take care of until she was thus suddenly bereft of them. No woman can bear the unending strain on heart and nerves with impunity, and very few will continue either to be saintly or brilliant. Let there be hours when the mother can safely lay down her burdens and enter into a new world, either of work, or rest, or of recreation as her necessities dictate! Whoever would be a thoroughly good mother must be something more than a mother! Then she may hope to have still another quarter of a century of vigorous life after her nursery is tenantless; echoing only now and then to the merriment of her grandchildren.We bring up our young girls in effeminate idleness, and we quiet our old ladies into premature second childishness; but perhaps the majority of women in middle life are enfeebled and prematurely aged by over work. The husband never dreams of this: he must serve a month's apprenticeship in nursery, kitchen, and parlor successively, before he can be made to credit this fact. Women have as much natural

right to continue to live in good health to the end of their days as men have.Exceptional women may follow special callings steadily for life, but the majority will never do this. Of even that small class who are predetermined for specialties, or for eminent success in any of the higher avocations, where great men also make their mark, the larger half may expect to reap their highest success after they have attained the full benefit of ordinary middle-life experience and discipline. The added years bring not only wisdom, but a softened and broadened character, to an extent that no young person will ever realize, until a long experience has been undergone of this steadily modifying process.Youth is eager and brilliant, and the American nation, which is especially in love with these qualities, is foisting its young men everywhere into positions of prominence. But the nation itself is yet in the first flush of its youthful strength; there will come a reaction when older and wiser men will be oftener chosen to fill our positions of public trust. Then our women who are their peers in age, wisdom, experience, and in the imperative essential to all success, established good health, can find time to be their co-workers in these outside avocations. Every nursery suffers when bereft of the paternal influence, and every human calling suffers if deprived of woman's cooperation.ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELLWOMEN ask for relief because they are growing with the growth of the civilized world. Fetters do not gall their limbs because the fetters are heavier, but because their limbs have grown larger. They ask a larger liberty because they are coming to powers which cannot have full exercise without an extended sphere. Indeed, there is good reason for finding fault with the phrase, "woman's reform," as if there was an effort to start women out of their sphere. On the contrary, it is an effort to enable women to keep up with the general changes which are going on everywhere under the cope of civilization.--"Lecture"--By Henry Ward Beecher.REBELS AND WOMEN.Lucy StoneWHEN Anna E. Dickinson announced her lecture, "Idiots and Women," many people for the first time learned that the one class of persons whom each State had selected to add to its Idiots, as utterly unfit to use the elective franchise was--Woman.Some States included Lunatics and Paupers; others Felons and men guilty of bribery; but all rated women, with idiots politically. After the war, it was gravely proposed, from high places of power, to add Rebels to this list of persons incompetent to vote. They were traitors against our Government. They had violated all the rules of civilized warfare. They had burned and slaughtered our soldiers, when taken prisoners--witness Fort Pillow. They had starved them in the prisons of Andersonville and Belle Isle. If hunger, thirst or despair tempted the soldier to the dead line, he was shot, and his bones cut up for ornaments.Civilization stood aghast at such atrocities. The Government asked, what punishment was mete for crimes like these? The people with one voice replied, "That which most disgraces an American citizen is to deprive him of his right to vote. Therefore, let these Rebels forever after neither vote nor hold office." Women who had borne in silence their humiliating classification with idiots, were stung to sudden agony by this new insult to every man's mother. Women who, with noble self-forgetting, had been down in camp and hospital, to dress the wounds of the crippled soldier, or to serve as nurses where fever and pestilence reigned:--women whose hearts would forever wear widows' weeds for husbands dead for their country:--mothers whose brave, young sons, after many a well-fought battle, starved at last in some rebel prison:--sisters whose busy fingers, early and late, had wrought supplies for the Sanitary Commission, all, looked with instinctive dread for some

door of escape from the ranks of the disfranchised, if these Rebels, who had made their lives forever desolate, were to be added thereto.This mute appeal bad scarcely time to shape itself in words, when, from all quarters, began to come the, clear, distinct claim for "Universal Suffrage and Universal Amnesty"--meaning universal only for the male sex. "Let the late Rebels have their full share in the Government." Let us show that we can forgive if we cannot forget."Thus the aristocratic sex settled the question for itself. Women, Idiots and Lunatics, remain subjects as before, and few, the worst, of the Rebels, share their disfranchisement.Imagination now busies itself in sketching the outline of the picture which is being "photographed by the historians above:"--Down the long perspective, on one side, stand rank after rank of men; rebels and loyal, black and white, native and foreign, wise and ignorant. The Goddess of Liberty is there. There, too, are the American Eagle and the American Flag. On the other side, are no emblems of liberty or protection. In close political proximity are gibbering Idiots, raving Maniacs, unpardoned Rebels, and millions of American Women.Does this picture wait only for the little moment of time which will fix its lines in ineffaceable blackness to tarnish forever the honor of those who were charged with the duty of reconstructing the Government upon the one true basis," the consent of the Governed?" We hope not. Already in the present session of Congress have bills been introduced for Woman Suffrage; in the House of Representatives by George W. Julian, in the Senate by Henry Wilson and S. C. Pomeroy.We are told too, that so soon as the great body of Women make visible sign that they are not contented with their present political status--that if we petition the powers that placed and hold us on a political level with those who are too wicked, or too

worthless to govern themselves--our petition will, no doubt, be granted. Now then, however we may feel moved to say with the old Roman-"Let them come themselves and fetch us out;" nevertheless let us forget the twenty years during which we have petitioned our respective State Legislatures. Let us redouble our efforts to secure justice. Let us scatter petitions like the leaves of Autumn. Let us gather up not only the names of Women who wish to vote, but also the names of Men who are willing they should vote. Let us never again be told that men hold us in political companionship with Idiots and Rebels because we have not asked them to relieve us from such a pillory of shame. Multitudes of women all over the country speak their gratitude for the noble work now begun, in Congress in their behalf. Multitudes more--
"With silence for their benediction,"
wait the final result."The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small,Tho' with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.LUCY STONE.According to certain rules of society, women are required to look upon labor as a degradation and a disgrace, and to disrespect the remuneration they get from manly toil. It is different among the male portion of the community. The schoolboy is trained to be a workman, and if society shuts her door on him, he has still mechanical skill which brings plenty to rejoice him. The female is not so; she depends upon marriage. You hear a woman say to one who asks her does her daughter work: "My daughter work! Never. My daughter did not do a single piece of work in all her life; she shall marry some day." When it is asked of the painter will he bring his boy up to his own trade--"Bring my boy up to my own trade," says the painter, "Never! he shall be brought up to no labor; he shall be a gentleman," as though a gentleman could mean anything in America but a pure heart, a clear mind, and an unsullied conscience and manly life.--From summary of Lecture on "Women's Labor"--By Anna E. Dickinson.THE CROSS AND THE CROWN.Phebe A. Hanaford'Tis heavy, Lord, the cross thou gavest me,"I scarce can bear it on my weary way;"So sighed a pilgrim, but an angel sang,"Strength shall be given equal to thy day."Onward he toiled, that pilgrim worn and sad,The cross seemed heavier as he bent him down,Then angels whispered, "Look up and be glad,For every cross shall change into a crown."He heard the whisper, so like music sweet,His faith the promise grasped; with lifted eyeHe saw the green fields for his weary feet,Where the still streams of peace flow gently by.Forgive my murmur," then the pilgrim cried, And let the cross be heavy if thou wilt, I'll think of Him who once on Calvary died,And of the cross He bore for human guilt."His was the greatest cross, and his will beThe brightest crown all future ages through,Oh, blessed Saviour! make me like to Thee,Patient and trustful, till Thy face I view."Lo! as he prayed, his cross began to shineWith lustre like an angel's radiant wing,And in his soul he felt a peace divine,The cross and crown are one," he then could sing.'Tis sweet to bear the cross in Duty's path,'Tis bliss to suffer for the cause of Truth,To faithful souls is heaven begun on earth,And hopeful Pilgrims share eternal youth.PHEBE A. HANAFORD.Editorial Department.SALUTATORY.FRIENDS! with the birth of the year, 1869, dates the existence of THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE.In its creation, heed has been, given to the urgent need of a Journal which, specially devoted to the Cause of Woman, should present, not alone the fleeting expression of the moment, but embody within its pages the loftiest aspiration--the best thought of the Nation.This is our ideal. Not in any narrowing sense political--not to be organ of clique or party--not to further any interest save that of the Right, THE ADVOCATE has existence; it will be single in purpose, unswerving to a principle, bestowing all it may of support to Woman, in the struggle which the aroused of the sex are making, at this critical hour, for a birth-right heritage of human duties and responsibilities not in America alone, but in all portions of the civilized World.That the standard it would erect will never be sullied by lower considerations, let its pages speak. Itself a demander of a larger share of freedom, it will be a medium for the freest expression of legitimate thought; while clearest intellects and ablest pens are under pledge to furnish articles, which in literary merit, will render THE ADVOCATE second to no periodical offered to the public.Relying, for support, on the appreciation of the public of such a journal; profoundly impressed by the sympathy already extended, we send our first greeting and warm hand-clasp to the Friends of Progress, over all the land.In view of the difficulties invariably attending the inauguration of a new enterprise, we feel that even special attention may be called to our initial number. The opening paper, "Looking Back," by Frances Dana Gage, will be read with the interest which that honored name awakens; Henry B. Blackwell contributes a vigorous paper on "The Era of Reconstruction;", Richard J. Hinton writes pleasantly of "The Woman Movement in Great Britain;" the brilliant, versatile pen of Kate Field furnishes us with a specially prepared "Report of the New England Women's Club;" Antoinette Brown Blackwell deals with "Industrial Reconstruction" in her unaffected, charming manner; Aaron M. Powell treats, thoughtfully, of "Woman as a Voter;" Lucy Stone institutes a graphic comparison between "Women and Rebels;" while such well-known writers as Frederick Douglass, W. J. Linton, Rev. J. W. Chadwick, Charles K. Whipple, George S. Burleigh, Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford and others add variety and interest to the number. As THE ADVOCATE is printed from stereotype plates, orders for back numbers can be promptly supplied, and subscriptions, at a date, commence with the beginning of the year. NOTES.ELEVEN States of the Union, all in the North, have now formed Suffrage Associations.The Chicago Legal News is a valuable paper, edited by Mrs. Myra Bradwell. We will be glad to be furnished with a correct list of all the papers in the country similarly conducted.The box which received the ballots of 172 Women of Cumberland County, New Jersey, at the late election, has been preserved by the Historical Society, together with the ballots and the names of those who deposited them.Senator Wilson said, at the recent, Boston Convention that he would vote for Woman Suffrage in the District of Columbia if the question came up this Winter in the Senate. He has, since then, introduced a bill for that purpose.A witty writer, in the Providence Journal, says:--"The best speeches at the recent Convention were made by women and a colored man. Does

not this go to prove that both women and negroes might use the ballot as well as white men now do.At the recent very successful Convention in Providence, a Suffrage Association was formed, and petitions extensively circulated for an Amendment, both of the Constitution of the United States and of Rhode Island, securing to Woman the right to vote.Petitions to Congress for an Amendment to the Constitution forbidding disfranchisement or proscription from office on account of race, sex or color, are being extensively circulated throughout the country, to roll, we trust, in an irresistible avalanche upon Congress.Not one of the least pleasant features of THE ADVOCATE, and one which will render it even more acceptable to the friends of the Cause, is the fact that the composition is under the entire charge of the present efficient forewoman of the NATIONAL ANTI-SLAVERY STANDARD, Miss Emily Peers, a compositor of several years standing.Every thoughtful mind will rejoice to learn that a recent Congressional enactment declares that the women in the employ of the Government, shall hereafter receive the same compensation as men for the same labor. The bare justice of this is self-evident, and furnishes evidence to hope that Suffrage will be the next step in the work of reformation.The Woman's Advocate published at Dayton, Qhio, gives promise of being a valuable paper, and an able assistant to the cause of Woman Suffrage. The odd chance of sponsorship, in the bestowal of a similar name, makes us incline kindly to our Western brother, and across the Alleghany we send our greetings and best wishes for its prosperity and years of usefulness.The proposed Women's Social Club in London promises no interferance with any one's opinions, and as few regulations as possible. We understand that it will open this month. Like the Boston Club, of which we present a report elsewhere, the plan contemplates lodging-rooms for respectable women, as well as dining and reading-rooms. We trust, at a later date, to present some account of its organization and results.During the recent Women's Suffrage Convention at Boston, there was nothing more impressive than the expression of a wish to vote on the part of a hundred female teachers of that city. The evident respect for their calling and the weight conceded to their convictions, were not

only a fine tribute to women engaged in a noble work, but unmistakable evidence of a change of public sentiment which must ere long demand that Suffrage know no limitation of race, sex, or color.Shortly after the Chicago Convention, Schuyler Colfax sent a telegram to his mother announcing his nomination for the Vice-Presidency the Nation, because she "would be glad to know it." Yet that same mother can neither vote nor hold office, nor have a trial by a jury or her peers. She is taxed, and has no representation; she is classed politically with idiots, lunatics, paupers and felons;--many women would be glad to know what the Vice-President elect will do about it.At the last meeting of the Sorosis in this city, Mrs. Jennie C. Croly, one of the high authorities of fashion, introduced a series of resolutions in favor of independence of dress, stating that while the Club "neither condemns nor ignores fashion, its members desire perfect freedom in following or discarding its dictates." This is an excellent recommendation, one which we trust will receive the general sanction of the Society. The good will be greatly augmented if Mrs. Croly, who is fashion editor for a number of the leading papers of the country, will improve the opportunity of presenting her convictions to the public.Nowhere has the cause of Suffrage advanced more rapidly than in Iowa. As long as the Republicans advocated Negro Suffrage on grounds of party policy, the people there, as elsewhere, manifested great indifference, but no sooner did the Party adopt "Manhood Suffrage" for the citizen, as a principle, than the people responded by wiping out political distinctions of race by 30,000 majority. Many of the leading newspapers and influential citizens of the State are now advocating Woman Suffrage with earnestness and ability, and, we doubt not, that liberal Iowa will soon present as untarnished a record for Sex, as now for Race qualification of Citizenship.A Convention remarkable for numbers, character and enthusiasm, was held on the 22d and 23d of December in Concord, New Hampshire. Many very prominent and influential citizens of both political parties participated. A State Association was organized, and Mrs. Armenia S. White was made its President. On the list of officers are some Of the first men and women in New Hampshire. The Springfield Republican anticipated opposition from the Clergy. Instead, six ministers of the Gospel, representing four denominations, sat on the platform at one time, and all spoke in favor of suffrage for Woman. Addresses were made by

Lucy Stone, S. S. Foster, Mrs. English, Rev. W. T. Savage, Mrs. Harper, H. B. Blackwell, Rev. Rowland Conner and others.A little more than a year ago, nine thousand radical Republicans of Kansas, aided by about one thousand progressive Democrats, voted in favor of Woman Suffrage. The vote astonished even the friends of the measure. Six thousand more votes would have won the battle. It is probable that those six thousand would have been given, if the result could have been foreseen. - In opposition to the political machinery of both parties, and in face of the ridicule and denunciation of those who claimed to be the especial friends of the negro, more than one-third of the entire vote of the State was given in favor of Woman. The votes to strike out the word male were only about one hundred and fifty less in number than the votes to strike out the word white; although the latter received the undivided support of the leaders of the dominant party. The struggle resulted in creating a compact body of earnest men and women in Kansas known distinctly as "Woman Suffrage Republicans," comprising a majority of the earnest Radicals, and almost all the original Free-State men. Now that Grant is elected, another effort will be made to induce the Legislature to submit the Woman question to the people of Kansas. The newspapers of the State are full of editorials and communications in its favor. Our friends are sanguine of success. We are allowed to make the following extract from a recent letter of the Hon. Charles Robinson of Lawrence--the first Free-State Governor, and a consistent friend of Freedom and Justice:
"The Suffrage question is vigorously agitated here, and a lively time may be anticipated before the Legislature."I am glad your New England Convention came off so finely. It is a relief to see the old Reformers taking hold of the Cause. Should our Legislature submit the question next year, we shall welcome the aid of distinguished speakers from the East. The growth of public sentiment in its favor among our people is steady and rapid."Thanks, for radical Kansas! May she lead in the Woman's Rights as she did in the Anti-Slavery Reform, and be the first State in America to establish a truly "Republican form of Government!"HOME INTELLIGENCE.THE BOSTON WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION.THE closing of the year, 1868, was remarkable for the number of Conventions held in various sections of the Union. At Boston, Providence and Vineland were large assemblages, holding sessions of the most gratifying character, and awakening the deepest interest in the Movement. Perhaps, of all, the most important, considered in a national point of view, was the Woman's Suffrage Convention held at Boston on the 18th and 19th days of November, pursuant to a Call numerously signed by women and men largely representing the culture, art and letters of New England. The Meeting was called to order by Mrs. Caroline M. Severance; and an organization effected by the election of Rev. James Freeman Clark, President, assisted by numerous Vice-Presidents and other officers. The sessions continued throughout two days, comprising six in all; with a decided increase of attendance and deepening of interest to the close. Among those well-known, whose presence lent strength to the Movement, were John G. Whittier, L. Maria Child, William Lloyd Garrison, and Henry Wilson. Letters were received from George William Curtis, Gov. Bullock, John Neal and others. Addresses were made by Rev. James Freeman Clark, Henry Wilson, Lucy Stone, William Lloyd Garrison, Henry B. Blackwell, and many friends or strangers present. On the second day a permanent organization was formed entitled:THE NEW ENGLAND SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.A CONSTITUTION was adopted, and the following officers were chosen for the year.OFFICERS.PRESIDENT--JULIA WARD HOWE.VICE-PRESIDENTS--Wm. Lloyd Garrison of Boston; Paulina W. Davis of Providence; James Freeman Clarke of Boston; Sarah S. Russell of Boston; John Neal of Portland; Lucy Goddard of Boston; S. E. Sewall of Melrose; Lydia Emerson of Concord, Mass; Isabella B. Hooker of Hartford; Harriet K. Hunt of Boston; J. Hutchinson, Jr., of West Randolph, Vt.; Mrs. Nathaniel White of Concord, N. H.; Louisa M. Alcott of Concord, Mass.; and John G. Whittier of Amesbury, Mass.CORRESPONDING SECRETARY--Sarah Clark of Boston.RECORDING SECRETARY-Charles K. Whipple of Boston.TREASURER-Ebenezer Draper of Boston. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE-Lucy Stone Blackwell of New Jersey; Thomas W.

Higginson of Newport, R. I.; Caroline M. Severance of Newton; F. W. Bird of East Walpole; Mrs. Sargent of Boston; Nathaniel White of Concord, N. H.; R. P. Hallowell of Boston; S. S. Foster of Worcester, Sarah S. Southwick of Needham, Rowland Connor of Boston; B. L. Bowles of Cambridge, George H. Vibbert of Rockport, Olympia Brown of Weymouth.The following Declaration of principles was adopted as the basis of a permanent organization:DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.1. Believing in the national equality of the two sexes, and that Women ought to enjoy the same legal rights and privileges as men, and that as long as Women are denied the elective franchise they suffer a great wrong, and society a deep and incalculable injury, the undersigned agree to unite in an association to be called the "New England Woman Suffrage Association."2. The object of the Association shall be to procure the right of suffrage for Women, and to effect such changes in the laws as shall place women in all respects on an equal footing with men.3. The officers of the Society shall be a President, thirteen Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, a Corresponding and Recording Secretary, and an Executive Committee of nine persons beside the President, Secretary, and Treasurer, who shall be members ex-officio. All the officers shall be chosen at the annual meeting, to continue in office for one year and until others, are chosen in their place.4. Any person may be a member of the Association upon the payment of an annual contribution as a life-member by the payment of twenty dollars.5. The President shall preside at all meetings of the Society, or, in his or her absence, the Senior Vice President.6. The Treasurer shall collect and take charge of funds, make all payments, keep regular accounts, to be audited by the Executive Committee.7. The Recording Secretary shall keep the records, and the Corresponding Secretary shall conduct the correspondence of the Association.8. The Executive Committee shall manage the business of the Association, may elect honorary members, call meetings of the Society, prepare petitions to the Legislature, issue publications, and employ lecturers and agents, and take any measures they may think fit to forward the objects of the Association, and fill all vacancies that occur prior to the annual meeting.9. The annual meeting of the Association shall be held on such day in the last week in May, in Boston, and at Such an hour and place, and be called in such a manner as the Executive Committee may appoint.The following Resolutions, debated with great skill and earnestness, were passed towards the close of the Meeting.RESOLUTIONS.WHEREAS, All human beings are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property; and whereas, "to secure these rights gov-

ernments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," therefore,Resolved, That suffrage is an inherent right of every American citizen, without distinction of sex.Resolved, that our existing governments, both State and National will be anti-republican in form and anti-democratic in fact so long as one-half of the people are unjustly excluded from the polls.Resolved, That the injustice everywhere inflicted by the law upon Woman--as mother, wife, and widow--is the inevitable consequence of class legislation; that, as the rich cannot be trusted to make laws for the poor, nor the white for the black, so men can not be safely trusted to make laws for women.Resolved, That we invite the Republican Party to drop its watchword of "Manhood Suffrage," and the Democratic party to abandon its motto of "A White Man's Government," and to unite in an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, extending suffrage to all men and women as the inalienable birthright of every American citizen.Resolved, That we call upon the Senators and Representatives of New England in Congress to demand suffrage for Women in the District of Columbia and in the Territories, upon the same terms and qualifications as are prescribed for men.Resolved, That we recommend the holding of conventions and the organization of societies throughout the New England States; and also the petitioning of the State Legislatures to amend the constitutions of the several States so as to give to Women the elective franchise.WHEREAS, Within the last twenty years, many of the laws in relation to the rights of property of married women have been revised, and some amelioration been effected of those relating to the mother's right to her children, and certain social rights and privileges heretofore withheld, have been gained; therefore,Resolved, That it becomes the imperative duty of Women to claim the suffrage that these amendments may become permanent for until the Woman has the right of representation her rights are held by an insecure tenure.Resolved, That in prosecuting the work for Woman suffrage we propose the formation of no new political party, but, we earnestly recommend to all who desire its success to carefully discriminate, in casting their votes, between its friends and its opponents, and so to use the balance of power as to a the enfranchisement of Women the most direct path to political preferment.Resolved, That we earnestly commend this movement to the clergy of all denominations, in the belief that there can be no more powerful aid to public morality than the enfranchisement of Women.Resolved, That the New England Convention assembled for the purpose of asserting the right of the ballot for the women as well as of the men of America sends greetings and congratulations to the enlightened friends and advocates of women s rights in England at the auspicious signs of the times, at the march of freedom, and equality on both sides of the Atlantic; and assures them of its hearty

coöperation in the same cause, and its profound conviction that so just and equitable is that cause that nothing but perseverance is needed to ensure its triumph at no distant day, especially in this country which stands committed to it by one of the articles of the Declaration of Independence.Among the many excellent addresses delivered, we present that of Mrs. J. W. Howe:ADDRESS BY JULIA WARD HOWE.LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I am entirely unprepared to address you, and can scarcely attempt more than a gesture of politeness and sympathy. I must treat what I have to say much after the manner in which a surprised housewife serves up a hasty dinner, bring out such things as she has, without much form or order.I may as well begin by saying how glad I am to be here. Women are sensitive, and I think rightly so, about being out of place. But none of us need fear, in coming here, to be out of place. I might hesitate about going to this ball--to that great dinner. I might fear not to be fine enough--ready enough. But here sincerity must be the wedding garment, with which we shall all hope to be adorned.I am glad to be made to feel that we are to begin our deliberations on a peaceable platform. One of the features that have trained me in the earlier advocacy of the extended political efficiency of Woman presented itself in the unkind suggestions made and entertained concerning the opposite sex. I do not to want to hear abuse of my father, grandfather, uncles, and male relatives in general. I do not even wish to hear my husband hinted at as a Satan behind the scenes. If we look round in this assembly we shall be convinced that the friends of man are the friends of woman; and I see with pleasure that we are to discuss the present question not on the basis of division, but of a larger and more perfect unity.My earliest objections to the entertainment of the question of Woman suffrage were founded upon the idea of separation suggested by it. "Woman's rights?" I asked. "We have no separate rights; no rights other than those of humanity in general." Further reflection showed me that disabilities are also a source of separation.I have written many things in a sense very different to that of this convention. I have quite a number of ingenuous essays written to prove that Women should not vote. The fact of her inability to perform military service seemed to me to exclude her from the franchise. But the coming in of more peaceful manners, changes voting from a military to a moral function, and it thus becomes in my opinion, one which can properly be administered by Woman.There have been so many solid and logical arguments built up on the other side, that writers and thinkers ate naturally reluctant to forsake such respectable fortresses of logic and tradition. This reminds me of a poem of Browning's, in which a band of adventurers, seeking some promised island of the blest, land in the wrong place, but after building there their beautiful crystal statues, cannot tear themselves from the place.We cannot leave our work, they cried. But we are obliged to leave out work,

and we find in time that we do not love it. We lose the form, but not the experience nor the spirit. History developes new revelations, and we must leave our synagogues, no matter how well swept and garnished they may be; we must leave them, and hold a meeting on the mount or beside the lake.I first became converted to the right of woman suffrage on finding that the negro was inevitably to receive the franchise. Voting thus became fundamental human right and function, from which women could no longer be excluded. And I am glad that we shall come in after the negro, whose wrongs and sufferings, patiently borne, have made him in our eyes an august, a heroic personage. I hope and believe that we shall make as good a use of our newly accorded powers as I am sure that he will make of his.One word more. Let me say in conclusion that women are rare. The numerical majority of thirty-five thousand in Massachusetts to the contrary notwithstanding, women are rare.A doll is not a woman. A toy is not a woman. A poor drudge, with all soul and thought driven out of her, is not a woman. She would be glad to be one, but it is not allowed. I think and hope that the object and action of this convention will do something to hold up before our own eyes and those of the world that ideal of womanhood which all men revere, and which all women must desire to attain.We close with presenting extracts from the admirable letter of L. Maria Child:LETTER FROM L. MARIA CHILD.DEAR MRS. SEVERANCE:--SO much has been said, and said so well, on the subject of universal suffrage, that there seems little left for me except the expression of my hope and belief that your Convention will prove a powerful agent to help on the progress of the world. Every step of human advancement has been marked by an enlargement of woman's sphere of action; and it has long been my conviction, a conviction which deepens with the thoughtfulness of years, that society can never be established on a true and solid foundation so long as any distinction whatsoever is made between men and women with regard to the full and free exercise of their faculties on all subjects, whether of art, science, literature, business or politics.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *I hardly feel like condescending to argue the question whether women have a right to exert direct influence on public affairs in the form of voting. It seems too ridiculous to undertake to prove that you and I are as well qualified to vote intelligently as the ignorant hordes which Great Britain annually sends to our shores from her almshouses and prisons.The salutary effect which the exercise of this right would have on the characters of women has doubtless been over-estimated by some. Still it must be admitted that no element of education is so powerful as a feeling of personal responsibility with regard to subjects of serious interest.I see little force in the plea that women could not keep themselves well informed concerning public affairs and take part in elections without neglecting their household duties. Think of the hours devoted to the dreary monotony of worsted work, to the capricious frivolities of fashion, to the ever-pouring flood of

sensational novels? Quite as truly might it be said that men could not discharge the duties of citizenship without neglecting their counting-rooms, offices, work-shops, farms and manufactories.It is said that women do not want to vote. Doubtless a large portion of them do not. But there is a minority who do wish to have a voice in the laws by which they are governed, and that small proportion are by no means the least qualified. I am glad that your Convention gives them a chance for utterance.Trusting that your deliberations will be characterized by good taste and sound common sense, I am, most faithfully, your friend, L. MARIA CHILD.WAYLAND, October 16th, 1868.CHEER.As an indication of the favor with which thoughtful men and women regard the establishment of THE ADVOCATE, we present a few of the responses already received.Mrs. C. M. Severance writes:BOSTON, November 29th, 1868."I am very glad that you are brave enough  to venture on an undertaking like the 'Monthly,' and I wish it all possible prosperity."CAROLINE M. SEVERANCE.Mrs. Isabella B. Hooker writes:HARTFORD, CONN., December 15th, 1868."Accept my best wishes for success in your efforts to promote a good Cause."ISABELLA B. HOOKER.Miss Anna E. Dickinson writes:PHILADELPHIA, December 22d, 1868."I wish you success with all my heart in the new work in which you are enlisted."ANNA E. DICKINSON.George William Curtis writes:BOSTON, November 23d, 1868."Please accept my best wishes for your success."GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.Mrs. L. G. Calhoun writes:NEW YORK, December 8th, 1868."I believe in the need of such a publication as yours promises to be, and extend my cordial wishes for its prosperity.LUCIA GILBERT CALHOUN.Theodore Tilton writes:NEW YORK, November 30th 1868."Allow me to send you a contribution of good wishes for your undertaking. I hope to hear of your abundant prosperity."THEODORE TILTON.Mrs. Ernestine L. Rose writes:NEW YORK, December 18th, 1868."I like your programme very much, and wish you all success in your undertaking."ERNESTINE L. ROSE.John Weiss writes:WATERTOWN, MASS., December 7th, 1868."It rejoices me to see a magazine started to represent the great question."JOHN WEISS.Rev. J. W. Chadwick writes:BROOKLYN, November 22d, 1868."I trust that your enterprise will be successful. You have a great, a good and winning Cause to advocate. I am with you heart and soul."J. W. CHADWICK.Elizabeth B. Chace writes:VALLEY FALLS, R. I., December 23d, 1868."I trust for all success in your new undertaking, which is indeed a most worthy one."ELIZABETH B. CHACE.Charles C. Burleigh writes:FLORENCE, Mass., December 12th, 1868."I am glad to see the prospect of a publication occupying the ground which yours proposes to take, and I wish it abundant success."CHARLES C. BURLEIGH.Miss Hanna E. Holcomb writes:NEWTOWN, November 28th, 1868."Allow me to express the hope that THE ADVOCATE may have all the success which a magazine devoted to such a noble object deserves."HANNA HOLCOMB.BOOKS RECEIVED[Notices of books designed for this number of THE ADVOCATE are unavoidably deferred until another month].A ROMANCE OF THE REPUBLIC. By L. Maria Child. 442 pp. - Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.POEMS, By Frances Dana Gage. 252 pp. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.TABLETS. By A. Bronson Alcott. 208 pp. Boston: Roberts & Brothers.AMONG THE HILLS. By John G. Whittier. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.THE COLLEGE, THE MARKET AND THE COURT. By Caroline H. Dall. 512 pp., Boston: Lee & Shepard.WHAT ANSWER? By Anna E. Dickinson. 301 pp., Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.PLANCHETTE's DIARY. Edited by Kate Field. 95 pp. New York: J. S. Redfield.NO LOVE LOST. A poem. - By W. D. Howells. 58 pp. New York- Putnam & Son.GLEANINGS AMONG THE SHEAVES. By Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. 325 pp. New York: Sheldon & Co.THE OPIUM HABIT. 235 pp. New York: Harper & Brothers.RUBY'S HUSBAND. By Marion Harland. 392 pp. New York: Sheldon & Co.THE CHILD WIFE. By Capt. Mayne Reid. 402 pp. New York: Sheldon & Co.SABBATH SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. By John J. Reed. 360 pp. New York: Tibballs & Co.FALLEN PRIDE. By Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth. 467 pp.; Philadelphla: T. B. Peterson and Brothers.WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. By Paul Du Chaillu. 231 pp. New York: Harper & Brothers.A FEW FRIENDS AND HOW THEY AMUSED THEMSELVEs. By M. E. Dodge. 182 pp. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott & Co.,THE WOMAN'S KINGDOM. By (Miss Mulock) Mrs. Craik. 183 pp. New York: Harper & BrothersPHYSIOLOGY AND Hygiene. By J. C. Dalton, M. D. 399 pp. New York: Harper & Brothers.POPULAR EDUCATION. By S. S. Randall, 256 pp. New York: Harper & Brothers.THE FLOWER AND THE STAR AND OTHER STORIES FOR CHILDREN. By W. J LINTON. Illustrated, 120 pp. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.MODERN WOMEN. With an Introductory by LUCIA GILBERT CALHOUN. 371 pp. New York: J. S. Redfield.THE LADIES COMPLETE GUIDE TO NEEDLE-WORK AND EMBROIDERY. By Miss Lambert. 312 pp. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Co.THE TRUE GRECIAN BEND. A Story in Verse. By Larry Leigh. With Illustrations. 48 pp. New York: J. S. Redfield.SPIRIT MYSTERIES EXPLAINED. The Inner Life. By Andrew Jackson Davis. 424 pp. Boston and New York: Wm. White & Co.WHAT SHALL WE EAT. A Manual for Housekeepers. 134 pp. New York: Putnam & Son.THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE.TWO WOMEN--A PICTURE.Caroline H. Dall"No doubt we seem a kind of monster to you.We are used to that."--TENNYSONI was leaning over the taffrail, watching a long, low line of light, which told of coming dawn. On my right, were Fort Moultrie and Sullivan's Island; on my left, the naked walls of Sumter--mute witnesses to strength and desolation. Afar--beyond the sands of Morris Island, was Fort Wagner, where more than one I loved had fallen--where one fair-haired, noble and ambitious, had dared and met a fate the world might envy. No longer "buried with his negroes," but risen with them into the light of God's love and man's esteem!--for had I not seen yesterday, the walls of the "Shaw Memorial School" with those proud words written on their front, and challenging the forgetfulness of South Carolina?It seemed like a dream that I was there! Were those receding palaces, really nothing but the houses that studded the battery? Were those walls, twenty feet high, and set along the top with broken glass or complex spikes, really intended to hem in the restless slave, as well as to secure  the aristocratic seclusion of his master? A "black State," they call it, this South Carolina--and a black city, they might add, for, in the streets of Charleston, white faces are very rare. Those

palmettoes, at the foot of which a rattlesnake lay coiled on the very first secession flag, are ugly enough to harbor such inmates. The motto was "Let us Alone;" and the prayer is answered. A long solitude will give the people of the State wholesome time to meditate on this flag. It is a poor stick, however, that cannot find its own place in the world and the soft spongy wood of the palmetto, is the only wood that resists the worm in these southern waters! The low line of light had grown broader. It was seven o'clock in the morning. . The boat began to toss, and as I gazed, still with wide-open eyes, I wondered how many feet short, and how many feet narrow it was? Just at that moment, the sun rose, and its first rays fell on the form of the chambermaid, a woman whom I had not seen before, but whose warmly tinted face--broad, happy and mother-like--seemed to gaze at me from some far-off Egyptian time.  She answered my uplifted eye and drew nearer."How long have you been on the boat?" I asked gently.Her brow grew darker, and the lines about her mouth stiffened with a strange pain."It is only my second trip," she answered without any perceptible accent. "Only a hard necessity drives me to it.""But is it not as pleasant a way to earn one's bread as any?" I persisted."Not to me," she said curtly, and we both fell into silence which I was the first to break, quite sure that our hearts had not wandered far from each other in the interval."Where were you born?" I asked."In Charleston, Madam. I belonged to a man named Smith. I was married when I was eighteen, and then my husband bought me. He wanted his children to be free, and be brought up with the 'knowledge of things.' We were very happy for a while, but when I had brought him two children, he died, and I had to take care of myself. I was a first rate hand at my needle, and I opened a little shop and took in work. When the war broke, out, I had saved $3,000. I didn't have it myself, you know. Of course they wouldn't let me do that, but I had a white man, a guardine, who took care of it. The war took all he had of his own, and mine. It left us both penniless"--and here, silent for a moment, passion got the better of her breeding, and she broke into the

vernacular of her race--"It all went to pay for their cussed war! They had no business to a took my money! I didnt' want no war! When Johnson talked about giving the property back the Rebs, he neber, said nothing about the colored people! Why didn't he give my money back to me? There neber was no justice for colored folks!""What sort of sewing did you do ?" I asked."Real, old-fashioned, fine sewing Ma'am.""But why did you not go North? That is the sort of sewing we all want, and can never get, for love or money."Well, Ma'am, when, the Prince of Wales was in Boston, I did go North-just for a visit, you know. I felt pretty rich just then, and it was lucky I went, else I'd have had no good at all of the money I'd earned so hard! I had no right to go without asking my guardine, but I said nothing, just slipped away with my money. I stopped in New York, and in Philadelphia. It appeared to me we wasn't wanted there any more than here.""Where are your children?" I asked."We all keep together, Ma'am. My son is married, and my daughter is at her trade; she can cut and trim a dress beautifully, but nobody wants nothing in Charleston now.""I am sorry to hear you speak so sadly," I said, pointing to Morris Island; "that low shore, with its scanty fringe of trees, looks to me like one long grave, so many of those I loved, struggled there to help your people to their rights. Some of those who went there never came back. Others left there their limbs, their reason, or their sight, and one dear friend of mine lay there in the hot sun till he lost all his memory, and when I see his wife patiently toiling in his stead, I like to think that you blacks were also willing to suffer--that he did not lose memory in vain.""Ah, Madam," she said, starting up, "that is another way to put it! You must not mind me. I am old; I don't like to lose all that money that I earned so hard. - I grudge it to them that made the war, but you musn't think I am ungrateful--that I don't know the worth of what I've got. The children, bless the Lord--the children will see the good of it, and poor as I am, Madam, I keep a child at school. As soon as I was married, Ma'am, I began.' It was 'a thank offering' my

husband said, and when he died, I still kept it up. After the war I didn't like to stop. It was true I had little, but then I had a free school, and when I couldn't buy the food and clothes, I begged them. First and last I've given six girls their schooling.A couple of weeks had gone by, since I talked with Marianne, leaning over the taffrail, as we floated over the bar. Soon after my landing at Beaufort, I discovered that I had left my hood in the state-room of the little steamer. Now, that I was about to turn North, my friends were a little uneasy. That smutty little snarl of Berlin wool, served for my nightcap in travelling, and had saved me many a rheumatic twinge. It was impossible to replace it, and everybody was vexed, because I felt sure I should find it safe. I had been more than two months among this people, and they not only had made no attempt to cheat me, but they would not allow me o cheat myself. I would not begin by doubting my brave Marianne. As I came out of the Charleston Hotel, I handed a dollar to Marcus, the old "secesh" porter, who has been there for twenty-five years, and has more sympathy with the old condition of things than the new. I turned at the same moment to a black boy, who held back the door, and offered him another."You mean it for Marcus," said he."No," said I, "I mean it for you. I have given Marcus his dollar. Were you not my waiter at the table?""No, Madam," he replied."Excuse me," I began, and was going to add, but won't you send my waiter to me? when he made a sudden movement and exclaimed, "very excusable, Ma'am," and half shut me out! Did I think a woman of the same race as that boy would purloin a hood? So when I went on board in the tender twilight, the soft glow of sunset just fading over Charlesfort, and, the ripples of the Chenonceaux glowing like opals under the light, Marianne brought my hood at the first word. We had a great deal of freight to take on board, and the scene was lovely--Lady's Island and St. Helena, lying so touched with color, that they seemed the very visions of a dream. I was not sorry that the hours passed, and still we did not quit the wharf. When the beauty was hidden, by the gathering shadows, I turned toward the shore, and watched the

characteristic groups of negroes, occupied with their various tasks.Sitting sheltered in a corner I saw a young black woman with two children come on board. I say black woman advisedly; she was neither brown nor yellow. I looked at her closely, for she was petite, and exquisitely formed. She led two little children by the hand. As they crossed the plank, the group would have caught any artist's eye. Mine lingered on it because they were so well dressed. The children in plain stuff frocks and sacks, the mother in a calico dress and blanket shawl only; but I could see that her collar was white and everything about her fresh. A colored man saw her on board, seated her near me and said, "I hope you will find the boat comfortable." "That is Robert Small's wife," whispered a bystander, and I stole another look before I sought the warm cabin.Within, there was a far less agreeable picture. A white woman with her three young children, going from Savannah to Charleston, sat near the stove and kept Marianne occupied with their varied wants. One was a baby; and an up-country man from North Carolina, tried also to ease the mother's cares. Her social position it was difficult to decide. She took pains to let us know that her destination was the most aristocratic part of Charleston, nothing less, in short, than its very Fifth Avenue; but all the evening, and half into the night, she entirely engrossed the services which all needed.We had a lucky run, and shot up to the wharf before four in the morning. We might have staid quietly in our berths, but for some reason or other none of us did. We dressed, and in the darkness, gathered round the lamp and stove. All the passengers, but three, were intent upon a comfortable nap before breakfast, and hurried off to the Hotel. I waited until it was time for the North Eastern Depot to open; the mother waited till it should be late enough for her to seek her fashionable friends, she said; and our up-country friend waited, pdrhaps, because he was loth to leave us. At last he broke the stupid silence."It was a pity they didn't let that colored woman stay aboard last night!""What?" I ejaculated, with more surprise than courtesy.Yes, didn't you see her?" persisted the man. "She was Robert Small's wife, going up to her husband at Colomby. He's in the

Legislatur. She wouldn't go with the lousy crew between decks, and they wouldn't let her in here."But why did none of us hear of it?" I interrupted. "Why did you not speak?""Twas none of my business," he went on. "She was to go some round-about way this morning, that would cost her seventeen dollars instead of five.""It is just as well," drawled out the lady by the stove, rocking her baby. "If she had come in, I should have gone ashore.""It is a pity the passengers had no opportunity -to decide whose company they preferred," I continued, "at all events, if I had chosen to engage Mrs. Small as my servant, and had given her a berth in my stateroom, you could not have helped yourself.""I don't approve of mixing," drawled out the same slow voice."There was no mixing in the case," I retorted, you kept Marianne at your side long after she would have been glad to go to rest; Mrs. Small was not likely to intrude on you.""I don't want colored folks in the same room with me," she persisted."Don't keep the chambermaid at your side all night then; but you know very well that is not what you mean. You cannot have too many 'colored folks'--if it is their business to wait on you. It only displeases you when they have money to buy the same accommodations. Mrs. Small's money is as good as mine.""That's what I think," said the up-country man, showing his flag at last, and holding out his watch to the baby. But the mother drew the child away as if she feared that it would be contaminated; and forgetting the dark morning, walked hastily down the stairway and out upon the wharf.Marianne had listened with dilated lips and eyes. She now proceeded to air the cabin. "She have the face to talk about color," said she, "and leave such a state-room as that behind her. Faugh! Color! What's color? The great God will answer that question one day!"It is not unlikely that both these women will some time have the right to cast a vote. If the educational test is to be applied, which of these two will be found best fitted for the grave responsibility.CAROLINE H. DALLTHE BATTLE OF THE SEXES.R. W. HumeONE of the latest phases of this melancholy war may be said to have been heralded by the brief of the Pope to Archbishop Dupanloup, in the spring of 1868, on the subject of "Female Education." Pio Nono asserts in it that an attempt is being made "to deprive Woman of her native modesty, to exhibit her in public, to turn her aside from domestic life and its duties, and to puff her up with false and vain knowledge." Since then, this serious attack has been followed up by a series of articles in the Saturday Review, coarsely criticising her as a Mother, Wife, and even as a School-girl. It is to be feared that the papers referred to truly reflect the opinions of the majority of the male portion of the upper classes in Great Britain, and it is not surprising, that, having such antipathies, two-fifths of their women (as their census informs us) are unmarried.Neither are we ourselves entirely disconnected from this miserable broil, in which it may truly be said that both sides lose the battle in every encounter for the degradation of man is the only price by which a victory over woman can ever be purchased. The impolicy of marriage has here been advocated in an article in Putnam's Magazine, entitled "Why Women don't get Husbands," by one who calls himself a Friend of Woman. This "Friend of Woman" tells us that her function is to be a loyal wife and loving mother, and sagely defies the world to prove that man can fill those parts in the economy of nature. But, if such were the opinion of the "Friend," how could he write an article manifestly intended to dissuade young men from marriage, and consequently decrease the number of those females who alone carry out (in his opinion) the design of their creation. That he should thus seek to undermine his own theory is both inconsistent and indefensible.What is still more to be deplored is that these belligerent ideas are now progressing into actions. Persecution is producing resistance. Copying the evil example set them by men, the women, in their turn, both here and in Europe, are organizing themselves into clubs on the separate system, a logical sequence of their now unrecognized position.

Politically slaves, and consequently rarely noticed, save as criminals, by the law, they thus seek practically to prove the justice of their claim to the natural right of self-government. Subservience to the Present ruling of fashionable society, which ignores such demand, may cause them to deny any such intention, but their actions in establishing Sorosis societies speak louder than words. In the meantime the poorer "sisters" are being herded together in our cities in separate establishments, and probably fearful necessity partially justifies this innovation. But our condition is preferable to that of England where (as beforesaid) two-fifths of the women are single, and where an impious Act of Parliament has long been passed, which, without condemnation from the Established Church, has been and is now daily used to separate married couples who are guilty of the crime of poverty.It is not difficult to trace the causes which have produced these effects. Wealth and poverty alike are the destructive elements of human societies. They are both artificial creations of evil laws. Crime and consequent decay usually enter into communities through the gates of luxury and misery. The palaces of the rich as well as the crowded hovels of the poor are the generators of the moral and physical malarias which destroy nations. The pictures of human depravity, in the latter, which, during the past Summer, harrowed the souls of the community, are matched by the former, for Commissioner Acton informs us, that "in the lewd dance-houses of the city, Fifth Avenue is more than represented." It is no wonder, therefore, that vices, peculiar to the war, are constantly on the increase; that marriage is shunned; or when consummated, in many instances, wilfully rendered barren. That divorces are common; and marriage vows, to use the words of Hamlet, "as false as dicer's oaths." With the wealthy, the club supercedes the home, and children are a torment; with the poor, the tavern not unfrequently supplies the means of enabling fathers, for a while, to forget them. At the same time, for the evil instruction of all, the press is largely subsidized to advertize means for the prevention of increase.The strong quadrilateral of Virtue, the fortresses of husband and wife, parent and child, being thus stormed, crimes of the deepest dye spread themselves over the community. Those who were created a little lower than the angels, become degraded lower then the beasts

which perish. When mutual respect between men and women is lost, order, harmony, and happiness, will also terminate. As in other wars, so in this battle of the sexes, the weakest are the first to suffer. Nations like France, and States like Massachusetts, cease to increase. City governments, subservient to the demands of property, sacrifice life to uphold them. Classification commences, and hatred on the one side is met by contempt on the other. These are by no means the worst phases of the war. Dr. Lankester, the able coroner for Middlesex, asserted his belief that in London there were twelve thousand mothers who had murdered their children; and a correspondent of The World more than doubles that amount in estimating the number of similar criminals in New York. Crimes, which the Pagan Romans deemed impossible on account of their peculiar atrocity, have latterly been added; and filicide, patricide and even matricide fill up the cup of our iniquities.Assuredly this dreadful state of affairs has mainly arisen from the sequestration of woman from her place in society as a help-meet for man. From childhood to old age, her place should be by his side. In the school, she would modify his ferocity into firmness, retaining the surplus to elevate her weakness into dignity. Place her in the workshop, and she would bring order and harmony into the dark holes in which the masses of our people are condemned to pass the greater portion of their lives. . At the bed of the sick who so fit to administer help to the afflicted. Without her the seat of justice is without its complementary part, for Shakespeare tells us--
"That earthly power doth then shew likest God's,When Mercy seasons Justice."
Her presence in our legislative halls would insure decorum, and suppress the brutalities which now too often degrade them. It is in her absence that our feasts degenerate into debauches. Is not her presence needed in the Government itself, to insure proper attention to the claims of the poor, the weak, and the maimed, who have there now no advocate?Is it any wonder, that, reflecting on her condition, and having no fixed legal status, she seeks to claim the position given her by the Creator, but of which the superior force or craft of man has cruelly

deprived her? Is it also not painfully evident, that, in many instances, she is totally defenceless, and is she not justified in demanding from her oppressors the means, political and legal, whereby she may protect her own interests?To conclude: In order to reverse the present system which has proved itself to be prolific of evils, it is necessary to begin at the home, and begin with the young. Palaces and hovels are frequently unworthy the name of homes, and therefore often the women of our cities have none. Parents commonly love their children, but cannot expect to rear them rightly either in the tenement houses of the poor, or the hotels of the wealthier classes. But the germs of law and order must be planted in the youth of our Nation, and the material circumstances which develope their characters can and must be improved. Light, air, and space must be evoked in our cities, to drive out the evil demons which are tormenting us, and daily, by pestilences moral and physical, demanding fresh victims. The Declaration of Independence asserts that governments are ordained for the protection of life, wisely placing it before liberty itself. The pursuit of happiness, and incidentally the rights of property follow, as secondary to and dependent upon the former. On the healthiness, security, and sanctity of one homes, and on the conservation of the purity of the conjugal and parental relations of our people, we must rest our hopes for the termination of this unnatural war, and the duration of this Republic. If we permit these to be sapped by neglect, or destroyed by crime, the best form of government and the most faultless of Constitutions will not save us; we shall deservedly fall, and the sacred temple of our Liberties will crumble into hopeless ruins.R. W. HUME.THE most mischievous errors are perpetuated by drawing masculine and feminine lines in theory at the outset. The God-given impulse of sex, if left in complete freedom, will establish, in time, certain distinctions for itself; but these distinctions should never be pressed on any individual soul. Whether man or woman, each should be left free to choose its own methods of development.--"The College, the Market, and the Court."--Caroline H. Dall.ALL THE YEAR ROUNDMary A. WhittleseySPRING, Summer, Autumn, have flashed and grown pale,Winter is here, the white rose of the year;Bonnets have flashed by like vanishing hail,My hat is still here, neither faded nor sear.It has sailed on the river, sunned on the hill,Nodded in church and left me in the lurch,Been where the wood-thrush was tolling his bellIn some green porch of his wilderness church.It has screened my brows 'neath a sage's roof;(0 fortunate hat! we'll remember that),By haughty dame in her carriage aloof,Been laughed at; ah! unfortunate hat.I've worn it in sunshine, worn it in rain,Am wearing it still, though snow's on the hill;What wearisome labors of body and brain,What a treadmill it has spared me from still.Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter-hats, four,Bonnets for church, that conspicuous perch,Narrow brims, no brims, broad brims for the shore;Wit, wisdom, research, were employed in the search.Much time was consumed, and bottom, and speed,All the year round, that the skull might be crowned;Only the skull;--would one wonder indeed,If Brain were not found, at the end of the round?MARY R. WHITTLESBYTHE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN.Richard J. Hinton[SECOND PAPER].AMONG illustrations of progress in the matter of professional education and occupation is noticeable the success of Miss Elizabeth Garrett, who recently succeeded in obtaining a diploma from Apothecaries' Hall. Like the Faculty of Geneva Medical College, after Miss Blackwell graduated with such distinguished honor, the Apothecaries' announce that the accidental door through which Miss Garrett passed is hereafter to be closed, and, as these unwise disciples of Galen believe, to remain hermetically sealed against any like daring innovator of the strong-minded order. Another movement is meeting with good success, though as yet it has been unable to obtain a Charter. It is the "Female Medical Society," founded in 1864, and of which the Marquis Townshend, a man of noble character, devoted to philanthropic labors, is President. Fourteen female pupils were entered immediately on its being organized, and the number is now quite large. Recently an effort was made to obtain leave for these students to "walk" the London Hospitals and attend the anatomical demonstrations. Though it failed, still the existence of a very liberal spirit was made manifest. The Farmingdon Dispensary, one of the largest of those medical charities for out-door relief and advice which abound in London, admitted ladies for several months to the advantages it afforded for practical study of disease. A short time since the, trustees withdrew the privilege, but testified in doing so to their belief in the benefits that had already and would continue to result from its exercise. Their reason for a withdrawal was a fear of its injurious effect on their subscription lists. A female medical mission was lately organized in London and sent to Delhi, hoping to perform thereby a double duty--to cure the bodies and minds of the Hindoo women.It may be as well to notice here some of the evidences of Continental progress also. In St. Petersburg, a University for Women has been organized under Imperial patronage. Two Rus-

sian ladies have applied to the Imperial College of Medicine at the Muscovite Capital, and pending their admission, the Emperor directed a Russian Medical officer, then in the United States, to make an investigation into the education and practice of our lady physicians and report thereon. Among other institutions he visited, was the New York Infirmary for women and children, with which Dr. Blackwell and other eminent female physicians are connected. Two Russian ladies have been admitted to the Zurich (Switzerland) Medical University.**I am indebted for these and other facts, to a very interesting paper in the December Galaxy, in which the medical phases of the subject are fully treated. The Women's Educational Movement in Prussia, so far as it connects itself with the University of Petersburg, rests with the proposition to establish in that institution, Professorships or "Faculties" of History, of Philology and of the Natural Sciences for the benefit of Woman.Madame De, Gall is now lecturing in Paris, on all medical topics, and her classes are quite well attended. Recently the Minister of Public Instruction permitted a French woman to graduate at Lyons, provided she practiced Medicine only in Algeria from whence she came. There are many other evidences of the breaking away of the barriers, but they need not now be referred to.Society is slowly le'arning the truth of Madame Sirault's warning: "Every career from which woman is steadily repulsed by man is, by this fact alone, marked with the seal of death. The very repulse stigmatizes it. Man may not be conscious of what be does, but the career which is too vile for women to enter, has already outlived all chance of reform, and must perish with its abuses."This pregnant paragraph is fit introduction to such reference as will be made to the political aspects of the English agitation. If Politics are too corrupt for women to think and act upon, then it is at once evident that the State itself is corrupted through the continued exercise of political power even by the male citizens thereof. Though those English women, who placed their names on the registration lists, and succeeded in passing the Revising Barristers, were ultimately stricken off by the decision of a Puisine Judge, still the result of that effort, and the very general interest,

                           
it proved to exist among the women themselves, made the Movement a great success. The chief rebutting reason presented by the learned Judge against resumption of their electoral rights by female property-holders was, that they had permitted them to remain so long in abeyance, as to have caused them to lapse entirely.Several curiously interesting historical facts were brought out during the discussions before the various Revising Barristers, and in the press, pending the decision on the right of registration. Among other things was the undenied statement that ladies of title had formerly occupied seats in the House of Lords, when they were entitled as peers in their own right, or when their lords were dead and the heirs were in their nonage. They also held the office of high sheriff (which must be filled by one possessed of the electoral qualification) and other similar dignities. It has also been stated that the same investigations tend to show that the Parliaments were originally founded on the idea of universal suffrage, the manifestation of which was the "showing of hands"--a custom in England which now would be more "honored in the breach than in the observance"--as it is an utterly useless and generally disgraceful ceremony.There could not have been less than twenty thousand applications made for registration by women, possessing every requisite qualification, (except sex), for the exercise of suffrage, which the British law requires. But Privilege-sick man of Europe though it is--is still too strongly entrenched in Great Britain to yield at the first assault in this direction. Nearly six thousand women applied for registration in Manchester; as many more in Lambeth; a large number in other Metropolitan boroughs, and some persons in the majority of boroughs in England and Scotland. The movement is sure to succeed. It has the logic of the English system in its favor. That requires a property qualification for the franchise. Many women have that, and the general legal interpretation of the word "Man" has always been deemed inclusive of both sexes. It strains the rule and precedent to decide otherwise, simply because the case is that of a demand for the right to vote.During the recent election in Great Britain many ladies took an active part in the canvassing. Mr. Bernal Osborne was frank

enough to affirm at Nottingham that the efforts of his opponent's wife largely contributed to his own defeat. Active among these lady politicians was Lady Amberly, Earl Russel's daughterin-law, and known favorably in America. She is said to have spoken from the hustings, where Lord Amberly was a candidate.In Manchester eight women, whose names by accident were left on the Registry, voted at the late election. Eight others, freeholders, voted in south-east Lancashire. At Ashford, East Kent, fifteen out of thirty-five who were registered, recorded their votes.. In Finsbury the same number also went to the Polls. In Dublin one woman, and at Leicester three women voted.The First Annual Report of the Manchester National Society for Woman Suffrage, speaks hopefully of the Progress of the Movement, though conceding that a mistake was made in carrying an appeal from the adverse decision of a Revising Barrister to the Court of Common Pleas, where the appeal was morally certain to be thrown out contemptuously. The Judges were hardly respectful in their treatment of the case. The Executive Committee have since determined to make a direct attack on Parliament. Circulars were sent to all candidates at the recent general election, informing them that a bill would be offered in the Reformed Parliament placing woman on the same footing politically as man, and asking what action they would take on it. At the last advices over one hundred letters had been received, of which fifty-three were favorable. The Edinburg Committee have also received favorable answers from many of the Members from Scotland.It is quite common among even well informed persons to suppose that the right of suffrage is nowhere possessed, in representative forms of Government, by women. The only general exception to this belief would be the case of the British Australian colony of Victoria where, as most persons are aware, the right of suffrage is now possessed by women. They universally assumed the right there some four years ago, having found that the law had, probably inadvertently, been so framed as to permit them. It works admirably, according to all reports.In Sweden, chiefly through the exertions of the late Fredericka Bremer, an indirect right of voting was, in 1862, granted to all women possessing specified property qualifications. In 1865, by

the passage of the Swedish Reform Bill, the election of members of the Upper Chamber was given to organized county and municipal bodies. In the election of these latter, unmarried women and widows possessed of an annual income of four hundred rix-dollars and over, are allowed to vote.By the Fifteenth Article of the Italian Code, a widow or wife, separated from her husband, who pays taxes, is allowed to vote through such child or other relative as she may designate.In, Holland, widows and single women possessed of property, are entitled to vote on all questions of taxation, etc., likely to effect its value. Mr. Blackwell, of New Jersey, stated at the recent New England Convention that a lady from Holland now visiting here, was required before leaving to designate some fit person to represent that property franchise during her absence.In 1867, Moravia granted the franchise to all widows who pay taxes. In many towns of France women possess and exercise the right to vote in municipal affairs, and in one of them, Mrs. C. H. Dall states in her valuable work, " The College, the Market, and the Court," (to which we are indebted for many facts)--the entire council was recently composed wholly of women.In Austria women can vote as nobles; in their corporate capacity as nuns, and as tax-payers. In some cases, however, they vote by proxy. It does not speak well for the genuine liberalism of the Magyar, revolutionists, when it is known that up to 1848 widows and single women, who were landed proprietors, possessed the right to vote. They were deprived of it by the revolutionary government, and they are now petitioning in large numbers for the restoration of this right.In Canada, as in several of our own States, women, are allowed to vote for, and serve as, school trustees. In Pitcairn's Island--inhabited by a community descended from the Mutineers of the Bounty, the govermentgovernment, which is based on a written Constitution, is shared on equal terms by men and women alike.This rapid resume of the position of the Woman's Movement, both in Great Britain and elsewhere, cannot be more appropriately closed than with the eloquent words of the writer of the article in the Westminster Review on "the Property of Married Women:"

We hail the movement which has brought us thus far as a promising sign of the times, for it surely indicates the growth of a truer and wiser conception of the destiny of woman than has hitherto prevailed among us. As we know of a past in which she was destitute of any recognized right, so we may hope for a future in which she will be endowed with all the privileges justly pertaining to her as the equal counterpart of man in the social organism. The great and immediate work of our generation is to realize that future--to elevate woman, the slave, into Woman, the citizen, and to place her in a position of perfect freedom, and independence, in which alone she can attain to the full and harmonious development of her essentially noble nature as a moral, intellectual and active being."RICHARD J. HINTON.A WORKING GIRL'S THOUGHT.Nettie Bertrand"WHAT good would voting do Woman?" What harm has not the denial of the ballot done her?If women could vote, would they be paid so poorly for the work they do? Would those employers, who pay a woman half as much as they do a man, for labor equally well performed, do so if she could use the ballot? Would there be so many "sisters in sin," if for honest work they were paid according to their merits; and would they not be paid according to their merits if they had the free use of the ballot? Would a poor working-girl be insulted with proposals, by base men, as she is hastening home, late from her work, if she had the ballot in her hand, and the Law on her side? 0, ye girls of the working-classes! why do ye not rise en masse and claim the right of Suffrage, for it is you who need it most!Oh, Men and Women of America! Men who have wives, and women who have daughters, do you not see that your wives and daughters may be brought to the same strait; for so long as Woman is disfranchised, so long will all avenues of lucrative employment be closed against her; so long will she be underpaid; and so long is there very little choice left for her between poverty and starvation, and a life of sin!NETTIE BERTRAND.Georgiana E. WatsonTHE SCRIPTURES VERSUS THE WOMAN QUESTION.WHATEVER writings are acknowledged by any people as sacred, to them appeal is made for the decision of disputed questions, whether religious, social or civil. In those earlier ages when authority and assent had the ascendancy over reason and belief, and even when the latter had in a large measure displaced the former, and philosophic ethics and politics were more employed in the discussion of social organization and civil government, there was not infrequently an attempt to establish for any given custom or institution the higher sanction of Divine authority, distinctively so-called.This mode of appeal, however natural it may be, has given rise to serious evils;--for instinctively certain that the minds of men are involuntarily influenced by the idea of Divine sanction to a greater degree than by any lower authority, and that if the Divine and human reason be adroitly made to appear at variance the power of intimidation is on the side of the former, those who have aimed at the establishment of systematic authority, civil or ecclesiastical, have everywhere insisted upon the recognition of the supremacy of this appeal. So the Church of Rome appealed for her power over the bodies and souls of men. So the advocates of kingly absolutism, and so, on the other band, those who rose up to resist these systems, appealed to Divine sanction.We smile at the course of those inquisitors who decided that the Copernican theory of Astronomy was contrary to the Scriptures, but have we not seen the same principle at work to set Geology and the Scriptures at variance? In the former case, the world has settled it that the proof of the truth of the Copernican system is a question not included within the scope of those writings--that its establishment or its rejection in no way affects their claims, nor their poetry its mathematics. It is then worth while to consider what questions shall be subject to this appeal, and to determine the mode of decision under the appeal, as well as the method of con-

ducting the inquiry into the Divine law, however expressed. This investigation I will endeavor to make for our social question--the status of Woman. And I do this the more willingly because the Scriptures are a weapon more apt to be seized upon by the Conservatives, on any question, than by the Reformers. Do we get any help in the decision from these writings? What is their position and bearing upon it? The question will be elucidated most readily by a historic method. In the beginning, how came it that the human race was created of two sexes?, It may be said that man as an animal but follows the constitution of all animal life, and therefore no special reference was made to sex in his creation more than in that of other animals. The account does, however, tell us that but for the creation of woman, man would have been alone, i. e. unmated, and without a helpmeet for him--without one suited to his special nature and needs--Gen. ii., 20. Yet, though thus created for companionship, there is an express assertion that in regard to spiritual personality they were created alike--Gen i., 26, 28. It was not the man alone who was made in the image of God--it was not he alone of whom it was said, "let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth." The personality and pre-eminence here asserted must be common to both sexes of the race or their relation would be monstrous, and the assertion of matehood absurd. The argument for subjection and inferiority has, however, been usually drawn from the passage which gives specific detail Gen ii., 21, 22; but the whimsical interpretations which are the foundation of such arguments are inconsistent with the simple statement of v. 18 just before--"It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him a help-meet for him."The next point is that contained in Gen. iii., 16--the basis of the rabbinical views which, in later times, excluded women from religious services, and the basis apparently of St. Paul's argument 1 Tim. ii., 11, 14. Both of which interpretations, when taken as the sense of the passage in Genesis, or when applied to the general doctrine of Woman's absolute subjection, are inconsistent with the tenor of the Scriptures in general, and with certain precepts of the Jewish law, as well as with certain Acts of Jewish history. It would seem as though but for prejudice its -simple and special

application could scarcely have been misunderstood. It expresses clearly a subordinated sexual relation, dependent upon the special relation of husband and wife; and where the latter relation does not exist, is necessarily absent. The terms of the passage are specific not generic; husband and wife, not man and woman. It is a declaration of relativity, and of that under specific conditions.These two points are all--earlier than the national institutions of the Hebrews, and the glimpses of Woman's condition in patriarchal times--which indicate that man quickly changed the primal constitution of things, by his "dynastic reasons." Whether we suppose the Hebrew code, to be of immediately Divine origin, or whether, we regard it as the work of human legislators its provisions are of the same value. They show us the status of woman in that earlier time. The existence of the Laws respecting purification, show that a preservation of her rights as a member of the religious commonwealth was intended as well as the accommodation o society. She was permitted to present her offering to the priest; to make religious vows; to engage in the general worship of the congregation; to hear the reading of the Law, and to partake of the religious feasts. All these, under the Hebrew system, were rights of citizenship, for it was part of the law of all sacrificial feasts that "no stranger" might -eat thereof. In their enslaved condition the domestic institution of marriage had been abused. Wives were taken, and left at convenience. But women were protected against this injustice by the law of divorce, Deut. xxiv., 1, which provided against careless or unjust desertion.Neither the civil law of Greece or Rome gave Woman the right of property; but the Hebrew law, made to meet the special condition of the family of Zelophead gave them the right of inheritance when there were no male heirs, apparently without the condition of wardship, as under feudal law, but simply with the condition that they should not marry out of their tribe.Laws like that of Num. xxx., 6, 7-15 were regulative simply under the parental or marriage relation. The first were similar to our laws for minors; for the second we have no parallel unless perhaps in requiring the husband to pay debts contracted by the wife, which rests upon the assumption that he has permitted her

to contract them; so the husband unless he disallowed the vow of the wife in the day that she made it, could not, later, forbid her fulfilling it.However limited the rights of Woman may seem to us under these laws; relatively considered, they were an advance upon the previous condition of Hebrew women, and gave them a civil elevation not found among the Oriental nations generally.Whoever traces the later Jewish opinions, will find them sufficiently conservative on this question, and will understand why in the well-side scene at Shechem, "they marvelled, that HE talked with a Woman." Indeed, one may stop far short of any such inquiry, and understand it, when among the thanksgivings of the synagogue liturgy is found this: "I thank thee, O, Lord God! that thou hast not made me a Woman." Before any such ascription could have been framed, the whole spirit of the national thought must have changed from what it was in the days of Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Moses;" or the days when "Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth" judged Israel under her palm tree, and, inspired the national revolt which delivered her people.Let us turn to what some may, regard as more positive authority on this subject--the teachings of the New Testament. All the direct and positive precepts we find there may be ranged under two heads: Those which relate to the connection of Woman with the public ministry of the church and those which refer to the specific duties of husband and wife. The two sets of passages are usually regarded--so far as I have seen them used--as if they belonged to the same set of relations, and, involved precisely the same ideas. In order to obtain a clear statement of the case they should be considered apart. The most important of those which refer to the relation of husband and wife are: Eph. v., 22, 24; Titus ii., 4, 5; 1 Pet. iii., 1, 3. They consist of exhortations to those moral duties of love, patience and wifely respect which receive the absolute approval of Christendom, and which are so far incorporated with all our habits of thought and feeling that we regard the violation of them with horror, and can hardly conceive of the relation under any other conditions. But precepts regulative of specific obligations are not regulative of others than those

specified, and we might as well argue the social subordination of Woman from the Fifth Commandment as from these advisory precepts in the Epistles. It seems also to be forgotten, in that species of argument from them, that there is a counterpart series of precepts from which it might be possible to argue that men owe certain duties to all women, because they are there said to owe them to their wives. Both sets of precepts are of equal force, and both enjoin the mutual consideration, gentleness and honor which make up the civilized ideal of the marriage relation--nothing more.The second class of passages to be examined consists of those which are taken by some to define the relation of Woman to the ministry and service of the Christian Church. They are, I Cor. v., 16; 1 Cor. xiv., 34, 35, 1 Tim. ii., 11, 14--and compose the whole body of passages bearing on the subject. The first two are given to the Corinthian Church, and would seem, from their general tenor, to be intended to regulate disorderly doings, and unbecoming extravagances in their assemblies for worship, instead of teaching that a woman is not to pray or speak publicly, the implication of the language, in 1 Cor. xi., 5, 13, is that she may both pray and prophesy, but not unveiled. Whatever stress may be laid upon 1 Cor. xiv., 34, 35, it would most evidently come under the general idea of the maintainance of order and propriety according to the Jewish conception of the duty of women in public assemblies. If we have any hesitation in adopting this local interpretation of these passages, we may consider that if not so taken but received as a law for the whole Church for all time, they must also be taken in a more literal and stringent sense in all respects, and deny that women shall either entertain their own judgment or instruct others in any truths of the Christian religion. But so rigid an interpretation would be at variance even with apostolic usage, for St. Paul says, "Help those women who labored with me in the Gospel;" Phil. iv., 2--just as much implying their praying, instructing and prophesying as he does when, in the same epistle, he declares of Timothy, "he bath served with me in the gospel;" or in 1 Thes. iii., 2, calls Timothy, "Our fellow laborer in the gospel." So, however literal and consistent, this interpretation is not likely to be favored, since it would deprive the Church of more than half

its most active and successful laborers, not simply of those who minister to the material wants of the poor or sick, but of those who instruct in religious truth, from its simplest elements to its highest verities.Such are the direct and special precepts we have found in our examination. As to what the general relation of the New Testament is to this subject, may best-be shown by its indirect influence on social relations. That this is, in respect to the status of Woman, always ameliorative, and in its freest activity elevating, only those who are blind alike to the history of the Past, and the conditions of the Present, can possibly deny. It is a principle of interpretation that the parts must follow the tenor of the whole, and if this general view be correct, then our previous construction of specific precepts will be found in entire agreement with it. There, also, is a rule of legislation that no special statute shall controvert or defeat the intention of any general provision. Either the special shall be in agreement, or it, and not the more comprehensive, shall be disallowed. In both the Hebrew and Christian systems there is an office, personal indeed rather than ritualistic, which men and women have held in common. It is that of prophecy. Its power is derived from that mysterious communication of the Divine, which we name Inspiration. Its special work is to reveal and teach. Under the Hebrew ritual, Woman was excluded from the Priestly, but not from the Prophetic office. The instances of its exercise, indeed, are not numerous, but they are yet sufficient. Miriam, Deborah, Huldah stand on record in the Hebrew history, and in the days of the national decadence, there was "one Anna, a prophetess." That under the Christian system the same principle was retained may be seen from Acts xxi., 9--" And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy"--a text in which it is quite indifferent whether we take the word prophesy in the sense of revealing, or teaching. It would not, indeed, be unreasonable to expect that in the present adjustment of the Divine and human, the presence of the Divine power in the human spirit would be more usual than in the Hebrew Church, since these are the days spoken of by the prophet Joel, Acts ii., 16, 17; of Joel ii., 28, 29--and so doubtless it should be, understood--only we have not been careful to receive such understanding.Truth comes to the human from the Divine, and that by the very interpretation as it were, of the Divine. On this wonderful but most glorious idea all distinctively spiritual religions agree, be they far as the poles asunder in all else. And while some give it more open recognition than others, it has been wholly excluded from none--unless it be that latest theory of materialism which roots all religion in a primitive fetishism.Our historic analysis may be summed up in these formulas:I. There was a primal equality of the sexes of the race in the very act of Creation.II. That when this primal equality was lost, the Hebrew Legislative took initiation steps towards its restoration.III. That when a system of Divine truth for mankind at large was given, the whole spirit of its founder and of its teachings renews those initiatives of restoration, and more or less, as men comprehend their application, they are worked out in history.Where, then, the Scriptures stand on this question let each answer for himself--"I speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say."A word of caution to those who, accepting the authority and jealous for the honor of Christianity, represent it or its oracles as adverse to the freedom of humanity. They endanger, as far as human folly can, that which they hold most precious. God is in the written word, but God is no less in human history. To create a real conflict in the activity of the Divine will is not possible, for, it is not "a house divided against itself." To conjure up an apparent one may be easily possible, and will, temporarily at least, work on the side of the rejection of written Revelation--for in spite of its mistakes, its weakness, its hinderances, ultimately the motto of the human spirit will be--"above all things, liberty!"*[*So far as this article touches the subject of the Discourse preached in Boston on last Thanksgiving Day, by the Rev. Mr. Fulton, the matter is not purposed but accidental, as the writer has not seen the Discourse.--G. F. W.]GEORGIANA E. WATSON.David PlumbDUALITY IN UNITY.MUTUAL and equal in the sinThat broke the law of Heaven,The Man and Woman, hand in hand,From Paradise were driven.In joy and sorrow journeyed onTogether down the ages;Their checkered way alike the themeOf Poets and of Sages.The branching stream of life flowed forthFrom out their common fountain;As waters, that the channel fill,Spring both from vale and mountainAlike from both came good and ill,The sunshine and the shadows;As when the clouds drift by, the brightAnd dark spots fleck the meadows.So when the deeds of old renownYe praise in song and story,If on his brow ye place a crown,Give her an equal glory.If on Victorious battle-fieldsThe conquerors were our brothers,Were not the famed three hundred bravesAll born of Spartan MOTHERS?When scattered were proud Jabin's hostsLike chaff at Kishon's water,Were not the victors bravely ledBy Israel's Hero-DAUGHTER?When Charles beheld Grim Ruin armedHis tottering throne to shiver,Then with St. Catherine's sword did notJOAN her land deliver?And in the realm of Peace, what fameOf Woman moves our wonder?The olive won Minerva more,Than hurling Jove's dread thunder.More true than man, 'twas she announcedThe risen Lord's evangel,When only watched around his tombShe, and the white-robed angel.If faith in God and truer lifeFor Fenelon shone the brighter;And burdens, on the poor that lay,By him were made the lighter,Was not his life inspired and fedBy streams, as those of Zion,That welled from that rare, gifted soul,The saintly MADAME GUYON?What King e'er reigned and governed well,His subjects' love possessing,Who more than England's latest QUEEN,Deserved his people's blessing?If Art lifts high her Phidias, Powers,Her Raphael, Rembrandt, blazing;Her Hosmer, Bonheur, Murray sheHolds up to our fond gazing.If in the sphere of Letters flameYour men of genius, learning,In the same heavens do Women shineLike stars with lustre burning.Then where we boast the people ruleBy God's and Nature's charter,Shall man usurp the sovereign sway,And Woman's birthright barter?From both sprung forth the spectre-wrongsThat thronged the ancient gloaming;From both, conjoined, in deeds and rights,Must spring the good time coming.Then sweep aside each partial law,Old barbarous customs shiver;From woman lift each crushing wrong,AND BACK HER BIRTHRIGHT GIVE HER.DAVID PLUMB.Mary J. SaffordREMEMBRANCES OF MOSCOW.ON the steamer going from Stockholm to St. Petersburg we made the acquaintance of Madame Z----. She had been to the German Springs to regain her health, and now, with her husband, General Z----, was returning to Siberia, where he was stationed. In his early manhood General Z---- had spent a few days on American soil, and had gleaned, and retained in memory, a dozen or more English words, which he took great delight in using, though not always appropos to the occasion. Madame Z---- had five languages at fluent command, the majority of which she had learned from the study of books.They were, both so cordial, so kind and agreeable, and had so at heart the best interests of our then distracted country, that I kept company with them to Moscow, where they spent several weeks preparatory to the long, wearisome journey that was to take them across the Steppes to the interior of Siberia. They spared no effort, while we were together in Moscow, in making known to me the interests of the City; which are scarcely glanced at by the majority of American travellerstravelers, who, taking the Kremlin as the center of attraction, radiate to the most noted of its 330 churches; do up its chief palaces; drive through bazarsbazaars; look with wonder upon the hightheight, depth and breadth of the great bell, and leave, fancying that they have seen Moscow.One of the most interesting of days was one we spent among the Educational and Charitable institutions of the City. First we visited the University of Moscow, which has the glory of being the oldest institution of the kind in Russia. It was established in 1755 by the Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. Noble woman, to have left so rich an inheritance to the sons of Russia! The pay for a scholarship is but a trifle, and a large number of students are accepted free, so that all who will--save women--may share its benefits. The mothers and daughters contribute to science only, as patients in the Medical Hospital, connected with the University. Its library, of nearly 200,000 volumes, is choice in historic and scientific lore. The Anatomical, Microscopical and Geological collections are rare and complete. With

seventy-two professors and lecturers, endowed with the highest qualifications for instructors, one is not surprised to learn that the University of Moscow has been the Alma Mater of some of Russia's most celebrated scientists and men of letters. Each student is educated with an especial aim in view, and hence the knowledge he gains becomes a living truth.We next visited an Institution of Learning for girls, which, besides educating the daughters of the nobility, takes a few from the humbler walks of life, who may hope to become governesses in aristocratic circles. The system of instruction, and the discipline, was much the same as is found in Convents of other countries. They enter at about twelve years of age, and remain till they are fifteen or sixteen, and, in the meantime, become versed in the rudimentary branches connected with their own, and the French language. They also acquire skill in embroidering, and in playing on the piano. They learn to bow with grace, and to manage a trail, of prescribed court-length, with a tact only to be acquired. The library has a goodly collection of books relating to the lives and miracles of the Saints of the Greek Church, and a few of the standard French novels. Their cabinet of curiosities is limited to ornamental toys--the handiwork of the pupils. Their physical development is dependant upon a morning and evening walk, in rank and file, each squad led, and followed, by a teacher.We said to a man of letters who accompanied us, "there is a meager record of Russian women who have made themselves known to the world through literary, artistic or scientific attainments.""Yes," he replied "our strong-minded women have mostly worn the crown, and not having always succeeded well in that, we think it best to adapt their education to the sphere they will occupy.""Do all women in Russia marry?" we asked. "And are all mothers competent to assist in, and direct, the education of their sons and daughter?""Oh no," he rejoined, "we do not expect that of them. Others are left to perform that duty"--(and to stamp their youthful souls with indelible impressions, we threw in parenthetically). "In fact," he said, we consider women only as flowers scattered along the highways and byways of life, to cheer the thorny paths of men.""To be plucked by them," we suggested--"worn for a day and then

cast aside, if only their bloom attracts. But what of the spinsters, those who are left in the market, on the hands of anxious friends, or who are alone in the world?""We will visit an Institution for such unfortunates if you like," he replied.We entered a large yard, and, under, the shadow of venerable trees approached the building and entered its spacious, sombre halls. Madame, the Director, was sent for, who soon appeared, and learning our wishes amiably consented to gratify them.The inmates of this Institution belong to noble families-there are establishments of a similar kind adapted to the necessities or women occupying less exalted positions in life. Each contributes a certain amount to the Institution, which secures to her a place in this secluded life retreat. We had always looked upon the beatified condition of the Saints, seated upon thrones and singing an unending round of hallelujahs--so often represented by the Old Masters--as exceedingly monotonous; but now to behold human beings, endowed with a double force of body and soul, unoccupied by any thought or act save that which benefited self, seemed an unpardonable waste of God-given strength.We greatly desired to converse with the inmates of the Institution, but our limited time forbade it. The lady Superintendent assured us of their contentment and happiness. She told us that their chief occupation consisted in the rigid observance of the multitudinous feasts and fasts in the Church Calendar. We fancied that we read unrest in more than one face that we beheld, and we thought that there must be smothered yearnings and aspirations in their souls for something better than they had known."We will close tile interests of the day," said our cicerone, by a visit to the Foundling Hospital."One of the House Physicians guided us through the Wards. "This," said he, "is the room where the children are received, and this cradle--placed upon a turn-table set in the wall so that the depositor is not seen receives the little stranger;" and while he spoke, there was awhirl, and with it a wail which announced that another germ of life, eternal, unknown and unknowing, was launched upon the great world. Sometimes a dozen are thus daily received. If they have been christened, their name is attached to them, inscribed, upon one side of an ivory ticket

the reverse side bearing the form of a cross, truly emblematical, we thought, of the opening chapter in this little outcast mariner's life. A number, corresponding to that on the ticket, is turned back to the depositor; and by, presenting this, the claimant can take possession of the child at any time within three months.About 13,000 children are annually received here. We were shown 2,000, and none seemed over three months old. Each was covered by one garment--a slip, tied about the neck. Whether it was the time appointed for, them to cry--for in these wholesale institutions each hour has its duty--or whether they always thus bemoan their fate, we could not say. As we passed through the spacious rooms, up flight of stairs above flight, nurse and baby, bed and cradle, alternated on either side. With a sign from the physician, as we entered each well-ordered Ward, nurses with babes in arms, arose and stood like so many soldiers on parade, bowing in a most servile manner as we passed along the ranks.As a rule, the nurses were poorly clad, the only uniformity observed in their dress being that of a high-crowned, red flannel cap. They were an overworked, ignorant, stupid-looking class of women. The majority are peasants from the country, many of them have been serfs, and are attracted there by the wages paid them--one dollar per month, or double that, if one woman supplies nourishment to two children. It is believed that they often deposit their own child, and then obtain the place as nurse to it, thus securing the child, the pay, and, for a limited time, comfortable support. If the child come nameless, his claim upon eternal life is immediately made sure, by admittance within the pale of the Church, and he is given the benefits that may be derived from the name of the saint who presides over that day in the Russian Calendar. The effects of vaccination recovered from, if the child be strong and healthy, he is sent, with the nurse, to her home, and henceforth for the care she bestows upon him she is paid one dollar per month.In one Ward we entered, there was a general bundling up of babies preparatory to  transporting them to the country. Fifty per cent of the children received by the Institution, die before they are one year old. Those who reach the age of maturity are disposed of as seems good to the Government. Many of the boys become soldiers, and the girls are retained as servants in the hospitals or elsewhere. Formerly the

hospital was supported by donations, and for reasons best known to themselves, doubtless, the nobility were its most liberal patrons. Now the Government has it in charge, and grants for its support, a yearly stipend of $1,000,000. One wing of the building is appropriated for the treatment of unfortunate women. 2,000 are yearly admitted to its secret Wards. The proportion of illegitimate births in Moscow is 37 3-4 per cent., more than 10 per cent above that of Paris.We could not but be impressed with the belief, that this increase of crime is in a great measure due to the covert, easy manner in which it is passed over. If there be no higher law stamped upon the conscience, and nothing within the soul to strengthen it against temptation; then let us not blind the Cyclopean eye of the world, while with its searching gaze it may have power to arrest the vices of men and women, whose condemnation before God, and society, must be meted out in accordance with the transgressions of each.MARY J. SAFFORD.OTHER races have made woman beautiful, the Greeks made her divine. Undoubtedly in ancient Greece, as in modern America, the actual woman was stunted, subordinate, disfranchised. But nations, like men, have a right to appeal from their degradation to their ideals. Tried by this standard, the Greeks placed woman at the highest point she has ever reached. The six primary Greek goddesses may well be considered as six symbolical representations of woman, at six successive periods. We have her whole career depicted, as girl, maiden, lover, wife, mother, and the housekeeper or genius of home. These are represented--to give both the Greek and the more familiar but misleading Roman names--by Artemis or Diana, Athen or Minerva, Aphrodite or Venus, Hera or Juno, Demeter or Ceres, and Hestia or Vesta. * * * * * * * *That wonderful mythology is gone; the great race shed it, lightly as leaves in autumn, and it went its way into some other sphere. Not till the world is rich enough to have another race more ideal than the Greeks will there be another harvest of anything so beautiful. Nature is rich as ever, and the life of man has grown more practical, more judicious, more sensitive to wrong, more comprehensive in sympathy--common sense has been the gainer, so has common virtue; it is only the ideal which has grown dim. But it may be that we are laying the foundations of a nobler temple than the Greeks ever dreamed of, and we toil among the dust and the rubbish waiting for the goddess and the shrine.--Abstract'of a "Lecture," by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, reported by Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton, in the National A.S. Standard of Jan. 23d.Henry B. BlackwellSUFFRAGE.THERE is only one great political question now before the country. But that question is fundamental. It is the greatest of all questions, because it underlies all others. It is SUFFRAGE.What is suffrage? It is admission into the political partnership. It is participation in the Government. It is a share, in a corporation the franchises of which are all-embracing and unlimited. Every shareholder in that corporation is a sovereign. He is a peer of the realm. Literally, and not as a figure of speech, his will is Law. Every man who casts a ballot may exclaim with Louis XIV: L'Etat c'est Moi! "I am the state!"What is Disfranchisement? It is political slavery. It is exclusion from the political partnership. It is subjugation to the government of others. It is the precarious enjoyment of Life, Liberty and Property, not as a right, but as a privilege. It is passive obedience to an omnipotent Corporation in which we have no share, from whose deliberations we are excluded, from whose decision there is no appeal, and from whose power there is no escape.This is no idle, theory, no trick of rhetoric. It is a very inadequate statement of an inexorable political law.  All history testifies to its truth. No man, no woman, while excluded from a share in the government ever did or ever can fully enjoy the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet these rights are inalienable in human nature without distinction of Race or Sex. For Government, being only a political partnership of Voters, its direct profits and advantages are appropriated by the class that votes. Disfranchised classes are always subjects and dependants. They always suffer under positive disabilities. They are always intellectually dwarfed, morally debilitated and physically depressed.To this rule there may appear to be individual exceptions. But there are no real exceptions. Because, however exceptional the positive well-being of an individual citizen may be, however unusual his comparative advantages--this well-being and these advantages must have been

Indefinitely greater if a nobler development had been the common lot of all. Even "Dives is cursed in his palace, while Lazarus languishes on his dung-hill!""Unfortunately, the most intellectual nation in the world only progresses unconsciously, or even in spite of itself," says About. This is eminently true of America.  When our fathers broke the yoke of Great Britain and "fought seven years for a vote," it is doubtful whether they fully realized its value. The haughty patrician leaders of Massachusetts and Virginia little dreamed that in their struggle for independence they were abdicating their seats of family preeminence and wiping out for ever from American society the traditional Aristocracy of Birth.When Jefferson led the Democracy in that long crusade against property qualifications which only ended with the Dorr Rebellion, neither he, nor the poor white men who were enfranchised, fully realized the glorious consequences of "a white man's government." John Neal said, twenty years ago, that the poor man's vote was worth fifty cents a day to every laboring white man in America. But that was only the minimum material result to the most unenlightened laborer. To millions in this country the ballot has given education, fortune, lucrative political offices and high social position.There has been in America a disfranchised class of Negroes. Excluded from the political partnership, they have been excluded from its profits. They have been subjects and dependants. They have been robbed of wages, education, children, even of personal freedom. Their actual condition was stated by Chief Justice Taney, "black men have no rights that white men are bound to respect."But when the exigencies of the War wrung from a reluctant President as a military necessity the Proclamation of Emancipation, no one dreamed of giving Suffrage to Negroes. Few realize, even now, how partial and incomplete, Emancipation would have been without Suffrage. We should have had a black Ireland festering in our vitals for centuries--a race of paupers tolling beneath a race of land-owners, mutually corrupting and, corrupted.Yet we owe negro suffrage only to that sublime concurrence of circumstances which men call Providential. The result of the War has made it a Political Necessity. Without it, the Union cannot be main-tained. Even this would not have sufficed. One thing more was needed. It has become a Party necessity. Under our system, no geographical party can hold power. In the South, with scarce enough exceptions to prove the rule, the white men are all Democrats. Therefore the Republicans must have the emancipated slaves as voters. To the Republican party the alternative is Negro Suffrage or Annihilation.Yielding reluctantly to the logic of events, Congress set aside the Provisional governments of the South, excluded the disloyal element from voting and conferred Suffrage upon the freedmen. A concerted effort was made to erase the word white from the Constitutions of the loyal states.But there is a profound prejudice against the African Race in the minds of the American people. Democrats avow it. Republicans share it. In many cases this prejudice is embittered by a cruel personal antipathy. Every effort to enfranchise the Negro by popular vote proved abortive.What was to be done? To go back was ruin, to stand still, impossible, to go forward became again imperative. The Party advanced from the quicksands of Expediency to the solid rock of Principle. The result is "MANHOOD SUFFRAGE."There is still a disfranchised class in America--one only. It is the class of Women.In their minds and persons, in their legal, industrial and social relations, Women manifest the sad results of political oppression. They are subjects and dependants. They are limited in their range of occupation, the victims of fashion, debilitated in health, contracted in mind. They move in moral and material fetters. In proportion to their strength American women work harder and more continuously than men. There is no eight hour law for Women.
"A man may work from sun to sun,But Woman's work is never done."Yet she is never more than half paid for her labor. She is excluded from Colleges and Professional schools; the careers of Commerce, Science and Politics are beyond her reach. She is not taught the Mechanic arts. Even as wife, mother and widow, she is legally at a disadvantage with the husband, father and widower. Marriage is degraded by our statutes from the noble and permanent partnership of Nature with reciprocal

rights and duties, into an unnatural and mercenary relation between Superior dud Dependant.But "curses, like chickens, come home to roost." A., disfranchised class is always imbecile, but innocent; for it has not yet eaten of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge. But its oppressors are cunning and corrupt; for they are demoralized by the exercise of irresponsible power. So long as Society is deprived of the direct political influence of Woman, it will remain a prey to Vice, Intemperance and War. The, political law of Nature will be violated and the inevitable penalty will follow. The only remedy for these evils is the elevation of Woman to political partnership with Man.Not because Woman is better than Man, but because she is different. As Acid and Alkali, when separate, corrode and destroy, but, in combination, form a pure and perfect crystal, so Man was made for association with Woman, and Woman, for association with Man.This partnership of Man with Woman in its private form constitutes Marriage. And Woman in marriage is the Conservator of the private morals.This partnership of Men with Women in its public form will constitute a true political Society--a Republican State, upon the basis of Universal Suffrage. And Woman, elevated to political partnership with Man in the State, will take her natural place and fulfill her legitimate mission as Conservator of the Public Morals.HENRY B. BLACKWELL.Too much importance must not be attached to the recent decision in the English Court of Common Pleas declaring that the common law of England gives women no right to vote. This judgment, at the worst, only closes one of the issues raised by the advocates of Woman's Suffrage--it only declares that a woman is not endowed, prima facie and by the common law of the land, with the franchise. Many other issues remain. Women did once vote in England at political elections; it will have to be shown how they have lost that privilege. Women do now vote regularly at parochial and some municipal elections--that is to say, a person possessing certain qualifications of property and residence, whether man or woman, votes for the election of poor law guardians and other representative functionaries.--N. Y. Independent.Lucy StonePOLITICAL JUSTICE.We ask Woman's political recognition in the Reconstruction, not merely on account of the laws which afflict her, but because her exclusion is a direct violation of the principle that "Government -is just only when it obtains the, consent of th governed"--of the principle that political power inheres in the people.A self-evident truth--a principle which God has made true--it is not only safe to apply, but it is dangerous not to apply it. Our fathers omitted its application for the Negro and for the Woman.For the Negro, the rejected principle has just now avenged itself by a war which has wasted our treasure, desolated our homes, and filled countless graves with brave young men, whose blood was shed for the remission of our fathers' sin.For women too, the violated principle is avenging itself. The non-voting class is always a dependent class. Women are excluded from remunerative occupations. Colleges, which freely admit men of every nationality and of every color, close their doors on Woman. She is taught that great questions of State and National interest do not concern her. Thus her mind is made narrow, and her arm, weak. Dwarfed herself, she gives dwarfs in return--
"The Cedars wave on Lebanon,But Judah's statelier maids are gone!"If we are doomed to a reconstruction upon the narrow basis of "Manhood Suffrage," meaning only the male sex; if there is not faith and courage to apply the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence, it will be because the help-mate for Man, crippled of her legitimate influence, could give birth only to fractional men who, in their turn, were capable only of fractional legislation."We see dimly in the present what is small and what is great:Slow of faith, how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of Fate!"LUCY STONE.Samuel C. BlackwellLARGE ROOTS--AMPLE FRUITS.THERE is no plainer lesson taught us by the Past than this: that breadth of base and integrity of material give strength, and guarantee endurance, in social and governmental, as in other structures. The weak spot in abandoned theories has appeared where the data were too few. The totter and fall of old empires, like the collapse Of Isabella's dynasty the other day, came of slenderness of root. A patrician order, a scholarly priesthood, an illustrious family, a monied class; institutions based on these may arise and rule, yet cannot but decay. Because they draw vigor from a narrow interest, not from a general need, while the aim of their being is to absorb not to diffuse. They are but trespassers on a domain deeded to universal good.The line of progress on the chart of history runs where general and abiding interests have gained expression, fed by perennial forces. The Reformation individualized the Church, the State and, the School. The leaders of the world, always comparatively few, were in the old days very rare, and without facilities, they died almost without achievement. But they have since drawn recruits, by hundreds, by thousands, from the inert followers of imposing rituals, arbitrary governments and tradition-haunted cloisters. That strange awakening of the modern world--a surprise of Providence--has, in three hundred years, colonized the remotest lands, explored the obscurest wildernesses, measured and charted their mysterious extent; dislodged, analyzed and utilized their minerals; assorted, labelled and acclimated their plants; imported and cross-bred their animals. It has bridged chasms, tunnelled hills, and generated from unknown sources of power, the Mercury of the telegraph, and the Hercules of steam.How have these things been done? By multiplying leaders. The timid scholar of the Past, no longer distrusting the effect of truth, has called for volunteers. In each department of man's life there has been a striking forth of the root. It is more plainly seen by each successive generation, that the eyes and brains of a hundred men, instead of one, will multiply results far more than a hundredfold. Nothing can live by

accumulation alone. Growth without diffusion is impossible. This is eminently true of what most dignifies and enriches life. As water responds to heat, in myriad-fold activity and power, so Thought, our great prerogative, is developed by communication: "giving doth not impoverish, nor withholding enrich" in the world of mind where man's wealth is won.All improvement, abiding gain and sure advance, arise from a constitution, quite beyond our deepest mining or most towering architecture. What Providence teaches us is rather to get out of the way and to cheerfully cooperate, to cease to hinder and to work by nature's side.I accept with hearty greeting, the Movement, so evidently "on this line," which in our day and beneath our eyes, is breaking through and shedding off unwise and hurtful prejudices about Women. The thought of antagonism between man and woman is preposterous; as though we can be advanced by her discouragement. The theory that the activities of mind, which prompt to this or that enquiry, to this or that career, should be recognized and aided in a man, but ridiculed and curbed in his sister, is illogical. The dread lest knowledge, equal facilities and the ballot, while they ennoble him may ruin her, is timidity. The conception that we shall less love or admire one whose character and pursuits more challenge our respect, is blindness. The assumption that the Creator's objects can be contravened by removing disabilities from women, is infidel. These are chimeras I cannot credit. They are certainly prejudices, or at best illusions.If asked to decree privileges or to urge desirable undertakings, we may doubt the necessity or wisdom of factitious stimuli. But who should withstand the repeal of unequal laws, the removal of disfranchisement?. Who would not take away impediments, and, instead of discouragement, extend a helping hand? In this, as in other matters, we ought not to fear the result of leaving to nature and to Providence unfettered play.It is clear that, as a matter of fact, the condition of women does change with that of men. Look at the Catholic, the Quaker, the Calvinist. There are women with us side by side; Guyon and Fenelon, Elizabeth Fry, and Joseph Gurney, Lyman Beecher and his first wife, of whom he says, "She was the only person I ever met whom I felt to be quite my

equal in argument!" The same society is represented by de Stael as by Constant; beside Samuel Johnson there is Hannah More. Why not accept and welcome nature's fiat? It seems to be the Creator's plan; can we hit upon a better?It is impossible that a Government, professedly and in fact, existing by "consent of the governed," can long exclude from its Constituency one-half its people. Nor is it credible that our industrial system, whose characteristic motto is, "The tools to him who can use them," will long refuse to women the incentive, "Try," or its supplement, "A fair day's wages for a fair day's work." As to political action while women are certainly possessed of intelligence and conscience, we not only ought not but cannot afford to decline their contribution to "the common sense of most" on which we rely to "hold a fretful realm in awe." And we need not fear that many women, among those whom a constituency of both sexes may select as fitting representatives, will make themselves ridiculous or betray their trust. Political enfranchisement and eligibility for our women are measures of mere justice, and no doubt, like other concessions to right, will prove wholesome. The basis of our common-wealth will be the broader therefor; its roots, of doubled length, will elaborate better fruit; of which, doubtless, the State has abundant need. So far as woman is concerned, governmental reforms are valuable only as they may protect more perfectly the pursuit of happiness which, for man or woman, lies in alliance with Providence. All industrial opportunities to which we can welcome women, will contribute to the first requisite of a better life--personal independence. What an intolerable fetter we should feel exclusion from all pursuits but those of the cook, the tailor, and the schoolmaster! Each undeniably useful, but Oliver asks for "more." To ensure the best fruit, the roots of womanhood must not be cut off at the "dead line" of so small a patch as this. Every child, boy or girl, has a new sense of power, when able to do well a new thing. A chest of tools, and the knowledge how to use them, is more than a source of pleasure; it is a source of self-reliance, of usefulness, and so of happiness. The woman who has made a bureau, or who has brought vegetables and fruit to perfection, is not likely to starve, and is strong in the comfortable conviction of her ability. Skill in architecture or in landscape gardening, would not make a woman less admirable; it certainly

Would make her less helpless. Comprehension of principles, and practice too; in physiology or law, would not make her home less attractive, and might well help to furnish it. And the fruit born of every useful art and harmonizing science will be bettered by this spreading of the root.Hitherto women have been impelled to varied handicraft,or scope of thought, mainly by cravings of the mind for objects of interest. Pursued without encouragement, or despite disapprobation, they have been acquired with difficulty and have led to no recognized career. Knowledge or skill, by no means convertible into bread and butter, has been its own reward. Of course that reward, as against those discouragements, has been sought, by few. Ought we not to withdraw opposition, to share facilities, and, so far as our sentiment contributes to "public sentiment," ought we not to favor the natural supplement to skilled labor or faithful study, namely, recognized avocations which shall make them available to women in the commonwealth of life? When this incentive shall exist, women will develope talent of mind and hand hitherto unimagined. The terms mechanic, artisan, artist, physician, counsellor, scholar, philosopher, will carry no thought of sex, but only of handicraft and mental life. We shall not hear of "blue stocking" or rara avis, and derision of "the strong-minded" will have lost any point it ever had. By the side of a more generous manhood will thrive a calmer, abler, healthier Womanhood. The strength and grace of society will be increased, nor will its chivalry decline.The Hebrew lawyer's common sense may be as pertinent as ever: "Take heed what ye intend to do as touching these women; if this counsel be of men it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.SAMUEL C. BLACKWELLMRS. DISRAELI is raised to the peerage as Viscountess of Beaconsfield, and her husband is to remain in the House of Commons as plain Mr. Disraeli. There is little doubt but what he is indebted to her for much of the brilliant success which has been his through life.Rebecca W. BrintonHOW TO TRAIN GIRLS.THE idiosyncrasies of the body give tone to the individual mind. The upholders of the belief in the inferiority of Woman would do well to remember that in the very beginning of girls' lives, dress, preventing the free use of the limbs, false rules of propriety, prescribed "sphere," all, commence the dwarfing of a true physical development. That girls, so treated, should grow, up poor, stunted creatures, developing only some of the attributes of the human mind, and, often, those few in a morbid condition, is in accordance with certain physiological laws which, were they better understood by humanity, would scarcely be treated with such impunity.Let us give nature a chance to do for our girls all that she does for our boys, and they will have more of the same strength and self-reliance to break through barriers, and bear the burdens of this life. God does not exemplify all his laws of life in any one creature, or species of creation. But no single one has he made a more perfect image of himself than Woman--a fact which should be borne constantly in mind in the training of our girls. Let them run, walk, dance, swim, row and skate until every muscle is strong and under perfect control. Let them be taught every manual dexterity whereby we provide for the comfort of the household; and above all let them be taught some trade or occupation whereby they can make a fair exchange with the world for a living. Make them feel this their right and duty as much as we make boys feel it. The failing to do this is the greatest mistake of the present generation, for if girls be capable of nothing but morbid sentiment or what we term flirtation, they will naturally look to matrimony as their destiny and as a means of support--a self-abasement from which no woman can fully recover, even under the most favorable circumstances.To give vigor and tone to the body and, consequently, to the mind; to give general and special training, is to make girls feel that all the attributes of the human understanding are a part and parcel of their rightful inheritance, and that there is no such thing as truthfully giving their lives into the keeping of another beyond the power of self-control.

Let us prove that of nature we have no idiosyncrasies which make us such dependant creatures as the lovers of power and dominion would make us out to be.In this and for many former ages, it has been admitted that Woman has a soul, but when it is declared that "every man must work oat his own salvation" is it safe to trust to others the keeping of Woman's? In a Republic like ours, every man may master some Art whereby he may work out his own immortality--for though his name perish from the earth, yet if he serve to transmit, from generation to generation, some science, craft, art or principle, in the best sense he is immortal; so, too should every Woman have her place as a worker in the great social structure--one that can not be wrested from her when she takes, as a true woman must, her life her hands and demands of man not the product of his toil, his treasure, word or worth, but only room and chance to do her best; to be too "about her Maker's business." Equal is hers the heritage of sky, air and earth ; hers the same thirsting for knowledge the same, blood, brains, limbs and nerves to train and use in His great work who hath created both Man and Woman--why should equal opportunity be denied?Then, perhaps, in the coming time, when we have all learned to do something, will Society complain no longer of neglected homes, nor men despise the workmanship of their own hands, but find us happier daughters, sisters, wives all mothers, ever loyal to love and duty, not indolent, trifling, never again servile and in the bonds of shame--
Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind,Till at the last she set herself to man,Like perfect music unto noble words."REBECCA W. BRINTON.Editorial Department.AWAKENED.EVERYWHERE the interest in "The Woman Movement," so termed, is deepening. The rapid strides of public opinion within the past twelvemonth, furnish unmistakable evidence that no Rip Van Winkle slumber will be needed for the eye of faith before the labors of earnest men and women will be crowned with complete success, and all legal and political disabilities of sex be removed from our midst.Wherever the eye turns, in America or in Europe, it is greeted with the most encouraging indications. In England, women--the highest and most intelligent in the realm--are boldly entering learned Associations, and discussing questions, the most abstruse in character in a manner challenging the admiration and testing the powers of savans. In France, in Germany, and in many a hitherto benighted portion of the Continent, women are calling Conventions; organizing Associations for educational or industrial purposes, and knocking--not without avail--at the doors of century-barred Colleges and Universities.At home--stung, perhaps, to activity by such unwonted spectacle and the fear of a Monarchy (!) leading the van of Woman progress--we witness even a more unmistakable expression of public sentiment. The press ever alive to its bidding, gives unerring indication, by the space devoted to its consideration, how wide-spread and pressing is the Movement. Following the example of the ponderous Westminster and the more sprightly Saturday Review, the American press curry favor, and such tried journals as The Independent find fellow comrades, and even would-be file leaders in sheets hitherto as yelping curs at the feet of every phase of Human progress. The learned in all walks of life, from Senators to writers of magazine articles, follow in utterance, and, daily, a fresh impetus is given to the Movement. At the Boston Convention, a

Senator, proverbially cautious, disdained not to lend his speech and presence to its sessions and Governors and officials scarcely less distinguished have endorsed the utterances of it and similar Conventions.But of all encouraging signs the most hopeful is Woman's own awakening. In the early days of the Movement--with the exception of a few noble women whose labors in the Anti-Slavery Cause had educated them for the work--it drew but little strength from Woman herself. Particularly was it weak in names of women of letters. It had Lucretia Mott and Lydia Maria Child--honored names!--but the fashionable writers of the day, the Miss Leslies and Sarah J. Hales kept carefully aloof. We look in vain, over thirty years of eventful history, for names of women, known in literature, giving countenance to reformatory conventions.But now all this is altered. In America, as in Europe, women of culture are identifying themselves with the Question in all its political aspects. Writers, whose pens have brought them fame, no longer shrink from cooperation with their sisterhood for fear their reputation will suffer from the connection. In the call for the Boston Convention, or upon its list of officers, appear the names of L. Maria Child, Julia Ward Howe, Miss Alcott, Mrs. Isabella Hooker, and Mrs. Horace Mann, all well known as authors, and representing, largely, the culture of New England. At the Providence Convention Miss Nora Perry and Mrs. Sarah H. Whitman added to the number; in our own city the brilliant pen of Mrs. L. G. Calhoun may be fairly counted in its favor, while in other localities the Movement has received like acceleration. This is as it should be. The literary women of America are the natural leaders of the Woman Suffrage movement--the true exponents of the sex. With them fully committed in its favor, we may cherish the expectation that the ballot will not long be denied.WE again present quite an excess of pages over our Prospectus, with an accumulation of excellent matter on hand for use. From all parts of the country kind expressions of the press, and of individuals, reach us on the appearance of our initial number. It was our intention to have presented some of these words of "cheer," but the crowded condition of our pages prevents. One of the latest

born of American monthlies, and one of the first to specially advocate the Rights of Woman, it is confidently believed that its management will be of such a character that future numbers will draw forth still warmer commendations. More than ever we are convinced that there is a field for, as well as need of, such an enterprise; and to the earnest men and women, all over the land, who are aiding us in our efforts to establish a journal which, independent in character, shall truly represent the most advanced public sentiment, we return our sincere thanks.THE Publisher of THE ADVOCATE hereby offers a prize Of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS for the best Story bearing upon any of the phases of the "Woman Question;" FIFTY DOLLARS for the second best, and TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS for the third best;--the MSS. (not to exceed 100 pp., nor to be less than 50 pp., of THE ADVOCATE) to be submitted in season for award, and use by June, 1869. All writers entering into competition for the prizes must direct to the Publisher of THE ADVOCATE who will retain the names, handing the inclosed articles to a Committees, (to be later announced) who will decide upon the different MSS., purely upon their merits. While each article will be regarded as the property of the author and strict confidence be preserved respecting them, it is hoped that many will be induced to donate their MSS. to THE ADVOCATE after the awards, are made public. The Publisher trusts that these liberal offers will stimulate our writers to a spirited competition for the prizes, and thus enable him to present some of the best, serials ever offered to the public.NOTES.THE women of Vineland, N. J., are paying taxes, those who are property holders, under protest.A convention of the National Woman's Suffrage Association was held in Washington on the 19th and 20th u1t., A report of the proceedings will appear next month.Two Iowa young ladies, Misses Emma and Ella Harlan have secured Government lands, under the Homestead law, which they design settling upon and cultivating next season.It seems that Bishop Moore of California was in advance of Plymouth church in Choosing women as deacons. In 1866 he chose two colored women, members of his church in San Francisco, and in the same year ordained a colored woman to preach, in the conference of Zion's Methodist Church, of which he is a Bishop. The intuitions of this excellent man, black though he be, saw the spiritual fitness of woman thus early.Lucretia Mott, who may be regarded as the pioneer and honored exponent of the Woman's Rights Movement in America, completed her seventy-sixth year on the 3d ult. Since that date Mm. Mott, whose health and intellectual vigor remain unimpaired, has attended the National Woman's Suffrage Convention at Washington, over which she was called to preside, and which she addressed with her accustomed clearness of perception concerning the true needs of Woman. We trust next month to present her remarks in full.Since girls have been admitted to a partial course of instruction at Cambridge, England, hundreds have availed themselves of the privilege. The number of those who entered for the December examinations was 401 against 332 of the preceding year. In the London Centre as it is called, it being simply a place for examination the increase has been from 62 to 136 in one year. It is gratifying to learn that English girls are thus standing side by side with their American sisters in the breaking down of the century-created barriers of prejudice.Miss Emily Faithful], the well-known founder of the Victoria Press for the employment of women compositors, recently lectured upon "Women's Work" in London. Miss Faithfull considered that if the real claims of women were understood, there would be but little difference of opinion respecting them. She demanded that they be duly trained to a knowledge of the higher pursuits, as well as the merely physical; that educational endowments be equally extended; that they be thoroughly qualified for the practice of medicine, and that the unjust position of Woman in the eye of the law be at once redressed. Miss Faithfull took strong grounds in favor of Suffrage, declaring that no important ameliorations could be hoped for until Woman had a representation in Parliament. The address, a very able one, was listened to by a large audience, among whom were Lady Franklin and several Members of Parliament.The charter of the IOWA University requires that women shall be admitted to all departments of that institution on the same terms as men. It is probable that future classes, in the medical department especially, will be largely composed of women."Grim Females" is the title of one of the Saturday (London) Review's latest studies of the sex. Equally flippant in character, it is scarcely up to the literary standard of preceding papers. It is said that this weekly anatomist of Woman, whose articles are so widely copied, is the Marchioness of Salisbury, the brilliant wife of one of the ablest Tory peers in England.A writer in a recent issue of the New York Times strongly condemns the use of the present fashionable "diminutives" or "changes" of names upon the part of young ladies, arguing therefrom an inherent weakness and inferiority of sex. Did it ever occur to the sapient correspondent of the above named journal that inasmuch as the titles, "Honorable," "Excellency," etc., are mainly monopolized by men, of which, by the by, they have seemed not wholly unmindful, the corruption of Jane to "Jennie," or even of plain Martha to "Mattie," should not be regarded as a weakness wholly without the pale of forgiveness. Give our girls incentives to action such as beacon the career of American youth; remove the restrictions of law and prejudice, closing like a coffin-lid above many a maidenly aspiration, and, our word for it, there will be less of this petty wasting of time and power of which the "Hermans" and "Rolands" of the day so feelingly complain.One of our religious journals, whose ear has been alike reached and pained by the recent agitation of the Woman Question, files the following objections to women voting:
1. Three-fourths of the intelligent, refined, virtuous women in the land are satisfied with things as they are, and do not desire a change. They would not go to the polls if they could.2. If they were endowed with the right of suffrage and should exercise it, it would not be upon the whole for their advantage; they would lose thereby more than they would gain.3. Their delicate physical organism incapacitates them for the performance of the arduous work of government.4. The subordination of woman to man is plainly taught in the Bible; (Eph. v; 23, 24, 26,) to put her therefore on a perfect equality with man in political I power and privilege is to proceed in opposition to the Bible; and such procedure would be fraught with mischief.
The above, written in all seriousness, we lay before our readers, feeling that this Nineteenth Century constrains us from a word of comment.Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell gave a very interesting lecture in Washington on the 15th ult. Their object was to present the claims of "Woman Suffrage, on its merits," before a vote should be taken upon any of the bills for the extension of Suffrage to Women now before Congress. Although a very unfavorable evening, Metzerott Hall was fairly filled with a highly intelligent audience of more an three hundred persons, including a large number of Senators and Representatives. Hon. Henry Wilson of Mass. presided, made a brief introductory speech, and introduced the speakers.In addition to the general arguments, special attention was called by both speakers to the culpable neglect of Congress, from the foundation of the Capitol to the present day, in allowing the ancient laws of Maryland and the old English Common Law to remain in force, unaltered, against the wives, mothers and widows of the District of Columbia. A woman who marries in Washington, loses all her personal property. It becomes absolutely her husband's. She loses the use and income of her real estate, as long as her husband lives. She has no right to her earnings. She has no right to her children. She cannot buy, nor sell, nor make a contract. She cannot make a valid will. When her husband dies, he may will all his personal property, and even what was her own before marriage, away from her, leaving her absolutely without a cent. If he leaves no will, she is entitled to one-third of the personal property, if there are children; or if there are no children, she succeeds to one-half. Of his real estate, she is entitled to the life-use of one-third, if no other provision for her has been made in the will; or in lieu of this, a sale of the real estate may be made, in which case she is entitled to not more than one seventh, nor less than one-tenth of its proceeds, at the discretion of the Administrator, etc., etc. This confiscation of property, deprivation of children, and limitation of personal rights was shown to be, in the case of married women under the legislation of Congress, analogous to the condition of the Negro slaves under the old slave code, the cruel result of class legislation by men alone.In regard to the action of Congress in extending suffrage, the speakers urged a separation of the two questions of Race and Sex, as essential to the interests of both. Many Republicans were in favor of suffrage for the Negro, and opposed to suffrage for woman. Many Democrats were in favor of sufrrage for woman, and opposed to suffrage for the Negro. It was doing injustice to either question to complicate it with the other. Parallel Amendments should be submitted to the State Legislatures by Congress--one prohibiting political distinctions on account of Race, the other, on account of Sex.Hearty thanks and commendations were expressed for the Bill extending Suffrage to Women in the District and Territories, introduced

into the Senate by Hon. Henry Wilson of Mass., and into the House by Hon. G. W. Julian of Ind., also for the proposed Constitutional Amendments for Universal Suffrage, without distinction of Race or Sex, offered by Messrs. Pomeroy and Julian. After the meeting, the audience-gathered around the platform as if unwilling to separate. Great interest and enthusiasm were manifested. The meeting was a success, and cannot fail to exert a beneficial influence.The following Correspondence between the National Society for Woman Suffrage and John Stuart Mill, recently published in the London papers, we present as worthy of preservation:EDINBURGH BRANCH OF THE
NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE, 
NEWINGTON HOUSE, Dec. 1st, 1868.DEAR SIR--On behalf of the above society I write to say that we feel, both individually and as a committee, so much indebted to you for what you have done for us and for our case that we could not hear of the result of the Westminster election without feelings of the deepest regret, and we trust you will not deem it intrusive if we venture to express the disappointment we felt at an event which came upon us as a great blow, when we were trusting to your influence in this new Parliament to advance the question of women's suffrage.Our feelings of pain and regret were not, however confined to considerations connected with our own cause.We regretted still more that any constituency could have rejected one of such high powers of thought and great attainments. We fear, because of your fearless protest against injustice to a race too long downtrodden by almost every nation as evinced by the great moral courage you displayed, along with Mr. P. A. Taylor, in the prosecution of Governor Eyre--an act for which an enlightened posterity may regard you even more highly than for your eminent intellectual endowments.We feel that, whether in or out of Parliament, your talents will be actively and conscientiously employed in the promotion of such objects as you have felt it your duty to help on heretofore, so that no constituency or section of men can hinder, by any one act of theirs, the advance of truth and justice.Rejoicing in this belief, and hoping you will kindly accept the sincere expression of our gratitude and sympathy, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely,PRISCILLA McLAREN, President.J. S. MILL, Esq.AVIGNON, Dec. 12th, 1868.DEAR MADAM--Few things could be more gratifying to me than the letter with which I have been honored by you and your committee, and I beg yon to accept and to convey to the committee my warmest acknowledgments.Of all my recollections connected with the House of Commons, that of my having had the honor of being the first to make the claim of women to the suffrage a Parliamentary question is the most gratifying, as I believe it to have been the most important public service that circumstances made it in my power to render. This is now a thing accomplished, and the cause has a sufficient

number of supporters among the best men in the House of Commons to carry on as much of the contest as can be conducted there. It remains for the intelligent women of the country to give their moral support to the men who are engaged in urging their claims, and to open the Minds of the less intelligent to the fact that political freedom is the only effectual remedy for the evils which most women are conscious that Women suffer. Whatever power I may have to promote this cause outside the House of Commons I shall not fall to exert to to the uttermost.Your expressions of sympathy with my feelings and approbation of my conduct on the subject of the Jamaica atrocities are peculiarly grateful to me; for it has been with especial sorrow that I have seen so many women cold and unmoved at the recital of sufferings which it might have been supposed would at least have aroused some womanly pity and generous indignation against the perpetrators. It is peculiarly among women who are not aware that it is their duty to use their intelligence on matters of politics that the severest condemnation of Mr. Eyre and his instruments should have been found; for if such women had possessed the warmth of heart which all women ought to have, their feelings would have revolted at the tortures inflicted, and they would have considered the reasonings by which these were attempted to be palliated as beyond their province. As it is, the conduct of so many among them has afforded one more evidence that the renunciation of masculine intelligence gives no security for womanly kindness. I am, dear Madam, very sincerely yours,JOHN STUART MILL.Mrs. McLAREN, Newington House, EdinburghCANVASSERS for THE ADVOCATE are desired in all parts of the country. Those thoroughly responsible can make very desirable arrangements by addressing the Publisher.HOME INTELLIGENCETHE NEW JERSEY WOMAN SUFFRAGE CONVENTION.SUCCEEDING the Boston Convention, of which a report was presented last month, a Woman Suffrage Convention was held at Vineland, N. J. on the 2nd Of December. Lucy Stone, the President, occupied the chair. The Convention was opened with a prayer by Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell. Among well-known friends of the Movement present were Lucy Stone, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Andrew Jackson Davis, James A. Clark, Mary F. Davis, Henry B. Blackwell, Rev. Oscar Clute and others. Morning, afternoon and evening sessions were held, with

an increasing attendance and a deepening of interest in the varied proceedings, until the evening meeting, which was the largest and most brilliant assemblage that ever convened in Vineland. Letters were received from Hon. James M. Scovel and others, expressing sympathy with the Movement. Interesting addresses were delivered by Lucy Stone, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Andrew Jackson Davis and Rev. Oscar Clute. Stirring Resolutions were adopted, meeting with the full concurrence of the audience--largely composed of the citizens of a town enjoying a national reputation for morality and liberality of sentiment. The following officers were elected for the current year:PRESIDENT--Mrs. Lucy Stone.VICE-PRESIDENTS--Mrs. R. C. Browning, Orange; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Somerville; Mary F. Davis, Orange; the Hon. James M. Scovel, Camden; the Rev. Oscar Clute, Vineland; Mrs. Portia Gage, Vineland; Mrs. Ellen Hunter, Vineland; the Hon. James T., Nixon, Millville; Dr. George Haskell, Anchora; David Ripley, Newark; Mrs. George Cake, Cape May; the Rev. J. M. Peebles, Hammonton; the Rev. H. C.Dugann, Atco; Mr. Baldwin, Waterford; Rowland Johnson, Orange; Mr. Whitehead, Morristown.SECRETARY--Mrs. S. P. Fowler, Vineland.TREASURER--S. J. Sylvester, Vineland.EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE--H. B. Blackwell, Newark; Dr. D. W. Allen, Vineland; John Gage, Vineland; Mary F. Davis, Orange; Mrs. S. T. H. Pearson, Vineland; Rev. Oscar Clute, Vineland; Mrs. C. Mabbett, Vineland; C. B. Campbell, Vineland.THE RHODE ISLAND WOMAN SUFFRAGE CONVENTION.CLOSELY following the Vineland Convention was the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Convention, which convened at Providence on the 11th of December. The Convention was called to order by Mrs. Paulina W. Davis, and a permanent organization was effected by the election of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Chace, President, assisted by numerous Vice-Presidents and other officers. The Convention was largely attended, and the sessions, continuing throughout the day and evening, were of a highly interesting character. Letters, expressive of sympathy, were received from George Wm. Curtis, Mary L. Booth, James Freeman Clarke, D.D., Rev. Samuel J. May and others. Able addresses were delivered by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Lucy Stone, Frederick Douglass, Henry B. Blackwell, Mrs. 0. F. Shepard, Stephen S. Foster, Dr. Mercy B. Jackson and other friends of the Movement. The President, upon taking the chair, spoke as follows:ADDRESS OF ELIZABETH B. CHACEThis Convention is called to consider the rightfulness and importance of extending the elective franchise to women. The call is numerously signed by per-

sons of both sexes, and in behalf of the women, thus stepping out of the routine of our daily life, I feel justified in saying that it is in no spirit of mere selfishness on the one hand, or of antagonism on the other, that we urge the consideration of this question. With both men and women, it is first, and above all, because of a sincere and well considered conviction, that to every human being belongs every human right. And second, because of what Women suffer from disabilities which grow out of their political disfranchisement, we claim that the ballot, of which men so proudly boast that it is the rich birth-right of every American citizen shall be restored to woman as her birth-right also.But, we further believe that in the consequences, resulting from the denial of suffrage to woman, she does not suffer alone. As in the dark days of slavery, the master was more corrupted and brutalized by the unnatural system than the slave, so we believe that man, in his moral nature, is more injured than woman by this inequality.It is a notorious fact that the places to which men resort for the enjoyment of their boasted privilege of American citizenship, are so corrupt that the most common argument against the presence of women at the polls, is that their purity and delicacy will be endangered by going there. What careful mother must not shudder to send her boy of twenty-one years where it is not considered safe for her to go with him.We believe that this fact itself shows that woman is needed at the polls, and that her presence alone can make these places fit for both men and women.And further still, we think that in the halls of legislation, her keener moral sense should be exerted. We know that throughout our State of Rhode Island, young men are sinking into the abyss of intemperance, because their mothers and sisters cannot vote to blot out the license law, which disgraces our statutes and shames our civilization.We trust, therefore, that the discussion in this meeting will lead thoughtful minds all over the State to consider whether the time has not come when the word male should be stricken from our constitution, and women be no longer classed with idiots and criminals.As indicative of the general character of the succeeding addresses, we present the conclusion of an abstract of the characteristic address of Frederick Douglass:ADDRESS OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. * * * Woman's right to vote rests on the same foundation that man's right to vote rests upon. There is not a woman in the country who has not political preferences, and why should she not have the right to express those preferences? The women of this nation wanted Grant for President and not Seymour. It would have been glorious if they could have expressed that preference.I cannot say much about woman's wrongs. The men love them too much to wrong them. They have wrongs on the statute-book, to be sure; but if every wrong enumerated were righted to-morrow, I should be just as strongly in favor of Woman's suffrage as now. Everybody in this country with a conscience and a conviction has a duty to perform towards this government, and that is to infuse

that conscience and that conviction into the government by voting for such men and for such measures as accord with their highest convictions and their highest  conscience.I expect to see the day when woman shall take her place on the floor of Congress. I believe they would be as likely to be influential in debate on the floor of Congress as elsewhere. I know at any rate, that in every debate that I have ever yet had with a woman I have got the worst of it.The women and the negroes are just now about equal, and I think that we should go along together. I should like to attach myself to you ladies in the efforts that I make for liberty and progress, for, I see that you have the inside track. You have ways of attaching yourselves to the governing power which we have not. You are beautiful and we are not. Your faces have a charm to the governing power. Our's have not. I believe that a Woman's Rights Convention has never yet been mobbed or had bad eggs thrown at its members. The American eagle laid bad eggs for abolitionism. All you have to do is to go up and take your rights and you can have them. If you will promise to take the negro right along with you, take him under your protecting wing, and see to it that we get our rights as well as you, I am for you; and if you do not I am for you.At the close of the Convention, an Association was formed, auxiliary to the New England Woman Suffrage Association, entitled, "The Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association," with the following officers for the current year:PRESIDENT--Mrs. Paulina W. Davis, of North Providence.VICE-PRESIDENTS--Mrs. Catharine W. Hart, Mrs. Sarah H. Whitman, Providence; Hon. Thomas Davis, of North Providence; Hon. Rowland Hazard, of Peace Dale; Rev. John Boyden, of Woonsocket; Rev. C. H. Malcom, of Newport.SECRETARY--Miss Rhoda Fairbanks, of Providence.TREASURER--Marcus Janes, Esq., of Providence.EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE--Mrs. Elizabeth B. Chace, of Valley Falls; Susan R. Harris, of Providence; Mrs. Elizabeth Churchill, of Providence; - Dr. Wm. F. Channing, of Providence; Col. T. W. Higginson, of Newport.THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE.BREAKERS!Caroline H. Dall[FIRST PAPER]."--she spokePrompt by an inspiration; thus it was.Will you go somewhat back to understand?"THE RING AND THE BOOK.When I was a little child my father had fifty ships upon the sea. Each ship had its captain, and many of these captains had been in his employ for years. I knew them all by name, and nothing pleased me more than to hear that one of our ships was coming up the Bay. I know I thought that my father's vessels had a wonderful faculty for getting in on Sunday. On that night I was allowed to sit up late, and, it seemed to me that nearly every Sunday witnessed the arrival of a burly sailor, who came with the ship's papers, on his way to his own home, and snatched a kiss as he put me on his knee--where he pulled my curls at his leisure, and I retorted by diving unrebuked into his deep pockets. I was a favorite with these men--partly because I was their owner's daughter; partly because I listened devoutly to their long stories, and should have believed them if they had told me of an iron mountain or a roc's egg. They liked the unconscious flattery of the little note-book in which I wrote down all they told me; and long after my father's orders for my cabinet were fulfilled, no one of them ever came ashore without

a shell or a stone picked up for me on his own account. The distant collections of University College long ago absorbed the cabinet, but I have never parted with the dainty love-gifts of these old friends.It was because we were on such terms that I sat unrebuked, listening to all their business talk, long after my little eyes ought to have been closed. Sometimes there would be a stormy Sunday, when my father would go down to the wharf two or three times, afraid that the pilot would not put out, anxious lest the captain should not "make" the lights, and so on. It used to strike me, even then, that no one ever worried about the pilots. It was the captain who was thought of, condoled with, and looked out for. Sometimes, on stormy nights, the pilot would bring up a package of papers, mutter a hasty a assurance of the ship's safety and-hurry away, shaking his dread-naught, and never once asked to come in and warm his fingers. If it had been the captain, he would have been set down to hot coffee and oysters. When I remonstrated with my father, he only laughed. "Poh, child!" he would say, "the pilots know what they are about; they don't want any cossetting. Making channels these fifty years, it stands to reason they can't get drowned. And as for cold and, storm, they are their bread and meat."And when, a few hours after, the captain made his appearance, I found to my amazement that he was generally of my father's opinion.  I expected he would be grateful to the pilot who had gone out in the storm to meet him; but no, he generally scolded because he had come so late. He had not seen the signal, he had tarried to "clear" some other ship, or he had been fall of unnecessary cautions and kept the ship back!"Papa," I said one day, when my sympathies had been greatly excited, "What do they have pilots at all for? Why don't the captain bring in his own ship?""My dear child," he said turning suddenly, as if he thought I had lost my wits; "don't you know a good pilot is worth a dozen captains. A mate, a supercargo, even a common sailor can take the captain's place if he falls sick and dies, but a good pilot comes only once in a generation, and when he dies he is missed for years. The captain sails under the stars on the open sea; the pilot stays along the shore 'where wave and margin meet,' and where the channel may change in twenty-

four hours. The captain would be poorly off, when he wanted to make land, if it were not for the pilot.""But don't he ever get on ?" I persisted "Will he never have a handsome ship, or be anything but a pilot? Can't he ever stay at home on stormy nights?""My dear child," said my father again, but with a gathering sadness in his voice, as if he suddenly realized what course my thoughts were taking; "my dear child, I am afraid he will never 'get on' in your sense of the word; he can be nothing but a pilot. When his hair gets very gray he may possibly be a 'head pilot,' but he will never have anything better than his old tug, and the moment that he feels that he can stay at home of a stormy night it will be because his usefulness is over. Nay! my little daughter you had better learn this lesson well. It is just possible the pilot might do the captain's work, but the captain can never take the pilot's.""And nobody loves the pilot!" I said drearily."Nobody loves the pilot," said my father laughing, and stopped the conversation there.As years passed on, I had many opportunities to think of what my father had said. In those days Boston was a semi-rural town. The cows were still pastured on the Common. At the head of Walnut street Jeremiah Mason's house was still standing, and its neglected pastures swept down Mt. Vernon and over Pinckney street. In Beacon street almost every house stood airily in the midst of a large garden. People had not then begun to worry about summer board; but there were eight of us in the nursery, and my father often took me by the hand in the hot July days, and carried me down to the wharf to spend the day with him. Perched on a high stool at the window of the counting-house, I sat for hours, looking off at the sea; looking at the ships as they loaded or discharged, watching those steering warily out of the bay, or listening to the cheerful chat of the guagers and supercargo. I knew the pilots and many of the captains by sight, and I speculated slowly on the talk I had had with my father, and sometimes asked him a question or two."The gentlemen don't speak to the pilots," I said once, as I sat watching. "Mr. Norwood walked right by old Ben and never spoke to

him, and there he is talking to Capt. Hunt, and making as much fuss as if he had never seen him before.""Perhaps he has not seen him for a year," said my father, for Capt. Hunt has been on a long, voyage, and only got in yesterday. If you want to be prized, little daughter, keep yourself out of sight. One of these days Mr. Norwood may want Capt. Hunt to take a ship, and he must keep on good terms with him.""And why not with old Ben.? I asked in a vexed tone."Oh, the pilot must work for all the world, whether he likes it or not," said my father. What do you suppose would become of the pilot who refused to drop down for a ship, even if it were the smallest and most worthless? But a captain sails only when and for whom he pleases. Beside the pilot lives on the wharf, and goes up and down the bay as often as wind and wave will serve. Our merchants see him a dozen times a day, and always when they are most hurried and occupied. They no more think of taking off their hats to him than I take off mine to you, little Kitty, whom I love a great deal better than some of the people I treat to that civility.""You never take off your hat to me, of course, papa," I said gleefully, "but then I think you might just speak! Yesterday I walked all the way home from my riding lesson by your side, and you never spoke to me once.""And that should teach you to be charitable, Kitty," my father said. "I dare say I was thinking of some disagreeable thing, and should have been very glad to hear your voice.""But how can you think of disagreeable things, papa, when you make so much money. I heard Mr. Norwood say that you had made a hundred thousand dollars on the last cargo of tea the 'Steiglitz' brought you. Was that true, papa?"My father paused a moment with a weary look, and -then said, Yes, Kitty, it was true, but it was also true that I lost a hundred and fifty thousand by the wreck of the 'Calumet' the week before, and that Mr. Norwood does not know. So you see, though he thinks I am growing rich very fast, I am really poorer than I was two weeks ago; and if the 'Steiglitz' had not made a good voyage, little Kitty, I am afraid to think what might have happened to your riding lessons!""Was it profits you lost, papa, or property?" I asked hastily, for my father had long ago taught me the difference between the two."It was property.""And may I tell Mr. Norwood," I said eagerly, and not without reason, for I had heard him blaming my father for not subscribing largely to a New Bethel. My father looked astonished. "No indeed, little Kitty," he answered, "merchants must keep their own secrets, and I should not talk to you if I had not learn't long ago that Kitty could keep mine." So saying he went away for a moment, and came back bringing me some ship biscuit and some candied oranges and pineapple, which lay packed in Canton boxes at the other end of the store. I was very fond of these dainties, and so indeed was my father, but I did not like their appearance at this moment, It seemed to me that my father wanted to divert my thoughts, and I was too dignified to permit that. "Papa," said I, giving him a little bit of a nod, and just dropping the sweetmeats, "I should just like to tell you what I would do with my hundred and fifty thousand dollars if I had it." "Suppose I tell you?" said my father, laughing. I stared silently, for I did not imagine that my father could guess."Yes," said my father, answering my unspoken question. "I rather think I could tell. In the first place, old Mrs. Effinger, opposite the West Church, would be sure to have a new Bible directly, and I suspect it would have to be printed on purpose with letters an inch long, so that she could find the text for herself; and old Mrs. Knowlton, by the mill-pond, would be set up with a pension in tea and white sugar; then the infant-school, down in Baldwin Place, would have a new bath tub, and perhaps--I am not quite sure--but perhaps you would hire a servant to scrub the babies; and then little Elsie Flynn would be sent to the Blind Asylum; and cousin Harry would go to Europe. Should you ask him to send you a new cloak from Paris, Kitty?"I had listened breathlessly to what my father said, but this roused me. "No indeed papa, you know I should not but I can't think how ever you guessed ?""Because I know what is in my little girl's heart and mind. But, Kitty, what I meant to say is, that although I know what you want to do, yet if you had the money, I am sure you would not do it.""Not do it, papa--not if it were my very own?" I exclaimed.No, my child, because all this money would bring with it duties, of which you do not yet dream. I suppose you meant to earn it? Well, you would begin with a very little. Some lucky day you would make two or three thousand dollars. You would want to do some kind thing with it, but you would think, I need this to enlarge my business, I will wait for the next lucky day. As your business increased you would need more and more money, in proportion, You would find the truth of the old proverb, that 'money makes money.' You would not love your money for itself, but your mind would be so occupied with it--you would be so full of all the small cares it would bring, that you would think you could not give the time to these kindnesses. You would keep deferring the execution of our wishes, perhaps you would not even put them into your will."I felt pretty sure I should, but I only said, "about the duties papa, you have not said a word about the duties?""I must not say much," he answered, "but I will give you one example. You and Mr. Norwood, think I ought to give $5,000 to that New Bethel. I have not so much money in the world, that I can honestly give away! When the 'Calumet' was wrecked, eight of her hands perished also, and they all left families. Two of the women have little babies, and I must take care of them through the cold winter. Besides I feel sure the captain of the ship was not to blame. The underwriters think he was. No one will employ him. If I don't, he will be a ruined man. I must build him a new ship, little Kitty, and send him off again.""But oh, papa," I said, with a great feeling of joy at my heart, why can't you tell Mr. Norwood?""Tell Mr. Norwood?" exclaimed my father under his breath.My father was a curt and reticent man; he had so much to think about that he seldom talked, and nothing astonished the clerks in the counting-room so much as the happy chatter we two used to carry on in those long, restful, summer days. But my father could always talk with me. I understood him so well, that his words came readily. I know what his exclamation meant, and I said soberly, "papa, if I can't spend my money for the right things, I hope God will never give me any.""But what are the right things?" asked my father. You know Kitty, how long I have wanted to keep fifty ships upon the sea together, for one year at least. It was a boy's dream, and I wanted to realize it, but I have never been able to do it. I have often thought I had my fifty ships safe, but a few weeks has always shown me, that at the moment when I launched a new one, somewhere on the wide seas an old one had just changed hands or gone to pieces. Could that be a wrong wish?""That was to teach you not to keep so many," I said, speaking full and fast upon a subject I had often pondered. "Papa, does God want you to do so much work?" Isn't he willing you should have a little freedom and pleasure before you die? Papa, all this talk began about pilots and captains, and there is Mr. Norwood now. He won't look at Uncle Ben! Do you know I think you rich merchants are just like captains, you go sailing about wherever you will, or come up the bay with all your canvass spread, but there is something You can't measure for all that; the wind and the wave are stronger than you are, and sometimes, as you said before, papa, the channel changes in a single night--"My father had watched me with a look half serious and half amused. "So you think I want a pilot, little Kate?" he said, interrupting."Papa, would you take off your hat to one if you saw him?" 1 retorted."Perhaps I should not know him, he answered. When we are long at sea the faces change.""Well, papa, it is all very well to put the canvass out on the high seas--Captain Hunt told me so himself--but when you near the port, papa? The strongest and fleetest ship has to lie at the dock sometimes.""Shall I take off my hat to you, little Kate?" my father asked gaily, but I saw that his eyes were full of tears. Just then the real pilot came to have a talk with him. * * * * * * * *It is about two years since the great ninth wave in the tide of human progress--which so lately induced 40,000 women in Great Britain to petition for the franchise--touched our shores. During these two years I have been twice to the Far West, and once to the Far South. I have heard women of all conditions and modes of thought talk of their own

work in this cause. Many have sought my counsel in the study where I now write, either in person or by letter. I have seldom been able to respond with full frankness to such appeals, but what I have never said to any one, I may safely say to all, and to those whom I wish to address next month, I commend the parable of the preceeding pages.CAROLINE H. DALL.RIGHT VERSUS WRONG.Helen Rich"She will weep her woman's tears,She will pray her woman's prayers."Mrs. Browning. TEARS, idle tears, a poet sings--Yea, and they rust her fetters still;But let her weep, her feeble willDistils in sorrow's misty springs.Only a woman's anguished wail,And see, her needle pricks our hearts;Gaunt hunger rivals highest arts,And rends convention's flimsy veil.A thousand years to crawl and cringe;A thousand years to yearn and fret;Beneath the thong is coronet;Hearts bleed if caught in iron hinge.Poor fool! we gave her tinsel bright,She had her mirror, gems and plumes,Toy-houses--discontent presumesTo name her sunshine only night.What then? she would be reaching outTo taste the golden fruit we press;She will have powers, nothing less,And trace the stars on ancient route.Where dainty fingers slippers wrought,We shall hare spar and quartz and gneiss;With automatons, toy like thisBefits the manly range of thought.A woman judge of laws and rates!Discourse of measures (not of lace),The tariff, loans, important caseOf habeas corpus, rights of States;Pore over Constitutions, knitHer pretty brows to find the rentIn Uncle's, wallet, where they went,The millions--frauds that bless our wit.To leave her opera, fashion prints,All her dependent, baby airs;Her costly trains, for railway shares,And chat of interest, bonds and mints.So, scorning every harmless pageOf Chimney Corner, Ledger--sweepMinerva-like, where poets keepTheir state, with Milton, Browning rage.Or, fired with classic ardor, stirOur sober pulse with woes of Crete:With Phillips, Gough or Mills;compete--Reform's enraptured worshippers.No more to drain delightful dropsOf scandal with her fifty dears,Or lisp of nerves, but quoting TheirsAnd Bright, discuss the autumn crops.Her children (orphans while she votes,Upon the laws that tax her dower);Despoiled of bonbons, hail a showerOf proverbs, wise historic notes.To learn her puny mind may spanVast systems, finance, household cares,Maternal duties, soon she daresOur habits, views and words to scan.Audacious hands will strip the mouldOf time from our dear right to curse.With indigence our drudge and nurse--The wife who toiled to save our gold.Next will she have her finger inThe: wholesome traffic of our winesAnd, ranging all her valiant lines,Cry "outlaw" to our cherished sin.We shall have women L.L.D.'s,And merchant princes, sage divines;Unnumbered growths of evil timesWith labor's honest hire and ease.Our stately dames go prying, whereDisgusting want and vice have madeThe very sunshine shrink afraid,And purity forsake the air.Fair "Newport" and the "Mountains" yieldTo "Homes for Children," starved and sick;"Reforming Schools," and prayers that stick,For gold to till this pauper field.The "rings" of shrewd and thrifty men,Dissevered "hells" of every grade,Purged, and their deadly orgies stayed,Nor sign to point the "beast" again.This butterfly whose gilded wings(Our bounty gave) will soar too high;This doll will put her gewgaws by,This falcon caged, like seraph sings."Humility is woman's crown,"And lo! with convicts, fools and crazed,She will not rank, we are amazed--Such pride will bring tradition down!As if the good old world should moveTo patent action, Eden-pace,And every hoary wrong give placeTo right, and kindly human love.She seeks a broader, truer life,An equal task, a just reward;A right to all that men accordTo zeal and skill in noble strife.The right she won by mortal pain,And holds in virtue of her love,To shield her tender, spotless doveFrom curse of rum, from life of shame.God-given right to choose her pathIf, 'mid the flowery, valley's calm,Or, high on Calvary, feel the balmHis loving sheds in face of wrath.To press the sweets of bitter toll,To thrill with mercy like to HisSo mailed in gracious charities--Bruised hearts, rough hands may not assoil.To glow, (rapt priestess) in the faneOf knowledge, loved of gods and men;Turn from the rose and laurel then,To bind the wound, or rend the chain.To count no service vile indeed,If consecrate to worthy aimsSerene if hate, or grand acclaimWait on the fearless word or deed.To live in earnest with the times,In league with Christ, in holy faithWith men and women, until DeathShall ring for her his blissful chimes. -HELEN RICH.THE women's cause is making very encouraging progress in this State, and making it in the best manner, namely; with moderation, not precipitancy-- and by a wide diffusion of information respecting the reasons for seeking a change--and by a practical and sensible beginning of entrance upon that change, the choice of women, first, to those stations for which their fitness is incontestable, and in which immediate and obvious benefit may be expected from their coöperation. Thus, in Worcester, two or three women, and in Pembroke one, have been placed upon the School Committee; an example which many towns may be expected to follow.--Boston Correspondence of the Nat. A. S. Standard.IMMUNITY OF SEX.Caroline A. CampbellTHERE is extant a Review of one of Mrs. Browning's poems, that does great credit to the heart and head of the author, for his just appreciation and expansive views of woman's intellectual and spiritual capabilities. It is a blessing that there are such men! Yet even this author so much to be commended for liberality of thought, has fallen into a common error--an error of the present as well as of the past--and from which mankind are just beginning to awake. He says, "The same atmosphere suits not both man and woman." He had been speaking of the greatest and most gifted woman who ever held a pen in France, and of her fatal familiarity with emotions and experiences, through which "no woman can pass, and keep sacred the special spirit of her sex." He says, "The only real evil quality of her works seems to be this, that her immorality is mannish. The discipline to which she subjects her hero is a discipline of which a man might conceive for himself, but from the thought of which a woman should recoil with a natural shudder."I would be far from deprecating the spirit which laments that woman should transgress the bounds which "keep sacred the special spirit of her sex," but I would deprecate, yes--reprobate the idea that makes purity a specialty of woman. I would reprobate the idea that while woman must be pure in heart in order to see God, or to stand in the sight of man; man may stand as fair in the view of his Maker, and still higher in the consideration of his fellows, for that "discipline" of un-holy and impure associations "from which a woman should recoil with a natural shudder."I have nowhere learned that man can breathe carbon with impunity any more than woman; neither can he inhale a pestilent moral atmosphere without the same deadly consequences; without tarnishing indelibly the spotless raiment of the soul. It is this idea that man may follow what desires and inclinations he pleases, and it is all right enough, that has been the bane of society, moral and intellectual, in all ages, and is still the curse of the world, both secular and religious. There is, there can be no discipline so good

and so strict as that which keeps the heart with all diligence from all unholy thoughts and desires--as that which loves truth and purity for their own intrinsic loveliness, and follows after holiness because of its conformity to the likeness of God. How strange would Scripture sound rendered like the following: God cannot look upon sin, in a woman, with the least allowance. Cleanse your hearts, ye women, and purify your hands ye double-minded daughters of Adam. Let the wicked woman forsake her way, and the unrighteous woman her thoughts. Regard not iniquity in your hearts, ye careless daughters, for purity is the special spirit of your sex. Teach all these commandments to your daughters, rising up early and teaching, but let your sons conceive for themselves that discipline from the thought of which a woman should recoil with a natural shudder.How strange that man should argue against woman's exercise of equal intellectual and political rights on the ground of contaminating her with his own follies and vices, while be is blind to the fact that unless the husbands and fathers of the coming generation purify their own hearts, the daughters of that generation, as well as the sons, will equal and exceed "George Sand" in all that is most deplorable!Why was not the son of Adam born in the likeness of God? Plainly, because Adam did not bear that likeness himself. As the daughters of the Nineteenth Century are manifesting that they have inherited the ntellect of their fathers, let not any one, taking upon himself the responsibility of a father, hold himself guiltless if his daughter prove to have inherited also his moral characteristics. Let not Society take to their hearts and their homes the impure man, while they reject with scorn the fallen woman; but when either turns from the evil way, say not " Stand thou there, I am holier than thou;" but reply with the Saviour, "Neither do I condemn thee--go and sin no more."Then shall we see men as well as women who can see "illusions vanish without losing faith in the realities which survive all illusion, too clear-sighted to be sentimental, too sincere to scoff; who can be thwarted without being perverted, vexed but not vitiated, swift-sighted to pierce every disguise of falsehood, but strong-hearted with the immortal love of Truth!CAROLINE A. CAMPBELL"ONE HUNDRED YEARS HENCE."ONE hundred years hence! what a change will be made,In politics, morals, religion and trade;In statesmen who wrangle, or ride on the fence,These things will be altered, "A Hundred Years Hence."Our laws then will be uncompulsory rules,Our prisons converted to national schools;The pleasure of sinning is all a pretense,And the people will find it so, "A Hundred Years Hence."Lying, cheating and fraud will be laid on the shelf,Men will neither get drunk, nor be bound up in self;But all live together, devoid of pretense,Just as Christian folks ought to, "A Hundred Years Hence."Then woman, man's partner, man's equal shall stand,While beauty and harmony shall govern the land;To think for ourselves will be no offence--Oh the world will be thinking, "A Hundred Years Hence."Oppression and war shall be heard of no more,Nor the blood of the slave leave its print on our shore;Conventions will then be a useless expense,For we'll all go Free Suffrage, "A Hundred Years Hence."Instead of speech-making to satisfy wrong,All will join the glad chorus to sing Freedom's song;And if the Millennium is not a pretense,We'll all be good brothers, "A Hundred Years Hence."JOSHUA HUTCHINSON.UNDER BAN--A SKETCH.William P. TomlinsonAs accident not unfrequently determines the course of a stream, so in life some incident, perhaps at the time lightly regarded, gives direction to the channel of thought, and ultimately results in the shaping of an entirely different character. It was thus with Miriam Talbot. Up to her eighteenth year she had possessed a character differing slightly from that of any of her companions. Naturally intelligent, blessed with a sunny temperament, with more than ordinary charms of person and manners, surrounded, by all creature comforts, life for Miriam Talbot wore none of those phases which reveal its deeper meanings to the understanding. The awakening came with a shock, rudely dissipating all traces of a lightsome, careless girlhood, leaving in its stead only the sober, determined woman. The transformation of character was in this wise.At the date of our sketch, well nigh twenty years ago, the little town of N----, near which Miriam came to reside while on a visit at the home of an uncle, was in a blaze of excitement. The announcement of an Anti-Slavery lecture which sturdy farmer Graves, Miriam's uncle--the, only man, at that early day, in the entire community at all tinctured with Abolitionism--had caused to be circulated, was the bomb whose rapid exploding, by village gossip, was giving rise to the angriest comment. An exciting political campaign, in which the Slavery question had largely entered, was just closing; and to N----; a sleepy town with a large foreign element, with the rankest conservatism as its leading feature, the notice of a set lecture on the hated topic was as oil poured upon the flames of mens' heated passions.The meeting, as was customary at such times in country places, was called in the village school-house; the announcement made being that a popular lecturer from New England would be the speaker--one, albeit a woman, who was known far and wide for her boldness, her fiery vehemence of denunciation of the national evil, and who had carried her crusade against wrong, East and West encountering persecutions that would have deterred any nature cast in a mould less impervious to

contumely, or any species of indignity. Long before the hour of the lecture the little building was filled with an excited audience, many of whom were foreigners, rude laborers from some adjacent public works, with a sprinkling of the more respectable farmers and villagers with their wives and children. That a riotous disposition animated many of the assemblage was unmistakably evident, and blunt farmer Graves--who had escorted the speaker to the platform, and who, despite his heresies, was rather popular than otherwise--was kept constantly busy, the few intervening minutes previous to her appearance, in preserving even partial order among the motley assemblage. As soon as practicable he called the unruly body to order, beat upon the rude desk to enforce attention, and, in the lull that succeeded, briefly defined the purpose of the meeting, ending with introducing the speaker and craving for her their respectful attention. She came forward, their lecturer, commanding as ever in presence, with the dauntless earnestness of purpose so eminently a characteristic of her nature, throwing her whole soul into the work, and, for a while, charming the ear, or cowing, by the majesty of her mien, even the most rebellious spirit in all the assemblage. Seldom indeed bad those rude walls given back the echo of a truer or more matchless eloquence. But as she proceeded, warming with her work, and passing from a picture of the slave's hapless condition to the enormity of the crime of human bondage, arraigning the government therefor and especially the party in power, the baser nature of the major portion of the audience began to assert itself, and the interruptions, at times almost preventing speech, were many and protracted. Still, with that marvellous tenacity of purpose her friends so well remember--ah, on that sick bed in her New England home do those days of her triumph as well as of her martyrdom ever come back to her?--she fought her way from point to point and branch to branch of her discourse, spiking as a skillful artillerist, each gun captured from the enemy; and all the while Miriam Talbot, with cheeks a-crimson at the indignities heaped upon the speaker, sat drinking in that fiery eloquence, with a sense of remorse at past unmindfulness gnawing at her heart, for, to her, every word was a revelation. Never in her life, previous to that evening, had she listened to an Anti-Slavery discourse. In her city home, none of her fashionable associates were in any way identified with the hateful reform; and the

few lecturers that had ever ventured before a T---- audience, sure of encountering covert, if not open, hostility, had come and gone without her thought or interest having been in the slightest degree excited. Her father, a prominent conservative and office-holder, had carefully weeded his library of all obnoxious works; and the papers that Miriam occasionally glanced over when diverted from the flowery paths of fiction or poesy invariably breathed nothing but invectives against the "noisy fanatics" and "disrupters of the Government." Still, with Miriam Talbot--
"The evil wrought was more the want of thoughtThan want of heart."
It was a negative rather than a positive conviction. Her conscience had simply slumbered, and was rudely waking 'neath the knotted lash of the speaker's logic and scorn. And all the while that this revulsion was going on in her breast, confusion dire was more and more asserting itself. Good farmer Graves, called by courtesy "Squire," had gone through all the gradations of temper from respectful entreaty to downright indignation in his effort to preserve the semblance of order, but was acknowledging to himself the probability of a riotous breaking up of the assemblage. The speaker herself, more and more exposed to indignity and even to open threats of violence, although undismayed by the storm she had excited, was losing strength in the increased exertion of making her voice heard, and was beginning to meditate an abrupt closing of her remarks when an expression wrung from her by the malignant spirit of her audience--a retort one not more than human must have pardoned her--capped the climax of indignation."Northern nagurs, does she call us?"--misinterpreting her words--"put her out, the petticoat tacher!" and, with an Irish yell, a knot of laborers who had gathered together in a corner of the room, made a rush for the platform, while with shrieks of terror women and children vainly essayed to escape by the door, blocking, in their fright, the only means of exit. How it would have fared with the object of their wrath would have been little question, for stout farmer Graves found himself as a child in the grasp of two or three of the most determined of the assailants, and the few peaceably disposed men in the audience sat cowering with terror. But before they could reach where the lecturer stood calmly awaiting the assault, a new actor appeared upon the scene, rapidly bor-

dering upon the tragic. Miriam Talbot had made her way to the platform. Struggling through the crowd, she reached the side of the speaker, almost forcing her person between her and the audience, and confronting the infuriated men, rapidly pressing upon them, her eyes flashing all the scorn of her soul, her voice ringing with trumpet clearness, she cried:"Are ye men and would ye assault a woman? Are ye Americans, and do ye deny freedom of speech to aught of human kind who has eye to see, and heart to feel, the woes of humanity? Back to your seats ye cravens! Is this the lesson ye learn of Republics? But yesterday yourselves oppressed; do ye clothe yourselves wlth privileges, only to deny the boon of freedom to those of humanity yet more unfortunate? Away, I say! What that woman ye would assault has borne testimony to I subscribe to literally. Henceforth my place is by her side! Forever more I cast my lot with her! Her cup I will share: her indignity partake of! I walk with her, and the cross she carries, I must bear also! Back, I say, and carry the shame with ye of this night's work!"Perchance since she of the Bible who pronounced condemnation on the assailers of the chosen of Israel, never fell words upon illiterate men with greater power. They slunk from the withering of her scorn; a moment stood irresolute, then slowly retreating, with muttered curses at being thus balked of their vengeance, more rapidly joined the audience who were now effecting an egress from the building.They slept in each others' arms that night, apostle and disciple, stern teacher of morality and child of inexperience, but the closely cemented bond of sisterhood, made in the trial-hour of danger, was theirs, and the baptism laid upon the younger's brow was a consecration to a Cause, binding for all after time.And Miriam Talbot went back to the city, but no more the unthinking mistress of a beautiful home--the heartless devotee of fashion. Life came to her with a new meaning; a mission was hers, and alone and in secret she sought of the Most High for wisdom to direct her steps. Many trials, bitter to the spirit, were to be encountered. She forsook society. She rigorously marked out for herself a course of study. She familiarized herself with the beautiful writings of Lydia Maria Child, and she hung spellbound on the oratory of Wendell Phillips. She sat at 

the feet of the sweet-lipped Quakeress, Lucretia Mott, and she sought out the good and pure of the small body of Reformers, making all that was wisest of lore, purest of thought, and loftiest of spirit, hers. They would have marvelled, they who missed the once courted belle from her place in society, could they have beheld her transformed into the earnest student, alone in her chamber, or in some quiet retreat, poring over the lore which was to fit her for a higher mission than that of which her girlhood had ever dreamed. Ever her cross she bore with her. Society placed her under ban. Her father, proud of her no more, finding she could not be diverted from her purpose, almost turned her from his doors, denying her the most common necessities of life. A lover trusted, almost idolized, vainly sought to lure her back to the gayeties of her past life, and then returned her her troth at her earnest entreaties, with bitter upbraidings at the disgrace brought upon his name and hers. She was as a leper. Only the despised Abolitionists, with whom she had cast her lot--a mere handful in numbers--gave her a welcome. All others frowned upon her. Even the servants in her father's house who had listened as it were to the rustle of her silks along the halls, so attentive were they to her commands, now failed to salute her as she passed them clad in the simple garments only her industry had enabled her to procure. Yet she never murmured. Sustained by an inward power, she calmly submitted to the privations that befell her, welcoming as it were all dispensations that brought her into closer kinship with the race whose deliverance from bondage was the one purpose of her new-born being. Distrustful to a fault concerning her own abilities, she for a time held back from the public exercise of speech, seeking only in private ways to promote the cause nearest to her heart. But the moment, when she could no longer bury her talents, came at last.The "dark hours" of the nation were at hand. The infamous Fugitive Slave Bill--that ineffaceable stain on our national legislation--had passed both Houses of Congress, been declared the law of the land, and the North, a shorn Sampson grovelling at the feet of the Delilah of Slavery, was converted into a great hunting ground. Public opinion was gagged. A muzzle was on the press. A statesman towering above his fellows, termed "godlike" in intellect by his

admirers, had gone down into the mire of abasement, glorying in his apostacy. Charity was a crime. The north star no longer pointed the way to the fugitive. Men looked into each others' eyes, and saw reflected there the shame of the nation. In the midst of these "evil days," the little band of Abolitionists, undismayed by the mob spirit which ever pursued them, held their annual meeting in N----. Miriam Talbot attended. It was her first visit to the empire city, and her first attenLdance at an Anti-Slavery Convention. As she rode up its great thoroughfare, attended by her uncle, good farmer G----, whose hospitable home latterly had been almost hers, as indeed a daughter's place she had taken in his bluff loving heart--as she looked out on the glittering pageant of moving concourse, towering edifice and varying phase of metropolitan splendor, she could scarcely realize that beneath all its fairness to the eye there lurked the fell elements which had been so often evoked to suppress freedom of utterance. The Convention was a memorable one. There are men and woman, old in the Anti-Slavery warfare, who can recall it, as veterans recall a hardly contested field, and the part played in it by Miriam Talbot has been the fond theme of pen or tongue recounting its incidents. Days before its ccnvocation, the edict had gone forth among the dens and low political haunts of the metropolis that the Convention was to be dispersed, and the hour of its assembling found the street in front of the hall rapidly filling with men, and even women and children, whose passions were inflamed almost to brute ferocity by the incendiary harangues made them by the few noted leaders conspicuous always on such occasions. Miriam and her uncle, pressing through the throng, gained admittance to the building. Recognized by her old friend, the N---- lecturer, she was pressed to accept a seat by her on the platform. There had been a call to order, and some preliminary business had been transacted, but the untoward aspect of things had induced rather a consultation on the part of the members than a prosecution of the usual proceedings. Indeed it was a moment causing no ordinary test of courage. Well they knew, that devoted band of men and women, that no arm of the law would be outstretched to save, and that the howling mob outside might be goaded on to do its worst without the interposition of authority to check the grossest excess of lawlessness.Grasping as by intuition the exigencies of the moment, Miriam Talbot requested her friend to inform the presiding officer that she herself desired to address the Convention. The man banned as an "outlaw," upon whose head had been heaped the obloquy of years, gazed a moment on the slender girl, as though desirous of shielding her from the wrath she would evoke, but reassured by something in her countenance, he rose to his feet, and the announcement that a woman would speak ran with an electric thrill through the assemblage. Nor did it pause there. The outer crowd caught up the murmur; it pressed for admittance, filling every available place, surging even up to the platform, and, for the second time, Miriam Talbot confronted a mob audience. It was a picture, that frail girl looking resolutely into the faces scowlingly upturned to hers, and waiting for a lull in the tumult to begin. Of the speech that followed, indescribable in character, no pen could present even the faintest outline. Heard at first all incredulously, as though those rude men expected a speedy. discomfiture from such temerity, surprise changed swiftly to wrapt attention, ending even with bursts of applause at the impassioned oratory of the speaker. It was an unalloyed triumph. All opposition was disarmed. When the protracted applause, following the delivery of the last word, died away, the would-be rioters, the notorious Capt. W---- at their head (who being taunted a few days thereafter at showing the white feather at an Anti-Slavery meeting, declared that the plucky girl made him half an Abolitionist); stole quietly away, and the Convention went on, that day and the one succeeding, without any farther interruption.It is not the purpose of this sketch to follow Miriam Talbot further in her life, consecrated by years of labor for humanity. Not alone the North learned to know her voice, New England towns and remote Western villages; but amid the slaveholders and the slaves of the South she wandered oft and long through those gloomy years, wrapped round with the beautiful mantle of purity, preserved from every danger, never wearying, never shrinking from sacrifice. She lives still, rejoicing in the work so nearly accomplished, lending yet her aid and counsel to the oppressed, and waiting hopefully for the full measure of deliverance, in the goodness of God, awaiting the down-trodden of the land.WILLIAM P. TOMLINSON.ADDRESS.Elizabeth B. ChaceAddress of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Chace before the Judiciary Committee of the Rhode Island Legislature on the hearing of the Petitioners for Woman Suffrage.MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE:It has been so universally the custom to treat the idea of Woman Suffrage as a subject for ridicule and merriment, that, in coming before you to urge the prayer of the petitioners, sent up to the Legislature from various parts of the State, we wish to assure you that we make our claim seriously, thoughtfully, earnestly, as the result of long and patient deliberation.We ask for suffrage for women, not as a favor, not as a privilege, but as a right; on the ground that we are human beings, and as such, are entitled to all human rights. We do not make this claim for the gratification of any personal ambitions or retaliations. For, it is a fact well worthy of note, that, although women have long felt the degradation of their inferior position, yet, until, in the progress of enlightenment and reform, they saw that the welfare of the race required that they should share the duties and responsibilities of government, they have silently, patiently and humbly submitted to this deprivation of their just and equal rights.Within the last few years, also, we have been deterred from pressing our claim by the fact that other interests have so filled the heart of humanity, that, although longing to aid by our vote their more rapid success, we knew that our claim for this just recognition could not then be heard. But now, when our nation has fully proved the stability of Republican government, the safety of religious liberty, the necessity of general education, and, above all, when the Nation has decreed that man shall no longer hold property in man; now that the newly emancipated slave and the colored man throughout the land, are on the eve of restoration to all the rights of citizenship, we believe the hour has come to set forth our claim to be made citizens also, as the crowning glory of a righteous, just and safe reconstruction.Surely the United States, which has so far vindicated the rightfulness of self-government, should be the first Nation to give citizenship to the wives, mothers and daughters of the Republic; and the State of Rhode Island, where civil and religious liberty have so long been largely enjoyed, and where the laws in regard to women have been so modified from year to year, that we are now almost on

an equality with men in holding and disposing of property, this State, so small, that a good idea launched forth in the morning, may be the subject of the evening's conversation in every household; this spot, where the colored man is already enfranchised, and the colored child has free education in our public schools; this Commonwealth should be the first to give to her daughters what her sons so highly prize--a voice in the making of the laws to which we are all held amenable.Do you say we are represented by our fathers, sons and husbands? We reply by asking you, would men be willing to be so represented? Do you believe that men could so represent each other, that it would only be for half the men to vote? And, that you, gentlemen of the Committee should be included in the half represented by others? Do you believe that the man who votes for a license law, which, makes drunkards of sons and husbands, truly represents his wife and his mother?I hope you will listen patiently to those who will here address you in our behalf, while they show you the reasons why we prefer, hereafter, to represent ourselves, and why we object any longer, to be governed without our consent by laws we have no voice in making.George JohnsonTHE RUINED HOME.DULL through the night its windows stare,Its hearth is dark and cold;It stands forlorn as if awareThat it is lone and old.Like lower stars before it gleamThe lamps that light the town;Above, the moon in one broad beamLooks in cold pity down.Its roof is clad with heavy snow,And through its broken doorsThe whitened wind has dared to blowAnd drift the cheerless floors.Ay, on the spot where once the waveOf household light flared warm,A snow-drift like a winter graveIs moulded by the storm.Silence would be in every roomWere not the winds at strife;They beat about and make the gloomSeem full of ghostly life.With every movement of the blastOld voices call around;Old forms come thronging from the pastInvisible as sound.But such sweet presence lacks its proof;The time was long agoWhen sunnier rain beat on that roof,And happy hearts below.Such once were there, but now they allAre dead or far away;Comfort no more will cheer that hall,Nor pleasure make it gay.Thus all that Death can claim as hisHe follows to destroyAnd oh! how willing Silence isTo hush the notes of joy.How soon the birds that sweetest singForsake the Summer's bower!How easily the hand of SpringIs loosened from her flowers!How soon the beautiful and brightSurrender to decayHow closely does the black-winged night,Pursue the flying day!But never all the world at onceBy darkness is possessed;Some half our planet always frontsThe sky with lighted breast. *  *  *  *Let cheerful hands still plant and build,Although their works are frail,And time to overthrow them skill'd,For every hill and valeMust be a desert or a home;Earth has no vacant spot,And death and loneliness will comeWhere life and love are not.GEORGE JOHNSON.SUFFRAGE AT THE CAPITAL.SLETTER TO THE EDITOR.WHEN any matter of public concern begins to make a mark here, you may be sure it has made broad marks elsewhere. When a word freely spoken for some vital reform gains earnest attention, or even patient hearing, here, you may be sure that reform has strength, prophetic of victory; and this not because men and women with us are poor of soul, below the average, but because, in a center of National Legislation it cannot be expected that questions on which the people have bestowed no thought, and which have not been discussed with some thoroughness, can gain, or claim, attention from public men.The coming event of woman's suffrage has "cast its shadow before" into the Capitol--or rather its light, like that of the pillar of fire, guiding us, like Israel of old, out of our Egypt into a land of manly and womanly promise.Two years ago a few Senators voted for universal suffrage in this District--some from high motives, that was the light; others from lower, that was the shade; but light and shade alike were prophetic. Last Summer the Memorial of our Universal Franchise Association, and the comments of the delegates who presented it, were heard with respectful and careful attention by the Members of the House Committee, in their room at the Capitol. Hon. G. W. Julian, faithful to his convictions; has moved that suffrage in this District be universal, and a few days since offered an Amendment to the National Constitution making citizenship and suffrage inseparable and irrespective of race or sex. Motion and Amendment were respectfully referred to fit committees. Mr. Pomeroy, of Kansas, led the way in the Senate the grave members of that honorable body treated his motion with quiet decorum. Petitions for universal suffrage meet with the same respect in both Houses.Not much, you may say, but it is a good deal, for a beginning. A few years ago such proposals would have met slight or derision, but now the feeling is that they are the beginnings of a great end.Next, and soon, we must have votes on them, and if you "fight it out on this line" of your moral warfare a surrender will come. This movement, indeed, seems not like a warfare, so much as an education, lifting up the thought and act of men and women to a higher and purer realm.Last week Lucy Stone and her husband spoke, on a very stormy night, to

a large audience, in which were an unusual number of Members Of Congress, and gained appreciative attention.The Universal Franchise Association of this city, kept up by the efforts of Mrs. Josephine S. Griffing and others, issued a call some weeks since for a "National Woman's Suffrage Convention," which met here this week, closing its two days' session last night at 10 1/2 o'clock. Delegates were present from quite a number of States, even from California; the audiences were good, in the evening very large, and the interest increased to the end. Lucretia Mott presided, and many persons spoke, among them Senator Pomeroy, Mrs. Archibald of Kansas, Col. Hinton, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Robert Purvis, G. T. Downing, Clara Barton, G. B. Stebbins, Mrs. Dr. Hathaway, and Mr. Pillsbury.Space forbids to give extended report of these meetings, which will awaken a  good deal of thought, and thus be of benefit. An earnest discussion was had on wo resolves of similar purport, one of which was laid on the table, and the second, declaring "that a man's government is worse than a white man's government because, as you increase the tyrants you make the condition of the disfranchised class more hopeless and degraded," was put aside and the following substitute passed:"Resolved, That the privilege to cast a ballot is an individual right, not restricted by color or sex, and one which cannot justly be withheld on the plea that another is unjustly denied the same; and that it is the duty of every honest and consistent lover of justice to urge the securing of that right, ignoring sex or color, even if they be themselves disfranchised."More might be said of other matters here, of interest, but doubtless your casket is full of gems, and why toss on a pebble to run over? At some other time there may be room for more.SWASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 21, 1869.[An irregularity of the mails prevented the appearance of the above letter in the February number. ED.]WE do not assert that woman will enter the lists and conquer; that she will certainly achieve all that man has achieved; but this we say, "Clear the lists, and let her try." Some reply, "It will be a great injury to feminine delicacy and refinement for woman to mingle in business and politics." I am not careful to answer this objection. Of all such objections, on this and kindred subjects, I love to dispose in some such way as this: The broadest and most farsighted intellect is utterly unable to foresee the ultimate consequences of any great social change. But we may take our part with abstract right.--Wendell Phillips.--Extract from "Lecture" on Woman's Rights.EDUCATION FOR WOMEN.E. N. PowellIN a lecture on the education of girls, Ruskin says: "Speaking broadly, a man ought to know any language or science he learns, thoroughly, while a woman ought to know the same language or science, only so far as may enable her to sympathize in her husband's pleasures, and in those of his best friends." Farther on, he says: "I tell you that this is to me quite the most amazing among the phenomena of humanity. I am surprised at no depths to which, when once warped from its honor, that humanity can be degraded. But this is wonderful to me--oh, how wonderful! to see the tender and delicate woman among you, with her child at her breast, and a power, if she would wield it, over it, and over its father, purer than the air of heaven, and stronger than the seas of earth--nay, a magnitude of blessing which her husband would not part with for all that earth itself, though it were made of one entire and perfect chrysolite: --to see her abdicate this majesty to play at precedence with her next door neighbor!Wonderful! is it? But not so strange as that Ruskin does not see that "as men sow, so shall they reap." This tender and delicate woman, who abdicates the majesty of true womanhood and stoops to play at precedence with her neighbor, has probably been taught the sciences and languages only so far as to enable her to sympathize in her husband's pleasures! But this is not education. The hungry child on the sidewalk stops to enjoy the savory odors that come from the rich man's kitchen, or perhaps steals in and gathers up the crumbs that have fallen from his table; but we should not therefore call him well fed, nor should we expect from him the physical vigor of one whose bodily needs had been satisfied. Neither can we call one educated who knows only the alphabet, however thoroughly, of the sciences and languages, or one who knows superficially much more than the alphabet. Nor need we wonder that such are not conscious of their birth-right, nor that they stoop to littlenesses of behavior that belong to childhood.Education of girls in the past has been so superficial and incomplete as to have produced comparatively feeble results. It is true that the ability to read and write is the key to the acquisition of all knowledge, and this has long been in the hands of women. But it is not enough to place a magic key in the hands of a child and say, "my dear, this key will unlock the doors to all the treasures in the world," and then leave him to find the doors as best he can. And if this letting-alone is preluded by the assurance that, splendid as these treasures are, they only win for the finder the opprobrious titles of "strong-minded" and "blue-stocking" of course the young girl,

who is sensitive to ridicule, comes to think that the treasures are not worth the pains of striving for, and she is satisfied with little more than the key itself. Instead, she seeks satisfaction in things that pertain to the outward woman, and when she comes to the years in which to use her "power, purer than the air of heaven, and stronger than the seas of earth," she knows nothing about this power, and is well prepared to stoop to the game of precedence with her neighbor. Every woman who, under favoring circumstances, has found the doors to the treasuries of knowledge, and has gone in and possessed herself of these imperishable riches, must feel mingled sorrow and indignation, that all these years her sex has been robbed of its birth-right, and the world defrauded of the beneficent influences.Every reason that is urged for the thorough education of the young man, bears with equal force upon the young woman. "Knowledge is power" for man; so is it for woman. Education, in its broadest sense, makes man a better workman, a worthier citizen, a nobler father; so education ennobles woman and all her relations. Between the alphabet and the limit of human powers there is no point at which man may say to woman, "thus far and no farther." Since she has learned to read, much to the astonishment of Turks and some Christians, the barriers of public opinion have slowly yielded and there are signs of promise that before many years they will have disappeared entirely, and that there will be no recognition of sex in the provisions for education. Not many years ago, the public schools of Boston were open to girls only in the Summer time, when their brothers were away at work. Next year the Cambridge University in England will admit women to all its privileges. This is a great change. In our own country there is a rapidly growing interest in this subject, and colleges for women are multiplying, and long-established schools are beginning to open their doors. From this time forth, the supply of opportunities will be proportionate to the demand, and from this time, the responsibility for their right use, will rest mainly with women themselves. It is not wise to dwell sorrowfully and indignantly on the past; it is better to thank God for all good changes, and make haste to improve the golden hours of coming days.One relic of the "barbaric age," which ought immediately to be put away, is the idea prevailing among girls, that to be in school after the mature age of seventeen, is a violation of their "inalienable right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It is pitiful to hear the spoiled children of wealth and fashion, these fruits of the past, these babes in development, who might command every advantage, bewailing the unhappy destiny that keeps them in school at sixteen. They are weak--it would be shocking to be strong! They are near-sighted; they refuse to have their vision extended beyond the worthless pleasures of "society," to the enduring joys of the soul. They

do not catch the signs of the times, so they
do not realize that every year the charms of weakness and ignorance and dependence are growing less potent, and that the time is coming, when such as they will be called the "foolish virgins." Then, the freshness of youth gone, their lamps dim or empty, it will be too late to enter into the full possession of the rich inheritance prepared for every child of God. Neither do these foresee the increased responsibilities of women in the future. Women are feeling more and more their right and duty to share the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship; men are coming to feel the justice of their claim, and perhaps it is not too much to say, that they are beginning to acknowledge that, women who rule beneficently in the home and social circles may also prove to be wise and just administrators of state affairs. There is enough of ignorance and pedantry already employed in public service. Let women see to it that when they are called to this kind of work, they go complete women, with all their powers well trained and at command.Those who are now engaged in the advanced education of young women, have much embarrassment from the preparatory teaching of girls. When they have gone beyond the first requirements of all schools, having in view but two or three years of study at most, they choose here and there a subject that they deem it necessary to have some knowledge of, and in this way they become superficially acquainted with many things. But there is little mental training to be gained in study, without thoroughness, and without a plan and a purpose. The whole system, of education for girls needs to be reconstructed and placed upon a broader and deeper basis. Let parents, whose dearest interest it should be to have their daughters truly educated, join hands with their instructors and raise the standard of their education. Let them so combine intellectual with physical training, that from year to year they shall grow in bodily and mental grace and vigor, and at last be prepared to bless both home and society by their presence.Yes, the world needs strong-minded women. This appellation must be redeemed from the reproach that has gathered about it, and stand for its legitimate meaning. The strength of the strongest man is most powerful when combined with delicacy; so will the delicacy of true womanhood be most effective when it graces strength. There are yet those who blindly cling to the prejudice that completer education will transform the very nature of woman, and unfit her for the duties of domestic life. They are blind indeed who do not see what are the tendencies of those who are only superficially taught. It is such who have gained for vanity the name of woman; it is such who devote themselves to fashion; it is Such who have no aim but to be lifted into Dr. Holland's consummate life; " it is such who having been thus lifted up, shirk the responsibilities of the position and

leave house and children to the care of servants; it is only such to whom the ideal home is impossible. The laws of woman's nature are fixed; she is made in the image of God. We need not fear to develop all her resources. That which is in her nature is planned--
"To warn, to comfort and command,"
will be more effective to warn, more sweet to comfort, more powerful to command. Truly educated, she will bring to her father's house, or to her own home, a mind so richly stored, and a heart so attuned to the Divine laws that she can be happy without the appliances of wealth; and her guests shall hardly miss the "purple and fine linen" in the delight of her presence. Truly educated, she will have learned that high sculpture is, no artist is called to so exalted a work as she, if she is appointed to motherhood.Truly educated, conscious of her high calling, all that is vain and unworthy in social intercourse will disappear before her approach; her home will grow to be a temple of the living God; her hand will be stretched out to purify and exalt the State.O it will be good for the world, when all its women are as delicate and pure and strong as Womanhood itself.E. N. POWELL.NEITHER do I feel called upon to show what woman's proper sphere is. In every great reform, the majority have always said to the claimant, no matter what he claimed, "You are not fit for such a privilege." Luther asked of the Pope liberty for the masses to read the Bible. The reply was, that it would not be safe to trust the common people with the word of God. "Let them try!" said the great reformer; and the history of three centuries of development and purity proclaims the result. They  have tried; and look around you for the consequences. The lower classes in France claimed their civil rights--the right to vote, and to direct representation in the government; but the rich and lettered classes, the men of cultivated intellects, cried out "You cannot be made fit." The answer was "Let us try." That France is not, as Spain, utterly crushed beneath the weight of a thousand years of misgovernment, is the answer to those who doubt the ultimate success of this experiment.--Wendell Phillips.--Extract from "Lecture" on Woman's Rights.WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?W. J. LintonWHAT do women want?"All that is allowed to men: opportunity for whatever action man is free for." The answer is bold and broad. Is it not also vague? And when did vagueness ever win a triumph? Reading the first number of THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE I find many generalities against which I have no care to cavil; but only one specific--the claim to the Suffrage.From my earliest manhood I have been a woman's advocate. Sometimes a very partial one. Almost from my boyhood a Chartist, demanding manhood suffrage, I always supplemented it with womanhood. I fought then the battle of rights as earnestly as", I see others fighting it now. I found the battle of rights to mean this: Every one for self, and not exactly God for the hindmost. I found that the Brights and the Cobdens tempted too many from our ranks, with cheap bread and other household stuff, through which they recruited the "garrison" of our present institutions. The phrase was Mr. Cobden's own. We Chartists were then--and if there were any Chartists left, would be now--at issue with John Bright on this "garrison" question. We wanted universal suffrage, and he his life through has striven for something less.After the Chartist failure--a failure for which we were mainly indebted to the Manchester men, ("political economists," "free-traders," "peace-men," etc.), some of us turned our thoughts to Republicanism. We found that to involve something more than the question of mere rights, (excellent theory as that was so far as it went), we found ourselves led to the question of duties. I for one began to think that the question of rights only had had sufficient prominence during the years of its discussion--some eighteen hundred or thereabouts. Christianity and the French Revolution--it seemed to me--had settled that point. If any farther argument were needed, when you Americans armed the negro, he clinched it for you, with the butt end of his musket. I think there will be no occasion to talk again of Equal Rights. The theory is established for all time."But to put the theory in practice, we demand the suffrage for Woman." I answer, that I do not want this secret suffrage for myself; and I will not ask it for any woman whom I respect. I do not want any such right as that of going secretly once in a year, or two, to vote for my Master. I want liberty to do my best for the world; freedom to make my example, and my voice, and my thought felt in the education of my children and in the work of my own age. For the rest, I can take care of myself without asking

leave -of any "representative." A representative! I know no one who can represent me even for a single day. What do women want? To vote for President, Governors, and Representatives? I thought the gist of the complaint was that men cannot represent women? How also shall women represent men? Are we only to organize two new parties--women versus men instead of the present Democrats and Republicans? Small gain appears to me in that. Nor any worth to any woman or any man in being "master"--nominal master--during the process of election. Is it worth leaving the bench or the nursery to exercise a "right" and a "sovereignty" which consists merely in being the ten-millionth part, or even the ten-thousandth part owner of "a master of tongue fence"--supposing the elected to be indeed your representative. If not a representative, that is a delegate only, the elected is your master till the next election. The next election has been put off for more than seventeen years in France. And you only change masters here.Is this what women want? If so, God forbid they should get it. We have too many "electors " and politicians in the ring now. The Lord keep our women out of it. "But they want something else." What else? At what are they really aiming? Now the main talk--almost the only talk--is of the ballot.The ballot means voting for Grant, or Seymour, Morrissey or Blank; voting for some improbable, not to say impossible, chance of the better management of the present party machinery, the prolongation of the present effete system of class-government; the ballot means a share in misgovernment, for only misgovernment is possible under the present essentially unrepublican system.I believe--to speak whole truth--that the Woman Question does mean more than this. I know it should. Perhaps I could say what else some women would have it mean. But will they not say it for me? They can say it better than I can.I think I am helping the Cause if I provoke, even by an unpleasant discussion the formation or outcome of a healthier agitation. I think, by pointing out where, as it seems to me, American Reformers are off the line, I shall be doing more toward helping them to the true solution than by any mere easy vaguenesses which help no-whither, or by repeating the, to me, unfortunate cry of "The Ballot for Woman."W. J. LINTONA COUNTRY GIRL IN ST. LOUIS.Agnes HowellBORN and bred in one of the most rural villages of Missouri, innocent of railroads, Yankees, and the progressive spirit generally, and where we rub against the great world only through the medium of newspapers, a great event in my life was a recent visit, in company with a friend, like myself a village girl, to our great and growing city, St. Louis.At home our attention had been several times directed to the minutes of a Woman's Suffrage Association, said to be meeting in the Hall of the St. Louis Mercantile Library, and we had immediately marked that down on our list of sights to be seen, and things to be done. So, early on the Saturday afternoon following our arrival, we wended our way thither, filled with some interest and a great deal of curiosity; but ascending the broad steps leading to the Hall our courage was considerably damped by encountering a crowd of fashionably arrayed mothers, with their little ones (for somehow these ultra fashionables oppress one in spite of one's better judgment) returning from the Matinée of a Negro Minstrel Troupe. Surmising our destination, we caught their whispered undercurrent of "woman's rights," "hunting a vocation," "how ridiculous," and various other of the stereotyped phrases of the day; which would no doubt have been accompanied by a general uplifting of skirts and passing over to the other side, if the present fashion of short skirts bad not deprived them of that womanly mode of expressing disdain or contempt. As I said, my courage was oozing terribly, for in our village the term "Woman's rights," applied to a matron, is a term of opprobrium only equalled by "Yankee school-marm," and applied to a young lady, in Western parlance, is to ruin "her market forever;" but looking into my companion's face and seeing depicted there, that model resolution I was inwardly praying for, I took heart of grace, and on we went.Timidly knocking at the door of the Hall, it was immediately opened by a sweet-faced young lady, who kindly found us seats, and reassured us by a few pleasant words. Being merely "lookers on in Vienna," we composed ourselves and immediately began that eminently feminine process of making observations, in smothered whispers, upon the proceedings. Though feeling an interest, abstractly considered, in the question, I had never been able to divest my ideas of those female champions, from the light usually thrown upon them by newspaper reporters. Yet the picture before us bore no such coloring. Instead of discontented wives and faded spinsters, seeking a vocation, and grasping at suffrage as a weapon to hurl at their natural enemy,

man, we found ourselves at once in an atmosphere of earnestness and calmness. Shut out from the jar and din of the great mocking city, we found a society of women of wealth, culture, and even of fashion--women seeking this not as an avenue to bring them before the public, but women by birth, culture, and wealth already independent--women whose hearts were satisfied, and whose home-lives were filled with beauty: but some persons are born to be leaders and pioneers of new ideas--are born philanthropists, and it was of these who there; many sustained in their timidity and inexperience by the presence of husbands who could conceive of equality, without rivalry, or encroachment. I saw no levity, heard no jar, felt no discord; wealth had laid aside its trappings, and its possessor was as simply attired as the workwoman who sat by her side; on every countenance was exhibited a purpose, on every care-worn workwoman's face shone the dawn of a hope.I there learned that women claim suffrage not as an end, but as a means for the attainment of an end; that as the slave grasped the musket to emancipate himself from physical bondage, and now claims suffrage to free himself from social degradation, so woman, socially and intellectually emancipated by the spirit of the age, seeks suffrage to free herself from inefficiency and helplessness when, alas, there is too oft no one to help her. Our recent War, and it may be a great underlying purpose beneath, are throwing women upon their own resources as they were never thrown before. In society, in literature, in the fine arts, as a great working element, she is a power, has a voice, and now demands that she be heard in order to open to herself new avenues of labor, to equalize the wages of that labor, and to protect herself in the rights of property. The French historian, Lamartine, has said there was a woman at the base of every Revolution: I predict this is a Revolution in which woman is both the basis and the superstructure; that it will not only ameliorate woman, but lift a crushing weight from the shoulders of fathers and brothers. And this organization in St. Louis means work--is working. It was only the other day that I heard one of its most violent and derisive opponents remark: "That thing may accomplish something," and undoubtedly it will. Douglass once remarked that New England was a fine country to be born in, but that it took the strong Western minds to expand him into a Giant; so with this idea of Woman's Suffrage; the seeds were sown among the granite rocks of the East, but the winds wafted them Westward, and the farther West you go, you find the idea in its fuller development. In this organization at St. Louis, I observed one family especially: a mother, her two daughters and their husbands; a family whose social position is not surpassed in St. Louis. One of the daughters, a woman of sweet face and modest deportment, was reading an Essay

when I entered, and from that Essay, I first gathered the true ideas of the objects of this Association. The benevolent face of an elderly lady by my side attracted my attention; she too I learned was one who might have lived a life of ease, and immunity from all labor; instead of which, I was informed that she had lost even health in deeds of practical benevolence.But when an humble working woman arose, and encouraged by the friendly faces around her, made a call to her fellow laborers of St. Louis, to meet on the following Saturday, to consider things of practical import to them, I felt that I had heard the ring of the true metal, and was content to go, feeling that to some extent the scales had fallen from my eyes, and that woman may yet be found true to woman.AGNES HOWELL.WHY MEN SHOULD NOT VOTEGeorge S. BurleighTHERE are two unanswerable reasons why men should not vote; the first is, that the subject of politics is utterly above their comprehension; the second, that it is totally beneath their notice;--reasons that, like sturdy athletes, are all the stronger for their antagonism.Politics is a mystery, an art, based on such subtleties of economic science as only the most patient student can comprehend, and the most erudite apply to practice. It is a calling for which men are peculiarly unqualified, not only from the low average of the masculine intellect, but even more strikingly from the manifold duties to which they are born, and the true sphere which has been assigned to them by the merciful providence of God.Men were pre-eminently born to labor, to maintain their wives and their daughters. Their only dominion is over the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air,--"born to rule pigs and chickens!" To this end the Maker gave them that brawny strength of frame, and vigorous digestion of pork and beans, that are fatal to great mental achievements; and when they attempt to become rulers and lawmakers, they clearly "resist the ordinance of God, and shall receive to themselves the greater"--disagreeable consequences--to draw it mildly.How admirable they are in their own subordinate sphere; how grotesque and awkward when they leave it! How contemptible when they leave it to be quibbling demagogue or demagogue's tool! Clod-boots trudging behind his plough has a sturdy dignity that I have often admired even Pat with

his hod, ascending and descending his Jacob's Ladder, though not quite an angel, has a certain picturesque bearing, a self-centered attitude, quite charming to contemplate, a little way off. But see them with an assumed swagger of independence, which betrays the toady at heart, or the fine venal dollars in the pocket--go to the polls with their votes for a man whose name they could not spell, and whose principles they could not guess, only knowing "he is a first-rate feller, and b'longs t'our side"--and they are objects no longer to be admired, but only to be thought of with mournful reflections! The honest mercer can stand behind his counter as the bulwark of his integrity, with his yard-stick for his sword of Themis but when be comes to the polls, led by his spiritual nose, to cast a name that means nothing to him for a cause that he could not comprehend, and has no desire to comprehend, I think his integrity is left behind the counter, and his good sense stays to keep it company.Let men hew down forests, build mills, make railroads and telegraphs, and even build the lofty rhyme, if now and then one rises with a genius like Mrs. Browning, or Mrs. Hemans, but let them not fly out of their divinely appointed sphere, to become rulers and law-makers. The time required to qualify them for such high claims, renders these wholly incompatible with their true duties, the social, industrial and religious. No man was ever a born voter in this world; the ballot is an invention of our fallen, besotted human nature, in revolt against the ordinance of Heaven. The truly religious mind confesses so much when it prays that God "may give us rulers"--not that we may elect rulers for ourselves "just rulers, fearing God and eschewing evil." What a piece of blasphemous mockery to make such a prayer and then turn round and vote for some drunken villain, to make him ruler by a count of noses, whom you pretend to have by grace of God!To learn the simplest trade, a man must devote years of patient industry. To fathom the most obvious scientific truths, takes half a life-time of diligent study. But anything, more than an idiot or a woman, who has the profound qualification of being twenty-one years old, is supposed to be competent to select the wisest man, and decide upon the subtlest principles of political economy. What would you say if Hodge, the mason, should presume to practice surgery, and deal with the most delicate vital tissues as with his mortar-shovel and trowel?But would you look at it, the body politic has suffered a severer compound fracture than ever mortal man survived, and you, advocates of manhood suffrage, would set Tom, Dick & Co.--hod-carriers and mixers of untempered mortar, who carry their bricks in their own smashed hats--to do the setting, and are credulous enough to expect civic body to stand straight on its legs again!What would you say if the rude wood-chopper and coal-heaver were to assume the responsible duties of the medical profession? But how much less wisdom will suffice for the mending of a nation's broken down constitution, than ordinarily goes to the exhibition of rhubarb and senna? No! the average masculine mind is not qualified for the political duties it arrogates.But the gravest objection is one which leads to our second proposition--the inherent baseness of politics, and may be called the moral objection. When a man, neglecting all his human duties and those laborious callings for which he is so admirably fitted, gives all his life to the subject of politics, what do we see? In proportion as he is qualified for the duties he has assumed he is disqualified for every human duty; and so certain is the moral deterioration that an honest politician is a rarity worthy of giving the man a new nick name, even while honor among thieves is a thing of proverbial notoriety. You say the exception shows that a man can be honest and a politician. Yes, and he can be honest and steal men from Africa and sell them for slaves; but the thing does not conduce to honesty. True, the finer moral sense of women might elevate and purify, to a certain degree, the political morality of the nation, but the experiment would be hazardous to woman. She can bear up against great temptation; but dirt is dirt, and here is a cess-pool that it would not be wise to enter! Politics is a thing too vile for a decent man to meddle with. No self-respect can survive the plunge into its dirty waters, and no claim to the respect of other men, not even from those who are draggling in the same puddle.Man was ordained by God to be the father of the family, the husband, protector and supporter of the most perfect creature of God; and the example of the little ones, who are as the kingdom of heaven. If he dabbles in dirty pools, how certainly will he defile the whiteness of those delicate natures. An immortal soul is to take color and character from him--what will it be if he joins in the vile scramble for power and place? Such contact can only taint him with the deadly virus of sin, that be will bring back to his tender flock and poison them in their nonage, till they can only grow up fit for treasons, politics and office.All moral distinctions are levelled by this base democracy of the ballot. A man is no better than a "dead rabbit." The professing Christian voluntarily stoops to the level of the rough and the rowdy, and the dog-fighter, when he is willing to let his fair nose be counted out by a purple fungus on a bloated face. The vote of Saint Paul would be neutralized by that of the lowest sot from a corner grocery; nay verily, the sot would be in, the majority, for he would vote twice and carry it over the Apostle! Evidently a man is out of his sphere where the loafer matches, or outweighs the saint.God has ordained rulers undoubtedly, as he ordained other plagues. Paul teaches that--from a pulpit where he cannot be balanced by a dead rabbit. The ballot is infidel, an overturning and uprooting of the ordinance of God. The only theory of human government which has Scripture sanction,--after the Patriarchal Institution--is the divine right of kings. The reign of the Patriarchs has gone by, and that of kings is getting shaky. God gave the Jews a king in his wrath; though I can but think he would have shown a subtler malice had he given them universal manhood suffrage! If to give one king is a token of divine vengeance, what would it not be to impose on a people a whole nation of sovereigns? It would appear that Queen Esther ruled by heavenly approval; so while the right of queens is settled on a basis of divine complacency, the kings are apparently a sort of scourge to be endured because men would dabble in politics. Since then, it follows that the strongest is ruler, not by election, but by gift of Heaven. The Can-ing, Konnig, or cunning man, who is sharp enough to spell able, is natural Rex, and Prex, an infidel innovation.An undersized man has no rights that a big fellow is bound to respect. Rights are for people who can take care of them; they are not given to slender people, nor ignorant people, nor to bores and workmen. You do not give your child a looking glass and hammer to play with, nor send your gold repeater to the peat-digger to be cobbled, nor set Pat to concocting your sputtering and bouncing chemicals. Every one to his sphere and measure. Shall a little man pretend to the same weight in public affairs as Daniel Lambert? or the living skeleton assume to be not bone only, but the sinews of the commonwealth? Will the dyspeptic make laws for well-folk? Blue laws indeed, were they! No. Let man keep in his sphere, take thankfully the rulers God gives, and not think to choose for himself, and so rush out of his orbit. The purest and wisest, the men of finest genius and best culture have always stood aloof from the ballot; and so will stand. And when only the worst of knaves, and the most sottish of fools, are left to vote, the thing will right itself; God will give us a king in his wrath, or a queen in his, mercy!GEORGE S. BURLEIGH.Frances Dana GageWHAT were Homer, Milton, Shakspeare,All who've ever neared Fame's goal,But th' inspired, the living poemsOf a loving mother's soul!Man may form the grand Ideal,And lay down the glorious plan;But the woman's work is real.--'Tis the mother makes the man.FRANCES DANA GAGE.PRINCIPLES AND PARTIES.Henry B. BlackwellTHE present relation of political parties to the Woman question is similar to that of the old Whig and Democratic parties towards the anti-slavery movement, prior to 1844. A certain amount of sympathy with Freedom existed in both parties. This sympathy was earnestly expressed by individual Democrats, and sometimes even by resolutions of State and County Democratic Conventions. There was a still larger and more pronounced expression of such sympathy among individuals and Conventions of the Whig-party.But those parties, composed in part of slaveholders, could never be induced to act, except in support of Slavery. Both were equally profuse of promises, in certain localities, on the eve of an election; both, equally barren of performance when the election was over.At length the Abolitionists, who believed in political action, grew weary of these empty promises, and organized the LIBERTY PARTY. Few in number, the Liberty Party was originally composed of both Whigs and Democrats. It ignored all existing party issues. On questions of Bank, Tariff and Taxation, it expressed no opinion. It had but one idea, Liberty; one method, Consistency;. one object, Abolition. Its growth was mainly, though not exclusively, at the expense of the Whigs. While yet in its infancy, it attained, in the State of New York, enough votes to hold the balance of power. While still unable to carry a single County, it drew enough votes from the Whig Party to defeat Henry Clay in 1844, and allow the election of a Democratic President, pledged to the annexation of Texas. Horace Greeley denounced the Liberty Party of 1844, as the destroyer of the Country. Posterity will applaud it as the preserver of Liberty.Our Liberty Party is not yet formed. But we are on the eve of important changes in the attitude of parties. Before this article meets the eye of the reader, the 40th Congress will have adjourned and, with it, will have terminated, probably forever, the political dictatorship of the Republican party.Since 1860, one fourth of all the States have been excluded from representation in the National Councils, and have been governed by the

dominant majorities of the loyal, or Republican States of the North. A part of the Border States,. viz., West Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri have indeed represented but by stringent acts disfranchising the white men lately engaged in rebellion, they have served only to swell the Republican majority. The other Border States, Maryland, Delaware and Kentucky, have generally elected Democratic Senators and Representatives, and have aided the scattering Democratic members from New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, etc.This slender Democratic minority have had powerful auxiliaries in a President and Cabinet of similar proclivities, and in a few members of Congress, selected as Republicans, but estranged from their original party. Nevertheless, the entire opposition has hitherto amounted to less than one third in either house of Congress, and the Congressional majority of two-thirds, being thus enabled to override the Presidential veto, has wielded, by means of Party discipline, an almost unlimited power of legislation.The Impeachment of the resident is the only instance in which the Republicans have hitherto been foiled, and then only by a single vote, and in consequence of a division of opinion in their own body.The most important result of the exclusion of the South has been the ability of the Republicans in Congress to submit various Amendments of the U. S. Constitution to the States. The unexampled Republican preponderance in three-fourths of the State Legislatures, (also a direct result of the War,) has combined to make a ratification of these Constitutional Amendments possible.This unprecedented supremacy of a Party in State and Nation is now at an end. We do not regret it. For however natural, inevitable, and even salutary under existing circumstances it may have been, it is abnormal in its character and unlikely ever again to occur. Indeed its effect must necessarily be to corrupt the party which possesses it, by elevating that party above the legitimate restraints of Public sentiment. Whenever and wherever a party becomes numerically so strong that the mere fact of a nomination in Caucus is equivalent to the election of the nominee, the result is demoralization.This effect is equally visible and deplorable among the Democrats of New York City and the Border States, and among the Republicans of Kansas and New England. The fluctuations of Parties and the varia-

tions of the winds are alike essential to the purity of the political and material atmosphere.The re-admission of the Southern States and the settlement of the Negro question, if simultaneously effected, will go far towards equalizing the future strength of the two great political parties. Practically, the result will be a compromise between them. The enfranchisement of the Negroes (who are all Republicans) is the demand of the Republicans. The enfranchisement of the late Rebels (who are all Democrats) is the demand of the Democrats. The sentiment of the masses (always more liberal and magnanimous than their leaders) is in favor of both.Trading politicians are quick to feel the popular impulse, so the Tribune coins it into the watchword of "Universal Amnesty and Impartial Suffrage."But if "Manhood Suffrage" be established, it will soon be accepted by both parties. Human Nature never struggles long with the Inevitable. Southern Democrats will seek to win and control the Negro vote. However reluctantly, they will stoop to conquer. The white man's brain will seek to control the black man's ballot. To do so, the black man must and will be conciliated. For, thank God! the vote always protect the voter.In the North, when the issues growing out of the war are adjusted, the Democrats will win back many who formerly belonged to their party, or who, by tradition, and constitution, gravitate towards them. Questions of finance, tariff and taxation will divide the present parties and enlist supporters among both.But such questions, however important, concern only the material interests of men. They never did, they never can satisfy the moral aspirations of the human soul. When that day comes, as it probably soon will, a third party will arise. It will be the WOMAN'S PARTY.Many of the friends of Woman Suffrage do not believe this. Some look for aid to the Republicans; some, to the Democrats; we look exclusively to neither. To all such sanguine persons we say "Put not your confidence in Princes!"Politics in America is not a profession, nor a philanthropy. It is a trade. Politicians are dealers in votes as grocers are dealers in sugar. In the very nature of the case, they cannot lead public sentiment. At once timid and selfish, they follow in the wake of every Reform, ready like mercenary soldiers, to enlist on the winning side.The last four years have been, to many advocates of Woman Suffrage, years of experiment. Every effort has been made to induce both the political parties to adopt our Cause--and made in vain.Two, years ago, Congress had under consideration a bill enfranchising Negroes in the District of Columbia. To make Negro Suffrage appear ridiculous, Mr. Cowan of Pennsylvania, moved an amendment enfranchising women also. He did not pretend to be in favor of either. Indeed he said expressly that he was opposed to both. But, as a matter of taste, he preferred that, if negro men vote, white women should vote also. Greatly to his surprise, a few earnest men, all radical Republicans, men of culture and principle--Gratz Brown of Mo., Anthony of R. I., Foster of Ct., Wade of Ohio, Wilson of Mass., and others--avowed themselves in favor of Woman's Suffrage. They spoke manfully in its favor--and several voted for the amendment upon principle, notwithstanding that it was considered a device of their enemies. Conservatives, both Republicans and Democrats, opposed it. No earnest speech was made by any Democrat in its favor.In the Kansas Legislature, about the same time, the Radical Republicans, "the original free-state men," the old "Liberty Guard," refused to allow the question of Negro Suffrage to be submitted to the people unless the question of Woman Suffrage was also submitted as a simultaneous, but separate proposition. The Democratic minority in the Legislature united with the Radicals and forced the Conservatives to submit both questions.But there as in Washington, what was with the Radical Republicans a matter of principle was with the Democrats avowedly only a party manœuvre. In the discussion which followed, both in the Legislature and before the people, not a single prominent Democrat spoke or wrote earnestly in favor of Woman. The Democratic State Convention met during the Campaign and passed a resolution against it. Individual Democrats there were, who exerted a private influence in its favor. But very few who advocated it publicly upon its merits and upon principle. Mr. Train, who came to Kansas avowedly as a Democrat to advocate the Cause among the Democrats, was the chief exception, and he utterly failed to enlist general or permanent Democratic cooperation. And we were frankly told by leading Kansas Democrats who were delegates to the recent New York National Democratic Convention that there was and is very little real sympathy with the Woman Suffrage movement among the Democrats of Kansas.At the National Democratic Convention an able and eloquent appeal in behalf of Woman was met with uproarious ridicule and ironical applause. No earnest word was spoken by a single delegate in its favor. Yet the Boston Post, the leading Democratic newspaper of New England, has advocated Woman Suffrage in several admirable editorials, and gave the best report of the proceedings of the memorable Convention which so successfully organized the Woman Movement in New England.The New York World, moreover, the leading Democratic newspaper of America, while it preserves a cautious neutrality, gives the Woman

question a full and generous hearing, publishing more valuable matter upon the subject than any half-dozen Republican papers.In the Republican party, on the contrary, while there is a bitter and pronounced opposition on the part of the Conservative leaders and members, there is also an earnest and growing minority of both, in favor of Suffrage for Women.In the 40th Congress, three bills in our favor have been presented, all of them by radical Republicans. The men of moral convictions, who form the reliable strength of the party, are rapidly becoming convinced that Women are entitled to equal political rights and that the question should no longer be postponed.Yet the Republican party, as an organization, is not friendly to Suffrage for Women. In no single National Convention has the question ever been mooted. In no single State Convention has Woman Suffrage ever been affirmed. The machinery of the Republican party was actively used against Woman Suffrage in Kansas. The Senators and Representatives indeed gave it a moderate Support. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor and many influential leaders were active it its favor. But the Republican State Convention evaded the question and ignored the issue. The Republican State Committee secretly worked against it. Many Republican leaders denounced it as a Democratic conspiracy against the unity of the Party, and called public meetings to oppose it. In short, the active support and the active opposition were both Republican, while the Democrats preserved a cold and contemptuous neutrality.In New Jersey, a State Woman Suffrage Association, numbering nearly a thousand members, sent a delegation with a petition signed by 760 citizens, to the Republican State Convention of 1867. A member of the Committee on Resolutions vainly endeavored to introduce a resolution affirming the rights of Woman, and in order to prevent its submission to the Convention, the resolutions of the majority, affirming the rights of Negroes, after being read, were not submitted to a vote. The petition was not allowed to be presented, nor the resolution to be read, and by an adroit arrangement of the managers and the chairman, the question was altogether excluded from the Convention.During the recent Congressional debates upon Suffrage in Washington, a flood of petitions, signed literally by hundreds of thousands of names, in favor of Woman Suffrage, have been presented and referred but no action taken. Yet while the Republican majority have shunned the question, and while the Republican organs have sought to ignore it, no earnest Democratic voice has been heard in Senate or House of Representatives in its support. Mr. James Brooks, indeed, adding insult to injury, proposed an amendment to Manhood Suffrage, enfranchising also women and children over 12 years old--thus classing his own mother, wife and sister with infants under guardianship.For ourselves, we long for the ratification of a Constitutional Amendment conferring suffrage upon all men irrespective of Race. That a parallel amendment should not also be submitted and ratified conferring suffrage upon Women is a disgrace to our civilization and our age. But the day which sees the Negro question eliminated from our politics will

break the chain which now binds five hundred thousand earnest men to the Republican party. With profound moral convictions, with heroic persistency, these Radicals are storming the citadel of Pro-slavery Aristocracy. That citadel carried--the slave-power annihilated--the Union restored--Manhood suffrage established--these men of ideas, of principles, of positive convictions, will rally to the support of Woman.Let the friends of Woman Suffrage no longer look for aid to any existing political organization. Let us cease to be Republicans or Democrats. Let us appeal to the good men of all parties. Let us organize to vote for our own candidates and our own principles. To effect this, let as avoid all extraneous, or secondary questions. Let us cease to advocate paper money, or specie, tariff, or free-trade, labor or capital, national honesty, or repudiation, Americanism, or Fenianism. Let our sympathies be recalled from Greece, or Ireland, to find their expression nearer home. Upon all extraneous topics let as agree to differ. But upon this one great all-embracing question of Equal Human Rights, without distinction of Sex, let us stand immovable.Above all, let us reject at once and forever any dalliance with the current formulas of political exclusiveness. Proscriptive tests of every nature--of Nobility, of Property, of Nativity, of Religion, of Morals, of Education--all are alike false in principle and will prove pernicious in practice.Let us recognize the free-school and the ballot as the pillars of the great Republic. Let us oppose all qualifications for suffrage but the ability to exercise rational choice--the consent of the governed--the sovereignty of the Individual and the human nature of the Citizen.ENRY B. BLACKWELL.POLITICAL CORRELATIONS.Antoinette Brown BlackwellIT is currently supposed that voting is somehow allied to fighting; that, the right of suffrage involves military duty. Government is a system of cooperative interests, and correlations are established between taxation and representation; between rights, duties, and privileges generally, both in war and peace. A close connection exists between any rational demand and its physical enforcement; yet ballots and bayonets are not therefore necessarily convertible.In the ancient civilizations when might made right, and the government was the embodiment of that might, every strong male arm was but one more spoke in the government wheel, and bound to turn as the wheel turned, or be broken for its obduracy. Of, course every weaker female arm was comparatively less worth. In a Republican Civilization, where the consent of the citizen creates governmental right, every rational mind becomes part and parcel of the one living wheel of State; and every rational mind is bound, individually, to exert its own fraction of directive influence! This is the wheel of Ezekiel's vision which was full of eyes, and every eye must see from its own stand-point. When, therefore, all these eyes, male and female, or even a majority of them decide, in any given instance, that war is just, necessary, and inevitable, then practically it is inevitable; and males and females are equally bound to uphold such a war in every feasible way, and to the sacrifice of all personal interests for the general good. It is the duty of every citizen to lend his full and most efficient support to all the measures adopted by his Government, so far as he can do this without a violation of his individual conscience; and failing to meet its demands, to willingly suffer such penalty as the Government may see fit to impose. No man can honestly do more than this in upholding his country and no woman can honestly do any less.In the event then of war, and in the matter of police force generally, let us consider the relations of women to physical force.The country, in need of the services of any, or all of her children, has a right to those services! There may come occasions when the whole

populace, men, women, and children should rise en masse to repel an invader. The quick sympathies of women, according to all the annals of past history, have never allowed them to remain inactive in such emergencies. Time and again women have stood side by side with men in defending beleaguered cities, and side by side with men have starved willingly rather than admit the invader. Another Duke of Alva, sending peaceful citizens by thousands to execution for their religious faith, would again marshal the girls of fifteen and the women of fifty, as soldiers in defence of civil and religious liberty. What women have voluntarily done in the past, we may pledge them in good faith to willingly repeat in the future.But is all this only self-defence, and ruled out of the pale of ordinary warfare? We accept the fair issue. Will women, as voters, consent to be as eligible to the war draft as to official positions? In a war made by the people as such, all citizens of adult age being virtually represented as the war-making power, the people, men and women jointly, will sustain the war. Little need now of drafting! Enough will press forward as volunteers; and when the most eligible parties, the able-bodied young men have fought and failed, then the old men and the old women will take their places. The young mothers should still keep watch and ward in the homes of the country until the children are needed also.Let me quote from a sentiment written during the darkest days of our late war, when Pennsylvania was invaded and Washington and Bunker Hill threatened : "If need be, if our cherished institutions were really in danger, if the might of slaveholding barbarism were deemed potent enough to destroy our national liberties, partial and one-sided though they are, I for one, leaving my little children to the tender mercies of the aged and the infirm, would learn to handle musket and revolver in the defence of a civilization dearer to me, for their sakes, than life itself." The actual war record of the American women is one of which they have no need to be ashamed!But is it equally the duty of men and women to wield the appliances of physical force? Certainly not! Their relations to government and to society generally are intrinsically unlike; The first need of every government is citizens; and so long as women alone are the ordained

mothers, they must be forever exempt from military duty, except in the last extremity. The relation of the woman to the family and to the government is alike fundamental. We assert that the wife and mother often necessarily a non-producer off m'on6y values, is yet justly legally entitled to be an equal moneyed partner in the matrimonial firm by virtue of her relations to the home; and the children of the family. On the same principle the woman, though constitutionally a non-fighter, is justly politically entitled to an equal representation in the government, by virtue of her equal interests, and of her special relations to the present and prospective citizens of the State.The soldier devotes his time and perils his life in the interest of his country; but the mother devotes her time and perils her life to give the country not only its soldiers but its citizens universally. These are obligations analogous in kind, and if they are not commensurate in value the difference is immeasurably on the side of woman, and the State must remain forever her debtor. But we ask only that it be conceded that men and women may alike render appropriate and adequate services to their common country. The same constitutional facts must regulate woman's relation to all police service generally. A "large half" of the hard work of the world is the legacy which Providence has left to men; but a "large half" of the privation and suffering incident to humanity, the same Providence has impartially  bestowed upon women. We only ask that these fundamentally related facts be recognized; and an equal balance of accounts made between the sexes, both in private and in public life.Moreover, while actual warfare was a normal element in the dynasties of Might; in a Republic it belongs only to an exceptional state of things, even if ultimately it can find any place there at all. There must be perpetual need for general military and police service, so long as people are still largely selfish and ignorant; but it may well be doubted whether a great National War could ever gain a foothold in any well-grounded and powerful republic. Our civil war, with aggression on one side and resistance and emancipation on the other, arose because all our citizens were not enfranchised. The House was divided against itself--the might dynasty striving to regain the mastery. Let us enthrone the principle of universal rational suffrage, and the main

element of constitutional injustice will be eliminated, When all classes are adequately represented one would like to be acquainted with a nation that could feel itself strong enough, or enough in the right to enter into a deliberate war against us; and the subjects of a true republic would not enter on an aggressive foreign war on any light pretext. There are better highways for a nation out of national difficulties than the bloody path willingly trodden only by savages.What duelling was to brutal men, that war was to brutal nations; and what duelling is to civilized men that war will be to civilized governments.If it be held that Suffrage is correlated with a Poll-tax or with any other taxes, yet give us the ballot; and with equal wages for equal work, women will willingly pay all equal taxes.Is Suffrage correlated with the Jury-box? Give us the ballot that we may be represented on the jury at least when our own sex are to be tried as criminals, or when women have either political, social, or moneyed interests at stake. Lest crying babes might disturb the grave deliberations of the Court, make the young mothers legally joint possessors with their husbands of all their partnership gains, and then, even though citizens were to be empannelled on all juries pro rata, the mothers would be able to pay for substitutes.In the same spirit we concede the general fact that while most women could find time to vote, to read, think, and help manufacture political opinions, yet that the practical duties of legislation, generally belong more appropriately to the grandmothers than to the mothers of the yet rising generation.It has never been claimed that the political relations of men and women are, or can be in the nature of things identical; but we do claim that in the nature of things they are equal. It is precisely because our interests are not wholly identical, because many of the relations of the sexes are and forever must be special and peculiar to each, that justice imperatively demands that each be represented in every department of State and National Government, by those of its own class. Because our intuitions into the nature and relations of all public and private interests and needs, if no clearer and no broader than man's, are yet taken from another and generically unlike stand-point; therefore,

neither we, nor the nation, can afford to dispense with the consentt of the womanly mind to any of its legislation.We grant that universal suffrage and eligibility to office will necessitate more or less political and legislative reconstruction but we respectfully submit that such reconstruction is pretty obviously needed. Constitutional Amendments may begin;, but they can never be completed till man accepts the only help meet for him in the framing organic law for the whole people. There is need of mutual counsel. Whatever may be said of woman's strength, compared with man's, in the Sixteenth Century; in the Nineteenth Century, women have brains which the wisest men may do well not to despise. When they become joint Legislators, doubtless they may come to some mutual agreement as to the fair share of aid which each class is bound to render to the common country.We admit that political rights are everywhere correlated with equal duties; and we freely pledge ourselves, in advance, that when we are allowed to exercise the former, we will also take up all the duties legally assigned us by any Legislative Body, representative of the people, and composed fairly both of men and women.ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL.Editorial DepartmentSIMULTANEOUS, BUT SEPARATEHenry B. BlackwellIT is with profound regret that we see a few of the real friends of Woman Suffrage laboring unintentionally to postpone the consideration of their own question, by urging that Manhood Suffrage be postponed until Woman also can be made a Voter.It is said "Let no more men vote until Women are admitted." The sentiment is natural, almost excusable; but the principle is wrong. We have no right to refuse justice to a part of our citizens, because we cannot at the same moment, render justice to all.The policy is short-sighted. For, to combine the two questions in one and the same Amendment would be to defeat both.The principle which underlies all forms of political exclusiveness is indeed one and the same. Every argument in favor of Suffrage for the negro, based upon principle, is an argument in favor of Suffrage for Woman.But from a practical stand-point, the two questions are not identical. Moreover, Manhood Suffrage is demanded by an overwhelming National exigency. It is an issue between the two great political parties. It has to be fought out. Its defeat will annihilate the Republicans. Its success will annihilate the Democracy. It is a struggle for life or death. Neutrality is impossible. Compromise is impossible. It is North or South, Grant or Lee, Washington or Richmond, the Union or the Confederacy!It would be unjust to the question of Manhood Suffrage to combine it with that of suffrage for Woman. For, thousands of Republicans, we are sorry to say, would vote to give the ballot to a black man who would vote against him if they were required to extend Suffrage at the same time to their own wives and daughters.It would be equally unjust to the question of Woman to combine it with that of the Negro. Hundreds of Democrats are sincerely in favor

of Suffrage for Women, but if it be combined with Suffrage for Negroes, their prejudices of Race will compel them to Vote against both.As advocates of Universal Suffrage upon Principle, we protest against combining the two questions in one and the same Amendment.Let Congress submit each question separately to the State Legislatures, as parallel, but independent propositions. Let each be advocated or opposed by its respective friends and enemies, and stand, or fall, upon its own merits.HENRY B. BLACKWELL.AXES OR BALLOTS?THE New York Tribune, speaking of the recent woman Suffrage Convention at Washington, says:
"The National Women, in Convention assembled, give notice to the Country that in claiming the ballot they do not overlook 'the logical fact of its being accompanied by the right to be voted for.' There is another logical fact which we fear they do overlook. It is that Suffrage has duties as well as privileges. We should like to hear of their accepting the logical fact that they ought not demand the one and shirk the other."The very next day, the Tribune published the following communication without comment:
"SIR: The war of women against whiskey has commenced in Perrysville, Ashland County, Ohio. A man opened a rum-shop in that place recently, and the women did not like it. They proposed to buy him out, but, as he intended to build up a large trade, he refused to sell. The women, however, were determined that he should not remain; and so, since he refused the very liberal terms they offered, they formed in line, and, with axes on their shoulders, marched to his place and deliberately broke in the heads of all his barrels. Of course the man was angry, and brought a suit in the County Court but was beaten after incurring heavy expense. The people of this part of Ohio honestly think that the next war in this country will be between the women and whiskey; and though there may not be much blood shed, you may rest assured rum will flow freely in the gutters. As the women of Ashland County have taken the matter in hand once before, we claim to have fought the Bunker Hill of the new Revolution."So it appears after all that the Women of Ohio do "accept the logical

fact that Suffrage has duties as well as privileges, and that they ought not to demand the one and shirk the other." We hope that The Tribune will now recall its hasty censure, and at the same time inform its readers what sort of weapons it would prefer to see Women use in executing their political duties--axes, or ballots? In Kansas, where women already vote on all questions concerning schools, or licenses, they use the ballot; in Ohio, where they have no vote, they resort to the axe! Tastes differ, but we think a ballot decidedly the more womanly weapon--certainly the more effective one. What says The Tribune, Axe, or Ballot?THE Publisher of THE ADVOCATE hereby offers a prize of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS for the best Story bearing upon any of the phases of the "Woman Question;" FIFTY DOLLARS for the second best, and TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS for the third best;--the MSS. (not to exceed 100 pp., nor be less than 50 pp., of THE ADVOCATE) to be submitted in season for award and use by June, 1869. All writers entering into competition for the prizes must direct to the Publisher of THE ADVOCATE who will retain the names, handing the enclosed articles to a Committee, (to be later announced) who will decide upon the different MSS., purely upon their merits. While each article will be regarded as the property of the author and strict confidence be preserved respecting them, it is hoped that many will be induced to donate their MSS. to THE ADVOCATE after the awards are made public. The Publisher trusts that these liberal offers will stimulate our writers to a spirited competition for the prizes, and thus enable him to present some of the best serials ever offered to the public.NOTES.THE new Wisconsin Senator, M. H. Carpenter, declares emphatically for Woman Suffrage in a letter published in the Western journals.The Liberal Christian of this city, a journal truly liberal, has just finished the publication of a very comprehensive discourse by the Rev. J.

W. Chadwick on "Woman's Right to vote," delivered a few Sabbaths since, at his Church in Brooklyn.Mrs. Ella Davis Rockwood, favorably known as a speaker and writer, is doing efficient service in the lecturing field this Winter.The Portland Press says that several, prominent members of the Maine Legislature are eager to do all that is possible to bring about Woman Suffrage in that State.Hon. Mr. Nelson of Tennessee has introduced a bill in the Legislature of that State for Woman Suffrage. It was supported in a able manner by the Hon. Guy Wines.Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, late Editor of the Ladies' Repository (Boston), and a welcome contributor to THE ADVOCATE has received a call to a Universalist Church in Portland, Maine.Several German ladies of this city, sympathizing with the movement for woman suffrage, contemplate founding a German organ to advocate the question. We trust that the movement may succeed.Hon. Wm. Henry Scott of Hamilton County, Ohio, is entitled to great credit for his earnest advocacy of Woman Suffrage in the Ohio House of Representatives during the discussion of his bill to strike the word "male" from the Constitution of that State.We are indebted to the Boston Commonwealth, one of the most valued of our exchanges, for several kind notices of THE ADVOCATE. The Commonwealth itself, we are pleased to learn, is rapidly achieving all the success so liberal a journal richly merits.By invitation of the Executive Committee of the Woman Suffrage Association of Rhode Island, Lucy Stone will repeat her address on Woman Suffrage, recently delivered before the Judiciary Committee of the Legislature of that State.The women of Boston pay taxes on forty millions of property; the women of Philadelphia on sixty-eight millions;. in St. Louis on upwards of fifteen millions. The most ignorant and worthless man can vote, irrespective of qualification, but intelligent women of property are denied the ballot.A free school for teaching women the art of telegraphy opened last month at the Cooper Institute in this city. This school is established by

the Cooper Union in connection with the Western Union Telegraph Company, and is the first attempt in this country to give Women a regular training as telegraph operators. Applications are to be made to Mr. Vincent Colyer at the Institute.Sallie Holley, widely known as an effective lecturer, whose life bas been devoted to the freeing of the slave, is now traveling and lecturing in Virginia.  While in that State, we understand, Miss Holly intends visiting Miss Caroline F. Putnam who has left the comforts of a New England home to assume charge of a Freedman's School at Lottsburg which has been in very successful operation for several months.The new law of Kansas by which a wife may prosecute a publican who sells spirits to her husband promises not to be a dead letter. The Lawrence Tribune contains the following:"To whom it may concern. I hereby give notice that the sale of spiritous liquors to my husband is contrary to my wishes, and that I shall prosecute, according to law, any person who disregards this notice."CATHERINE HAYES.Elsewhere will be found a paper by Mr. W. J. Linton, the well-known English artist, now a resident of this country. Scarcely less distinguished as a writer and as a bold, and vigorous thinker, than in his art, Mr. Linton's communication will be perused with interest, although not in agreement with THE ADVOCATE, or with the views it was established to promote. In no narrow spirit of intolerance, however, we welcome it to our pages, confident his truly liberal mind will yet realize that "political equality" is no chimera to be spurned by American women. Will not some one of the sex take up the gauntlet thus thrown down?The Tribune says:"We advocate Impartial Suffrage as we do Universal Amnesty--not because it will favor this or that party, but it will tranquilize and strengthen the Republic, and because we shall never have true, enduring peace without both. So long as there is a disfranchised class among us, whether of Blacks or ex-Rebels, agitation in its behalf is certain to be kept up. All intelligent persons must realize that the Brabminical system of caste is unsuited to the genius of our people--that political equality is in the long run, inevitable. Then why not establish it at once, and save years of fruitless, mischievous heart-burning and strife? We appeal from prejudice and hate to reason and good sense."The above states a universal truth. Why should it not be applied to women? For their sake we "appeal from prejudice to reason and good sense."The Radical (Boston), one of the most valuable, as well as liberal of

our monthlies, acknowledging the receipt of the Revolution, THE ADVOCATE and other journals especially devoted to woman, says:'Mr. Alcott in the course of his late conversation on Woman, said, 'This is Woman's Evening.' One would think that we might also say, 'This is woman's day, her year.' We are in receipt of so many new publications, of late, advocating the claims of woman, that we begin to feel that the work of her emancipation is to be Speedily accomplished, and without a war. Many weeklies, religious and secular, and many dailies, have wheeled into rank; and we even find some of these canvassing their own claims to having been 'pioneers' of the movement."Altogether the Woman Question is well launched. The political aspect of it, we doubt not, will speedily pass by in this country. It will be wise, to save time and bustle, to concede the inevitable without delay.".Last year the Rhode Island Legislature referred the Woman Suffrage petitions to the Committee on Burial Grounds. This year they were referred to the Judiciary Committee, and a hearing granted the petitioners. The Representatives' Hall was crowded to positive discomfort, while tiers of heads peered in from side doors, and many went away unable to find a place even to see, much less to stand. Elizabeth B. Chace read an admirable essay, which we present elsewhere, showing the justice and the need of Woman Suffrage.Miss Fairbank read for Paulina W. Davis a very forcible and earnest plea for human rights, irrespective of sex. This was followed by an address from Lucy Stone, which was listened to with profound interest. Had Judge Green, the chairman of the committee, then put the vote, it would surely have been carried for the ladies. If one might judge from his fine, pleasant face, he is himself ready to rescue the women of his State, from their present political status, with idiots, and Narragansett Indians; the last not taxed.Among the many earnest, effective workers in the lecture field, perhaps no one is more thoroughly grounded in the love and respect of the people than Lucy Stone. Wherever she goes--and her labors in the cause the past Winter have been continuous and arduous--she is greeted with the same manifestations of kindness, and the tributes paid her, not only as a speaker, but as a woman, have been uniform in expression. From many lying before us, we select a notice of her recent address before the Ohio House of Representatives, taken from the Ohio State Journal:"The Ohio House of Representatives did a very graceful thing yesterday to invite the distinguished lady who is known to fame as Lucy Stone, to address them upon the merits of the Woman's Suffrage resolution pending before them."It was not only generous, but it was just to give this gifted woman an

opportunity to plead in behalf of her sex, and to present the arguments in favor of an extension of the franchise to women from a woman's point of view. Mrs. Blackwell, on being introduced by Speaker Thornhill, in graceful and feeling terms thanked the House for the privilege they had accorded her, and then delivered an address distinguished for candor, fairness and force."This lady has a voice, melodious and musical as a chime of bells, her manner is refined, easy and lady-like, and her way of presenting her opinions winning and persuasive. The entire address was characterized by good judgment, good taste, and simplicity, beauty, power and pathos of language."Concerning the Woman Suffrage Convention held in Washington on the 19th and 20th days of January, our esteemed friend, Mrs., C. A. F. Stebbins of that city, writes as follows:WASHINGTON, D. C., January 25th, 1869.To the Editor of The Advocate:THE National Woman's Suffrage Convention adjourned on Wednesday night. The city reporters it seems to me, could not have done their work more poorly, and you can get no correct idea of the proceedings as a whole, till the secretaries make their report. But I send you the resolutions on which there was a division, and give the names of those who sustained and opposed them:Resolved, That as the partisan cry of a White Man's Government created the antagonism between the Irishman and the Negro, culminating in those fearful riots in 1863, so the Republican cry of manhood suffrage creates the same antagonism between the Negro and the woman, and must result, especially in the Southern States, where violence is the law of life, in greater injustice and oppression toward woman.Resolved, That a man's government is worse than a white man's government, because, in proportion as you increase the tyrants, you make the condition of the disfranchised class more hopeless and degraded.Mrs. Stanton supported the idea of the first resolution on the first evening, in as able a speech as any one could make, on such erroneous ground, of course meantime giving expression to noble sentiments and making appeals that reached the judgment of all hearers. But she expressed the hope that if one class was to be enfranchised before another, women should be that class, and that not another negro man should be admitted to suffrage, before American women. She would stand aside and wait for the colored women of the South, but was opposed to Germans, Irish, Chinese, Negroes and those of other nationalities coming into possession of their legal rights before American women.I never heard her speak when she had so little of what we have always deemed the true philosophy of Reforms, and when she gave less expression to the genuine democratic idea. On that evening Clara Barton and Col. Hinton, and the next morning, Edward M. Davis, Geo. T. Downing, Giles B. Stebbins, Dr. Purvis and others, opposed the resolution, contending that there should be no antagonism between, them: Mr. Davis saying that if public sentiment and Congress were ripe for Negro Suffrage, women should not throw the slightest obstacle in the way: Mr. Stebbins and Mr. Downing denying that representative colored men had opposed in convention or committee (as had been asserted) suffrage for women: Mr. S---- taking the ground that one advance step hastens another

that one reform accomplished, paves the way for the next. Mr. Downing moved to substitute the following two, for the second one I have given you:Resolved, That the privilege to cast a ballot, saying who shall govern us, is in individual right, not restricted by the color or sex of  the individual--is one which cannot justly be withheld on the plea that another individual is unjustly denied the same, and that it is the duty of every honest, consistent lover of justice, to urge the securing of that right, ignoring sex and color, even though they be disfranchised themselves.Resolved, That no one should assume, that a person would, if given their right, abuse it, and withhold the same on the assumption, but that they should be secured in the same, and be held responsible for the abuse thereof.The substitute was opposed by Mrs. Stanton, and supported by George T. Downing and others, and carried.There was also one voted down, requiring an educational test or qualification for franchise; but I observed in the evening, one was offered by Miss Anthony demanding "that in the Reconstruction of Government, suffrage should be based on loyalty and intelligence," and nowhere limited by distinctions of color, sex or race, and a vote taken; but of course it was a crowded house, and it could not be known whether only enrolled members voted.I confess that some years ago educated suffrage seemed plausible to me, and as if it might be a cure for some of the ills under which the nation labored, but I have been for a long time convinced that in a Democratic government humanity should vote.Because I yield genius and talent more influence than education, in formation of character; because I trust the heart sooner than the head; because I place moral consciousness higher than intellectual attainments, am I in favor of Manhood Suffrage (in its universal sense). I cannot guess how many centuries it would need of the oppression of Woman, or the negro, to obliterate the divine sense, to bury the germ of Life so deep that we could not find the line of distinction between man and the inferior animals, but this I have witnessed with the enslaved race; a wonderful patience and faith which had something of the Godlike--and since the war, a perseverance and readiness in letters, of which any race might be proud. We need not fear when they are once allowed, that they will not soon learn to read the constitution and their ballots.Some of us felt earnestly on this matter of making Negro Suffrage and Woman Suffrage antagonistic, and deprecated the introduction of the Resolution, but as it was voted down, and we came to stand on common ground on the last afternoon and evening, particularly evening, when Mrs. Stanton spoke grandly in her old-fashioned way, holding up the true Republican idea, making appeals for toiling women, and to mothers for the sake of the virtue of their sons--showing the necessity of the influence of mothers in affairs of Government, in such a manner that every ear listened, and every heart must have responded in feeling, to the beautiful utterances, whether they adopted her conclusions or not; as we came to stand on this ground, we were baptized into a spirit of unity which embraced all; and we felt not only that evening, but every time we saw the large audience, that the people were awakened, and the discussions had done good.CATHERINE A. F. STEBBINS.CHIT-CHAT ON BOOKS.EVEN in books comes up the "Woman Question." Looking over our already filled table, we are freshly reminded of the preponderance of the works of woman. In light literature especially, perhaps it would be safe to assume that three-fourths of the popular books before the public are the productions of women. To those who have not considered the question this may seem an unwarranted statement, but we believe it to be literally correct. Glancing at our own accumulation, we have first"A ROMANCE OF THE REPUBLIC,"by L. Maria Child, a 12mo. volume of 442 pp., from the great publishing house of Fields, Osgood & Co. of Boston, a book whether considered as the finished literary creation of a gifted woman, or judged by the extent of sales, is entitled to a front rank in American fiction. It is a story of the South, before and during the Rebellion. Turning on the question of caste of color, it possesses all the intensity of interest accompanying the most exciting romance, while abounding in passages of rare beauty, such as have endeared Mrs. Child's pen to so many readers. Chaste in diction, elevating in tone, inculcating a moral, the wisdom of which must yet sink deep in the heart of the Republic, wreathed round with the fall blossoming of Mrs. Child's genius, it is no wonder that the "Romance of the Republic" has attained such success. We trust that all who have not yet enjoyed the treat of perusal will hasten to procure the volume. Next, from a pen scarcely less known, and fresh from a heart no weakness of flesh can cause to throb less warmly for humanity, we have"POEMS"by Frances Dana Gage, a 12mo. volume of 252 pp., issued in an elegant manner by the well-known house of T. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. Scattering poems in this collection, drifting the rounds of the newspaper press, now with and now without credit, have long been familiar to the genuine lovers of verse,
and we need only mention, "My Fiftieth Birthday," "A Mother's Thought," "Coming Home," Rain on the Roof"--all gems--to awaken in many a breast pleasant, memories of one who, to many better known as "Aunt Fanny," has lived in her life of unwearying labor for humanity a grander poem even than any of the touching verses embodied in her collection. Great, judged by the more artificial standard of poetry, they may not be, but they have the rarer merit, so strikingly illustrated by the muse of Whittier, of being adapted to the wants of life, and there are sober-minded matrons, or girls in country homes, who hold as dear, utterances so appealing to the unexpressed desires of the heart. The edition before us--a third--is embellished with a steel engraving of the author, which lends an additional value to the volume. The same house has also issued--"ELSIE MAGOON, A TALE,"by the same author, a story of Western life in "pioneer time," turning upon the evils of intemperance, and presenting many interesting pictures of society and social customs in the course of the simple narrative. The volume contains 324 pp., is issued in a very attractive manner, and, we are glad to know, is commanding a very extensive sale. Next the eye lights upon"WHAT ANSWER?"Miss Anna E. Dickinson's new story, a handsome 12mo. of 301 pp., issued by the house of Fields, Osgood & Co., Of Boston. Like Mrs. Child's more tropically scented romance, Miss Dickinson's book strikes as its key note the question of caste of color, and the great woman heart of the lecturer glows in every page as she holds up the mirror to the American public, showing the enormity of the sin it has for centuries hugged to its breast. Judged solely by its literary merits, the pretentious, flippant criticisms of the Nation and sundry other journals to the contrary, "What Answer?" is a rich addition to our literature, and we congratulate Miss Dickinson that her first venture in fiction should be crowned with such success. Next--from across the water--we have"THE WOMAN'S KINGDOM."A sweet, simple story of English life, already familiar to many of our readers by its publication in Harper's Magazine, and by which firm (Harper & Brothers) it is in its present book form, presented to the public. Miss Muloch sees--
"The truth, but not the whole truth," 
and while the many who follow her pen, always admire the chasteness of her style, the purity and general correctness of her thought, a feeling of dissatisfaction invariably lurks that she does not realize a woman may be all--and more than she depicts. Next our attention is claimed by a graver, more philosophical student work--a new edition of"THE COLLEGE, THE MARKET, AND THE COURT,"by Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, a beautifully issued volume from the house of Lee & Shepard of Boston. To the change which the last decade of year has wrought in public opinion concerning women, Mrs. Dall has been an effective contributor. Less celebrated as a speaker than some of her compeers, she has undoubtedly wielded the most vigorous and efficient pen, and the volume before us is a monument of laborious research of which any one might be proud. Space forbids entering into details, but we advise all who wish to make a careful, conscientious study of the subject to procure the volume. Next, in a lighter vein, wholly disconnected from reform--save, may be, spiritual--we have--and with which we close our present chit-chatPLANCHETTE'S DIARY,Edited by Miss Kate Field, one of the most versatile of our younger writers. The volume is written in a spirit of honest inquiry, neither affirming nor denying a theory on the baffling phenomenon, and possesses all the interest of a personal narrative. It is issued in a neat manner by J. S. Redfield of this city, and has already found its way to many homes where curiosity, by the pranks of the elfin board itself, has been excited.BREVITIES.AMONG the new publications of G. P. Putnam & Son are Studies of General Science by Antoinette Brown Blackwell.Over twenty thousand copies of Miss Dickinson's What Answer? have been sold. Does- The Nation desire a better answer?Henry Wm. Longfellow has been ransacking the libraries of Paris and the Continent for rare works to enrich his library in Cambridge.Miss Alcott's new book--the sequel to Little Women--will be issued in a few weeks by Roberts Brothers of Boston.Mrs. Craik, better known as Miss Mulock, is writing a new serial for MacMillan's (English) Magazine.John Russell Young of the New York Tribune, a gentleman of decided literary attainments as well as a skilled editor, is writing a book.A volume of Essays in Defence of Women, said to be creating quite an excitement in literary circles, has been published anonymously in London.MacPherson's "Life of Thaddeus Stevens," a carefully compiled volume of 1,000 pages, will appear early in the summer.The London Spectator doubts whether "any English writer living writes as pure and classical English as was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne."The poet Bryant's translation of Homer, parts of which have appeared in the Atlantic, will be issued by Fields, Osgood & Co. this spring.James Miller of this city is about to issue a new edition of Friends in Council, by the author of Realmah, a delightful book which has been out of print too long.The London Saturday Review says that James Russel Lowell's Under the Willow is one of the most admirable bits of idyllic work, short as it is, that have been done in our generation.George Sand is writing a new novel entitled The Adventurers. The scene is laid in Paris during Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat, turning mainly upon the incidents of that exciting period.The Flower and the Star, and Other Stories, by Wm. J. Linton, pronounced one of the most successful Child's Books issued by Fields, Osgood & Co., has run rapidly through several editions since the holidays.Andrew Jackson Davis is soon to issue The Present Age and Inner Life, a book classifying and explaining ancient and modern spirit mysteries. The work will undoubtedly be a valuable addition to our literature.BOOKS RECEIVED.SELECTIONS FROM THE SPEECHES, SERMONS AND ADDRESSES of Samuel Clement Fessenden. 267 pp. New York: Wm. P. Tomlinson.THE GOLDEN TREASURY. By F. T. Palgrave. 405 PP. Boston , and Cambridge: Sever, Francis & Co.THE GOSPEL OF GOOD AND EVIL. 360 pp. Boston: Wm. White & Co,POEMS. By Augusta C. Bristol. Cloth. 190 pp. Boston Adams Co.Charles Read's Novels. Two volumes. HARD CASH; THE CLOISTER ON THE HEATH.THE POETICAL WORKS OF CHARLES G. HALPINE (Miles O'Reilly).New York: Harper & Brothers.THE OLD WORLD IN ITS NEW FACE. By Henry W. Bellows.  Vols. I and II. New York: Harper & Brothers.BLIND PITS. A story of Scottish Life. 516 pp. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son.WORDS OF HOPE. 256 pp. Boston: Lee & Shepard.CANVASSERS for THE ADVOCATE are desired in all parts of the country. Those thoroughly responsible can make very desirable arrangements by addressing the Publisher.THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATEBREAKERS!Caroline H. Dall[SECOND PAPER]."They take the natural blessing of all change."THE RING AND THE BOOK.DURING this two years I have seen women yield to so many absurdities in the name of Fashion, that I wonder they venture to criticise any dominion whatsoever. For awhile they wore hoops, so smothered in yards of merchandise, that they might have been "drapery dolls" in a haberdasher's window. Then their scant skirts clung to their limbs as if they had been wet, to produce that effect, as we hear of them in Richardson's day. One day, they swept the pavement as well as the saloon with their ample trains; the next, like the little old woman in the story, their "petticoats were up to their knees," and it ought to have been quite certain, that the little "dog Tray" would bark when they got home! I have seen Grecian bends, Pacific slopes, high pegs under the instep, and "crutches" under the shoulders. What should women resent, one would say, if they will not resent the tyranny of Fashion? Yet women dressed in all these absurd ways, and in other ways also, have something to say about the "Woman's Cause." It is generally the expression of their discontent--always the expression of a strong interest--and to the discomfiture of the New Englander and

similar prophets, I can truly say, that whatever distrust or disappointment women have expressed to me in regard to the present manifestations of our reform, I have never yet talked with one who showed or felt it on her own account. I have always considered organization an evil in connection with this reform. I suppose it to be a necessary evil, but it brings a large number of women into public observation who have neither the time nor the strength to meet its demands. For one, I shall be very grateful when its uses are passed, for pass they must. But so long as it exists, working in manifold ways in all the great cities of the country, it is well to consider whether in conventions, clubs, associations or leagues, there should not be some restrictions imposed upon what is attempted, so that what is done, may be well done. It is really alarming to see how many things women are attempting all at once, in all our large cities. It is the same group of women, for the most part, who are active in some half a dozen movements which would absorb, each one, the entire energies of a male Board of Direction. I have no desire to dictate in this matter. I wait for the revelations which are to come, feeling quite sure that women are to make laws and customs of a new kind. But I can hardly feel happy, knowing how frail in body and how unprepared in mind many of them are, to see a dozen enterprises undertaken in one headlong moment each one of which demands generous purses as well as faithful and serious thinking. But I may speak out of my own defect. I have always found one new enterprise as much as I could safely hold in hand. In one Western city, I found three papers devoted to this cause, no one of which was competent to its work--no one of which could show a raison d'etre. Yet the women who undertook this work were sweet and capable in a way, and two at least had been moved to it, by a misapprehension of my own books. Why could I not encourage them to persist? Because, we need, above all, one first class magazine, sustained by the best talent of our country; and because, until we have it, all these small undertakings drain the purses which should sustain that.We have too many kinds of work in hand; we have too many pieces of work of one -kind, and we have too many meetings, and too many speeches at each meeting. The whole question lies in a nutshell. Let it be presented by a few able speakers, or by a few earnest ones, and all

is done that can be done for that time; what is over this, injures the cause with sensible people. Whatever a man, may do, a woman should never speak for effect. I think we all like her best, who seems to have been compelled to speak against her will, and for this reason a few, words, from unaccustomed lips, frequently have a great effect upon the public mind. It used to be said of Theodore Parker, that when his great audience was at last secured, he was at first disappointed to miss from it a certain class of cultured persons who were dear to him. He felt that he bore a message to the scholars, but they were not there to hear. When I listen to some of the ambitious addresses of our Roman matrons, I feel as if they were exposed to a similar mistake. It is the human race that we speak for, after all, and our words should court the hospitable welcome of the humblest of God's people. It is because the highest culture is the only thing which will guarantee that, as a possibility, that culture is needed on our platforms--pedantry never can be needed there.I know how difficult it is to limit the undisciplined impulses of a new movement, but it seems imperative to me that our platforms should be kept pure and our hands clean. Great prudence is needed to save the mass of men from the fear that license will be quick to follow liberty. The late Convention at Washington seems to have been one of those we could have spared. The base truckling to dishonorable politicians, of which I have more than once spoken, was so apparent on the part of two or three, as to elicit the rebuke of the press. One limitation ought always to be insisted on: No woman ought ever to be allowed to speak in regard to a grievance from which she has personally suffered. That very fact should seal her lips. Let her tell her sister's story instead of her own. If she cannot feel for "those in bonds as bound with them," she has not yet the temper needed by a Reformer. It makes one's heart ache to think of the noble Lucretia Mott sitting through certain scenes which she might well have been spared. I know how difficult it is to be steady under the inevitable pressure, but the difficulty must be braved. I have not yet forgotten how difficulties thickened when I resisted the introduction of the dress reform, upon the platform of the early conventions which I assisted to call in Boston, nor how the breaking up of one of them was followed by the reception

of a letter addressed to me in a newspaper, beginning: "Sister Dall, the worm upon which you have trodden may yet turn and sting you!"I do not feel afraid--nor should others--in the inevitable "Good Morrow" of some brighter land, my sister will come to know, that I never meant to hurt her any more than that invisible worm!The Constitution of all State Associations should be thoroughly democratic. At first, in all such movements, committees must appoint themselves, but it is a practice which should not be allowed to continue. There ought to be preparatory meetings corresponding to the ward meetings of towns to elect the officers. One or two mistakes might occur, but they would be more useful than the work of a factitious committee to whose nomination few women dare to object. I hope no woman will ever again complain of a nomination which she has not openly opposed. The only proper time and place to object to an officer is in the convention, at the moment she is nominated. But leaders must change, as the work opens, and it will inevitably fall from inefficient, dishonest or uninterested hands--for it is impossible for this Movement to grow healthfully, except it grow out of sincerity and purity. Parasitic growth, will never be luxuriant in our Northern air. Where the thought and purpose is, the real ruling will be, and like Banquo's ghost, it will haunt every council. "Where Macdonald sits is the head of the table," and for the discontented, there is no better counsel than that contained in the two words, "Truth and Patience." If I knew an ambitious woman, who wanted to become popular, I think I would give her a little satirical counsel which is the fruit of experience in manifold Committee Rooms.1st. I should say, Don't be punctual.2nd. Don't be persistent.3d. Don't be sincere, especially on Nominating Committees.4th. Don't accept any nominations, or if you do, not till your supporters have tired themselves out with solicitations.5th. Do your work a little less well than you could--at all events less thoroughly than the men associated with you.These five points, ludicrous as they seem, suggest the actual points of danger. For any purpose of personal promotion, you had better keep a

whole Committee waiting than rebuke every member of it by being at your post one minute before the earliest.I look for the highest moral results to follow the persistency of women; but at present, moral persistency is not popular, and if approbation is your object, yield to the first objection. I have been a member of a great many nominating committees, religious and secular, upon which women were appointed upon principle. In such cases, I have always observed that if the women attempted to do any work--to object on moral grounds to the nomination of any person, that it was an entirely unexpected event. It is quite evident that committees are not yet prepared to accept the only work it is worth while for women to do. If you are nominated to an office, it must always seem a surprise, no matter how many months you may have known it, awaited you. If you accept it quietly, just as you would an order to march if you were in the field, you will be thought to be ambitious. The idea that you may consider it a duty, will never enter anybody's head. It is my opinion that those officers are best appreciated who require the most teasing, just as it is with the young lady who "has a cold," who is always urged to sing to the exclusion of the purest contralto present.As to the quality of work, one would think committees and associations would be glad to be spared trouble, and to move direct to their ends. One would think that everywhere a clear brain and firm hand would be in request. But it does not appear to be so, and the reason is clear. The rapid action of a certain class of minds, is a sort of rebuke to the indirection of the majority; and then there is a valid, practical objection--the slower brains are not able to understand and follow this. rapid action. The "slowness" of Abraham Lincoln, greatly as we resented it, was for that reason the special Providence of the War. It compelled us to hold back until we could build the roads upon which we were to travel.But to leave this jesting tone and speak soberly, men and women need to be educated to magnanimity, but let women lead the way. It is essential in public life, still more than in private, to make allowance for a defective memory in those with whom you have to deal. In regard to this, I can speak from a bitter experience. I entered public life without understanding that an intelligent person could misunderstand what

occurred before his eyes, or that he could forget his own words. I am ashamed to say, that it was years before I could understand it. At first, I acted promptly for those who brought their grievances to me, and, found to my sorrow that those upon whose support I depended, had "forgotten what they said," as soon as its accuracy was questioned, and I had to bear the whole undeserved onus of misrepresentation. At first, I honestly thought this was pure mendacity, but now I know that most minds have a loose, careless way of acting, even when they seem under moral conviction. Leave a large margin for this action always, and when it seems a duty to act on private representations, demand written statements, and refuse to act until you receive them. All that I regret, in my own career, would have been avoided had any one given me this advice at the outset."About a hundred years ago," as Miss Woolsey says, with happy exaggeration, in her "Hospital Days," a few of us took up this work in behalf of women, following out the thought of Mary Astell In 1731; Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797, and Margaret Fuller in 1844. Graceful and scholarly as Margaret's work was, it is quite evident that it had little popular effect, nor can one of us boast that we have spoken better sense than Mary Wollstonecraft. It is just possible some of us know how to make our thought more attractive.After our years of labor, we ought to be thankful to see younger and abler hands ready to catch the ball that we have kept in the air so long. Only let the players look out that they do not try ten balls, and go turn the whole thing into a juggler's trick! I, at least, am thankful to relax my ceaseless watch of facts and figures and turn my thoughts to the literary labor that I love.The contemptible drivel of the recent pamphlet issued by A. D. Fulton, is incapable of influencing one living soul. He does not confine himself to opposing woman suffrage, but he opposes woman's right to labor, and undertakes to prove that this right, when enjoyed, has always degraded her. In support of his assertion he quotes two or three pages from "The College, the Market, and the Court."  Why did he not tell his audience that he owed his information to a woman's work? And still more, why did he not repeat the argument of those same pages, which was simply that in the countries where woman had been forced to
hard labor, which she had not sought, there was no rational excuse for refusing the profitable labor which she does seek? Only let women prepare themselves for the work they would do. I pointed out this omission to one of Mr. Fulton's admirers, who happened to be a Spiritualist. "Yes," he retorted, "but when do you women ever give credit to one another? Did not half a dozen of you apply for a Horticultural College the other day, and never say one Word about Emma Hardinge, who would have built one, before now, if it had not been for the war?"Let women set men an example in such respects, and when they advocate an idea, investigate and report its history. God is the only Creator of Thought.What I say of Mr. Fulton's neglect of our argument, will apply as well to the New Englander, which has lately thought it worth while to take up our subject. If society has already made us "valuable animals," we demand the pay of such animals. We prefer lighter work, but not on the ground that even that is too heavy.I believe, with the New Englander, that if women were to enter public life at once, there would be a great increase of partisan acrimony. Women cannot be wheedled, if men, can. This acrimony would be founded on principle, not persons; but in the providence of God, women are not going to vote next November. I believe they have got to earn their right to it, and when I consider the morals of cities like San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago and New York, I pray on my knees that God may grant us first, by some miracle, an educational qualification for suffrage. I do not see how it ever can come in this country, but I know we need it, and education touches morals--I do not mean the mere learning of the Alphabet.But whatever the qualification demanded, men and women must come under it alike. If universal suffrage is to be, then the "increased acrimony" falls under God's general laws, and will soon defeat itself. All that we need pray is, "The will of God be done."What relation then does my "parable" bear to my argument ?In the first place, pilots and captains can never change work, each needs the other, and the man to whom no one takes off his hat is the sole reliance of us all when the storm's come. It is the obscure worker

that saves society oftentimes. But why should women lament that? Public life is not the highest life for man or woman, only a necessary self-sacrifice for the few.And just as my father prophesied that when I came to my fortune I should find my hands tied by duty in a way that I did not look for, just so when we come into the suffrage will women find the Divine Paths open before them in a wholly unexpected direction. Many will be the crosses and misapprehensions to be borne from those we best love.CAROLINE H. DALL.[Erratum.--In "First Paper" of "Breakers," page 119, Jeremiah Mason should have read Jonathan Mason.-ED.]THE RIGHT OF WOMAN TO THE BALLOT.David PlumbFROM whence do men derive the right to vote in this so-called Republic? On what have they, themselves, rested the claim; not as this one or that may have asserted as his caprice or selfishness may have dictated, but as a historical fact. They did not possess the right, as a thing admitted, under the British Government; King George did not give it to them when he acknowledged the independence of the States, and they could not create the right by fighting and conquering that king; for mere successful fighting creates nothing; it simply conquers, and the conquered party maybe in the right and the conquerors wrong. In fact our fathers had no right, even, to fight unless there had been a prior right of self-government. And it was this prior right that they assumed and asserted in justification of the War for Independence. And if a prior right, it was a natural right, as there was no right prior but that. The leaders of that Revolution were too wise, if not too good, to think of making the foundation of their struggle anything else. So they declared, "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." They further said: "Gov-

ernments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." This latter proposition was, no doubt, rightly intended, but strictly and philosophically, it is badly put; for, in fact, there can be no other but just powers in government properly so considered. Usurped and unauthorized governments may and do involve unjust powers. But not a majority, nor, even, a whole people can make an unjust government valid, -nor their disapproval make a just one invalid. All rightful government must be essentially just, and the powers of such government, so far from being derived from the consent of the governed, are derived from God, and exist independently of the people, to which they are bound to conform their civil polity and its administration. But in the sense in which the Fathers intended the statement, that, the right to create the State and administer its powers in conformity with justice belongs to the whole people, is absolutely true.Now if this prior right, of which we have spoken, is a natural right, and we have seen there can be no other, then to be a natural right it must find its seat and source in the human nature. But if it is a right of the human nature, then all who possess that nature must possess with it the right. Now, unless it can be shown that woman does not inherit a human nature, her right to the ballot, the essential instrumentality of self-government, stands on the same foundation as man's and is every way  equal to his. Therefore, for the masculine and stronger sex to forcibly, as they do, keep woman from the exercise of her right is the same despotism, in its nature, as that in Monarchical countries that not only deprive woman of all participation in government but the most of their masculine subjects as well. For men in this country to talk about whether it is best to give the right of the ballot to women is sheer impudence. The right is theirs, and they are kept from its exercise by violence no better, though of another kind, than that by which the Southern terrorists keep the blacks there from the polls and deprive them of both their natural and legally declared right of the free exercise of the vote.We do not consent to argue this question with men claiming to be Republicans and to believe in a Republican government, as one of privilege, propriety or decorum, or, even, of utility. A right that is right in itself, in the abstract, cannot be one of privilege, nor other than proper, decorous and useful in its exercise and

application when guided by wisdom, patriotism and justice, which women are as likely to possess as men. Let the government take away its unauthorized bar to the woman's free exercise of her rights. Let it cease the use of force to repel her from the polls, and then she will vote or not as she sees best, as men now do. Let the men of this country, to be consistent, renounce their own right of the ballot or yield it to women and all who possess our common human nature.The full and complete exercise of the right of the vote depends upon conditions. Not even every natural right has immunity from conditions which Nature herself ordains and the necessities of government may require. The child and the idiot are barred from the ballot by the condition of inability. The criminal by that of moral obliquity, and by the fact that be is an enemy to society and should not be allowed to make laws, since he would make them in the interest of villainy, which the interests of society forbid. This thought has a wider sweep than might be imagined, touching, not merely technical criminals, but all whose moral obliquity would make it impossible for them to act in the interest of just and beneficent government. But the discussion of it does not come within the scope of the present paper. Beyond these three sources of limitation, the right of the ballot is absolutely the right of all the governed without respect to sex, or color, or race. And so far as the abstract right is concerned, even children, idiots and criminals possess it, and they need only escape the conditions of its restriction and the right springs forth in all its original authority and force as the prisoner, shut out from the light, when his imprisonment ceases, walks forth from his cell to find the sun shining still for him as for all.DAVID PLUMB.THE highest culture has been claimed for women: it has been shown that for two centuries,. the ideal of such a culture has existed, but has been depressed by an erroneous public opinion. There has, however, been a steady growth in the right direction, which entitles us to ask for a "revised and corrected" public opinion. The influence of mental culture is a small thing by the side of that insinuating atmospheric power and the customs of society which it controls. All educated men and women, all liberal souls, therefore, should do their utmost to invigorate public opinion.--"The College, the Market, and the Court."--Caroline H. Dall.LIFE'S NOONOH, the sweetness of the morning!And the fleetness of the morning!A wave of light and laughter,And the sultry noon is here!All the rapture and the beautyIs transmuted into duty,And Life's patient angel singeth,Persevere! Persevere!"Hath Nature then bereft me?Hath she won my love and left me?Did she mock me with a splendorThat has faded from the view?As the child-heart getteth older,Is the Heaven-Heart only colder?Is there loss, with no replacementThat is more divinely true?Nay, nay! I keep the morning,All the freshness and adorning,The beauty and the radiance,The crimson and the gold:In the precious human treasureWhich the heart alone can measure,In the parities and gracesWhich my mother-arms enfold.I hold the Dawn's completenessIn mouths of rosy sweetness,In locks that snare the sunbeamsAnd eyes of April blue;Oh, the Heavens are ever gracious,And though heart be e'er so spacious,God feeds its yearning vastnessWith a glory grand and true.While yet the noontide lingers,Oh, oft essaying fingers,Amend thy poor achievementIn this garden of 'the Lord!Hand, quicken in thy doing!Foot, haste in thy pursuing!Life's chivalry is labor,And action is reward.'Tis the Scripture that the blossomHath unfolded from her bosom;The wild-bee ever-hummeth it,The clover-blooms among:It is what the roses brought me,And the vanished morning taught me,This sweetly tangled meaningBird-wrought into a song.The Rose still faintly bloweth,And her honey-balm bestoweth,And wide the ribbon riverFloweth downward to the mere;And Life is Nature's beautySublimed to earnest duty,And clear the angel singeth,"Persevere! Persevere !" AUGUSTA COOPER BRISTOL.OUR FUTURE.Elizabeth A. KingsburyIN the years of 1847-8 I was Principal of a Female Academy in Mississippi. After I had been there some time, a gentleman said to me:"Well, Mrs. Kingsbury, what do you think of our peculiar institution?""I will tell you," I replied, "I think it is a great pity for the negro, but I think it is far worse for yourselves."That was my honest opinion then, and it has never changed. Just as we pity the one who sins, more than the one sinned against;--just as we pity the murderer more than his victim, so did I pity the willing or unwilling slaveholder.Now, looking back through the vista of years, and perceiving how woman has stumbled along over the rough and thorny road with the Dutchman's stone upon her head; how, laden with the double burden of maternal cares and excessive physical toil, she has staggered in the footsteps of her lord and master, afar off; and how, her earthly hopes blighted, she has looked to her Father in Heaven for strength and comfort, and receiving them, has thus become chastened and purified from much of the dross of earth, then do we say: Alas! for man, that he has all this time been trying to walk alone. Alas! for him, that he has overlooked or neglected the immense reserved strength, the latent ability and hidden wealth with which woman would have blessed the world, had she been permitted to walk unfettered by his side.Conforming herself as best she could to his fancies, she, became a dim reflection of his image. Moulded to a certain extent according to his will and pleasure, she is not a woman, but an absurd parody upon man.Those who are so fearful that she will escape from her sphere, should be made to understand that she has never yet had the opportunity to occupy it. They have little idea of the hight to which she will ascend, when free from the cramping, depressing idea of inferiority; when no longer placed in the same legal category with the gibbering idiot and the raving maniac."Perfect love casteth out fear," are the words of wisdom.When the servile fear that has possessed her soul through all these long ages, shall have been banished therefrom, then will she bless man with a depth and purity and wealth of affection, of which he has as yet had little or no experience; then will the affluence of her free and noble being, stimulate and inspire him to deeds far superior to his present capacity; and then, while he looks back regretfully to see how he has defrauded himself, in thus confining her, they will together advance to the possession of peace, purity, wisdom and happiness ineffable.ELIZABETH A. KINGSBURY."POLITICAL EQUALITY."THE question of the position of woman in society is an important one, I suppose as important as that correlative one of the position of man. And though I do not believe that the present generation will witness any satisfactory settlement of it, and though I am sure that under the present political organization of society it cannot be settled, I still think that it is not a day too soon to begin the discussion which should help toward a settlement.But I do not think that vague declamation is discussion; so, even at the risk of wounding some susceptibilities, I would provoke, if possible, the expression of certain clear grounds of thought whereupon the advocates of woman's rights (content for the moment with so narrow a phrase) may find some opportunity for argument and chance of defining their principles.It is for this reason I have asked, not careful to drape my words with any enticing pleasantness--"WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?""Political equality" is the first answer, implied in the editorial sentence friendily rebuking me for thinking that "a chimera."I do not think political equality a chimera; but I think the idea of obtaining it through the ballot-box to be a chimera.I think also that the term "political equality" may be used vaguely. There was political equality in the South, before the war, for black men and black women. Both being without any political rights whatever, the political equality was perfect.The political rights of men, not theoretically but practically, in the free United States of America (if I may accept Theodore Parker as sufficient authority) consist in merely submitting to the rule of "one-eightieth part" of the male population, who in virtue of their position control the rest. As things stand the political equality of man and woman would be obtained by one-eightieth portion of the female population sharing the usurping privilege of the male eightieth. I think, Mr. Editor, that such a measure of political equality would be a "chimera to be spurned by American women."So I ask again, even at the risk of not being "in agreement with THE ADVOCATE or with the views it was established to promote"--WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?Something more and better, I hope and believe, than is expressed in your "Political Equality," or than can be obtained by any use of the ballot-box or any other of the present political machinery.W. J. LINTON.THOUGHTS FOR SOROSIS.Virginia PennyTHE present condition of thousands of women, in all countries, prompts the wish that organizations such as Sorosis, and other Women's Clubs be deeply in earnest in their efforts for benefiting women. Theory is not wanted so much as practice. There is danger of women's clubs becoming like men's, mutual admiration societies, and outlets for vanity or selfish indulgence. There is not a city, nor a town, nor a village, in this broad land, but what contains one or more sad and breaking hearts that need the solace of consolation, the tenderness of friendship. No time should be lost, no opportunity passed by, in efforts to remove ailments, physical, moral and mental, that afflict womanhood.Members of clubs should stand by each other in sustaining good men and women. Particularly should it be so in business transactions. Would it not be well in the meetings of Sorosis, when other business is discharged, to mention any man or woman whom you have found correct and honorable in your dealings. Perhaps for several years you have patronized certain stores, fancy, dry-goods, shoe, bonnet, book, drug, etc. You have found the owners and sales-people just, honest, prompt and obliging. You feel that it is a pleasure to recommend them. Again you have had dealings with others, and you have found them dishonest or untruthful. To mention your experience may save some friend from the inconvenience or loss you have sustained. This might be done without making the society either a Methodist class-meeting, a gossiping club, or an advertising medium. And by all means patronize

stores conducted or attended by women. Let sales-women feel that you are their friends.Open a store for the sale of woman literature, and it would be well if some women would combine and open a publishing house, for the publication of books by women. Commence a library of books written by women in all countries and times. Copies of their books would doubtless be voluntarily contributed by living female authors.But let us return to something more immediately practical. Let rich members pay the initiation fees of those unable to become members from that cause. For instance, let some rich member who has a friend that is educated and refined, learn her views and wishes in regard to the matter, and if she desires membership, propose her, and if she is elected, let the rich proposer pay the initiation fee to the treasurer privately and unknown to others.Make arrangements with the editor of some first class paper to secure his exchanges, which you can probably do for a small sum, and place them on the table of your club room that they may be accessible to all the members.Have at your rooms a list of respectable boarding places, that will accommodate transient members, or the personal friends of members. Let a book be kept, containing the names, locations, and charges of said boarding places.Have a box, just outside of your room for meeting, in which written questions can be dropped asking information, or as subjects for discussion. Let them be read by the corresponding secretary when the regular business transactions of the meeting are over.Have a committee of honorable, high-minded, kind-hearted women to confer with members who have social or business troubles, and who need advice and guidance. The title of women counsellors may be objected to--but what is in a name?Publish a paper containing contributions from the members. Make it a literary paper, but let a portion be devoted to securing employment for educated women--a medium between the employers and employed.You can thus greatly benefit society. Adieu--au revoir.VIRGINIA PENNY.WOMEN IN WAR.Ann E. BrownA FALLACIOUS argument is occasionally brought forward by newspaper writers and others against all participation by women in the affairs of State. It is this: "Women do not and cannot bear arms, therefore they should have no part nor lot in government. As they cannot defend the State, they cannot be the State." Louis XIV. said: "The State! It is myself." These reasoners say: "The State! it is ourselves: it is the men." Unfortunately for their argument, which by the by Antoinette Brown Blackwell unanswerably confutes in her admirable article in the March number of, THE ADVOCATE, political power is not confined to arms-bearing men. The feeble and those advanced in years are not disfranchised, and a large number of those who hold civil offices are not subject to military duty.But has not woman something to do for the defence of her country! How was it in our civil war? The Nation received a large portion of its army almost from the arms of mothers--with the patriotism, the morale, the love of liberty, inherited and taught in happy homes. These sentiments were fed and kept alive by mothers, wives and sisters at home during the conflict and so vital were their sympathies that many soldiers said in their letters, "I believe you suffer more at home than we do." Then in time of war, women have a great increase of duty and labor at home. But let these considerations go for nothing, though they are much, and let us glance briefly at the part women took in our late war. It is safe to say that it was of a character unprecedented in history, showing unmistakeably that women can perform their full part in the duty of defending their country and its institutions. There was probably not a loyal woman at the North, who did not contribute in labor or gifts to the Aid Societies, themselves composed of women. These in turn sustained the great Commissions, Sanitary and Christian, that did so much to help our cause. More than this, there were numbers of women who--unconsciously to themselves--exhibited some of the highest qualities of human nature. They went down to the battle-fields, and amid the most appalling scenes, they succored the wounded

and ministered to the dying. They labored in city hospitals, in field hospitals and in hospital boats. They penetrated rebel prisons and entered the enemy's lines on errands requiring courage, address and romantic daring. They showed patience persistence, and an organizing power not generally supposed to be a quality of the sex, by which a large and often conflicting variety of elements were made to unite in one beneficent result. If another similar occasion called for it--it this country should again have to make deadly struggle for existence, woman's part in it would be immediately recognized, and by sysematic organization vastly increased."You can't fight, therefore you shall not vote! Let us never hear that from a man who did not fight for his country--from one who did, we shall be little likely to hear it.ANN E. BROWNANOTHER CHAPTER.Ida WhippleRECORD of another day;I have read it line by line;Now I lay the book away, Written by a hand Divine--Father, take it--it is thine.There is promise of the morn,Golden tokens paint the sky,Golden hopes my sky adorn,Like the clouds as fair and high--But a breath may blow them by!Only know we what we readGolden sunsets sometimes fail,Grim regrets to hope succeed;But His hand who rules the gale,Storm and sunshine, wrote Life's tale.What each coming chapter brings,Grief or gladness, who can tell?God, who holds Life's secret springs--He, the Author, knoweth well;He, in His good time, will tell.So I lay the volume by,Yield me to the spell of night,God will wake me by-and-by,Here, or in the Land of Light,As is pleasing in His sight.He will wake me by-and-byWith that thought I go to restGently lay Lifes volume by--Little care I for the rest,Since He wrote it, I am blest!IDA WHIPPLE.THE CONSERVATIVE.Samuel C. BlackwellAs my eye rests upon this word, an infant wakens into life. At each throb of my pulse, by day, by night, a being akin to me is born. For what? In the grand and solemn phrase we know so well "to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever"--to share, to increase and to conserve the treasures of mankind.Treasures we have, real, lasting and enlarging. Beneath their fruits which enrich and beautify the world in admirable, useful works multiplying with every generation--the productive farms, factories, workshops, ships, laboratories, convenient and healthful homes, which, despite dreadful blemishes in our industrial and social life, are yet as thousands to one when compared with the acquisitions of the past, and which are diffusing among the forgotten millions, beneficent facilities heretofore unshared and even unknown. Beneath these fruits and feeding them, as the stem the flower, are garnered our treasures--those invaluable truths which God's revealing hand is writing in human life. Gaining clearness age after age, they have become luminous in the experience of men. Though earthquake and flood should wreck and obliterate our industries, homesteads and monuments of art, such outward destruction would be but as the withering blast of winter if those treasures were conserved. Like the living root which, after the frost, shoots forth anew, those vital facts would again unfold their power in a world as fertile and in a human life as rich as ours.Primal among truths, as the granite among rocks, is Providence. Intangible, perceived by no being lower than man, it underlies all his landscape, encircling his whole horizon. We have not a trust apart from existing order--Order is Providence. We have not an interest outside of existing relations--Relation is Providence. We have not a hope underived from existing aspirations--Aspiration is Providence.If the fact of Providence, though unrecognized, upholds and inspires us, as for ages Men stood upright by virtue of the unsuspected force of gravitation; no less does the knowledge of that mighty fact illumine, quicken And utilize our mental life. Withhold the knowledge of Providence from childhood. Perhaps no man ever tried to do it. But destitution, ignorance, vice have done it for the wretched. Hiding Providence they have intercepted the air and excluded the sun. Then normal growth falls. Affection, hope, purpose should be there, but are not, save as instinctive needs grope prophetically, seeking involuntarily the light there ought to be. Take from man or woman this eminent human treasure. What has shrunk the muscle of his being and dimmed the fire of his vision, anticipating age? What has paralyzed his convictions and withered his heart? What has undermined his path, driven the angel from his perspective and couched the lion of annihilation there? To a man, Providence, though unknown is vital breath; Providence known is ship, wind and polar star.True democracy, which is political unselfishness, builds the structure of a real hierarchy, where men, diverse but akin, stand under the administration of God.But mankind is given to idolatry. No sooner do we enshrine our treasure, than we begin to attach to the altar the reverence due to Him whom presently we ignorantly worship. Then follow, surely, enquiry and protest, indicating a revival of the first love. A strange spectacle is seen--in the guise of the iconoclast, the conservative. Arrayed against the altar stand new martyrs who suffer, and modern champions who contend for the old, great truth. Amid sanctuaries hallowed by our fathers, and ecclesiastics honored for their office sake; amid devout though ignorant millions who gaze aghast at the supposed sacrilege, the theses of reformation burst from the minds of men, while some Luther with heart half-broken, half-inspired, cries, "Here stand I: I cannot

otherwise!" There are the institutions, the recognized exponents, all that exists of the organization of Christendom. Here are the weak and isolated souls forced into dissent by their new vision of the old glory, and these are the Conservatives.A fossil altar, a material half view, a permitted selfishness--either of these may conceal our fundamental treasure--the mainspring of moral vigor--Fatherhood--Providence.If the Kohinoor is brilliant, our kindred diamonds are like unto it. We advance into related social life. Patent at the threshold, in the nursery of home as in the arena of the world, parental providence has stretched a golden chain of union in diversity. Man and woman, not either but both, manifest our nature and represent our race. Of this broad and beautiful relationship the Family is the bright exponent. To whomsoever the tie of son and mother, of daughter and father, of brother and sister, of husband and wife is known, to him is known the peculiar value of this gem from the Creator's signet and its high position among the treasures of men. Humanizing, dignifying, refreshing individual lives in each charmed circle, the Family organizes society, civilizes the State and spreads decorum, forbearance, respect, gentleness, chivalry, wherever men and women meet.There attaches to individuality a sacredness which is evidently dear to the Creator. It is the origin of responsibility, the foundation of character, the essential condition of relationship. No one can divest himself of it. He can cast away his external life, but not his separate being. No stranger can intrude upon it. It is intrenched in absolute seclusion. This it is which invests our existence with its singular dignity and incomparable value. Allied with this individuality, by constitutional fiat, is that capacity and design of dual union, so clearly expressed in creation. Commanding among social attractions is the desire of each individual for its kindred counterpart, an intimately related individual life and symmetrical dependent ties. Around each person, whether man or woman, there gathers by divine intent, a sacredness which should enfold at once his individual and his dual life, whether that dual life has yet been realized or not. Many a person has never met another with whom this nearness of individual life seemed possible. True to such an ideal, though unknown, he may wait in vain even to the end of this life,

fulfilling manfully meanwhile all other relations. Some have found but lost and are content to wait, convinced that hereafter the lost may be found again. For all these, they who see the house we live in but not its occupant, may have a sneer. Except in happy unions, I know nothing nobler or lovelier than such vestal lives.From the reckless indiscretion of many marriages, result family ties wherein there is not found that unselfishness which supercedes the need of civil law. Legislation touching marriage interests should treat with complete equity the partners, who are equals in nature and should be so in law. The relation in its integrity is independent of enactments as the finished structure needs no more its scaffolding, nor the willing heart a constraining hand. The only mastery in love inheres alike and equally in both the allied hearts. The insulting idea of headship should be exorcised as an alien thought, if it seek entrance here. Between husband and wife is an absolute merging of all objective properties, an extinguishment of meum and tuum, in the equal and complete endowment of each by each. Though individuality remains eternally intact, yet identical interests, concurrent sympathies and shared experience should result in a community of subjective existence unparalleled outside. This constitutional Relationship despite its violations and its counterfeits still stands the test of human experience which is the crucible of God.As in the family, sister and brother illustrate the diverse unity of human life, so in society there should be mental interchange as equal and respectful and good will as considerate and kind. There is consideration, deference, between brother and sister, but among such as best represent our nature, the consideration and deference are for the more excellent and the more wise, while he or she who represents the better excellence or the truer wisdom, certainly is not the claimant of the deference. Easy as breathing is the quiet performance by either of the most attractive study and the best adapted work. In home's republic there is sympathy not disdain, aid not opposition, equal conference not assumption. Why should it not be so beyond the typical circle of the family? I know no reason based in nature. If there be any reason, it originates in human ignorance or vice. Expedients not grounded in nature are anomalies, accepted under protest if at all, but not destined

to endure and ever to be gladly exchanged for the wholesome natural law. Of course thought bears credentials of strictly equal cogency whether emanating from a man's or from a woman's mind, Conscience, of the man or of the woman, alike pleads duty and the plea is final. Skill and merit of whatever kind, exhibit a claim quite irrespective of sex and cannot equitably be ignored. This diverse but co-operative and in all things equal constitution of men and women is a scripture written in our nature, to guide us in the solution of many a social problem; a simple scripture, once admitted easily applied. It proclaims freedom mental and industrial for women, and this is essential to character; it teaches magnanimity and this is the core of manliness. Though long ignored, equality in diversity is old as the creation. They who hold the sparkling crystal up and show how straight the sunbeam passes through, they surely are Conservatives.There are still those who sketch this horoscope for woman: Her place nursery, kitchen and parlor only. Her education care of the house, culminating in graceful manipulation of the tea cups and of the piano. Her aspiration, "good Lord a husband!" Her theology, "God be thy law, thou mine," and its morality, "What thou bid'st, unargued I obey." But what is the mental stature contemplated here? Is it such as may befit one who, whatever her relationships, yet alone in her individuality must live and die? How brief a life is given in which to learn God's ways and his intents--will this enable her to make the most of it? Her own nature must be the pattern nearest to her eye, by which to estimate the nature of her race. Will she find it aptly mirrored there--herself a dwarf and parasite? Whatsoever our race is meant to know of truth or to achieve of good, woman equally with man must share. To do so she needs equal powers, means and hopes, These the Creator gives: who so withholds them knowingly, steals and defrauds; and if in ignorance, is yet the unconscious minister of death.The Brother and the Sister must be accepted by us as type of the best social attitude of men and women. It is the earliest mirror God holds up to life, let us learn well and forever remember the divine lesson. Wherever that co-equal station is denied, in Church or State in

work, society or home; there is a central truth eclipsed and he who rends the veil away, revealing anew the axiom, "Equal though different, and though different one," he is the Truth's conservative.Indestructible as individuality is the characteristic thereof which attracts the mind to others, so that the central "study of mankind is man." The family is the sanctuary of the individual. Society is the refuge of the race. Society is man's cradle, school, gymnasium, workshop, study. Here he comes of age and mingles with his peers. Marriage of one with one is the great Relation of the individual. Society, the adjustment of each with all, is the generic Institution of men. Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, government, combined worship, allied philanthropy, all the forms the restless energy of human nature takes, spring forth in society and with it flourish or decay.Brotherhood makes Society. Brotherhood is equity alive--unselfishness in action. A society whose institutions are channels of this water of life is indestructible as the ever germinating humanity they mould and quicken. Every departure from brotherhood tends to subvert society, and rings an alarm which summons the reformer, who is the conservative, to protect the threatened treasure. The impressive demonstration of this fact in the decade about to end, can never be forgotten by its witnesses. A society attempted with the essential fact of brotherhood left out, exploded with a violence which shook the world. The dying thunders linger yet and will reverberate through history forever.Of the countless agitators of the social pool, the angel in disguise is he whose schemes contemplate, or whose life applies, this constitutional requirement of the common weal. Such are Conservatives--the police of heaven--the agents of a power supreme.With every breath we draw, some silver cord is loosed and the record of some life is closed. Each was an heir and beneficiary of Truth, How far was each that Truth's conservative?SAMUEL C. BLACKWELL.THE TWO BOOKS.Julia CrouchIN an underground room on one of the streets of Williamsburg lived a widow and her daughter, a young girl about seventeen years old. One morning I called there on business, and was surprised to see them working in a room so dark. There were two small windows only; and they looked out into a dingy, dark street on which the sun seldom if ever shone. Under these windows was a sewing machine at which the daughter sat sewing. Although it was only ten o'clock in the morning, yet she looked tired, and her face was very thin and pale. By her side sat her mother, a middle-aged woman, preparing work for her daughter to sew on the machine. They were so busily engaged that they paused but a moment as I talked with them, working with all the zeal and zest of one toiling to save a life."How much do you receive for making these garments?" I said, taking up one of the fine nice shirts they had just finished."We have eighteen cents a piece," replied the mother."And how many can you make in a day?""Sometimes when everything goes right we can make six, but we average about five, perhaps a little more.""That would be ninety cents per day," I said--"about five dollars and a half a week. Do you always have all you can do?""Not always, Ma'am," answered the mother, "but there is seldom a time when we do not have something to do. We have had work plenty now for two weeks, and just now we are working very hard, for we have made ourselves a little extra expense. My daughter," continued she, "subscribed for a book a week ago, and we expect it will be brought around in a day or two, and as our rent comes due about the same time we are in an unusual hurry.""Money cannot be better invested," I said, "than in good books. What is the work, Miss, that you subscribed for?"It is a work on Woman," replied the young girl, lifting her sad eyes a moment to my face, "and I think it will be very beneficial.""What do you know about the book?" I asked. "In these times

when the subject of equal rights is so thoroughly agitated there are very different ideas written on the subject; but of course as you are a working girl- and have no father, brother or husband to support you, and are entirely dependent on your own exertions, surely you would not work so hard to purchase a book which is averse to your possessing all the rights of your country, and all the advantages for supporting yourself which man possesses."The pale face of the young girl flushed scarlet "I do not believe as you do, Ma'am," she stammered. "Our minister subscribed for the book, and recommended it very highly, and said every woman, especially in these times, should study it well. It says woman's sphere is at home by the fireside; that she was made to make home happy; to make every thing nice and inviting and train her children in the fear of God."There was a wavering about the thin lips as she uttered these words. "My child," I said, "what does it propose to do with those women who have no firesides; who shiver with the cold because they cannot obtain fuel to make a blazing hearth; who work until their fingers bleed to pay the rent for a cheerless, miserable tenement; whom men do not support, but try every way in their power to rob them of their virtue, what does your book propose to do with such women as these?The slender young creature ceased her working a moment, and looking up I saw that her eyes were filled with tears. "O Ma'am," she said with quivering lips, "I do not know. I am afraid it says nothing for such poor creatures. There seems to be nothing for us but work, work from morning till night, and then live like beggars. I wish it would tell us how to obtain pleasant homes, for we are surely the ones who need advice and sympathy, for women with loving friends all around them, with plenty to eat and wear and good beds to sleep in, do not need books to tell them that the fireside is their sphere, and that they must occupy it, for they will not do otherwise, but it is different with us who need books to tell us some way of escape from this cruel bondage of labor not half compensated--this working and wearing away our lives in dark cellars and squallid garrets. I wish, Ma'am, I could subscribe for such a book as that!""I wish my dear girl," I replied, "that such a book could be obtained, and I would go miles to get it for you if necessary, but I have a book

Which I would like you to read, and will send it to you, and after you have perused them both, this one and the one you have subscribed for, I will call again and see which you like best."That night I sent the book to her, and in two' weeks I called on her again. She looked much brighter than when I last visited her, the sadness had partially disappeared from her eyes, and she met me with a smiling face, and gave me a cordial welcome.I have read both books," she said almost immediately, and your book I have read through twice, and I believe it has made a new being of me. The book I subscribed for I stowed away and do not want to read it again, for it made me feel more discouraged than ever, but your book put new life in me. I feel as if I were of more consequence and importance, and when I went to carry my work home last evening, Mr. Allen asked me why I looked so smiling and fresh, and I told him it was because I felt more independent. I had been reading a work on woman's rights, and I did not think he paid me enough for my work. He laughed and paid me a dollar more than common, and said he would pay me in future twenty cents a-piece for the shirts we are making. O, Ma'am, I am a strong believer in I 'woman's rights' now, and mother is too, and I feel as if I could make my mark in the world, and I am so much obliged to you for that dear, good book."I went out of that house rejoicing, and the next thing I did was to get a score of woman's rights journals and put them into the hands of a score of women on that street.JULIA CROUCH.A cheerful optimist may well believe that we are in a transition state, that women, impatient of the old life which was without thought and culture and motive, in the blind struggle to something better have fallen for the time on something worse; that with the movement of the age toward mutual helpfulness, man to man, women will move not less steadily, if more slowly, and come gradually into truer relations with each other and with men. It will not hurt woman to be criticised. She has too long been assured of her angelhood, and denied her womanhood.--Lucia Gilbert Calhoun--Introduction to "Modern Women."THE CONSEQUENCE OF WOMAN'S LEARNING THE ALPHABET.Louisa J. G. Littlefield[FIRST PAPER].TEN years ago an article by T. W. Higginson appeared in the Atlantic Monthly entitled, "Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet?" During, the years that have intervened she has effectually mastered that important branch of education, and now the results are rapidly forcing themselves upon the attention of society.The question of woman's proper position in relation to civil government and the various occupations of life, has become a branch of the irrepressible conflict between the desire of a portion to rule exclusively, and the right of the whole to participate in self-government. Woman asks to-day that she may have a voice in government; that she may have a share in making laws to protect herself, her children, and her property; that she may be able in future to defend herself against any legislation that may tend to oppress her sex; that she may exert her influence morally and intellectually in establishing a form of government never before known in the history of the world, in which every human being, without regard to race, sex or color shall be represented. The question before us is, shall she have these rights, or shall man continue as in the past history of the world to be her ruler.In ages past, morality and intelligence have not been the ruling element in nations; physical force thus far has tested their strength. Great principles have been established through this force; but as the world advances, slowly but surely in wisdom and justice, principles themselves will be the governing power. Philanthropists tell us the sooner woman bas a voice in government the sooner that day will arrive; others say this is not so, that political life will drag woman into its mire; but what does the past show in regard to the social and public intercourse of men and women? Is woman degraded, or is man elevated? We take the ground that man and woman working together elevate each other, and that the present degradation of political life shows the want of woman's influence.The power of moral, principle which we hope at some future day will be the power of nations, has been well tested in family government. Once a husband had a legal right to chastise his wife for disobedience, provided the rod used did not exceed a certain thickness, and when this law was repealed it as believed by many men that the corner stone of family government was removed. But to-day in all well regulated families, where woman is the companion and adviser, intelligence and love are the ruling elements. Forced obedience would now be considered brutal, although our puritan fathers used it, probably successfully, in governing our puritan mothers.We have said that woman's influence is needed in the affairs of the Nation; but some of the opponents of this reform tell us that she already exerts so strong an influence, that voting would weaken rather than increase her power. If this is true then strengthen the morality of the country by taking away the vote of our moral, upright men; or stop the mouth of the pulpit on political evils; for it has been argued just as reasonably that the pulpit can exert more influence by letting political sin alone. Politicians doubtless would heartily concur in these arrangements. But this argument on the face of it, is both false and weak. If woman's influence is so strong, then she should have a power placed in be hands by which that influence can become a part of the life of the nation, so that no laws made in future, in times when men's passions govern their reason, can deprive her of that right.It is no new thing for woman to ask, for more liberty and power. Wherever in the history of the world woman has had a chance to cultivate the better part of her nature, she at once demands a share in the affairs of the State, as being equally interested in good government, and in the social and political blessings that flow from it. The Roman women more than eleven centuries ago asked to have laws repealed that oppressed them, and they were partially successful. But there were men in those times, as at the present day, who saw only evil in giving political and civil liberty to woman. Cato once made the following speech in the crowded forum of Roman men and women who had met to consider woman's condition, and his spirit in an ameliorated form shows itself at the present day:"The fact of woman claiming rights and assuming a voice in public affairs, is proof that man has lost his majesty and abdicated his supreme authority--that absolute authority over the weaker sex which his ancestors had established by so many wise laws--for if each master of a family,, emulating the examples of his progenitor, had kept his wife in due submission at home, we should not now have so much to apprehend from the public disobedience of the congregated sex." However on that occasion Cato's speech was. unsuccessful, for the women carried their point.Among the opponents of woman's cause at the present day, we notice many reverend teachers of the religion of Jesus Christ; of him who made woman his companion and equal, never exhorting them to obey their husbands, to keep at home, or to devote life solely to domestic duties; of him who treated with kind consideration the fallen women, never intimating by his words or his intercourse with them, that they were worse than fallen men; of him who recognized in all, man and woman, the great common element of humanity. We also notice that these teachers quote the Bible to defend their cause. If men array Moses and Paul in opposition to the just claims of woman; if they use Noah's example and Paul's advice to Timothy to defend the use of intoxicating drinks; if they quote Paul's counsel to servants to defend the right of man to oppress his fellow-man; if they use the example of Abraham, David or Solomon to prove polygamy to be right, or the advice and example of Paul to prove marriage to be wrong, they do one of two things; either they cramp the intellect and moral sense by making men and women believe the Bible supports that which opposes their inward consciousness of truth and justice, or they sow the rankest seeds of unbelief in its divine authority. If religious teachers could feel the force of this truth, they would very carefully examine any movement claiming to advance the interests of mankind, before they began to select texts of Scripture either to oppose or defend it.Teachers of religion are slow to take bold of any new cause; they weigh the pros and cons very accurately before they decide to lend their influence in its favor. Reforms are so likely to overthrow old theories that we do not wonder at their caution. Mr. Garrison says that for ten years he had the clergy hanging on his skirts

in the Anti-Slavery cause. They were slow to give up old prejudices, but when they did they went to work in earnest. So we expect it will be in woman's cause. A few religious publications have come out openly for the ballot for woman; others say they have always advocated "the true rights of woman," but do not specify particularly these rights, which is encouraging.The foreign missionary societies, after raising money year after year to send men to heathen and Mahometan countries, have learned at last that woman has the work to do. In many countries where it is believed that ignorance and seclusion are necessary to keep woman virtuous and in proper subjection to her husband, the missionary cannot gain access to the homes and hearts of the people. Within a few years the simple truth has been discovered; that in order to accomplish the desired object, woman must be sent on this work. She can visit her sex at home, teach them to read, and enlighten them upon the principles of christianity; and through the mother's influence the children will be elevated and thus woman begins the work at its foundation. Will she stop when the foundation is laid and let man raise the structure? Already these women are addressing large audiences in our towns upon their work. They will doubtless be told when the foundation is securely laid, and these heathen women begin to show a thirst for knowledge, that woman's work is to teach the alphabet, and not to preach, but whether they will quietly submit to these old arrangements remains to be seen.It is comparatively easy, with present public opinion to prevent woman from ascending the height of thought and action, but quite another matter to induce her to descend after she has once reached its summit. Could any man weave a theory fine enough, either scripturally, philosophically, or poetically upon woman's duties as to convince Harriet Hosmer that she ought to give up her masculine employment--for the art of sculpture has in times past belonged exclusively to man--and devote life to domestic duties? Miss Hosmer was educated like a boy, and she has done a noble work for woman, for she has proved that woman with equal advantages can equal man in art. These missionary women when they see the fruits of their work will feel a consciousness that the glory belongs to them. To be sure men and women should work

for higher' motives than worldly glory, and doubtless do; still when the praises of the world are to be bestowed, there are very few men benevolent enough to let another wear the honors that justly belong to them, and we are inclined to believe that a share of this weakness belongs also to woman.As an example of the argument brought forward by clergymen to prove that woman should not have a voice in government, we copy the following item from a leading religious paper:"At a recent meeting of ministers the question of woman's suffrage was discussed. Many expressed the opinion that it was sure to come, while they took grounds against it. At the close the moderator, who is a man of gentle manners and sound learning and crowned with a 'hoary head,' was called upon to express his views. He said that several had expressed the opinion that woman's suffrage was sure to come; he hoped not, but if it should and he should live to see it, he should resign himself to the situation and feel like saying as Paul's companions said of their ship when they were driven up and down in Adria, 'Let her drive!' Of course all laughed, then raising his voice a little above the confusion he added, ' nevertheless I think I should rather drive myself'" Doubtless the gentleman told the truth, and it was probably the nearest approach to logic that be could bring to bear upon the subject. He would rather drive himself, for this we cannot bameblame him, it is human nature, men and women like to rule, though all are not as willing to confess it. But merriment does not answer the moral question. It may, at the expense of the reform or the reformers, keep it at bay for a time, but the day will surely come when it must be met, and met seriously too, and stand or fall upon its own merits.If nature had intended that woman should occupy her time wholly within the range of home duties, why is it that she does not, as she developes, mentally cling closer to what is called woman's sphere? Why is it that she begins to reason on questions outside that sphere? Why is it that the daily routine of domestic duties does not satisfy the cravings of her nature? Either cultivation perverts her mind, or God intended she should do more than rear her children and minister to her household. We have failed yet to meet the first instance of a woman of culture and earnest thought,

who was satisfied with domestic duties, except she was interested in some object outside of home, or in literature, art, or music.To a father and mother with their children about them, home should be the sweetest spot on earth; a place to rest from the cares and toils of life, and to hold counsel and communion together; but the parents who take no interest in outside objects, become narrow in views and thoughts and cannot do justice to themselves or their children.LOUISA J. G. LITTLEFIELD.A LETTER.Letter from Paulina W. Davis read before the Judiciary Committee of the Rhode Island Legislature on the hearing of the Petitioners for Woman Suffrage.MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE:Accompanying petitions with a letter may possibly be deemed a work of supererogation, but as the stand-point of observation for women is different from that of men, it may not be wholly a matter of indifference to you, to receive a direct expression of feeling from them, when a question involving so much in the future is to be settled.We ask you to look along down the hastily gathered names and observe how many are wives and mothers. Some of them, the mothers of sons whom they have educated as worthy citizens--and now these mothers ask you for the one right you so highly prize.We have been told often that in this progressive State we have but to ask to receive. We are fully cognizant of the liberal laws which you have already made, but we cannot help while giving due credit for generous intentions still to say that these laws are one-sided and plainly indicate the impossibility of class legislation being just and equitable.Every woman owning a small amount of property, or doing business in her own name, pays her full proportion of taxes, revenue included.Is she represented? If you say yes; by her husband, father,

brothers, we answer by quoting from James Otis who says no such phrase as virtual representation is known in law or constitution: "It is altogether a subtlety and illusion wholly unfounded and absurd. We must not be cheated by any such phantom or fiction of law or politics, or any monkish trick of deceit or hypocrisy."Again, Lord Coke says, "The supreme powers cannot take from any man any part of his property, without his consent in person or by representation. Taxes are not to be laid upon the people without their consent, in person or by representation. The very act of taxing those who are not represented, appears to me to deprive them of one of their essential rights as freemen, and if continued seems to be in effect an entire disfranchisement of every civil right, for what civil right is worth a rush after a man's property is subject to be taken from him without his consent."Says our own Senator Anthony in Congress: "It is not a fair statement of the case to say that the man represents the woman."Representation implies a certain delegated power, and a certain responsibility on the part of the representative toward the party represented."A representation to which the represented party does not assent is no representation at all, but is adding insult to injury. When the American Colonies complained that they ought not to be taxed unless they were represented in the British Parliament, it would have been rather a singular answer to tell them that they were represented by Lord North, or even by the Earl of Chatham."The gentleman on the other side the Chamber who says the States lately in rebellion are entitled to immediate representation in this Chamber would hardly be satisfied if we should tell them that my friend from Massachusetts represented South Carolina, and my friend from Michigan represented Alabama. They would hardly be satisfied with that kind of representation. Nor have we any more right to assume that the women are satisfied with the representation of the men. Where has been the Assembly at which this right of representation was conferred? Where was the compact made? It is wholly an assumption."The thanks of every woman in our State are due to our Senator for this noble speech.The Tribune of yesterday in speaking of the National Convention held in Washington says: "We hope that women do not overlook the logical fact that voting implies the right to be voted for, an also another logical fact, that of duties as well as privileges, and we hope they do not wish to shirk them. Here is precisely our Honored Sirs, we do not ask you for bon-bons. We know that when we claim the right to Suffrage we are asking you to place us on an equality with yourselves, that we may share with you the duties however onerous of government. We do claim in serious earnest that we are far better qualified to comprehend the genius of our government and the interests of our Nation than yonder ignorant foreigner who owns one hundred and thirty-four dollars worth of real estate in fee simple.Now can we feel otherwise than degraded when we find that however highly cultivated we may be, or however much property we may hold in our own right, we still stand outside of these duties according to article second, section 4th, of your constitution: "No pauper, lunatic, person non compos mentis, person under guardianship, or member of the Narragansett tribe of Indians shall be permitted to be registered or to vote. Nor shall any person convicted of bribery or any crime deemed infamous at common law, be permitted to exercise that privilege until he be expressly restored thereto by act of General Assembly."The lunatic may recover his senses, the idiot through science and woman's patience, may be educated up to a weak manhood, the minor will pass out of guardianship, and the criminal may be restored by an Act of General Assembly, but alas!--Woman more hopeless than either is still disfranchised and degraded, and the political influence which is said to be hers is a fiction.Again, the question how will women do military duty? Are there no military duties but those of bearing arms? Our noble army of nurses during the war have answered that question fully. So also has the civilizing influence of women all over the great West proven that. woman s influence is needed in the government, not because I claim for her a higher or better moral nature but a different one, an that very difference a necessity to completeness. We do not claim these new duties because we despise or deem those we now have inferior, but because we love our country, as you do, and desire above all other things

her prosperity. We see that now in the reorganizing of society, socially as well as politically, there should be no fatal compromises made or complex questions left for future settlement. We have said that women have the capacity to rule, and rule well, and have only to point you to Catherine of Russia, to Maria Therese, to Elizabeth of England and many others whom I might name to prove this. Still the simple fact of voting, does not make her a ruler, any more than it makes every man a ruler, who casts a vote. It is but comparatively a small portion of the men of this State who make politics a business, but every man knows that he has the right to vote, and that if tried it will be by a jury of his peers, but no woman has ever yet been tried by mothers with tender, loving hearts who would temper justice with mercy. Again, women will not rule or make laws if not elected, and they will not be elected if incompetent, for it is by consent and choice of the people that your rulers are elected.What would you, sir, say of a family government where all authority was vested either in the one parent or the other? Would it be likely to be either a wise, just or good government? Do we ever see well regulated families where there is not a united head. I know there are women who will perhaps whisper in your ear, "we have all the rights we want." Allow me to say, sir, such women deceive you. They are the women who rule or ruin, playing alternately the slave and the sycophant; they can stoop to conquer, can wheedle, coax, and pour out a flood of tears when needful to carry a point. And this very assertion is only one of the evidences either of her ignorance or her will to manage you. I claim, sir, to understand women better than men can, and I always know this assertion to be false, or the result of ignorance and wilful stupidity. The slaves often said they did not wish to be free. We come, sir, neither in a spirit of defiance or petty complaining of wrongs. We simply as women ask you to deal justly with us; to deal with us as you would wish to be dealt by if we were in position--where might makes right--and you were the disfranchised and degraded class. Where there is power we have every reason to expect magnanimity to say nothing of justice. We are aware our petitions are an innovation. So is every act of progress, but our State has not been wont to shrink from revolutionary changes. It was the first to proclaim religious toleration.  It early

instituted its free schools. The abolition of capital punishment, was a serious innovation, but it has worked well. Dare then in this, as in the past to give a precedent, and you will have the gratitude of thousands on thousands of women, who have deserved well of their country, for they have loved and served her with true loyal hearts.PAULINA W. DAVIS,President of the R. I. Women's Suffrage Association.SEVERAL REASONS WHY WOMEN SHOULD HAVE AND EXERCISE THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE ON THE SAME CONDITIONS AS MEN.Samuel J. MayTHE first reason is based upon that, which the Fathers of our Republic declared to be one of the self-evident truth, namely, that "Human governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed" not from any one class or order of persons in the State or, nation; not from those of any particular size, height or weight; nor from those of any particular complexion--florid or brunette, black or white--but from those who are to be governed. Certainly, then, a government cannot derive just powers from one half, nay less than one half of the whole people, and that not the better portion, though they are of the male sex. We submit, that, unless brute force be the basis of civil government, the males of our State and nation had no more right, than the females had, to assume the powers of electors, legislators and executive officers; and they cannot retain and exercise those powers exclusively, without continued usurpation. It would have been as just, and as safe, for the women only of our State and Republic to have organized and officered our governments at first and to have kept the exclusive control of them until now, as it was and is for the men so to do. Probably the women would not have made more, they could not have made worse mistakes, than the men have made in the management of our public affairs. If the whole of human nature is better than

the poorer half of it, never will bodies politic or bodies ecclesiastic be properly cared for, disciplined and thoroughly well educated and governed, until the feminine powers of mankind are put in requisition for these purposes, equally with the masculine. Mothers of the State are as necessary as mothers of the family.The second reason is the one, that, probably more than any other, drove our ancestors into the Revolutionary War. If "taxation without representation" was tyranny in their day, can it be anything less than tyranny now? And is not tyranny as oppressive, as cruel, as exasperating in its operation upon women as upon men? If submitted to, is it not as demoralizing, dehumanizing in the one case as in the other? There are thousands of women in the State of New York, whose properties are taxed and appropriated to public uses by a legislature, or by a municipal government, in which they have no voice, no representation. Can any one convince himself that this is right? If not right, may it safely be persisted in?The third reason we urge, for placing women upon the same civil and political platform as men, is the sacredness of the right of Trial by Jury. Hitherto, never has a woman, accused of crime, had a trial by her peers, her equals. Let not this sacred right be denied to woman any longer. There have been, there are, there ever must be cases involving the guilt or innocence of women, in which a Jury of men alone would not, could not give a righteous verdict.The fourth reason, why women should be enfranchised, we would press more particularly, more emphatically than either of the foregoing, for practically, it includes them all. It is this. In our country, under our State and national governments, the elective franchise--the ballot--is the chief protector of the civil and social rights of all classes. With this weapon in their hands, certainly no class of the people, scarcely any individuals, would be wholly without redress, if injured in their persons, their property, their means of living by their labor, or in their opportunities for education. See what the bestowment of the elective franchise has already done, and, is obviously doing, for the colored population of our Southern States! See how the freedmen--those who three or four years ago were held as property--chattels personal--domesticated brutes--see how they are coming to be regarded, instructed, courted by

the politicians, the statesmen, the aspirants to office of both parties. The cause of the change is this; a person without the ballot in our country is politically insignificant; but when enfranchised he becomes a power. However lowly, his vote may effect the result of an election as much as that of the most exalted one in the community.The rights and interests of no class are so safe in any other hands, as in their own. All men and women therefore, should be enabled, as far as possible, to protect themselves. So far as it can be done by governments, an equal ability should be conferred on all--the lowliest not less than the loftiest ones.Give to all women, of adult age and sane mind, the elective franchise, on the same terms that it is given to men, and the axe will be laid at the root of some of the most terrible evils that afflict society, and threaten the ruin of our body politic. Admit women to the ballot-box--give them the same political significance that men have, and they will, in due time, redress their peculiar wrongs, and secure to themselves equal rights. You will not much longer see women doing the same kinds and amounts of labor that men do--doing them equally well, but receiving only half the compensation that men receive. You will not much longer see them denied equally easy access to all the opportunities and helps to education of the highest grades, that are provided for men. You will not much longer see women excluded from any of the employments, professions, honorable pursuits of wealth, or of social or political position, to which they may aspire, and for which they may have duly qualified themselves. Enfranchise women, and you will, in due time, see them using and succeeding in the use of the same means of self-support that men use, and becoming equally independent.Then, marriage will no longer be a necessity with them; and will be much more likely to be contracted only between those, who are drawn. to each other by a kindred spirit--by pure love--and by a sacred, intelligent regard for the momentous purposes, for which the Creator instituted the conjugal relation. Enfranchise women, and in due time, you shall no more see, nor hear of, the awfully degraded conditions to which so many females have sunk, and to which they have reduced the males, who have been their partners in the utter desecration of the most sacred functions of their bodies. Give to women political significance--

equal social and civil rights with men, and in a few years it will not be, as it is now, the appalling fact that, in the great metropolis of our State there are thousands of women who have access to so few employments, and are so poorly paid for the work they do, that it is impossible for them to live, without submitting to prostitution.The men, who take advantage of their necessities, are greater sinners and therefore become meaner, baser, more demoralized than the prostitutes, though they may not be so cruelly abandoned by the respectable and virtuous of their own sex. Thus the ruined females are, unintentionally perhaps, but not less surely, visiting upon us the horrible consequences of the degradation to which our partial legislation, our unjust laws and customs have consigned them.The fifth and last reason that we will now urge for the admission of women to all the rights, opportunities and privileges or men, is, that it will improve the character of domestic and social life. Thenceforward women, being the equals of men, will be admitted, invited to participate in their councils upon all subjects of State and national interest; to consider and discuss the morality of every political principle upon which our rulers have acted or may propose to act, and the expediency of every important measure they may be about to adopt. These high themes of thought and conversation will take the place of the trivial topics, that are usually introduced in the company of "the ladies." Their attention will be consequently turned to things vastly more worthy and improving than the amusements of the season, and the fashions, the light literature of the day. And the men, if they would then be agreeable companions, must cease to be frivolous, and must come into the company of females, as they would into that of their own sex, prepared to contribute somewhat worth knowing on every subject of pressing importance, or especial interest, at the time. Need we offer any argument to prove, that this change would lead to the continual and increasing improvement and elevation of both women and men?Let no one turn away from us with the light remark, that most women do not desire this change--do not wish to be enfranchised. Women, not less than men, are subject to the government of our country. Therefore is it their duty to understand the laws and executive

powers, to which they are amenable. They ought to know, and make known to others, whether they approve or disapprove--whether they consent to or dissent from the government. And if women are the "better-half of mankind" it surely will be for our interest, as well as theirs, to insist that they shall bear the responsibilities that properly belong to them, not less than to us. Their quicker sensibility, their nicer moral intuitions might admonish us of political dangers in time to avert them; guard us against injustice and immorality, before they shall have become tolerable by custom, or established by law.What great evil, what dire calamity, what awful punishment may come upon our State and Republic, if we persist in the tremendous unrighteousness of disfranchising more than half of the people, God only can foresee. We have been solemnly admonished by the dreadful sufferings, the immeasurable losses caused by our late civil war. If injustice to four millions of the inhabitants of the land brought upon us such a visitation as we have experienced, what may we not incur, if we dare to go on doing signal injustice to more than fifteen millions?SAMUEL J. MAY.A REPORT OF A MEN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION AND INDIGNATION MEETING.S. S. Henry[From the Setting Sun].This important Convention met in the city of Rip Van Winkle on the 22d ult., for the purpose of considering how Men's Rights may best be protected. It assembled in Mummy Hall, which is situated on Conservative avenue, corner of Anti-Progress street, opposite the church of The Seven Sleepers, and was kindly offered, free of charge, for the use of the Convention, by Messrs. Dust, Cobweb & Co., who have exclusive proprietorship. "The Hall was beautifully and appropriately decorated," says our correspondent, "with festoons of Beard-grass, Bachelor's Button and Wild Oats. On the table were two bouquets, composed of King-cups, Prince's Feather, Cardinal flowers, Dandelions and Sweet Williams, very tastefully arranged.A banner, bearing the device of a falling flag, the flag white, with a background of dark thunder-clouds; and underneath the motto, 'Rally
Round the Flag, Boys!" stood in a conspicuous place on the platform. The opening exercise was by the band, who played "Hail to the Chief," with much feeling and expression; the piece had evidently been well studied and faithfully practiced. After this the principal speaker was introduced as the Right Honorable Solomon Wiseman, a direct descendant of the Three Wise Men of Gotham, who went to sea in a bowl. He was greeted with a burst of applause. We wish we had space to print his entire speech, which is worthy of the highest praise, but can only quote the conclusion of his eloquent address:"What is to be done, what can be done to stay this tide so swiftly advancing? Oh my countrymen, behold what the future has in store for us if a determined resistance is not made! Slowly, but surely, we have been obliged to give up one vantage-ground after another and the last relic of our superiority seems about to be wrested from our grasp."I repeat it, gentlemen, the last relic! and our only hope is in maintaining the stand so bravely taken by this Convention, and resisting this final encroachment upon our rights, with voice and pen, in city and country, in private and public, in season and out of season! (Some person in the Hall remarked, audibly, "and particularly out of season," which occasioned much confusion, but the offender could not be found. He was thought, however, to be one of the society of Wide-awakes from the neighboring city, who had stolen in unobserved. Order being restored, the speaker continued), "Already women are coming to be regarded as our equals--in many places they even supercede us. Lucrative offices we once held are now in their possession. We find women teaching in our Common Schools, High Schools, Academies, and even Colleges. Our young men are driven from behind the counter and from the book-keeper's desk, and their sisters take their places. They are in the Post Office and Treasury Departments. Our works are crowded from the shelves of the bookseller to make room for feminine effusions. Lady doctors with a large practice may be met in almost any city. This city, however, I am proud to say is a noble exception to this general rule. Her physicians are confined entirely to the sterner sex. Women have, in certain instances, ventured into the pulpit itself, and received the large salaries rightfully belonging to deserving ones of our own number. But while such cases are rare, in many, very many churches, her sacreligioussacrilegious fingers sweep the keys of the organ, and man, outraged, unhappy man, is only permitted the small privilege of blowing it. (Groans and hisses). They edit successful papers--they paint great pictures. Ristori is queen of the stage, as Jenny Lind of the concert hall. But, my friends, while we deplore these evils, let us rejoice that, as yet, our town-meetings are -unprofaned by the presence of women, and the ballot-box, so dear to every white male American citizen over twenty-one years of age, is ours. It belongs exclusively to

us, and may it always remain in our possession, and ours alone! (Cheers.) Picture to yourselves, gentlemen, the consequences of admitting women to an equality here. The meerschaum and cigar would be banished from the spot. The juice of the Indian weed could no longer lie unmolested in pools upon the floor. Spittoons would be prescribed. The pleasant whiskey-bottle would no longer circulate freely among us"--Here the speaker was much affected, and sank into a chair, unable to proceed on account of his emotion, while many of the audience were dissolved in tears. The band, being in the gallery in the remote part of the house, misunderstood the cause of the silence and most unfortunately commenced playing "The Rogue's March" which had been previously agreed upon as the signal for closing, and the meeting broke up in the utmost confusion. We understand that a similar Convention will be held on the first of May in the same place, in order to organize a Men's Rights Protective League, and appoint a Vigilance Committee. Persons interested are invited to attend. Special trains will be run, and return tickets provided for those coming from abroad.S. S. HENRY.THE QUESTION ANSWERED.**Suggested by an incident in the life of Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown, while fellow students at Oberlin, Ohio.THE evening hour with soothing quiet came,The silver moon rose slowly up the sky;Crowned with young womanhood, two friends walked forth,Communing gladly of Life's purpose high,The queenly step of one--the taller--ceased,She turned and looked full in her friend's clear eye,"Can woman reach the pulpit?" then she asked,And waited, with a full heart the reply.The answer came--but not a hope was born,As fell those words upon the querist's heart,Woman may labor in full many a field,But may not hope to act the preacher's part."She asked of God--that woman brave and pure--God gave the answer in the wish inspired,The seed contained the germ, and in God's time,There came the fruitage which the words desired.Years passed and she who answered stood full oftBeneath the shelter of our State House domes,And legislators heard her soulful tones,Pleading for equal rights in States and Homes.The querist stood in many a pulpit, too,Proclaiming Christ with hope to bless and save,Her young heart glad with more than human joy,As there she told of bliss beyond the grave.Both have wrought nobly where few women toil,Been pioneers in that cause pure and high,Which gives her place to woman by man's sideWith him to lead immortals to the sky.Their lives have shown that naught can stay the tideOf God's great purpose in its onward flow;That where man nobly labors for the raceThere, too, may woman, at God's summons, go.A quarter century now hath passed away,And many a woman in the pulpit stands,Ordained to do the pastor's noble workBy more than laying on of human hands.Oh, God, we'll trust thee for the days to come,Thou who hast guided woman in the Past,And with a grateful heart thine handmaids sing;"The day of righteous freedom dawns at last."PHEBE A. HANAFORD.The "Victoria Lyceum for Women" was opened on the 14th of January in Berlin, in the presence of the Crown Princess. One hundred and eighty women have already entered their names as students. The instruction consists of lectures on classics and modern literature, history and the natural sciences. Some of the most eminent professors of the Berlin University are announced among the lecturers.THE POLITICAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN.Aaron M. PowellTHE question of Woman's political rights has been promptly and favorably introduced in the Forty-First Congress. It is safe to affirm that, from this date, the subject will not be withdrawn, or lost sight of for any considerable period, until its demands are complied with; until woman is recognized as an equal citizen, and her right to vote and to be voted for is fully guaranteed.The Hon. George W. Julian, of Indiana, has introduced in the House of Representatives, bills for the enfranchisement of the women of the District of Columbia, and of all the Territories; with a special bill for the territory of Utah.  He has also introduced a resolution proposing an additional Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, to be known as Article XVI., as follows:The right of suffrage in the United States shall be based upon citizenship, and shall be regulated by Congress; and all citizens of the United States, whether native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally, without any distinction or discrimination whatever founded on sex.We congratulate the friends of woman suffrage that the question, as presented by Mr. Julian's Amendment, is made a distinct, national issue; and that one, who, by his long and honorable service as an advocate of equal freedom for the colored race, has won our confidence and esteem, becomes, very opportunely, also the champion in the House of Representatives, of woman's enfranchisement.Mr. Julian's joint resolution was read twice and referred to the Judiciary Committee. We hope that Committee will bring it before the House at an early day, and that, with the bills for the immediate enfranchisement of the women of the District of Columbia and of the Territories, it may be speedily brought to a vote. The friends of woman's enfranchisement should everywhere, by petition and otherwise, call upon Congress for prompt action. We have no doubt that when the question can once command serious consideration and an honest vote upon its own merits, the opposition to it will be found to be compara-

tively feeble, and unavailing. How promptly Congress will act will depend largely upon the attitude women themselves assume in relation to their political rights. If a large majority of women continue, in effect if not in words, to say "We have all the rights we want," Senators and Representatives will doubtless feel justified in postponing indefinitely a serious consideration of, and favorable action upon the question.There is nothing in the Amendment above quoted to prevent, or to render less desirable, the presentation of the question of suffrage for women in the State Legislatures. It is a proper subject for State action, and its consideration in the Legislatures is very useful as a means of public discussion and education. But it is most auspicious that the issue, as fairly and distinctly embodied in the Amendment offered by Mr. Julian, becomes thus early a national one. It is quite probable that before a third of the States shall have been induced to adopt woman suffrage as States separately, the required three-fourths can be brought to ratify by concert of action an amendment of the National Constitution, making suffrage uniform and impartial, as it should be, throughout the Union, irrespective of sex. We may hail with great satisfaction the action of any advance State, whether it be Kansas or Massachusetts, which shall lead the way, and give the nation, and the world, a needed precedent of a truly Republican government, knowing no distinction among its citizens on account of sex. But national duty requires, as "manifest destiny" points to, uniformity of suffrage in all parts of the Union, its free exercise to be guaranteed alike to women as to men, by Federal authority.The action of President Grant and Postmaster General Cresswell in appointing Miss Van Lew of Richmond, Va., and other competent women as official representatives in charge of post-offices, is highly commendable and a very encouraging indication of progress. If women are deemed competent to hold office, the question will naturally follow whether they are not also quite as competent to vote?Since the Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing suffrage to colored men, upon equal terms with whites, has passed beyond the jurisdiction of Congress, and can no longer be hindered and embarrassed in that body by the negro-hating, insincere triflers with woman suffrage, we hear little about the political wrongs of women from copperhead Sena-

tors and Representatives or from the negro-hating copperhead journals, such as The New York World and The Boston Post. But having, though for an ulterior purpose, assumed a championship of the cause of woman suffrage, they cannot now very well at once turn "right about face" and offer violent opposition. With a powerful and controlling influence in behalf of woman's speedy enfranchisement on the part of the political allies of Temperance, with a friendly bias among Republicans, and with their party opponents unwittingly committed at least not to oppose the movement, the present is an auspicious, encouraging period in which to urge the claims of women to the ballot. Let it be improved to the uttermost.AARON M. POWELL.Editorial Department.THE NEXT STEP.Now that the Constitutional Amendment, guaranteeing the ballot to colored men upon equal terms with the whites, has passed Congress, the next step for the friends of woman suffrage is to press the passage of an Amendment abolishing all political distinctions on account of sex. Hitherto, Senators and Representatives, friendly on principle to the measure, have resisted its introduction in Congress, desiring first a final disposition of Manhood Suffrage, and the chief attention it has received, in times past, has been bestowed by the enemies of freedom, who sought thereby to embarrass or defeat, if possible, any measure looking to Negro Suffrage.But now all this is altered. With the question of Negro Suffrage transferred from the National Capital to the State Legislatures, there is a clear field in the Forty-first Congress for this now leading question of the age, which should be at once occupied by the friends of Woman Suffrage, and an urgent demand be made for the prompt passage of an Amendment, such as covered by the admirable bill recently introduced by the Hon. G. W. Julian, and ably commented on elsewhere, admitting women also to the body politic. For such a beneficent measure, recent legislation has paved the way. For our Nation, there is no abiding place short of Universal Suffrage. Every important achievement in behalf of human rights renders easier the next step to be taken. There can be no halt until woman also is enfranchised.We look now with confidence to Congress to heed the petitions that have been rolling upon it for the last six months; and while we anticipate, hereafter, less of officiousness from certain Copperhead Senators and Representatives, who by pretentious championship of the political rights of women can no longer embarrass the cause of equal suffrage

for colored men, we have added confidence that every friend of humanity, in both branches of our National Legislature, will be found aiding by voice and vote this loudly demanded act of Justice.THE Publisher of THE ADVOCATE hereby offers a prize Of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS for the best Story bearing upon any of the phases of the "Woman Question;" FIFTY DOLLARS for the second best, and TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS for the third best; the MSS. (not to exceed 100 pp., nor to be less than 50 pp., of THE ADVOCATE) to be submitted in season for award and use by June, 1869. All writers entering into competition for the prizes must direct to the Publisher of THE ADVOCATE, who will retain the names, handing the inclosed articles to a Committee, (to be later announced) who will decide upon the different MSS., purely upon their merits. While each article will be regarded as the property of the author and strict confidence be preserved respecting them, it is hoped that many will be induced to donate their MSS. to THE ADVOCATE after the awards are made public. The Publisher trusts that these liberal offers will stimulate our writers to a spirited competition for the prizes, and thus enable him to present some of the best serials ever offered to the public.WITH the next number we design commencing a story by Miss Nora Perry of Providence, R. I., entitled "Anne's Vocation," written expressly for THE ADVOCATE. Miss Perry has long been known as a favorite contributor to the pages of Harper and other of our leading magazines, and we congratulate our readers that her graceful pen is thus employed for their benefit.THE Publisher of THE ADVOCATE makes the gratifying announcement that hereafter N. B. Spooner, of Plymouth,, Mass., will act as General Agent for New England, and all subscriptions or advertisements designed for THE ADVOCATE may be entrusted to his care. Mr. Spooner is well known to many of our readers, not only as possessing fine business capacities, but as an active reformer, identified with all liberal movements, and we bespeak for him everywhere the co-operation of all friends of progress.NOTES.Woman's rights so far prevail in Greece that Queen Olga accompanies her husband to all Cabinet meetings.A Woman's National Dress-Reform and Equal Rights Convention will be held in Washington, D. C., the last Wednesday and Thursday in April.A Miss Van Lew, who rendered important services to the Union cause during the war, has recently been appointed by President Grant Postmistress at Richmond, Va.Several of the academies and learned societies in Italy have at last decided to admit women as members, and a beginning has been made with the well-known authoress, the Countess Dora d'Istria.A new periodical is to be established in Paris entitled the Journal des Femmes. It will be devoted to the instruction of women in science, politics and arts, with particular attention to the social aspects of the question.In the session of the Newark M. E. Conference a communication from Lucy Stone, in reference to female suffrage, created considerable merriment, and it was moved to refer it to a committee of bachelors. The motion was rejected, and the subject was referred to a committee to be appointed by Bishop Scott.We observe with pleasure that The Woman's Advocate (Dayton, Ohio) is to be enlarged to twice its present size with the next number. This indicates not only a commendable enterprise on the part of the publisher of this well conducted journal, but a growing interest in the subject thoughoutthroughout the State, which renders such enlargement necessary.The second number of The (Ohio) Westerville Banner, a new and exceedingly neat appearing journal devoted to Woman Suffrage, has been received. There are now five journals in the United States specially advocating suffrage for women, with more in prospect, while the press generally gives the question a large measure of good will.Senator Sprague of Rhode Island on the 23d ult. presented a petition for Woman Suffrage, with the rather ungracious endorsement "that as

in his deliberate judgment the voters of the country have less to do with the management of their Government affairs than other people, there could not be much harm in granting the prayer of the petitioners."The New York Tribune speaking of the sobriety and good order which reigned at the recent press dinner at Delmonico's, in this city, says that the secret of success, is "that women were there--and there, not by sufferance, but on absolute equality, having--we had almost said right manfully--paid their way"--all of which, good common sense as it is, is somewhat novel testimony borne by the Tribune.Miss Maria L. Sanford, a young lady who has been teaching a public school in Chester County, Pa., is strongly urged for County Superintendent of Common Schools. Miss Sanford is spoken of as possessing all the requisite attainments for the office, education and rare executive ability, and, as there is nothing in the laws to prevent a woman from holding office, we trust she will be elected.We are in receipt of the first number of The Agitator, a handsome, eight page weekly, recently established at Chicago by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, with Mary L. Walker as associate editor. The initial number contains articles by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anna  E. Dickinson, Mary A. Livermore and others. The name of Mrs. Livermore itself is a guarantee of excellence, and we predict for The Agitator a full measure of success and a wide field of usefulness.At the sixth annual Commencement of the New York Medical College for Women, the valedictory address, which was warmly received, was made by Miss Mary J. Safford, of Cairo, Ill. Miss Safford, whose name is familiar to the readers of THE ADVOCATE, is a young lady of superior attainments, possessing a mind enriched by travel and varied home experience, who, carrying a rare enthusiasm into her profession, cannot but succeed.In the Rhode Island House of Representatives recently the Woman Suffrage proposition was rejected by a vote of 16 to 38. This is certainly a gallant fight for little "Rhody," and one that must encourage its earnest sons and daughters to renewed efforts for success. While the measure was pending in the House, it was earnestly and ably advocated, by the Hon. James W. Stillman, a young man of great promise, who stood firmly by his convictions amid all the jeers and ridicule of some of those opposed to the proposition.A Convention of the friends of Equal Rights was held at Syracuse on the 19th ult., at which an organization was formed entitled "The

Onondaga County Equal Rights Association," with the Rev. Samuel J. May for President, and Mrs. Charles D. B. Mills, Mrs. M. E. J. Gage, Mrs. Strowbridge and other of the best men and women. of Onondag County as assistant officers. The Convention was numerously attended, and the proceedings throughout were of a highly interesting character. We are glad to learn that Onondaga is thus pioneering the way for Northern and Central New York, and with such noble spirits enlisted in the work it can not but go forward.At the late town election in Vineland, the ladies printed a ticket of their own, using the names of those whom they regarded as the right men for the right place. They headed the ticket with a dove bearing an olive branch. Seven of their candidates were elected by the legal voters. One year ago, only one woman in that town voted. Last November, at the Presidential election, 172 voted. And now on the 1st of March, 182 voted. There the number of women voting has rapidly increased, while the men of that town only polled about half as many as they did last fall. Does not this prove that men do not want to vote, and should not be allowed to?At the recent very large and enthusiastic Woman Suffrage Convention held at Chicago, Anna E. Dickinson gave most efficient help. It was her first appearance at a Woman's Rights Convention, and in the discussion into which she was drawn with the Rev. Mr. Collyer, she displayed not only an intimate knowledge of her subject, but a quickness of repartee acknowledged by the frequent bursts of applause of the audience. Rev. Edward Beecher, Rev. Robert Collyer (our Robert Collyer, not the other) and several other clergymen spoke earnestly for the cause. Mrs. Livermore and other Chicago ladies added greatly to the interest of the occasion.The great increase in the number of illustrated books and papers, at the present time, is opening a new field for the skill and industry of women, which, we rejoice to see, is being filled, both in this country and in Europe, in a highly creditable manner. Many of the finest illustrations in the Galaxy, Riverside and other of our illustrated magazines, are from the pencils of young women, among whom may be mentioned Miss Lucy Gibbons, Miss Mary L. Stone, Miss Mary Hallock, Miss C. W. Conant, Miss S. E. Fuller, all of whom draw with daring and freedom. A number of the pupils of the Cooper Art School have been very successful, both artistically a pecuniarily, in this speciality. Abroad, such English magazines as the London Society and Belgravia have long been supplied with designs by women, while some of the most amusing sketches in Punch are likewise of their production.At the recent Woman's Suffrage Convention at Springfield, Mass., Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford being unable to attend sent a letter of hearty sympathy closing with these stanzas:It is the hour of triumph! too long the chainsHad been on millions in this favored land,Now strikes the hour which tells fair Freedom reigns,Now sounds the note of joy on every hand.The hour for those who bowed beneath the rod,Who felt oppression's sad and cruel powerWhen color barred them from their human rights--Oh, God, we thank thee for the Negro's hour!But hear us, still, O mighty One and Good,Not yet the bonds are sundered far and wide;Thy daughters feel the burdens which thy sonsLost, in the onward flow of war's red tide.We ask for victory in our bloodless strife,We ask for suffrage as our human dower,Give us, O God, this dear and sacred right,And bid thy chimes sound forth the WOMAN'S HOUR!A pouring rain greeted the Woman Suffrage Convention in Springfield, Mass., on the 9th and 10th ult.; notwithstanding which there was a fair attendance, a large part of whom were women, who literally waded to the Hall. Lieut. Gov. Trask presided. Among the principal speakers were Lucy Stone, Stephen Foster, Charles C. Burleigh, and Henry B. Blackwell. Several clergymen from the vicinity, and ladies of Springfield, participated in the proceedings. A large number of woman's rights tracts were disposed of, especially the excellent speech of George Wm. Curtis, and the Hon. Samuel E. Sewell's "Legal Condition of Women in Massachusetts." At the close, a meeting was appointed of all those who desired to form a Society for the promotion of Woman Suffrage. Petitions to the State Legislature, and to Congress, headed by the President, were circulated through the audience and numerously signed. It was voted to send a special protest to the State Legislature against granting the petition of Amherst College for an appropriation of $100,000, inasmuch as the property of women who are excluded from the College would be taxed to raise the amount. The Springfield Republican, one of the editors of which lent valuable aid to the Convention, gave full reports of the proceedings and very favorable editorial comments on the results accomplished.Very pleasant in its way, was the union press dinner at Delmonico's, in this city, on the 20th ult. Among the guests, some one hundred and

fifty in number, who are more or less identified with reform and who by their presence could not but have assisted in the elevation of tone, may be mentioned Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Johnson, the Sisters Cary, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Jackson Davis, Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Burleigh, Eleanor Kirk, Mr. and Mrs. James Parton, Miss Mary Kyle Dallas, Mrs. Dr. Lozier and others. The entertainment consisted of addresses, sentiments and responses, letters, etc. We subjoin the gems of the evening--two happy effusions by the Sisters Cary:GREETING.You know, my friends, through whose good graces,We meet around this board to-day;It has been said that man embracesWoman; but, with your leave, I say,This rather holds in special casesThan in a general way.We women have been coaxed and vaunted,Fawned on and flattered every way;But the high honored place we wantedIs ours in sober truth to-day;For with the equal seat is grantedThe equal right to pay!Pardon the mention of the shilling(You see 'twas thrown so in my way),And think not that I speak as chillingYour courtesies, or courtship, pray;For each of us, our Barkis willing,Would name the happy day!We mean to prove your praise no fable,And while for that good end we pray,Let lightning, harnessed to the Cable,Trample old ocean into sprayWith news that women sit at tableAbove the salt to-day!ALICE CARY.APOLOGY.How can you ask of us a speech,When all creation teachesThat Woman's chiefest end is justTo listen to Man's speeches.True, there was a Priscilla, once,Who spoke her mind--Oh, horror--But 'twas because the bashful JohnWas slow in speaking for her.Why, asking for a Woman's handHas so confused her senses,She's answered Yes instead of No,And took the consequences!But Woman--and I love my sex--Says many a word that reachesFarther than all the sparkling witOf after-dinner speeches.Where'er man's words of eloquenceInspire and rouse a Nation,There breathes through them the undertoneOf Woman's inspiration.And whether hers are lofty wordsThat nerve to fiery trial,Or only meek and lowly deeds,Of love and self-denial,In tones so clear and true and sweet,They ring the wide world over,She speaks from out her heart to ours,And men and Angels love her. PHEBE CARY.CorrespondenceFROM the numerous expressions of good will that continue to reach us (for all of which our thanks are due) we select the following, as showing the sympathies of a noble class with our efforts:REV. SAMUEL J. MAY writes:SYRACUSE, N. Y., March 6th, 1869.To the Editor of The Advocate:Enclosed I send you two dollars to pay for THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE, the first number of which I have read and like very much.The right of woman to all the rights of man--political as well as natural--I have advocated, as I have been ab1e, since November, 1845. At that time I preached and published my first Sermon on the subject.We have lately had in this city and neighborhood, a great revival of interest in this cause, owing in a great measure to an admirable lecture by Mrs. Lucy Stone, delivered here last January.We have had four large meeting's since then in our City Hall, for the discussion of this--the great question of the age. Last evening the hall was crowded. We adjourned to meet again a week from this evening. We also made arrangements for a County Convention on the 19th, at which time we expect to form a County Equal Suffrage Society.Respectfully yours,SAMUEL J. MAY.REV. WILLIAM T. SAVAGE writes:FRANKLIN, N. H., . March 9th, 1869.To the Editor of The Advocate:The numbers of THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE for which I wrote last week and also the March number, have arrived. Please accept my thanks. From the slight perusal of them I have had opportunity as yet to make, I am much gratified. There are several paths of approach to your ground, each and all of which I think it important to keep open. This can be done, of course, with wideness of view and tolerance, looking simply at the one great object in view. I approach this Cause from the stand-point of the Divine Revelation: and Christianity, and believe it based on truth and that it will prevail. I wish you good success in your advocacy of it. Very respectfully yours,WILLIAM T. SAVAGE.REV. J. W. SIMMONTON Writes:SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., March 1st, 1869.To the Editor of The Advocate:A stray copy of the initial number of THE ADVOCATE, which some chance has borne to this far Pacific coast, acquaints me with the existence of your journal. I am so pleased with it I at once enclose my subscription. A high-toned woman's rights (I shrink not from the phrase) magazine, specially devoted to the question, is sadly needed in our country, and if THE ADVOCATE bears out the promise of its earliest youth, it will perform a work urgently required. Wishing you all success in your noble enterprise,Yours Respectfully,J.W.SIMMONTON.CANVASSERS for THE ADVOCATE are desired in all parts of the country. Those thoroughly responsible can make very desirable arrangements by addressing the Publisher.THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE.SISTER ANNE'S VOCATION.
IN FOUR PARTS-PART FIRST.Nora PerryIN the first place I wish to state that my heroine insisted and insists to this day, that her name shall be pronounced in one syllable."I am Ann in pronunciation and Anne, in spelling,", she would say. "My old English grand-aunt, Anne Hastings, named me for herself, and Anne, with the final e is the ancient Saxon method of spelling it. I find scores of people who exclaim when they see my name written, 'oh, your name is Annie, why are you always called Ann?'"Then I elaborate myself in explanation, and they listen blandly and go away and glibly call me Annie from henceforth: and I will never come at that calling. To think of my having to bear the burden of one of those ies which are so obnoxious to me. To think of my being forced into the ranks of the Minnies, and Nellies, and Hatties, and Matties, which have inundated the world for the last few years. My little sensible name to be masqueraded like this!"This was the way my heroine talked at eighteen, and this is the way she talks at this day. But I desire to present her now in the first blush of her youth--in this eighteenth year when her character was giving that bright promise of what it was to become in the future. This eighteenth year when she was so full of life, and health, and opinions. Opinions which she vehemently expressed upon all ocasionsoccasions, with the same earnest yet insouciant manner which characterized her protestations in connection with the obnoxious ies. And she had opinions upon

every imaginable subject, all of course, at this age more or less crude and presumptuous--or what Thackeray would call--bumptuousbumptious. But if they had the unripeness and rashness of youth they had too that "light which is never on sea or land"--that halo of generous enthusiasm, and bright belief, and ready courage which accompanies all fine natures in the early morning of life.She was the youngest of the family, and her two brothers and one sister were as unlike her in character as it is possible to conceive. Society people every one of them execept Anne--gay, and good-natured, and well-bred and well educated, but with no higher aspirations than society's successes and its well-bred comforts and pleasures. Amiable and gracious people who believed without question, because without thought, in the settled institutions of the day; always disposed to think the old ways must be ways of respectability, and the new, of anarchy and ruin. It is such people of whom Theodore Winthrop spoke, when he said with that sad satire, "It is shabby that mankind will not keep the peace and be decent."And amongst such people it was certainly curious to find a character like Anne's. Their friends would often laughingly declare that she was in the wrong place. But nature is wiser than we, she makes no mistakes, and probably she had her own deep designs when she let this alien young sapling spring up in this trim-bordered garden. I think, though her family loved her tenderly, that she was a source of no little dismay to them, for she was perpetually getting into scrapes, as she herself would tell you by these extraordinary opinions of hers. For instance, when the war was yet in its early days, and the "sacred institution" of the South was very timidly if not tenderly treated, and abolition sentiments were less freely expressed in "society" than at present, and when expressed, by no means received in the same manner;--in these early days, Anne one night electrified and horrified a certain portion of avenue-dom, by one of her "speeches," as her sister called her outbursts. It was at a party--a party just large enough to make everybody else the audience of one speaker occasionally; and Anne had been listening very attentively to the conversation of two or three gentlemen near her, when one of them in reply to the other, said suddenly, with that splenetic emphasis which was then very common:"I don't believe in slavery, but I believe in its biding its time. I don't believe in sudden and violent measures to abolish it. It will die out naturally if let alone."Then quick as a flash this girl who had a moment before been talking gay little girl nonsense with the youth beside her--this young girl with roses in her hair, and on her cheeks, turned, and cried out in a ringing voice:"Ah, that's what Jeff Davis wants, you know; just that, to be let alone! Mr. Vance, do you think he'd die out with no further trouble if you let him alone?"And Mr. Vance, a courteous, middle-aged gentleman, without slightest suspicion that this girl was in earnest, was uttering anything more than one of those bright audacious nothings, which a pretty girl is privileged to utter, made some jesting reply wherein he dropped a compliment as one drops a sugarplum into a child's hand. But the next moment this pretty girl, with roses on her cheeks, was astonishing him by the most vehement outburst of abolitionism. And the best of it was, or the worst of it, she was just inexperienced enough to be perfectly at her ease, and quite regardless for the time that everybody had paused to listen to her, that everybody was petrified at her audacity, and nobody sympathetic.I cannot tell yon what she said in detail, but it was what any enthusiastic radical would have desired to say in reply to such sentiments as Mr. Vance had expressed. There was a little pause of utter silence as she concluded; but I think the pause was significant, not only of. surprise, but of a momentary emotion, at least, of admiration, for the audacious charge. I think too, that the truth made itself felt for that moment, the truth that was beyond them and which this gallant young herald riding into their ranks, had proclaimed as one sent from Heaven. But I can tell you one thing--she "caught it," as the urchins say--afterwards."I can't understand how a young girl like you can bear to make herself so conspicuous, to say nothing of the arrogance of the thing," reproved Mr. Hastings as they talked the matter over at home.Mortified at this accusation of forwardness and arrogance, Anne quite humbly replied, that she had had no idea of being arrogant or conspicuous; that she forgot herself in fact in her amazement and indignation."But young girls shouldn't forget themselves in such ways; and besides what do you know of laws and governments, that you should presume to oppose youyour elders?" papa Hastings returned severely.Anne was silent and submissive under this reproof, until Frank, who was only two years her senior, said patronizingly:"Yes, you'd better not meddle with the darkies if you don't want your fingers smutted, Miss Anne; for young ladies with smutty fingers, don't succeed in society very well, you'd much better attend to your fineries, and exert your superfluous reformatory energies upon one of those marvellous structures which you call a bonnet, and I call a coal-scuttle." (Reader, it was the era of high pokes with a flower garden enshrined above the forehead).Well, at this Annie flew up again, not angrily--the occasion wasn't worth that--but as sharp as a rose-briar: like Tennyson's little Lillian--
"A rose-bud set with little wilful thorns.""Success!" she cried out briskly. That means in your dandy-dictionary, a husband to buy me diamonds and point lace, and to take me to Newport and Saratoga. That. is as high an ideal as you can conceive for a woman. I like diamonds and point lace, and I like Newport and Saratoga but I'd rather smut my fingers, as you call it, with all the isms in the world than to have such success for the end and aim of my life!" "Oh, you're a regular strong-minded one!" laughed dandy Frank at this breezy burst. "And they're always leaders of a forlorn hope. You'll be the Sister Anne to look out of the tower and foretell what is coming to the rest of your sex.""You'd prefer me to be Blue Beard's victim, instead, I suppose sir.""In that case I should come and deliver you. That is the end of the story, you know. It is the sister who idly talks in the tower, and the brother who protects and delivers. There's a pretty allegory all ready made for men and women.""Pretty fiddlesticks! your protection would turn out as poor little Clara Wing's did. They married her off--that family of hers--to Mr. Blue Beard Oglesby, and when he behaved so badly to her that all the neighbors talked of it, those nice brothers of hers, tried to hush matters up and make Clara live with him, because they considered a family fuss discreditable! They'd have seen her popped off into the fatal closet with the rest of the victims for the sake of an external secresysecrecy and silence, which stands with them for respectability, you know. Thank you sir, I'd rather be the sister Anne who foretells than Blue Beard's victim, to depend upon Mrs. Grundy's slave to deliver me!" and Anne dropped a saucy, smiling courtesy upon dandy Frank, whom she had defeated by her sharpness, and went off to bed, with flying colors.This was the way she got her name of Sister Anne; a name which given in jest clung to her ever afterwards. And this was the way in which the family reprovings ended for her; in a laugh at last, and a puzzled feeling of admiration for this strange duckling who made such a commotion in their quiet waters. Anne was "odd" they concluded--that vague term that covers so much misinterpretation and ignorance of another. Anne was odd, but she'd come out all right by and by. By and by they thought, when the world's smoothing-irons had pressed down her rough edges. In the meantime Anne went on her way, winning friends and good wishes, spite of her opinions, wherever she went, by the force of her

great healthy, sunny nature, which magnetized even these obnoxious opinions. Of course with her tendencies, all the interests and incidents of the war, were of vital importance to her. The fact of her eldest and favorite brother, that handsome Tom Hastings, being a lieutenant in the army, specialized her feeling into a more vivid personality than it would otherwise have been. And this very fact too became at last the lifting lever which carried her forward to achieve her destiny. But in the meantime she was the busiest of the busy in the work at her hands. Nothing came amiss to her. She was the prime mover of Sanitary Fairs, and unwearied in her labors in all those many ways wherein the loyal women of the North proved themselves such a power in the land."How Anne does go it," Frank said laughingly. Her sister Julia, pretty and petite, shrugged her shoulders and declared that Anne must be made of iron.But papa and mamma Hastings were sincerely glad that Anne had found such a safe and legitimate field for her superfluous energies and sympathies. It was "the thing" to attend the Sanitary rooms, to scrape lint and get up Fairs--proper feminine employment; and though Anne did "go it;" to quote master Frank, it was a safe field and could lead to nothing undesirable. Oh, ye deluded people! While Anne was so busy; while she was "going" at this swift pace, yes, even while she was gaily chatting and chaffering behind those Fair-tables, rosy, and smiling, and attractive over her various wares, a sober plan and purpose was forming in her mind. A plan and purpose growing out of this very Sanitary work, springing up from all the constantly stimulated sympathies of the time and place. That it was something she knew would not meet with the approval or consent of her parents is self-evident from the fact that she held it closely locked in her own breast."The time will come for me to suggest it, I am certain," she said to herself half audibly one night as she stood brushing out her long hair after a fatiguing evening at a Fancy-stall."What is that you are saying ?" asked Julia looking over her crimping-pins in curiosity."Oh, did I say anything ? I was only thinking," and Anne blushed guiltily under her half-uttered secret."Yes, of course you said something, you said something about a time coming for you; and you'd better go on and say the rest, you know I'll never tell, Anne, and perhaps I can help you or advise you."But Anne was not to be moved by this insinuating offer."Catch me telling her!" she thought, and this time she didn't think aloud, but she laughed gleefully as she parried Julia's curiosity and considered what

Julia's help and advice would be. And Julia, pondering upon what she had heard, and observant of Anne's blushes, came to only one conclusion, that Anne was in love. "And it's that, horrid Grainger, the man with the long hair and dreadful coat and radical notions!" Julia's ideas you see were confused on the subject of radicals. Of necessity, in her mind, they were horrid men with "long hair and dreadful coats," and other external oddities. Anne would have laughed still more gleefully if she had guessed this conclusion of Julia's, for "that horrid Grainger" certainly had nothing to do with her secret."Let him laugh who wins," saith the proverb, and Anne won; but she found the winning no laughing matter, as it happened.PART SECOND.It happened in this way: Mr. Hastings came in one day with a telegram in his hand. Tom had been dangerously wounded and was then lying in one of the Washington hospitals. I am going on at once, and I think Anne had better go with me, she is so strong and helpful in emergencies," was Mr. Hastings' first remark after the communication of his sad news. And poor delicate Mrs. Hastings, and the hardly less delicate Julia, entirely acquiesced in this arrangement. Anne always stood in the gap in all domestic emergencies, and it was quite natural that they should turn to her in this graver emergency.And Anne, who received this summons while she stood the centre of a gay group of girls at the Sanitary rooms, herself as gay as any, felt, as the saying is, as if a judgment had come upon her, for a moment. To go out to the hospitals! This was what she had longed to do; this was her plan and purpose--her secret. But to be called to the work through Tom. To go out to nurse Tom--perhaps to see him die--oh, she had never thought of this! But the thought had now to be faced as calmly as possible, for every member of the family seemed to depend upon her and look up to her, as it were, for strength and courage at this crisis. And she proved herself equal to all their demands. She had a cheerful word for her mother and sister, and a hopeful smile for her father even while her own hopes were at the lowest ebb, and her anxious fears kept whispering, "Oh, if Tom should die." But Tom did not die."Thanks to your nursing he'll live to be shot at again," said the old surgeon to her one morning; weeks after she had first taken her post by that hospital cot. For a time Anne had no thought beyond the happiness which this recovery gave her. But after the gay Thanksgivings which ran into endless merry-makings and feastings at home, and the hero of them all had gone back "to get

another shot," as he merrily quoted, Anne began to consider the feasibility of returning to the work she felt was hers more than any other just now; a work, too, that should be her thank-offering for the life that had been spared to them. As might have been expected, she did not meet with any encouragement to carry out this plan."What, go back again voluntarily into the hospitals? She must be crazy!" was the general home-verdict."Why do you want to go, Anne?" her father asked her at length, when she had shown by her persistence that it was a serious matter with her."Why? Oh, because I know I can be of so much service there. I'm a famous nurse, as you are well aware, sir," laughing up in her father's grave, perplexed face. "And Doctor Dick declares I'm equal to a sister of charity," she concluded gaily, but with a depth of earnestness no gaiety could quite conceal."I don't think it is proper for a young girl like you, Anne," her mother remarked rather severely.Oh, but mother, I don't look so very young., You know Julia is often taken for the younger. And then, as far as propriety goes, old Doctor Dick would let me board in his family and would look out for me in every way. Besides, there's sister Frances, who would be my friend always.""Oh, dear!" sighed poor Mrs. Hastings, "I do wish that Anne would fall in love with some good man and get married!"This was the only way Mrs. Hastings could see out of the perplexities that beset her. The only way to cure Anne of her "notions" But Anne had one friend "at court." Tom, who was the hero of the family now, wrote home in answer to the letters asking his opinion--"Let her go. Anne can't be out of place anywhere, because I verily believe she always knows her place. And then she is such a blessed nurse she ought to serve if she wants to; and I want her there when I'm sent in again with my next shot," the heedless fellow wound up. Tom's letter, perhaps the final reckless suggestion, which was a probability no one could gainsay, helped Anne to accomplish her desires; and it was not long after this that she was back again at her post--a sister of charity in good earnest--though wearing no bonds but those of her own brave and generous spirit. All the family now, following Frank's jesting lead, addressed her occasionally as "Sister Anne," until it grew to be almost a habit without the jest. The poor fellows lying maimed and helpless to whom she would now and then relate anything amusing that came to her, received this jest, that she read out of her letters one day, as if it had been an inspiration; and from thenceforth one and another took it up, and many a stranger

visiting the wards and noticing the slender girl darkly and plainly clad, who answered to the name of Sister Ann, would associate her unquestioningly with the sisterhood of the Roman Church. But this same stranger meeting her at another hour in Doctor Dick's drawing-room--brilliant in her flowing robes and her vivid animation-would never have dreamed that the nun-like, flitting figure of Sister Anne and Miss Hastings were one and the same. Yet into those hospital wards she carried all that sunny cheerfulness, that gracious vivacity which made her so brilliant in society. Into those wards she took all the gifts of her nature, tempered to suit the needs of the sufferers there, and shone upon them as the sun shines in dark places."I can understand now how the fellows in the Crimea used to kiss Miss Nightingale's shadow," said one poor boy, speaking of Anne at this time. "Only," he would finish with quaint and unconscious poetry, "Miss Hastings doesn't cast a shadow--it's only sunshine."Ah, who that saw her here could doubt that Anne knew her place--that she was doing the work that was fitting for her? Once that year she wrote home to her sister, words that were full of a certain sweet though unthinking pathos:"Don't be anxious about me," she wrote, I never felt so much in the right place before, for here I seem to know just what to do, and to say: and you remember at home and in society there, I was always doing and saying the wrong thing, or the thing out of place that fretted you all so."Yet at home and in society there, how they missed this bright creature, who while she startled with her heterodox opinions, still carried a sort of enchantment with her which--
"faster than her tongue did give offence,"
did heal and smooth for her all her offences and wrong-doings.To Julia Hastings this life that Anne lived in the hospital seemed a treadmill existence."So strange that any girl should choose to be there!" and Julia, poor, dear little girl, thought of what Anne missed in New York. All the gay merry-makings--the balls, the parties, and the Fairs: in short--Society, which was Julia's sole idea and ideal of human contentment; and--this was a veiled consciousness, not even put into thought--words--the principal ingredient, or what society signified in truth; the admirers, possible adorers, and still further, the ultimatum--possible husbands! And these brilliant possibilities Anne was losing, in the May-time of her youth and good looks. But while Julia pondered this momentous and nteresting question, and congratulated herself on her superior opportunities, what do you think happened, not to her, but to Anne?It was the old story of the Lark and the Butterfly. "Why do you leave these delightful fields, where there is such pleasant company, to soar away by yourself in loneliness and solitude?" asked the Butterfly of the Lark."I am in the service of the gods," answered the Lark, "and carry the aspirations and prayers of the children of earth up to the gates of Paradise.""But it must be so dull," returned the Butterfly, "to go off on such a tiresome journey, and leave such pleasant companions.""Dull, oh, I never think of that, for I sing on my way the songs the Gods have taught me, to cheer and gladden these sorrowful children of earth," returned the Lark soaring away even then, and beginning her song as she soared.But the Butterfly ruffled her beautiful wings as she rocked, to and fro on the bosom of the rose, and murmured over and over, pityingly,"Dull, dull, dull!"and then as a brilliant Dragonfly came whirling up to her, she murmured still more pityingly: "And such chances as she misses! The Lark, poor thing, will never find a mate."But even while she made this reflection, the Dragonfly went whirling off to where another Butterfly smiled and fluttered. They were so much alike, these Butterflies. And just then high up in the blue ether another Lark bound on the errand of the gods joined the heavenward flight of the first, and with his stronger wing bore her on and mingled his song with hers in such a strain of melody that the Butterfly folded her wings and drooped her head in mortification and despair.And this was something the way it happened with my human Lark and Butterfly. While Julia fluttered her gay wings at the splendid Dragonflies who went whirling through "society," and while she pitied her sister's lonely lot, there came along one day a fine fellow who straightway attached himself to the little brown nun as none of Julia's brilliant admirers seemed inclined to attach themselves to her. It came about very simply as such things often do. Going in to her ward one morning she found a stranger sitting beside one of the cots in earnest conversation with the occupant; and the occupant was no other than her pet patient, the boy who had made the pretty speech about the sunshine of her shadow. "Oh, sister Anne, sister Anne," he called out to her. And Anne went at the call and was presented to "my friend, Mr. Gainsboro." She looked up at this "friend," and saw a tall, dark faced gentleman, and felt at once that he was what his name suggested, of Southern lineage. Her boy Johnny as she called her patient, divined the question in her eyes and answered it with boyish hilarity and unreserve."Oh he's loyal, Sister Anne. He's true-blue, though he does hail from the Carolina swamps. But he isn't blue-black, you know, as we are! Sister Anne is an awful Radical, Mr. Gainsboro!"There was a hearty laugh at this; and at the end of it, and of the few minutes conversation that followed, Gainsboro and Anne seemed to know all about each other. An awful Radical, and John Gainsboro though truly loyal, was of Southern blood and breeding! But there is a difference which is of nature, and a difference which is of training and association. The former is vital and antagonistic, the latter external and stimulating. Thus with Anne and Gainsboro--they were of sympathetic natures but of different training and associations. They evinced their likeness in unlikeness, by the fact that both of them exceeded the limits of the social order in which they were born, on the side of breadth and liberty of thought. Amidst the life-long associations of a Southern aristocracy John Gainsboro was always loyal to larger issues than were accepted by his class, and Anne we have already seen went as much beyond the principles of her class in breaking over the borders of popular republicanism, into the turbulent sea of Radicalism. With only a knowledge of the externals, however, the news of the engagement, which speedily followed the acquaintance of these two, was received with amazement and incredulity. The Hastings family, father, mother, brothers and sister, were delighted. They had always entertained a secret fear that Anne would introduce an alien element into the family in the form of a "horrid Grainger with a dreadful coat, and Radical notions." And here she was, securely engaged to a man who, whatever his range of thought would never be likely to break out into "dreadful coats," or very "Radical notions." The two being concomitant upon each other in the rather limited range of their judgments upon this matter."Gainsboro is a gentleman and a man of the world," pronounced Mr. Hastings. This was the key-note of the family. A gentleman and a man of the world. Everything now was going to run smoothly and respectably! There would be no more talk about vocations! As John Gainsboro's wife, Anne would find her vocation in his heart and home. Julia expressed the whole mental state when she remarked, one day, that it was lucky Mr. Gainsboro was of their own class--a gentleman like other people. Like other people! That was the idea. Uniformity, regularity; these meant respectability. They could reconcile themselves to lack of fortune for these safe qualities.The Gainsboro blood and breeding, as things stood, were of more importance than aught else. It was a great family, as we foolishly say here in Republican America, of long inheritance.  A great family, and John Gainsboro, the last of

the name though not of the race, found himself at the age of six-and-twenty with only a few hundreds in the place of thousands, and his profession of the law, which yielded little or nothing at that time. Previous to this he had lived upon a small patrimony, spending his days in travel and study, until the exigencies of the times, depriving him of State and estate, drove him to action."No, I couldn't enter your army and shoot at my South, though I think they are in error," he said resolutely. "I was born, and bred amongst them. They are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, for I am connected with almost every State by some tie of kinship."This was the quality of John Gainsboro's character. Whatever breadth his thought might take, he would never become an enthusiast or a zealot. He would sacrifice much for conscience' sake, but he would always stop short of extreme action, not from want of courage, but from temperament. Firm, calm and self-reliant, he was the opposite of the generally received idea of the Southern character. And this was the man with whom our fierce little Radical was to cast her lot.NORA PERRY.A NEW SONG TO AN OLD TUNE.Frances Dana GageThe poem entitled "A Hundred Years Hence," in the March number of THE ADVOCATE, which, under a misapprehension (and very much to our friend's surprise), was attributed to the sweet singer, Joshua Hutchinson, should have been credited to our valued contributor, Frances Dana Gage, author of so many familiar lyrics. Below we present a beautiful sequel, which love for THE ADVOCATE, in the great heart of dear "Aunt Fanny," has freshly won from her pen.-ED.]One hundred years hence what a change will be madeIn politics, morals, religion and trade,In statesmen who wrangle, or ride on the fence,These things will be altered, a hundred years hence."Old song. as sung by the Hutchinsons.WE must not wait a "hundred years" for changes to comeIn science, theology, commerce or home;The spirit of progress is moving along,And the good time is coming, as told in the song.Thrones already are shaking, and kings look askance,The Pope and the priests lead a comical dance;The courtiers are tremblingly perched on the fence;They'll stand by the people, Sir, twenty years hence.There'll be wars and war's rumors, north, south, east and west;The Army Of freedom will march on abreast;The soldiers of truth move triumphant along,Tow'rds the Good Time that's coming, as told in the song.The man that will jostle his neighbor for pelfBe he statesman, or merchant, must lay on the shelf;Our religion must teach us to spare no expenseTo uplift the worthy, friends, twenty years hence.The right must be duty; the duty be right,Though demagogues bluster and cavil for might;To make the world better, we'll strive right along,With God as our Captain, as sung in the song.Race, color, or sex be disfranchised no more;Every trade and profession throw open its door;And woman, no longer half paid, earn her penceEQUAL RIGHTS will be popular, twenty years hence.Talents "hid in the napkin" as talked of, of old,Because of "hard masters;" will now be unrolled,Grow to other ten talents, to help on the throngTow'rds the good time that's coming, as sung in the song.The love of the woman is nearer to God,Than the reason of man, which has long held the rod;But if both work together without a pretence,A good world they'll make of this, twenty years hence.Wrong can't be quite abolished, nor bigotry dead,Nor tyrants cease filling poor weak ones with dread;But law won't protect them, nor help them alongIn the good time that's coming, as sung in the song.From the robes of past evils 'twill take a long timeTo wash all the soils of oppression and crime;But if each does his best, without fear or offence,We may shout a millennium twenty years hence.FRANCES DANA GAGE.AN AMERICAN VULGARISM.Jane O. DeForestIN behalf of true delicacy and womanliness, we would make an earnest protest against that quiet essence of national vulgarisms, the almost universal use of the term female as applied to woman. One cannot take up a newspaper, not even The Independent, we are sorry to say, without reading about female colleges, female meetings, excellent females, and otherwise. When a child, it always gave us an undefinable disagreeable sensation, we scarcely knew why, when our good pastor read from his pulpit the weekly notice of the female prayer-meeting. Still our attention was never fully called to its inherent coarseness, until our French professor, who had but recently become a resident of our highly cultivated land, spoke to us of his surprise at the use of this word to designate woman. With as strong terms as his broken English would allow, he expressed his disgust at the practice and finished by saying, "In my country they do not so."Why, in the name of all true refinement, is this expression allowed to tarnish the literature of the day? Being a term equally applicable to one-half of the brute creation, it tends to lower the dignity of womanhood. If one should say "I saw a female in the street," were it not for universal usage, we should not know whether old brindle, a favorite pussy, or some motherly hen, was indulging in a stroll. "Do you know that a Female College is going to be established here," asked a friend one day?"No indeed," we replied, "for if so the good old cows and other animals, will be entitled to admission."Education we want, good friends, full, and complete, but we do decline to receive it in female colleges. Why not drop this at once, and say Ladies' College, like the sensible men and women we trust you are. This expression is not merely coarse; it is ungrammatical also, for it makes the college itself a female. Females' College would be correct but not refined. We hear nothing of male colleges or of meeting males in the street. This is as it should be; then why degrade woman by such expressions as we are considering.Now-a-days there is another noted female who claims our attention, namely, Female Suffrage. Kind reformers, we thank you for your untiring zeal and interest in this respect, but, why thus lower those whom you aim to elevate? Womanhood suffage, good people! yes we repeat, let womanhood suffrage speed joyfully and triumphantly on its way but do not, we, beg of you, learned divine, or popular editor, sully your "flights of imagination" by this uncivilized American vulgarism.JANE O. DEFOREST.TO A SCULPTOR.**Vinnie Ream, the sculptor commissioned by Congress to execute the statue of Abraham Lincoln. Miss Ream sails for Italy this month, to remain a year abroad.LADY! if at earthly shrineMortal e'er may bow,'Tis to treasured Art divineI would bare my brow.Bare the brow and bend the knee,While beyond controlRush the thoughts tumultuously,Flooding all the soul.Be it in whatever formGenius seeks escape;Glowing from the canvas warm,Or enshrin'd in marble shape--Still the impulse lofty, high,Glory sheds the same,And to ImmortalityLinks for aye the name.Lady, scarcely more than child,Told by. years, art thou,Yet has fortune strangely smiledOn thy laurel'd brow.More than Spartan dame of oldWho for meed hath strivenMore than pen hath even told,Trust to thee is given!'Neath Italia's sunny sky,Where yet lurks the old-time spellAnd her treasures round thee lie--Work thy mission well!Give the features loved by menAll the old heroic part,And the world will hail thee thenFav'rite child of Art. WM. P. TOMLINSON.THE CONSEQUENCE OF WOMAN'S LEARNING THE ALPHABET.Louisa J. G. Littlefield[SECOND PAPER].IF it is admitted that woman has a right to be interested in one object outside of home duties, then she has a right to be interested in others, and it is difficult to say where these objects end. Public opinion regulates them without much regard for justice. It does not allow a woman, at least not without a disapproving frown, to mingle with men in business, "to buy, sell and get gain;" but it will allow her if she is in want to crowd through our streets, picking up a chip here or a cinder there to keep her children from freezing, and that too without a scruple for the delicacy of her sex. It will allow a mother to leave her children for hours, days or even weeks, to visit watering places to attend parties, or religious meetings but it is very sensitive about her doing the same thing to prepare and deliver a lyceum lecture. It will allow her to sing in the presence of thousands, but it does not like to have her preach the doctrines of Christ even to hundreds. It will allow her to personate all kind of characters upon the stage, or dance in public halls, but its sensibilities are shocked at the thought of her going into our halls of legislation to help make laws. Public opinion is not a very consistent guide for woman when we come to examine it closely.If a woman who is interested in moral and spiritual truths feels an earnest desire to tell mankind of the truth as she sees it, has man a right to close the doors of his theological schools against her, and tell her woman's sphere is the kitchen or the nursery? If another sees corruption in political life, sapping as she fears the moral life of the nation, and feels it to be her duty to publicly protest against it, shall man tell her woman's sphere is the needle or the school-room? Man or woman's sphere is any position that either can take and successfully hold. Nature never makes mistakes. If giving more liberty to woman takes her out of the path that man has marked out for her, it is proof positive that man was wrong in limiting her. If she succeeds in any department of art,

literature or politics then nature intended that she should do the work in which she is successful.It is one of the chief arguments of our opponents that our mothers, wives and sisters do not want the ballot. Who, we ask, are the leaders in this reform? Man of them are faithful wives, and devoted mothers, who have thought upon the subject, and who candidly believe the voice of woman is needed to save our country from moral corruption. They also believe they should have a voice in making the laws under which they and their children are to live; that God created mind, which makes man and woman above the brutes, independent of sex; that woman has aspirations, desires and intellect in common with man; that the intellect of woman should be cultivated, and the circle of her influence widened, that she may become a wiser counsellor for her sons and daughters; that the present life of a great number of women which is devoted to fashion and ostentation, has a tendency to dissipate that which is great, noble and unselfish in woman; that widening the circle of woman's work will have a tendency to check the present ostentatious way of living, and to awaken in her improved thoughts and views of life. And shall we be told that woman does not want the ballot ? If the mass do not ask for it, it is no reason why the wants of these thinking women should be disregarded. They believe it is necessary for the good of woman, society and our country that she should have it, and man should prove that their belief is wrong before be refuses to grant it.We sometimes hear these women spoken of with derision as "strong-minded," but no man, however weak he may be himself, desires to live with a weak-minded woman, for weakness and selfishness are usually inseparable. Mental strength is as essential in woman as in man. They need to learn by observation, study and self-discipline how to control themselves and how to direct the minds of others. A boy who has a strong-minded, thinking mother, with a knowledge of the world, has generally a safe staff to lean upon.We have sometimes seen the sons of mothers, who were strong morally but not as strong intellectually, on the road to ruin; frequenting the gaming table, loving the wine cup, and seeking the company of the immoral and profane. A mother's prayers and a

mother's tears have no effect. Perhaps in after years, when that mother is on her death bed, or he finds himself within the walls of a prison, those prayers and tears will awaken within him remorse for the past, bitter enough to bring repentance in its train and the moral strength of his mother does its work. But had that mother comprehended the workings of the human mind; had she been versed in the philosophy of life, and understood the relation of cause and effect, she Might have saved her boy this bitter experience. Woman's strength does not lie in her weakness as it is often asserted. We need strong, thinking women to teach the, rising generation how to avoid the shoals and quicksands of selfishness, misery and vice. A weak-minded teacher of moral truth is better than no teacher, but the strong-minded is the only one upon which we can safely rely for success.The question is often asked, and asked as seriously as if it was an intricate problem in mathematics, if women vote and mingle in political life who is going to take care of the children? We ask, if men vote and mingle in political life, who is going to plant our corn and potatoes, or build our houses, rail-roads and steam engines? The same ones who do this work now. In the great majority of cases their mothers will take care of them; in other instances they will be left to the care of others, as they are now, that their mothers may provide for them the necessaries of life, or that they may spend a Winter in Paris, or a Summer in Newport, or possibly that they may attend a session of the legislature. If every politician in the country was a woman, we doubt if the children would be any more neglected than they are neglected to-day. Mothers find time to visit, dance, shop and embroider, and if in some cases political duties should take the place of these occupations, we see no need of alarm for the safety of the little ones. Victoria has brought up a large family of children and attended to political duties at the same time. Who ever heard of her children suffering from neglect? Her eldest daughter, we, are glad to be able to add, "is interested in the woman question, and entertains advanced ideas upon it, as well as on social, educational and theological subjects." If women of influence become interested in these subjects, opposition to the enlargement of woman's occupations will be as powerless, as opposition at the present day to any fashion that originates among the crowned heads of the Old World.The love of a mother for her child, is one of the strongest instincts God has implanted in our natures, and he who thinks a visit to town-house two or three times a year is going to destroy it can have but little faith in the laws of God.It is believed, or professed to believed by some, that the quiet and retirement of domestic life is conducive to virtue in woman, and that mingling with the world will have a tendency to mar the purity of her character. This idea originated as far back as the days of the Grecian philosophers. The wives and daughters of the philosophers, heroes, and legislators of Greece were kept at home with no companions but children, slaves and pet dogs. They were taught in the two branches of education believed to be necessary to woman, obedience and embroidery. But there was in Greece another class of women, who disregarding the laws which prohibited the education of virtuous women, were learned in science, arts and philosophy. Sages forsook their homes to spend their time with these gifted women, and advised with them in matters of law and science. But in the course of time, intellectual development, being confined almost wholly to this class of women, became a sign of moral degradation, and man hastily adopted the idea, that ignorance and seclusion were necessary to virtue in woman.If the mothers and wives of Greece had had the opportunities of these outcasts of society, they would have, been the companions of their sons and husbands, and kept them from the degradation into which they fell, and Greece would have presented to us a different history. Many of the present ideas regarding woman have descended as directly from pagans, as the custom of making holes in the flesh in which to attach ornaments, has descended from savages. Both are equally common and absurd.Men who would be shocked at the thought of woman's mingling with legislators to help make laws, have no uncomfortable feeling at seeing them whirl around the ball-room, encircled by the arms of these same legislators. If they have no fears in one case they certainly need have none in the other. Do we consider the wives and daughters of New England less virtuous than the wives and daughters of the Turks, who are kept at home or veiled from the gaze of men? There is no half way course. If retirement is conducive to woman's virtue, then the Turk is right and the New

Englander wrong; if, on the contrary, mingling with the world developes wisdom and strength in woman as well as man, then the New Englander is right and the Turk wrong. Man has no more right to limit woman in her intercourse with the world, than she has to limit man, and reasonable men will admit the truth of this.There is the question of labor and its remuneration in connection with woman. Labor does not degrade woman as we are sometimes told. It never degrades any human being if it is not carried to excess. It is idleness and half pay for labor that brings the degradation. When a woman leans on fashion and amusements to kill time, it is like a canker worm, destroying that which is just, true and generous in her nature. Idleness is a great destructive power to the nobiltynobility of womanhood. Girls as well as boys should be brought up to feel that they have something to do in the world, and should be educated with reference to their work. No girl should be taught, either by precept or example, to believe marriage to be the object of her existence. Too many, from this idea, form unions from mere mercenary motives, and never know the joys that flow from a union of heart and soul, but often the bitter cup of repentance stands before them filled to the brim, and neither honor, wealth or fame can keep it from their lips.To a true man or woman marriage is too sacred an institution to be trifled with. Some of the best women go through life alone; for except they meet one whose tastes, sympathies and affections are in harmony with their own, they will not venture within its sacred precincts; and as the circle of woman's influence enlarges this feeling will grow stronger. Man will not always be able to look about him and select a true and virtuous woman, without being true and virtuous himself. When woman has more extended views of life and character, she will doubtless be as exacting towards man as be is towards her, and he will then come up to her standard of manliness.Whenever woman does the same work as man she should have the same pay. A travellertravelerin Switzerland writes about the degradation that labor brings woman, stating that "no difference is made in general labor between man and woman, excepting that the men receive higher wages than the women." This tells the secret of the degradation. Whenever woman labors side by side with man and

receives the same compensation, she is his equal, as in literature or art. Our publishers and editors do not ask whether authors are men or women; they pay what the work is worth to them, and in these departments, woman stands an equal chance with man. In the ordinary occupations of life she has no such opportunities. A few years since, a report of a school committee in the vicinity of Boston, suggested that the town economize by employing female teachers, as the work would be done just as well and at much less expense to the town; thus trying to save taxation at the expense of woman's work and, strength because of her sex. Surely the suggester of this plan is worthy of a name among the pagan philosophers. Does not woman, we ask, need the ballot to protect herself from her male friends who now profess so faithfully to represent her at the polls?We are told again that Christian faith is all that woman needs to elevate her. If it is all that woman needs, it is also sufficient for man. The wants of the human soul are the same whether male or female. Faith is an important element in the character of every human being--a faith that lifts us above the cares troubles and trials of life--a faith that enables us to feel the hand of a kind and loving God in every event of life, however dark it may appear at the time. Man and woman alike need faith and trust in God.There has been too much sophistry about man's head and woman's heart. The man who cultivates his head alone, becomes cold, selfish and calculating, and looks upon the generous impulses that flow from the heart as unmanly. The woman who cultivates heart alone becomes weak, and is driven about by every living impulse without regard to reason. God intended that both man and woman should cultivate both head and heart and when these are in an active state of development, we find in both sexes the same loving, noble and generous impulses guided by justice and reason.Man can reach as much higher above woman, morally and intellectually, as his advantages are higher. Nature's laws are fixed. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, neither do weak-minded women bear strong-minded men. As Lycurgus looked after the health of the Spartan women that their sons might be strong physically, so the son's mental strength is alike dependent upon his mother.Men have instinctive admiration for women who show marks of intellectual strength and sound wisdom, notwithstanding their professions made to the contrary. When woman drops the toys of fashion and raises herself to a higher plane of thought and action, when she can minister to the intellectual as well as the physical wants of home life; when she is man's companion, in all the relations of life; when she can counsel and advise with him, as well as amuse him in his idle hours; when men and women can, mutually lean on each other in times of trial and affliction, and when by their united strength they can keep the tempter at bay; then the love and admiration which woman will awaken in the heart of man, will lift him with herself above the baubles of life, to higher, purer and nobler aims; and the race will progress in true and harmonious development, with a rapidity which can never be hoped for while the sexes are divided by petty jealousies and rival interests.LOUISA. J. G. LITTLEFIELD.OPPORTUNITY OF DEVELOPMENT.M. E. J. GageIN the March number of THE ADVOCATE is an article entitled "WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?"The author, W. J. Linton, says that Woman's only specific claim, among many generalities, is, "Suffrage;" and that "the main talk--almost the only talk--is of the ballot;" a cry which he deems unfortunate because he "believes the Woman Question means more than this."Thirty years ago the great Baron Von Humboldt said "Governments, religion, property, books, are nothing but the scaffolding to build up a man." This remark strikes at the root of all reform, and in a limited manner shows what is Woman's demand; i. e., opportunity for development. What woman demands, is not this, or that, or the other right, specifically and solely as a woman, in order that she as a woman alone, may there be recognized; (although that has a collateral bearing) but she demands that all distinctions shall be removed in order that she may find room for development.She claims for herself the widest opportunities in work, in education, in the family, in society in, government, in religion. The word "Woman's Rights," as applied to the demands of the women of the present age, was an unfortunate misnomer, tending, as it does, to mislead those among mankind who never see to the depths of a proposed change, and also to prejudice those other short-sighted individuals who do not see that widening the opportunities of one class, or of one individual, enlarges the capabilities of the race.Woman is an integral part of humanity. There are no man's rights; there are no woman's rights; all rights are human and belong to man and woman alike, by virtue of their existence as human beings. It has been well and thoroughly shown by the advocates of this reform, that rights are eternal; that they cannot be created by any individual, sect, party, or government, and that they do not cease to exist, when unused, let the reason of that unuse be force, inclination, or what it may.Woman needs opportunities no more than does man, no less than does man.It is but a short time since man as man, earnestly demanded opportunities for himself,  either social, political, or religious. The divine rights of kings occupied men's thoughts more than did their own. Now, in all civilized countries the struggle for human freedom goes on. Woman desires freedom in order to become what she has the innate power of becoming.She is a living, growing organism as much as is a tree, and like that tree, she needs room and freedom. A tree planted close beside a stone wall, cannot grow upon the side next to the wall. Sunshine and air may meet it upon the opposite side, its branches may put forth in one direction, but the stone wall prevents its becoming a tree of symmetrical proportions.'Tis the same of humanity; in whatever direction repressed, religious, governmental, social or family, in that direction the soul is dwarfed. People demand the overthrow of those restrictions which press the hardest upon them. Religious liberty was demanded by the Scotch. Political liberty was fought for by our revolutionary sires. Social equality is the need and the demand of the Turkish women of today.As each human being possesses a triplicate unity in himself, so does he possess a triplicate interest in those about him. First, comes the family into which every one enters the world as a member; second, is society of which he is also- perforce a member; and third, government, under which he also emphatically belongs.In each of these three institutions every human being has an interest, and a natural right to assist in framing.Those three institutions, family, society, and government are his only three sources of life, of happiness, and of liberty in this world.Whatever is of benefit or of injury to a person, that, a person has an interest in, and a right to concern himself about. The family interests me; I am an integral part of it, I have a right to share in its management, accordingly as it is well or ill managed I am happy or miserable. The family is responsible for my growth, as it concerns me, I have a right to a concern in it.So of society. The customs of society affect me, I am made happy or miserable by them. I am in fact, part of society, therefore I am concerned in society; I came into the world not only as part of a family, but as part of society, and therefore I have a natural right to a voice in society.I was born under a form of government and under it I live, therefore government interests me; government concerns me; for upon government, more than upon society or the family, depends the security of my life, the preservation of my liberty, and my chances of happiness.The government bases not itself on force, neither is it founded upon intellectual ability alone. The science of government is the science of morals, or rather the science of morals is the science of true government. Woman more than man belongs to the great moral era of the world, whose dawn we see rapidly breaking.The women of China are not members of the family, they are the slaves who wait upon their lords and eat after those lordly husbands, and their male children; yet even in China is woman demanding for herself recognition as a human being.To ask of a Turkish husband after the health of his wife, is an undying insult, yet the women of Turkey, with a party to back them up, are to-day demanding social recognition.The women of England and of America are members of the family, they are members of society, they help make the laws of society, they help make the laws of the family, they are integral portions of each; both the family and society influence their growth, but no more than does government, yet in government they have no power. The ballot is the stone wall upon one side which prevents their growth in that direction; it is the Alexander between them and the sun on that side, and like Diogenes, all that women ask of the world is to stand out of their light.The true end of all living is development; human beings are but a promise of what they may be, the family is the unit of society, the unit of government, but the individual is the unit of the family. Upon exact justice to the individual, rests the firm base of the family, society, government.The right government of the individual is to be found in no human ordinance, but in Divine law. Religion addresses itself to the individual; religion is a law of restraint--the rule of justice to the individual. All human governments base themselves more or less on individual restraint, and the nation or the person that governs the individual self most fully, is the nation and the person best fitted to rule, and that the least need governmental restraint.Woman more than man, is fitted to wield the helm of government, is fitted to make laws for the government of others, is fitted for the ballot, because she more than man has for ages past ruled herself by moral, i. e. religious law. Not only for her own growth, but for the growth of the world, it is necessary that she take part in the political organizations of the day.We may look forward with an eye of prescience and in the remote future see a time when human governments shall have come to an end, but our duty lies not in the contemplation of that happy period. We belong to a period of the world's struggle; our opportunities and our duties lie with the world as we find it, and women as human beings have inherent rights to share in all the duties of the world, in all methods of the world's progress, because in these duties, in these methods, lie developing powers.M. E. J. GAGE.HARRIET HOSMER.Phebe A. HanafordIN common with most of my countrywomen, who have cherished any love for the arts, or an appreciation for the struggles of genius, I had for years, regarded the name of Harriet Hosmer with profound veneration. She was a great soul emerging from the trammels of custom into the liberty of righteousness, and all that I had ever read of her genius and daring as a girl, or seen of her skill as a sculptor in after years conspired to make me admire and reverence her.One fair, bright August morning, in 1868, my wish was gratified, and I stood in the presence of Harriet Hosmer. But I was all unconscious of my privilege. It was the Sabbath day. In the confusion on board the little steamer, Rose Standish, which plies between Boston and Hingham, laden with passengers, who enjoy gliding amid the green islands of Boston harbor, my baggage had been deposited at Hull, some seven miles or more from my Sabbath home in the ancient town of Hingham. The express-man, failing to deliver it to me, rode first to Boston and then to Hull, and finally came back to Hingham with my bag, thus affording me the privilege of exchanging my gray traveling suit for a pulpit dress of black, and, what was of far more consequence, furnishing me also with the sermons over which I had spent some warm and weary hours, "burning the midnight oil" in the most improper season of the year, because of the pressure of editorial labors by daylight. With no little satisfaction did I prepare for church, and with a serene sense of duty well performed, did my parishioner, (who had travelledtraveled more than forty miles that morning, in behalf of his woman-pastor), sit, breakfastless, in his pew, and listen to my remarks upon the text, "I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness."When the service was over, a gentleman said to me, with an air which one might have in announcing the presence of a royal guest, "Miss Hosmer was here to-day.""What, Miss Hosmer?" I asked, for I had not dreamed she was this side of Rome, whose marbles--Beatrice and Zenobia--were a petrified inspiration. It needed but a second more to flash the fact, into my

mind that my little flock, in being not forgetful to entertain strangers, had entertained one of the angels of my young life unawares. She had come, and gone, and I had not even known her presence. Was there a providence in the fact that as I wove the warp and woof of my sermon, I illustrated the divine unrest which induces effort, by the labors of artists to attain their ideals? Not dreaming of her presence I had not been hampered in my remarks on that point, and the marvel is that I did not mention her name as a familiar example, of which, being one of my own sex, was especially proud.The Sabbath hours passed on. At last--
"It was the cooling hour, just when the rounded red sunSinks down behind the azure hill
and, with kind friends, I rode upon Nantucket beach and sought for the famous woman sculptor. She was domiciled at the Rockland House; had been rambling on the beach, enjoying--
"the deep twilight's purple charm,"
perhaps recalling--
"the sunny skies of Italy,"
and on her return greeted me with a friendly cordiality that won my heart at once, if indeed it needed to be won. She said she was about to write to me, for women who preached sermons, and women who sculptured marble ought to know each other. And then we had, in her far-aloft little room, such a chat as I had hardly dared desire, but which was delightful, and will live in my memory forever. Her strong, sweet spirit blessed me with its utterances, and the aroma of that hour, spent in communion with Harriet Hosmer, remains with me still as a benediction.A few days after I received from her a note in which she wrote words that other women ought to read, and I gladly give them here, trusting that I violate no confidence in doing. She says, referring to the ordination of Rev. Wm. Garrison Haskell at Marblehead Mass., in which Rev. Olympia Brown and myself were to take part:"On Monday I saw a notice of the ceremony which was to take place yesterday, and I only wished that circumstances had favored my being present, and while reading I could not but think, what a country mine is for women! Here, every woman has a chance, if she is bold enough to

avail herself of it, and I am proud of every woman who is bold enough. I honor every woman who has strength enough to step out of the beaten path when she feels her walk lies in another: strength enough to stand up to be laughed at if necessary. That is a bitter pill we must all swallow in the beginning, but I regard these pills as tonics quite essential to one's mental salvation. That invigorator was administered to me very plentifully by some of my brother artists on my arrival in Rome, but when the learned Doctors changed their treatment and declared that I did not do my own work, I felt that I must have made some progress in my art, otherwise they would not have been so ready to attribute that work to one of their own sex. You have the advantage there, for no one can say you do not preach your own sermons. But in a few more years it will not be thought strange that women should be preachers and sculptors, and every one who comes after us will have to bear fewer and fewer blows. Therefore I say I honor all those who step boldly forward, and, in spite of ridicule and criticism, pave a broader way for the women of the next generation."Such words as these were very encouraging to me, from one I so respected, and I doubt not they will encourage many women who may read them. At the close of her letter Miss Hosmer made a fitting reference to the efficient President of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association--the eloquent speaker and brilliant writer, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore of Chicago-which I cannot forbear quoting. Miss Hosmer was just then starting for the West, and so she said in closing:"I hope I shall see you again at no distant day; meantime, I hope to see Mrs. Livermore, who is a general in the field, or rather, field marshal."Both of these women have already done a great and good work for their sex, and have not yet paused in their enthusiasm or their efforts. Long may they both be spared to gladden the hearts of their friends on earth by their inspiring presence, and to bless the sex which has such reason to be proud of them! I regret to say they did not meet, after all, for Mrs. Livermore was visiting at the East, when Miss Hosmer reached Chicago, and--enjoying what she afterwards described as a crowning joy of her life a view on a clear day from Mt.. Washington--Mrs. Livermore wrote (but, let me mention this as a fitting tribute from

grand soul to another)--that she would willingly have relinquished the visit to the White Mountains for an interview with Harriet Hosmer.During the past winter another brave and cultured woman Lorenza Haynes, (a sister of Warden Haynes whose work on Prisons is attracting much attention) while lecturing in my pulpit upon the physical training of girls, referred to Miss Hosmer as an example of one who was properly trained. With my friend's , permission I quote her words, knowing they will be of interest to all who love and honor the woman artist of whom she speaks:--"You are all, I presume, proud of our celebrated young countrywoman, Harriet Hosmer. Who has not watched the developing of her genius with national pride? Indeed, she is a little American institution, that reflects honor upon us at home and abroad, not only as an artist but as a woman."You probably know that her mother and only sister died of consumption, and that Hattie was a puny child. Her father was a sensible man, as well as a learned and skillful physician. He knew his only chance to save her life was to allow her the freedom which the breezes, the brooks, the birds and the boys enjoy. As she grew strong by her open air sports, he gave her a horse with which she commenced those daring feats that to-day render her one of the best and most fearless riders across the Roman campagna."The beautiful Charles river, which laves the banks of my home, after coursing two miles, kisses the margin of her childhood's home. She swam in its waters, rowed her boat in them, and skated over their frozen surface. Then she had her workshop in which she made footstools and carved boxes. Her shop became a studio and, in it she modeled her first work of art. Thus was her life saved, and her health strengthened to put her thoughts in marble--thoughts as pure and beautiful as the spotless marble in which she embalms them."When she, went to Rome and entered the studio of the celebrated sculptor, Mr., Gibson, to become his pupil, he said, 'My dear little fellow' (his pet term
of addressing her) if you mean to apply yourself to art, I fear you will have to 
give up your riding or it will take too much of your time.'"After inquiring at what hour he would be at the studio, she told him she would rise at four o'clock and have a gallop for an hour or two over the campagna and be at the studio as soon as he. This practice she continued for years, and her teacher had never occasion to discourage or regret that health-giving exercise."Before leaving America she had received a diploma from a medical college

of St. Louis for her attainments in the study of anatomy, a knowledge of which is very important in modeling the human form. While she was Mr. Gibson's pupil he sometimes gave anatomical lectures to Art students. At the close of one, when Miss Hosmer was the only woman present, 'a sweet little man' stepped up to her and said, 'I could not help blushing at some parts of the lecture, but I noticed, Miss Hosmer, you did not blush.' Her only reply was to close her strong little hand and allow the blushing cheek of the modest youth to hit it, so effectively that he found himself lying at her feet. Then placing her little hand in the open palm of her dear old master she walked away, and left the blushing youth to pick himself up amid the laughter of his brother-students. Womanly words would have been wasted on such a person; she met him with a man's argument, and then gave him the floor."Although she can chastise one who insults her, she is not masculine in mien or manners; her heart is pure and womanly, just and generous. Having spoken of her physical ability, it is but just I should say something of her mental activity. A gentleman, who has known Miss Hosmer from her earliest years, told me that when passing a winter in Rome, an English gentleman whom he met there wished to be presented to her. Accordingly Mr. B---- invited the English gentleman to accompany him to one of her receptions. She appoints certain times when she receives visitors at her studio, to avoid the frequent interruptions to which she would otherwise be subject. I think it was one of her studio receptions which the gentleman attended. Twenty or more persons were present on the occasion referred to, and Miss Hosmer, by her wonderful conversational powers, her fund of anecdotes and ready wit, was charmingly entertaining. She kept her visitors pleased with themselves and delighted with her."'After we left,' said Mr. B----, 'my English friend said to me--"That young countrywoman of yours is a very remarkable person.""'Yes,' replied Mr. B----, 'she is a fine artist.'"'Oh, yes,' said the other, 'she is very very clever in her art, but I had reference more particularly to her conversational talents. I have seen most of the celebrated women of my time, but I have never before met a woman who could so agreeably entertain friends and strangers. Great as is her genius as a sculptor she is even greater as a cultivated woman.' That was the Englishman's opinion. It is a correct one, and with all this I believe her heart is the best part of her."Suppose Dr. Hosmer had tried to rear his bright little girl on the superfine proper principle, where now would be those exquisite productions of her genius which have excited the admiration of two hemispheres?"L. H.When the ballot is given to woman, and her place as a citizen fully acknowledged, there will be less sneering if she seeks faithfully to do that for which God has fitted her, whether usual for women or not. Meanwhile, and always, let every true woman acknowledge that the sex owes much to the pioneer footsteps, and successful industry of such noble souls as Harriet Hosmer.PHEBE A. HANAFORD.WHAT IS WOMAN?Content Whipple"WOMAN, is it? Well woman," the dandy replies,"Is a dear little creature, though not very wise,She was made just to look at to laugh at, to flirt with,To talk tender nonsense, be pleasant or curt with;Just a bird, or a butterfly, gay for a season,Then losing her beauty, growing old without reason.Of course we admire them, and possibly love them,But our sex, you know, is entirely above them.""Woman" we hear from the pulpit and press,"Is given to vanity, nonsense and dress,Of woman's sweet accents let young men beware,Her smiles and soft glances but proveth a snare.'Tis woman," they cry, who is leading astray,The hosts who are traveling along the broad way:Did not Eve tempt her husband to disobey GodAnd lose the bright Eden to wander abroad?Ah, yes, wicked woman, the curse of the world,On her head will vials of vengeance be hurled.""Not so," says the boaster, who, in his own mind,Is at once the most noble and great of mankind;That's too hard on the sex, although I agreeThat my wife is very inferior to me,Yet she has a work, and a place of her own,And I hardly should know how to get on alone.Now women are excellent in their right places,They should all meet their husbands with sweet smiling faces:No matter what he does or where he has been,She has no right at all to dictate to him.She must keep the house cheerful, the children all quiet,And with him must not differ and keep up a riot;To what the man says, must the woman agree,And that keeps peace in the family, you see;Her husband's clothes must be kept very neat,And he must be sure of good dinners to eat--This is woman's true sphere, and I'm sure that in this,She does very well, and her work we should miss.But in politics now she's attempting to mix,And that will bring us into a very bad fix;She must stay at home and take care of the babies,For the polls, you must see, is no place for the ladies."The working girl says, with a sigh and a tear,"Woman is naught but a slave it is clear,Working from dawn to the close of the day,And receiving the barest pittance for pay;Till life seems like naught but one long, dreary night,And toil, sorrow, weariness, all our hopes blight."The pale, careworn wife re-echoes the sigh,With a pain at her heart, and a tear in her eye,As she folds her sick babe to her bosom, and triesTo quiet its moans, and stifle its cries,Lest the husband, so quietly sleeping beside her,Should be roused from his slumbers and wantonly chide her,And she says, "What is woman but a menial and slave?She has no hope of happiness this side the grave."What is woman? The question remains to be solved;In its answer are principles closely involvedThat are destined to cause a great change in the nation,And for woman, are fast working out her salvation.Is woman a plaything, the toy of an hour?A butterfly fluttering about o'er a flower?A false, smiling siren to lead men astray,And fill with her victims the broad open way?Was she meant, by the power that her destiny gave,To be but a menial, a serf, or a slave?No, never! God gave her an immortal soul,A mind to improve, and its phases unroll:And to her care is given, as a mission of love,Human souls, to prepare for the kingdom above.What, the mothers, the sisters, the wives of our land,But menials, and slaves, to be slighted and banned?Avaunt ye stern sex; till inferior, ye prove them,Take heed that ye honor, and cherish and love them.Let them stand by your side, Where they rightly belong,Don't trample them down because ye are more strong;'Tis not physical strength that will triumph at last;Oppression's dark age is leaving as fast.Some day will the women, the sisters and mothers,Stand side by side with their sons and their brothers;Their ballot will send the foul fiend, alcohol, To oblivion's grave, beyond power of recall;The iniquitous doer they'll place under ban,And not shield the culprit because he's a man.O sisters, take courage, the time is at handWhen "freedom for woman," shall sound through the land;Rise and work, and throw off the conventional forms,That fetter your spirits and pinion your arms,And brighten the talents which to you have been givenTo prepare for this world and a mansion in heaven.CONTENT WHIPPLE.WOMAN.W. J. LintonTRUTH is of no sex. Republicanism embraces the whole of Humanity. Humanity is man and woman. We recognize differences between the sexes, but no inequality. All of humankind are equal before God.The rights, the means for duty, which we claim for men, we claim for women also: liberty and equality--that is to say--equal freedom, as the ground for the organization of society which we understand by that word Republicanism. How freedom shall be used by women is not a subject for man's dictation, any more than the use which men shall make of freedom is to be prescribed by woman. Many duties only weakly attempted by slavish men are well fulfilled by freemen. Doubtlessly when women are free they too will be found more capable of duty. it is too soon yet to fix the limits of human capability.We are still far from the knowledge which might enable us to draw up a table of human duties--classified as "man's" and "woman's." What part woman should take in legislation, how far she should be the educa-

tor, in what capacities an actor--of all this, we know little yet. For we have refused to learn. We have off-hand assumed the superiority of man, and built all our systems upon a partial theory. So the very foundation of society is at fault.Only when men and women, the component parts of society, shall conjointly rule the social order, when the equal enlightenment of both, and the conscientious accord of the intelligence of both, shall be brought to bear upon the great questions of social government,--only then may we hope for a state of society in harmony with nature and the beneficent destiny of earthly life.Woman's is the emotional, the poetic nature; man's is the logical and practical. What we endeavor to express by Celt and Saxon is precisely the womanly and the manly: the two halves of human nature. Humanity is not perfect till each half is perfected: in the same way as a human being is not perfect, unless, if a man, that being has also some admixture of womanly qualities; or if a woman some admixture of the manly. The grandest-natured man is the practical man fulfilled also with the poetic energy. He is not merely masculine. He is womanly too. He is a Milton, or a Mazzini. Humanity has there a perfect type: only the manly nature is predominant. The grandest woman, again, is not the most feminine, but she whose emotional poet nature can become also practical; one in whom the womanly soul is dominant, but who can also dare and do.During the rougher ages of the world the masculine has been supreme: not however without continual protest, not only on the part of women; but also on the part of men themselves. Women were the most sacred priests of Vesta even in manliest old Rome. And our rude masculine Saxon ancestors could find it in their hearts to, believe that the soul of woman was nearer than the soul of man to God. In the gentler future for which the sternest warriors pray, even with fiercest battle prayers, at the stake, at the gallows, or in exile,--in the gentler future of our republic, those protests of old time will bear their fruit; the vague ideas of younger days will become clearly practicable; woman will take her equal place as the free sister of free man, and the heaven on earth, like the heaven of the olden poets, have its goddesses as well as gods."These were the rough ways of the world till now.Henceforth ... strip off the parasitic forms That seem to keep her up, but drag her down; And leave her field to burgeon and to bloom From all within her; make herself her own, To give or keep, to live and learn and be All that not harms distinctive womanhood.For woman is not undeveloped man, But diverse . . . . . . . .Yet in the long years liker must they grow: The man be more of woman, she of man; He gain in sweetness and in moral height, Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the World; She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care: More as the double-natured Poet each: Till at the last she set herself to man, Like perfect music unto noble words;**Not set to words: but words and music springing from the same thought, each "full-summ'd."And so this twain, upon the skirts of Time, Sit side by side, full summ'd in all their powers,Dispensing harvest, sowing the to-be, Self-reverent each and reverencing each, Distinct in individualities, But like each other even as those who love Then comes the statelier Eden back to men: Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and calm;Then springs the crowning race of humankind."††Tennyson's Princess.It is indeed the vision of our Republic. For it is at no half-revolution that-we would stay our hopes. Henceforth, as political change must lead. to social so the social change must be as thorough as the political. No mere adjustment of the relative positions of rich and poor, master and servant, shall satisfy the reformer, but the readjustment of all the relations of life, not omitting the greatest of all. Our aim is the organization of society--the whole of society--, not only a half. Society has not yet been organized.It is idle to talk of the inferiority of woman. Of the inferiority of enslaved women to freed men there can be no doubt. No doubt also of the inferiority of enslaved men to freed women. The free, whether men or women, have hitherto been but few. Women fewest perhaps: but if so, the reason is obvious. The reign of Brute Force is yet not ended. But women enough have out-grown the shackles to convince who care to be convinced that we have not yet proved the limit of

                           
                           
woman's worth. Scarcely is there any capacity in which woman has not signalized herself. Fierce warfare and statesmanship and intellectual genius have found their exemplars in women. From Jael, who slew Sisera, to the heroines of 1848-9, from Zenobia to Elizabeth Tudor, from Aspatia to Madame Sand, women may stand forth and challenge the comparison.Are these exceptions to the law of womanly capacity? Give free room for even exceptions! "Strip off the parasitic forms, that seem to keep her up, but drag her down!" But they are more than exceptions; they are protests and indications. Appeals against your dictum of inferiority. "We will show you what we can do even in your own walks." Indications of power, which will be healthily applied (even if it be true that there is unhealthiness in the exceptional nature seeking an exceptional development) when your parasitic conventionalities and rules of inferiority permit the equal freedom which is the first necessity of health and growth.Leave native power free to grow in accordance with the great laws of being. Do not presume that you know all a woman can or ought to be. No! not even all a man can be. How many even of the noblest men, and so by their own nobleness enabled to judge of the nobility of others,--how many men have read in the beloved eyes of woman the whole secret of a perfect womanly nature? The few so favored by God will be the first to preach the gospel of woman's redemption. Symbolical of all life is that fine story of the brave true-soul'd mother of Raffaelle, who broke through the conventions of her time to suckle her angel-boy; and who so inspired the greatest of artists to show the world he Mother and the Child.Who among women asks to make women such as men? "We ask but room for our distinctive growth." But it remains to be shown that the many assumptions of manly proprieties are true to nature. Is religion a matter confined only to man? If it is to be believed by women shall it not be also preached? Nay, the priestess is no innovation. The prophetic is especially the womanly spirit. And if the education of the future men is to be entrusted to women during the most important years, is it so improper for women to understand, to help to make, and to carry out, the laws of education? Will you make laws of marriage and deny

the woman's right except to obey and suffer? Will you make laws of marriage, and ask no woman to teach you what is virginity, what chastity, what love? Nay, man can but see the half of the marriage question, when he knows all these; and our manly legislators--let them pass! true marriage will not be the rule of the world till woman too may speak, through our institutions, and in all her relations, by word and life, as Edmée spoke to Mauprat, teaching the savage the true reverence for woman and for himself.The equality of man and woman in society is but a logical deduction from our republican principles. Woe to that "Republic" which shall forget or neglect this! There will be no vitality in it: but a falsehood at its heart, gnawing it to death. Half-republics are as abortive as half-revolutions. It may seem very strange at first for women to care as much as men for the wholesome ordering and godly rule of that society in which they are only as much interested as men. It seemed as strange at first when poor men called themselves priests of God and so by divine right the equals of the kings of earth. Young Truth is indeed a stranger. Let her abide with us and be of our family.And again--this equality of woman is but the completion of the equality of Christianity, as yet not fully carried out as regards men. Not carried out, but acknowledged: it is only through some subterfuge that tyranny over man can find its justification now. The equality once proclaimed is certain to be at length realized. Proclaim the equality of woman also: the completion of Christianity, upon which as upon a sure foundation, the world shall build the republican temple of the Future. This is indeed the inner doctrine of Christianity. And for the sake of those who care for the mere Scriptures rather than for the religion itself, it is worth noting that, whatever nonsense may be talked by intolerant Paul in his Epistles, the Gospels admit no inference of the inferior nature of woman. Evidence of the inferior condition of women in those times; but no commendation of the division of human society into two classes, of superior-males and inferior-females. Human beings are God's equal children, their spirits equally divine, their duties equal, their right to the means of duty,--freedom, opportunity and growth,-- also equal, their origin one, their God-ward destiny the same. In the Gospel

myth the Holy Spirit descends first upon the woman, and by women the glorified Christ, the type of Redeemed Humanity, is first beheld and worshiped. Deep in the heart of the old Catholic superstition, stupid and corrupt as that old superstition has become, has lain through all ages the faith in the divinity of woman: the Woman, as the Mother of the Saviour, enthroned on high above Apostles and Martyrs and Priests and Princes and Principalities and Powers--the Woman, whom the painter has revealed to us--with the majesty of man bowed down before her, bearing in her arms the Divine Child, the angel of the regenerated earth.How have we miss'd the heart of that old myth,--Intent on its dry rind, of the richer pithRegardless until now. The man-god, Christ,The Word in Man--this men have learn'd, and know.Proclaim'd on high two thousand years ago,That Gospel becomes fact. But all have miss'd(Save archangelic Raffaelle, who had seenHeaven cradled in the arms of Heaven's Queen)The inner worship of the Beautiful,THE WOMAN AND THE CHILD: Humanity,Not merely Man,--and Life's Futurity,Not present Self:--to this we have been dull.Shall not we, having learn'd this, ere we dieTeach it our children's children, Thou and I?W. J. LINTON.LIFE'S CONTRASTS.M. W. Campbell"A DOLL is not a woman; a toy is not a woman; a poor drudge, with all thought driven out of her, is not a woman." The words of Mrs. Howe in her address before the New England Convention have been practically illustrated to my mind during the past week. A number of the friends of the "cause" have been circulating petitions for Woman Suffrage, in this city (Springfield, Mass.) and also soliciting subscriptions for THE ADVOCATE. The writer chanced to call at a few residences in a locality claiming to be aristocratic.Some were too much engaged to see me; others could not imagine why any woman should wish to vote. It was in vain that I offered Beecher, Curtis, or John Stuart Mill. They had no time to read such things, I was informed, and the embroidery needle was applied with redoubled exertion to make up the time already lost in listening to a subject so unimportant.When I turned away from those doors I said, Surely these are the "dolls" and "toys" of which Mrs. Howe speaks--not women--and therefore utterly unworthy to take any part in this great Cause. An hour afterwards, a woman came to my room with my week's washing. It occurred to me that, as I had already seen two of the class who "are not women," here an opportunity was afforded me of testing whether a third should be included in the same category. (She was an American woman, and one who had had many sad experiences. Accordingly I asked her to sit down and rest a moment. I then told her something about the effort we were making to secure suffrage for women. At first she shook her head and said women were not good enoughh to vote, but when I took THE ADVOCATE and read "Looking Back" by Frances D. Gage, the sympathetic tears stood in her eyes, and she said she should try to save money enough to take the book, she would love to read it.Need I tell you which had the better claim, those children of wealth, or the worn toiler, to the title of woman ? Readers of THE ADVOCATE, we have commenced this work in earnest and mean to leave no stone unturned, but by our continual asking to weary the unjust judges until they shall grant our petition. Sisters, we may not sit idle longer, while inward fires consume us. Those who have climbed the steep and thorny ascent before us, making sure paths for our feet, will soon be worn out in the service and ready to exchange this life for the higher, deeper broader one in the presence of God, where there is neither male nor female.Then let us gird on the armor, and take the field in defence of the principles of truth and justice, which they have so nobly proclaimed amid the difficulties which have surrounded them. Already their children have risen up to call them blessed.M. W. CAMPBELL.A FOURTH peculiarity of Christianity is its estimate of woman. This is the measure and the test of every religion; its idea of woman, and its treatment of her. The level of spiritual life in a man, or in an age, is to be measured by its ideal of woman. The spiritual and moral possibilities of the future lay in the relative placee which shall be accorded to woman in the coming time. Christianity is the only religion which has ever conceded to Woman the place that God ordained for her; and Jesus was the great teacher of Christianity.--Extract from Report of Horticultural Hall Lecture.-WENDELL PHILLIPS.MARRIED WOMEN IN MASSACHUSETTS.Lucy StoneTHE editor of the Boston Commonwealth, who never loses an opportunity to say a friendly word for woman, has, besides a good editorial on Woman Suffrage, the following item in his paper of April 10th:Many married women in this State are now doing business on their own separate account, and have employed in their business a large amount of property, which may be attached, or taken upon execution, by creditors of their husbands, unless a certificate has been filed in form and manner specified in the following section of chapter 198 of the acts of 1862:Section 1.--Any married woman now doing or hereafter proposing to do business on her separate account, shall file a certificate in the Clerk's office of the city or town where she does or proposes to do said business, setting forth the name of her husband, the nature of the business proposed to be done, and the place where it is to be done, giving the street and number of the place of business, if practicable; and whenever the place of business or the nature of the business is changed, a new certificate shall be filed -accordingly. In case no such certificate shall be filed, such married woman shall not be allowed to claim any property employed in said business as against any creditors of her husband, but the same may be attached on mesne (mean) process by any such creditor, or taken upon execution against the husband of said woman.This is a provision to enable a married woman to do business in her own name, and a positive gain upon the old status when a husband was entitled to all his wife's personal property, to the life-use of her real estate, and to her daily service to the end of her life.The unspeakable humiliation of her present position will be apparent if we insert the words "married man" in the above statute, as follows: Any married man now doing, or hereafter proposing to do, business on his separate account, shall file a certificate in the clerk's office of the city, or town, where he does, or proposes to do, business, setting forth the name of his wife, the nature of the business proposed to be done, and the place where it is to be done, giving the street and number of the place of business, if practicable; and whenever the place of business; or the nature of the business, is changed, a new certificate shall be filed accordingly. In case no such certificate shall be filed, such married man

shall not be allowed to claim any property employed in said business, as against any creditors of his wife, but the same may be attached on mesne process by any such creditor, or taken upon execution against the wife of said man. The civilized world would justly despise men who would quietly consent to such degradation:--but from a "lower deep" are married, women brought up, that upon such terms, they may be legally entitled to the product of their own brain and bands. Do women have all the rights they need?This is not all. A married woman in Massachusetts may own property of any kind, but she can make no conveyance of any stocks, or dispose of any real estate, (except to rent a house for a year) without the written consent of her husband. If the husband have deserted the State, or is in the State prison, during such imprisonment or desertion, the wife can sell and convey her property as though she were sole. When the deserter returns, or the prison gives up its tenant, her right to convey or dispose of her property vests again even in such a husband. Th slave needed the written consent of his master to enable him to go anywhere. The wife in Massachusetts must have the written consent of her owner, to enable her to make a legal disposition of what is her own. Do women have all the rights they need? But the laws of Massachusetts as regards the property of married women, are much better than in many other States. In the District of Columbia, a wife can hold property only through trustees, and all the products of her mind or hand belong absolutely to her husband. In Massachusetts, a married woman can make a valid will of some portion of her property without her husband's consent. In some other States, where the common law prevails, the husband can revoke his consent to the will of wife, at any time before the will goes to probate, an her will becomes null and void. A married woman cannot be guardian of a child, not even of her own. A widow may be a guardian of her children. But if she marry again, her guardianship ceases. This is true in every State, except Kansas and New York. In all the States except these, no married mother has any legal ownership of her children. The custody of the

child belongs to its father. The law of New Jersey, on this topic, copied from Nixon's Digest, page 915 sec. 9, is as follows:Any**Father,***whether he be of age, or not, may,**by his deed executed in his lifetime, or by his last will,**dispose of the custody of his child, born, or to be born,**and such disposition of such child, or children, shall be good against the child's mother, or every other person or persons; and if the mother, or any other person, shall attempt to recover custody of such child, or children, she or they shall be, subject to an action for ravishment or trespass.Thus a minor, who cannot legally give a deed, or make a will of any property whatever, may, by law, both deed and will away the child from its mother whose God-given right to it the law absolutely annuls. And this atrocious law is in force in the District of Columbia, in the Territories, and in nearly every State in the Union. Only an unmarried mother has a legal right to her children.There is cause for gratitude in the fact that many States are hastening to put away these relics of more barbarous ages, and to return to woman's hand the right to protect herself in every relation. There is reason to hope that Massachusetts will retain her historic preëminence, and be the first to recognize woman's right to the ballot. Her present Legislature promptly referred the petitions for women's suffrage to a joint special Committee, which twice gave ample opportunity for the petitioners to be heard for their Cause.Both in and out of the Legislature, many eminent men are known to favor the measure, while the most influential papers in the State are on its side. Last, not least, the women, with Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, President of their Woman's Suffrage Association, are earnestly espousing their own cause. It must succeed.Lucy STONE.Editorial Department.THE ADVOCATE.--A WORD TO OUR FRIENDS.FOUR months ago--a venture upon the sea of journalism--we issued the first number of THE ADVOCATE.Bearing the imprint of no great publishing house; unheralded by the announcements deemed so necessary at this day to the success of any journalistic enterprise; not covered even by the prestige of an illustrious editorial name, almost presumptuous even to ourselves seemed the undertaking. But we were profoundly convinced that a publication such as we proposed should be established; a cry throughout the land went up for it; thoughtful men and women pledged us their pens and countenance; the "harvest" seemed awaiting the laborer, and, although knowing well the risk, we gave misgivings to the winds and began the work.Taking now the retrospect our brief editorial life furnishes, we have nothing but pleasurable emotions at a success surpassing our most sanguine expectations. At every step, beset at first with difficulties, we have been blessed with ability to remove all obstacles from our path, and more than make good our pledges to the public. A generous press has been prompt to acknowledge, by notices and every fraternal courtesy, our mission; writers of breadth of thought have opened their treasure-houses, freely tendering their best for our pages ; a wide circle of sympathetic friends have caught up our banner, bearing it over New England hills or Western prairies, until THE ADVOCATE, as a child of love, has entered into so many hearts, and so many generous responses have thrilled ours in return that all sense of anxiety has been lost in the full measure of success accorded it. To make a parade of the testimony borne our labors has been no portion of our purpose; we only feel the additional desire to increase, as the best possible requital, the excellence of our pages and, with the arrangements we have made and the im-

proved facilities at command, we feel warranted in stating that THE ADVOCATE, hereafter, in the variety and character of its contents, will, in no respect, less merit the kindness that has hitherto been accorded to it.Looking beyond individual exertion to the Cause itself, we have none the less reason for congratulation. Even within the brief period of Our own existence, three or four journals, specially devoted to the enfranchisement of Woman, have been established to meet the wants of their respective communities; the press have accorded the question an increasing measure of good will; conventions too numerous to mention have agitated it, and, in the legislative bodies of half a score of States Woman Suffrage has been pressed by such earnest and eloquent advocates as LUCY STONE, WENDELL PHILLIPS and others to a hearing or a vote with results carrying conviction of a speedy triumph. Indeed, in Rhode Island and other of the New England States our friends are sanguine of a legislation conferring Woman Suffrage within the year; and more sober thinkers, whether men or women, regard the measure as only a question of time, and in this age of ours events move with a rapidity hitherto undreamed of. Courage friends! it is no dream of a visionary, a Republic democratic in practice as in theory! Not alone the child is born, but gray-haired patriarchs live, who will see every  legal disability removed from Woman, then a portion of the body politic of our regenerated government, knowing no distinction of COLOR, RACE, or SEX.THE Publisher of THE ADVOCATE hereby offers a prize Of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS for the best Story bearing upon any of the phases of the "Woman Question;" FIFTY DOLLARS for the second best, and TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS, for the third best;--the MSS. (not to exceed 100 pp., nor to be less than 50 pp., of THE ADVOCATE) to be. submitted in season for award and use by June, 1869. All writers entering into competition for the prizes must direct to the Publisher of THE ADVOCATE who will retain the names, handing the inclosed articles to a Committee, (to be later announced) who will decide upon the different MSS., purely upon their merits. While each article will be regarded as the property of the author, and strict confidence be preserved, respecting them, it is

hoped that many will be induced to donate their MSS. to THE ADVOCATE after the awards are made public. The Publisher trusts that these liberal offers will stimulate our writers to a spirited competition for the prizes and thus enable him to present some of the best serials ever offered to the public.THE Publisher of THE ADVOCATE makes the gratifying announcement that hereafter N. B. Spooner, of Plymouth, Mass., will act as General Agent for New England, and all subscriptions or advertisements designed for THE ADVOCATE may be entrusted to his care. Mr. Spooner is well known to many of our readers, not only as possessing fine business capacities but as an active reformer, identified with all liberal movements, and we bespeak for him everywhere the co-operation of all friends of progress.Mrs. E. W. Phillips, 805 Spring Garden street, Philadelphia, will hereafter act as Agent for THE ADVOCATE for the city and immediate vicinity. Mrs. Phillips is a noble woman, deeply interested in reformatory questions, and will be glad to serve friends in the above capacity as may be desired.Mrs. J. B. Quimby is rendering THE ADVOCATE efficient service in Cincinnati, and all orders entrusted to her will receive prompt attention.NOTES.A VALUABLE series of papers in favor of Woman Suffrage is being published in the Chicago Agitator by Hon. C. B. White of that city.Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and her sister, Catharine Beecher, are making arrangements to establish an agricultural school for girls at Aiken, S. C.Miss Dorothy L. Dix, who has interested herself for many years in the treatment of the insane, is about visiting California to establish an institute for their better care in that State.Miss-Lorenza Haynes, sister of Hon. Gideon Haynes of Massachu

setts, and a writer of recognized ability, has recently entered the lecture field in New England with marked success.Mrs. Helen M. Rich, a well-known writer and speaker of acknowledged ability, is lecturing on Woman's Rights and Temperance in Western Now York with excellent success.The Springfield Woman Suffrage Association has sent a memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature against the appropriation of any money for educational institutions which exclude women.Miss Ida Lewis, the heroine of Lime Rock Lighthouse, Newport, who has rescued seven human beings from drowning, is receiving, from various sources, valuable presents, in recognition of her courage.THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION will hold its Anniversary in New York, at Steinway Hall, Wednesday and Thursday, May 12th and 13th, and in Brooklyn Academy of Music, on Friday, the 14th.Miss Kate Field has repeated, in Boston, to a cultured audience, with marked success, her lecture on "Women in the Lyceum." As brilliant a reputation doubtless awaits her in the lecturing field as she has already won by her pen.Mrs. E. A. Kingsbury, an agent of the New England Woman Suffrage Association, and an eloquent advocate of equal rights, has been lecturing for some time in Massachusetts with excellent results. We are indebted to Mrs. Kingsbury for many subscriptions to THE ADVOCATE.The Chicago Sorosis has recently been incorporated under the title of "THE CHICAGO SOROSIS, " with a proposed capital stock of Fifty Thousand Dollars, and will be known henceforth as The Advance Guard. We wish this very excellent paper abundant success in its enlarged sphere of usefulness.Miss Elizabeth Van Lew, the new postmistress at Richmond, Va. is receiving the favorable commendations of the press for her enterprise and improved administration of postal affairs in that city. Other women appointments of the President, we are pleased to see, are also spoken of as fitting and giving excellent satisfaction.The Working Women's Association of this city, of which Miss Susan

B. Anthony is President, holds semi-monthly meetings at Room 24, Cooper Institute, which are well attended and highly interesting in character. Eleanor Kirk, Ernestine L. Rose, Mrs. Burleigh and other ladies have delivered addresses and otherwise added to the interest of the proceedings.In a recent lecture in London Miss Emily Faithfull said that women were now employed its barbers instead of men in a fashionable establishment in the West End. This opening of a new employment to women is not altogether without precedent as they have been employed in similar establishments in Wales for many years."A Pennsylvania Woman's" reply to Horace Greeley, which was published in the New York Independent several weeks since, attracting not a little attention by its piquancy and force of statement, we have reprinted in a neat slip form for distribution, copies of which can be obtained by making application at the office of THE ADVOCATE.The Thirty-Sixth Anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society will be held at Steinway Hall, in this city, on Tuesday, May 11th, day and evening. It is to this body of earnest men and women the cause of Woman Suffrage is indebted for much of its early support, and in all its present deliberations it receives a liberal share of attention. A goodly list of speakers promises to make the coming Anniversary unusually interesting.The N. Y. Independent, in a recent editorial on the monthly meetings of the Radical Club, Boston, says: "There is one thing in which agree--viz., that the presence of cultivated, quick-witted woman gives a spice and zest to conversation such as no dinner-table talk of men alone can attain, however gifted be the talkers. In fact the steady refusal of this large circle to remove from Mrs. Sargent's crowded parlors into a public hall would seem to show that the whole affair is but a French salon, and owes much of its continue success to the energy and magnetism of one agreeable woman. If so it shows that women have a work to do in humanizing crude American society after all.A correspondent of the New York Tribune, speaking of the mother of Senator Sprague of Rhode Island, and his business operations in connection with his brother, says: "What this woman has had to do with building up an immense business, the influence of which is felt every

where in the country has never been told. 'The boys' habitually, resort to her for advice, and the 'old Governor' was accustomed to hold her judgment in the highest esteem. Her counsel to the old firm of A. & W. Sprague have been transferred to the new house, and have proved as beneficial to her sons as to their father and their uncle. She is now an old lady Of 70 years, but her faculties are as vigorous as ever."Twenty-one members of the Pennsylvania Legislature have put themselves on record as in favor of extending suffrage to women on the same terms as it is now exercised by men. The Bucks County (Pa.) Intelligencer, of the 13th ult., one of the most liberal journals in that State, commenting on woman suffrage, says: "A bill embodying this principle was voted on last Thursday for the first time, we believe, in the history of Pennsylvania. Sixty-five of the members, however, were so illiberal and ungallant as to vote against the proposition, for which act they will no doubt be called to account by their wives and sisters when they get home. But it is really an encouraging thing to know that there are twenty-one men in our Legislature who are ready to meet and accept the coming revolution."Among the women of England who have cast a luster on literature, and who by their breadth and liberality of thought have powerfully assisted in creating the present sentiment there in favor of woman suffrage, may be mentioned the venerable Mrs. Mary Somerville, of whom the Springfield Republican, in a recent issue, says"Mrs. Somerville, who is now in her 88th year, is an advocate for woman suffrage, though she can hardly expect to live to vote in England, where she was. born. Nearly forty years ago this remarkable lady published her first great work, 'The Mechanism of the Heavens.' It is a translation, or summary of Laplace's Mecanique Celeste, and was completed four years after the death of tile great astronomer. In 1834 she published 'The Connection of the Physical Sciences,' which was followed by the 'Physical Geography,' and other works. She has all along been in the vanguard of human knowledge and scientific investigation. It is said that mathematics never presented any difficulty to the mind of Mary Somerville, and the physical sciences, which are based on the great primal laws of mathematics, she as readily mastered. Other distinguished women who favor the same side are George Sand, who has written a long letter in favor of woman suffrage, woman physicians, and woman preachers, addressed to Mdlle. Raynouard, a French lady, now lecturing in the provinces on woman's rights; and Mrs. Mundt H. (Louisa Mublbach), who will shortly publish a pamphlet on suffrage and woman's rights. It will be entitled 'The Historical and Political Mission of Woman.'"Massachusetts is doing nobly for Woman Suffrage. The accumulated

petitions of the Winter were referred to a Joint Special Committee who have given the petitioners two hearings:--Wendell Phillips, Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone were heard in March, and April 14th a second hearing was granted the Rev. James Freeman Clark, and the Hon. Geo. F. Hoar, Representative, in Congress from Massachusetts. Mrs. Howe said gracefully, that as the bass and treble were necessary to harmony in music, so the masculine and feminine influences were necessary in government. She paid a pleasant tribute of respect to the earnest spirit of the Western women, who are seeking civil and political equality--and concluded by saying her speech must be an amen, to the speeches of Mr. Phillips and Mrs. Stone. This last lady showed that by the theory of our government every adult, save citizen convicted of crime, is rightfully, entitled to vote; that republican institutions are impossible while mote than half the people are disfranchised; that in Massachusetts there are 62,000 more women than men, who are subject to a masculine minority; that the laws of Massachusetts though greatly improved still show how much women as a class need to protect themselves; that national safety is more endangered by the disfranchisement of women, than by that of any class of men, black or white. Of the very able presentation made by Mr. Phillips we will present a synopsis next month.LITERARY.STUDIES IN GENERAL SCIENCE. By Antoinette Brown Blackwell. 12 mo., 356 pp. Price $2.25. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, Publishers.That this volume is the work of an American woman, and one endeared to the liberal public by a prominence before it as a gifted speaker, is the least of its merits. The pioneer work performed by Mrs. Blackwell, both in the Woman's Rights Movement, and in the pulpit, where she was a more than ordinarily effective preacher, prepared the public for work breathing purity of tone and loftiness of purpose, but the rare literary merit of the volume is at once a surprise and welcome treat even to the admirers of her late admirable essays. Condensed in statement, it yet discusses in a style of almost conversational simplicity, topics of great import which this generation has taken from the study and the professor's desk, and which are becoming ever more familiar to our daily thought. They are indeed the facts which underlie our faith, our civilization and reforms. In this connected and related world all facts bear the impress of one origin, and all their

roots are found within the universe itself. What attraction, what startling light is thrown upon the vital questions of the source and aim of life, the nature of mind, the character and ways of God!Dealing with such themes, these "Studies," though to some extent abstruse, are of absorbing interest to thinking men however diverse in their opinions and bent of mind. The physicist and the psychologist, the statesman, physician, reformer, moralist and theologian, each in calm conference with very searching kindred thought, will find in these compact and lucid essays quickening suggestions of great interest and value. The first chapters present the metaphysical basis of Mrs. Blackwell's philosophy, but any reader of ordinary intelligence, can follow with ease its amplification and application to the many phases of physical, mental, moral and social interest with which the essays deal.Mrs. Blackwell says, "These essays are a summary of the conclusions arrived at after a lifetime of more or less steady devotion to the subjects under consideration. *** While the earlier studies were hindered by duties few women attempt to shoulder" (as pastor of a church and lecturer) "the later ones were impeded, perhaps in both cases I should say aided, by duties which no man ever performed--those which devolve on the mother of a young family, all of whom are still in childhood."But notwithstanding these drawbacks, if such they were, the work gives no evidence of any want of continuity of thought.Our limited space forbids a comprehensive statement of the philosophy of this book, but as a key-note to its drift and conclusions, we quote a few sentences from the "General Statement:""Force has been determined by science to be as self-existent and indestructible as substance, and force, it is evident, could be nothing except realized in and through substance. * * * * Energy may be self-existent, but a definite system of correlated interchangeable modes of energy, sentient as well as unsentient, coordinating thoughts, feelings, purposes and all possible living personal experiences with all the other modes of force and capacity now co-operative in the universe, is necessarily created, and, as it seems to me, it may be shown to be so from an intrinsic rational or intellectual necessity. * * * * The properties, modes and processes of matter are all found to be rigidly quantitative and the action and reaction among them is always exactly equal; so that they all exist and act strictly according to the mathematical principle of precisely so much for so much. The properties of matter are all therefore strictilystrictly mechanical and there is evidence that they are also unsentient or simply and unconsciously mechanical. The properties of mind on the contrary are all held to the sentient or living prop-

erties. * * * * Sentient properties are modes of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, purposes, self-determinations; and though these sentient modes never ignore or contravene the laws of the unsentient, to which they are allied, yet they have, in addition, co-ordinated laws and principles of their own of a wholly unlike higher character. * * * * * * * *"Thought has been applied to things, and each atom whether matter or mind, is allied to its own immutable properties with their wide diversity of co-ordinated modes and processes, which are forever turning and overturning but always developing more fully the pre-established order of things; moving molecules, moving worlds, quickening minds, developing races, lighting, warming, evolving, organizing, animating, ennobling, developing: till the result is before us--the physical and mental universe, one and harmonious."We enumerate the suggestive titles of some of the most intensely interesting essays of this thoughtful book: "An Eclectic Development Theory," "Immortality," "Law and its Sanctions," "Social Progress," "Nature of the Creator inferred from the Creations."The attractive exterior of the volume is due to Messrs. Putnam and the Riverside Press. For the conscientious research, calm discrimination and clear precise language, as well as for the keen intuitions and wide deductions which brighten and ennoble "the Studies," we are under obligation to Mrs. Blackwell alone. We predict that the number of her appreciative readers will constantly increase, and that this book will long hold a favorite place in the estimation of the public.IRELAND FOR THE IRISH. RHYMES AND REASONS AGAINST LANDLORDISM. By W. J. Linton. 95 pp. New York: American News Co.There lies before us a slender volume, which, although eliciting appreciative notices from a few discriminating critics, has never attracted the attention which the rare merit of its verse entitles it to receive from the public.A Briton by birth, Mr. Linton, to a thorough knowledge of his subject, brings the most intense aspiration for that liberty "which knows not realm nor birthplace," but is the common heritage of humanity; and fortunate indeed would it be for "Erin" if every champion of her cause possessed the clearness of vision, the realization of her needs, evinced by the author of the above blending of verse and prose. As a specimen of the thoughtful character of Mr. Linton's muse, which must not only be read but studied to be fully appreciated, we subjoin the following poem:OUR HERITAGE.God's gift, the Land, our common heritage,--To Adam and his seed, and not entail'dUpon a few:--what deed hath countervail'dThat tenure handed down from age to age?God's only curse is labor: with the sweatOf honest brows to earn the fruit of toil,He plagued us not with landlords, to despoilThe laborer of his God-acknowledged debt.Parcel the measured ocean; fence the air;Claim property in clouds and spray-topp'd waves;In sun and stars; in heaven, as in our graves:If thou art earth-lord, Tyrant! and God's heir.An artist conscientiously studious, with a reputation second to that, in his line, of no engraver, American or European, and dealing with literature merely as a relaxation, Mr. Linton has reason to be satisfied with the excellence of the work he has given to the public. A later volume, THE FLOWER AND THE STAR, AND OTHER STORIES, from the house of Fields, Osgood & Co., one of the happiest Childrens' Books of the season, 1.9 also on our table, of which we will speak hereafter.NOTICE.-As THE ADVOCATE is stereotyped, back numbers to January can be furnished on application, or subscriptions at any time commence with the beginning of the year.CANVASSERS for THE ADVOCATE are desired in all parts of the country. Those thoroughly responsible can make very desirable arrangements by addressing the Publisher.PREMIUM OFFERS.WE will send post-paid, to any one renewing a subscription to THE ADVOCATE, and sending one new subscriber ($4); or remitting for two new subscribers ($4), a copy of Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell's new book, 356 pages, price $2.25, just issued by G. P. Putnam & Son, entitled "STUDIES IN GENERAL SCIENCE." This volume, a notice of which will be found elsewhere, is one of the most valuable works upon the

subjects it treats ever offered to the public, and our premium offer puts it within easy each of all.We will also furnish to present subscribers who may renew their subscriptions and send one new subscriber for the year ($4); or to any who will send two new subscribers ($4) either of the following very desirable books:Wendell Phillips' "Speeches, Lectures and Letters," 562 pages, with steel portrait--price $2.50.Lydia Maria Child's "Romance of the Republic," 442 pages--price $2.50.
Caroline H. Dall's "College, Market and Court," 498 pages--price $2.50.CLUB RATES.THE ADVOCATE will be furnished at TWO DOLLARS per year, single copy, and sent to addresses as desired, in Clubs of four or more, upon the following terms:Four subscriptions, $6.00 
Ten do  12.00
Twenty " 22.00We will hereafter send The Nat. Anti-Slavery Standard ($3.00 a year) and THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE, each one year to old or new subscribers, the two for $4.00;--
The Radical ($4.00 a year) and THE ADVOCATE, the two for $5.00;--The Herald of Health ($2.00 a year) and THE ADVOCATE, the two for $3.50.THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATEAN EVENING AT A GERMAN PROFESSOR'S.Mary J. SaffordIF you have spent a winter in the gay Prussian Capital and circumstances did not favor a Court presentation, you need not treasure it as a life-time regret, for even had you been so favored you doubtless would have remembered it only as a stage scene wherein you were an actor;--your role that of turning like a weather vane, so as never to be found with back turned upon His Majesty, or Her Majesty, nor any of their shining satellites. Ay, you would always shiver, though the dog-star were at the height of his watch, when you recalled the hours of anxious waiting, in those marble halls of the palace,--"unter den linden,"--for the coming of Royalty. Representatives from all Nations, with picturesqueness in costume, characteristic of many nationalities, graded according to rank, in double column, reminding one of an old-fashioned country spelling school--with less to encourage, for there merit took one to the head, but here, the index finger of fortune always points each to his place. At last their Majesties are announced with their royal suite, and there is a universal rustle of silks and satins, as trails, with the modest measure of three yards length, which have been held upon the arm, are spread. Stately and erect, the old king moves along, nodding his head to right and left, while his affable queen smiles, and courteously bows in passing by her guests.Such are some of the salient features of a Court presentation--of which we did not think to tell you--but of a entertainment, in our judgment, far more regal--an evening at a German Professor's, which you may well regret all your life, if you have not enjoyed. To be Professor in a German University does not always indicate that the man is possessed of unlimited wealth, though he is often rich in contentment and in the enjoyment of a little. We are acquainted with but one of the Faculty of the Berlin University who owns the house in which he lives, and he had the good fortune to become possessed of it through his wife. You need not have come from the Hub, neither have written a book, nor have been in Congress, to gain admittance into the charmed professorial society of Germany. If you carry a letter of introduction to one family, or if a friend present you, you are pretty sure to find your self a frequently invited and welcome guest. When once invited to come in familiarly to tea, it means that you are at liberty to go in any evening, when a cup of tea or coffee, a plate of sandwiches, or a basket of mixed cakes, are passed to you, and father, mother, sons and daughters add to the pleasure of a social evening. There is interesting conversation, there is music, to which all listen; there are games--everything is cheerful and agreeable, with no stiff hedges of formality to leap over. Usually during the winter each professor gives one or more large party. It is to one of these that we will now present you.It may be seven, not later than eight o'clock, when all are assembled. The folding doors are thrown open; the large, double parlors become one. Studio, and library, all the nookeries, sacred to study, are open, and give every facility for social duets where the sotto voce of young peoples' voices becomes musical in the Teutonic as well as in the Anglo Saxon tongue. The shining waxed floors are as much of a terror to us as was a pond of ice in our childhood days, upon which we had studied the constellations, and we count upon the possible, if not probable, consequences, before we venture to slide across them, and when the mazy dance begins, we never cease to wonder how they whirl like tops, and still maintain their perpendicular.Out host is perhaps the brightest luminary in the professorial galaxy. He is not only master of his own abstruse kingdom, but his broad, clear mind comprehends other realms of thought, and his ear catches the voice

of humanity. He listens, be waits, and hopes for the enfranchisement of all mankind from the thraldom of tyranny, of ignorance, and of superstition. The students all feel that they have in him more than a preceptor, a friend, an adviser. He tempers the impatient Radical who thinks he cannot wait till to-morrow, for that which he knows justice demands done to-day. Into the mind of the sluggish Conservative he infuses new life by inspiring him with the importance of right directed influence. Royalty has proffered him a title, but he sees in it only an empty name, and prefers to stand allied to the world only in his manhood.And what of our hostess? She greets you with a cordiality that makes you feel at home in her presence. She is very plain in appearance; her flaxen hair, divided into two braids, winds twice around her head. She wears a drab silk, that we doubt not was her wedding gown twenty-five years before. Its style is in keeping with that time. She wears no ornaments; you feel that she is all she seems, a cultivated, unassuming, natural woman. How she converses with this guest in French, with that in English. She knows the noted authors of each country by their works. Although the world is not cognizant of it her thought has blended with that of her husband in his writings. She has reared sons and daughters to honorable positions in society. Weekly she gathers into her home a class of poor girls, whom she instructs in ways of usefulness; and in the joyous Christmas season, hundreds of hearts are made glad by the needed things she puts on their scantily hung Christmas trees.There are present those whose names are known in all lands. B----, the quiet, medium-sized, dark-faced, stern-browed African traveller:--we try our best to turn conversation into a channel that will give his thoughts free flow; we only get responses to our interrogatories upon African scenes and experiences; but something turns the conversation to an American battle-field; his face lightens up; his lips are unsealed, and many are the pleasant words of earnest sympathy he speaks for our country. Professor L----, who might have been the original for that magnificent statue of Aristides, carries you away captive, whenever he tells you of his explorations in foreign lands. He spent years of his first manhood among the nomadic Arabs, that be might make their language his own, thus getting access to ruins untrod, with inscription

before unknown to the civilized world. Mrs. R----, whose pen has enriched American as well as German literature, he friend of Göethe, and almost the last living link in that literary chain which binds the past to the present;--receives the homage of young as well as of old. Germany calls her its most talented daughter, and America is proud to claim her by adoption.Sir Charles and Lady L---- were the honored guests of the evening. To meet with two such noble specimens of humanity, atones for the hundreds of their countrymen with whom one comes in contact, who sail under the banner of High Pretences--failing "for a' that" to be true men and women. The clouds were dark over the American horizon at that time, and yet they were full of hope and good cheer for our future. They were among the few who, having been in America, could rise above prejudice and preconceived ideas, and discover in the multitude of crude material, elements for a powerful nation, with an intelligent, cultured civilization.The Crown Prince, with a frank, manly expression of face, and a military bearing, came to pay his regards to Sir Charles and Lady L----. In his conversation with the latter, to which we listened, he said, in English as broad and pure as if a born cockney: "I suppose you speak our language--the German--with fluency, since you have been so long in the wilds of America."To which she replied, "I speak your language readily, having learned it in Germany when a child, but during my residence in America I neither saw the uncultivated regions of that country, nor heard the German language often spoken."There was present a Countess and a Duchess; talent, titles and wealth had their noted representatives, and yet, there was a simplicity of externals astonishing to an American eye. You did not feel that weeks had been squandered in preparation for the occasion. It was not a rival dress parade, but a social gathering, where mind met mind, and was elevated by the contact. The supper was served à la table d'hôte, with a varied round of courses interspersed with lively, merry conversation. There were wines for those who drank them, but no withdrawal of the ladies to give the gentlemen an opportunity for indulgence in a

solo debauch. The repast ended, the host and hostess arose, and each guest, in departing, thanked them for the enjoyments of the evening.MARY J. SAFFORD.SUICIDAL LOGIC.George S. BurleighA CERTAIN domestic animal more admired under his Norman name by which he graces the table, than under his Saxon cognomen which gives a symbol, vigorous but not elegant, for stubborn beastliness, has a trick of cutting his own throat when he gets beyond his depth, by the sheer awkwardness of his swimming. Without applying the more offensive features of the comparison, or attempting to make the figure "go on all four," like the beast himself, I must say I have been forcibly reminded of the porcine style of natation in the efforts of some of our astute opposers of Woman Suffrage, who, wallowing much beyond their ability to touch bottom, have, struck out for the shore of an adverse conclusion with the genuine suicidal stroke of the great. Ham-burgher."Woman should not have the rights and franchises which men have in the State, because they are not men, they have a nature essentially other than the man's, a different sort of soul, in which every faculty, though called phrenologically by the same name, is really a different development of mind, feminine in the very reason, memory, art, poesy and passions. The woman is religious in a way of her own, she hates and loves with a distinct specific modification of the same passions in man, and were we wise in the marks of differentiation we could distinguish an original mathematical demonstration produced by a woman's mind from a kindred solution by a man. I state the position strongly, more strongly than many of its advocates, but not beyond the demonstrable truth. I have seen something of a faculty called Psychometry, by which a sensitive person can read character by simple contact with any scrap of writing which may be had; and in the hundreds of experiments, with sealed and blank envelopes covering the writing, I have never seen a single failure to determine whether the writer were a man

or a woman. The feminine nature marks the most trivial act of a woman, and her sex never forsakes her. If she should transcribe the Multiplication Table, a Psychometrist though in a dark room, would know that the scrap containing it wag written by a woman's hand."Now, because the objector has caught at a grand truth, in his protest, and one still deeper and broader than he was aware, I have given it a fuller statement than his own; for a blow that must recoil so fatally on his own head may as well be made as strong as the truth will warrant. Observe the logic. Because woman is so different from man--man shall do the legislating for her! Her nature is peculiar, therefore a man knows exactly what it needs! She is a distinct self, and hence should not be allowed to have self-government. God gave her every pulse and feminine attribute, and for this cause her heart must beat only under masculine law! Did a swimming pig ever cut his throat with more celerity?Who gave you an insight to know what fits a nature different from your own, and to know it better than the possessor of it? Can a congress of horses be presumed to know the wants of a herd of neats cattle? Will a fish devise just laws for a bird; and shall our venerable cat, Thomas, legislate for the little colony of chickens in the yard? He would find it legal to gobble up one now and then, as man-legislation has devoured widows' houses.A clergyman has, by long use and study, a widely different way of looking at things, from a layman's. He has peculiar tastes, peculiar opinions, a peculiar stand-point from which to view life and duty. Therefore, oh Sapience, let him be disfranchised. Disfranchise the sailor; he lives in a different world from ours, he walks with a roll like a big sea; he talks a lingo that our parlors cannot understand. We'll make laws for him.In short, while you are about it, disfranchise everybody but Number One, for everybody else is peculiar, different in tastes, habits, feelings, from that grave Ego wherefore that unique specimen is the only proper person to make laws for these diversities, variety being a ground of incompetence.Strictly speaking Number One is as different as Number Two and the rest. Between unlikes it would take a philosopher to say which is the dis-

similar one, and therefore which ought legislate for the other. Men are not women, they have peculiar natures, therefore women ought to make the laws that govern them. What hinders treating gander to the sauce that is good for goose? The simple truth is a government cannot, be Representative that disfranchise a class. If for their crimes it says that State's prison graduates shall not vote, that is a mode of punishment and the State may as justly inflict that as any other; but to inflict the same disgrace on half the community, the most pure and humane half at that, is an outrage as gross as the defense of it is absurd. Because woman is not man, because she has a purely feminine mind and heart we assert that man is not competent to do her law-making. Just that peculiarity of soul which makes her a woman, makes her the only competent person to draw with precision the boundary of her rights.Society is a chemical compound that losing the feminine element would be crude, rude and barbaric in spite of culture. The State is another compound, from which the feminine element has been largely rejected, with just the result that would occur in society--having become so corrupt, in the estimation of our opponents, that it would be a disgrace to a virtuous women to mix in its affairs. Such a result would have been impossible if woman's peculiar nature had always had expression there. The State needs woman more than woman needs the franchise, and she needs the franchise as much for her own culture an growth as for her protection and freedom.GEORGE S. BURLEIGHTYPICAL differences seem also to exist in the mental natures of the two sexes. Such a distinction has been largely insisted on as an argument for keeping women within their proper spheres. Instead of allowing woman to develop any peculiar gifts which she may possess, free from conventional restraints, a predetermined sphere has been marked out for her, and she has been rigidly enjoined to keep within its precincts. Granted the fact of her peculiar feminine gifts, this obviously is a direct argument in favor of her developing all her powers untrammeled and finding for herself her own level in society.--"Studies in General Science."--Antoinette Brown Blackwell.AN AVERAGE WOMAN.C. ClarkSEEING one evening the announcement that a celebrated minister was to preach on one of the questions of the day, I went to hear him. There being no new ideas in the discourse, all of his Points having been expressed before, better and more tersely by others, my attention wandered, when suddenly my ear caught the following words delivered with startling emphasis: "And now, we will speak of woman, that interesting branch of our fellow creatures!"I listened eagerly for what was to follow, hoping to receive some enlightenment in regard to that vexed question "woman," or, at any rate, to be informed how many branches there were of which women were one, and what the trunk from which all sprung; but alas! no information on these points was vouchsafed to the many twigs of "that interesting branch" who filled the house--only wearisome platitudes on woman's sphere and duties were dinned into ears already satiated with the tedious iteration.Now, being but an average twig, one of many, a unit among the countless thousands of women who, quietly minding their own affairs find their position or "sphere" in life, their capacities, their wants arrogantly prescribed for them, with never so much as a question of what they would choose, or what they think of their own capabilities or needs, I beg leave to speak.Laying no claim to being a "strong-minded woman," not because I would not be if I could, but because both physical and mental calibre for that position is wanting I yet indignantly protest against the silly twaddle, written by so-called "weak-minded women," attempting to portray what women,, as a class, desire, suffer and accomplish. A really "weak-minded woman," would not be able to write the articles so signed, and it is reasonable to conclude after reading them, that they are the result of some man's careful pondering over that enigma "woman," and his opinions of what women ought to feel, and would write, if they were capable of expressing themselves. Does it never occur to men that we should prefer to be let "alone;" that there are subjects more in-

teresting than their ideas of how we should keep house; how much we should spend on dress; what our amusements ought to be; what should satisfy our "inner nature;" what books we should read; and how we shall best tutor ourselves to meet their approval?Perhaps a little of their superfluous advice and spare time might be employed to advantage in teaching other men--if they, the advisers, need none-how to curtail their expenses; bow to, take heed to their amusements; how to purify their "inner natures" and make themselves more worthy of the adoring devotion women are expected to bestow.Women do not pretend to be sages, but neither do they wish to be ranked as fools, incapable of reasoning, judging and acting for themselves, made only for foolish petting or contemptuous ignoring.Articles have appeared from time to time, treating on women and their supposed capacities and wants, among them one, signed "A weak-minded woman," purporting to be from one who desired ardently to write, but in consequence of the harassing petty cares of daily life, could not find time to fitly express her burning thoughts and so took refuge in feeble plaints over hopes unfulfilled. Every one can imagine the article, for scores of them have appeared, being always convenient stop-gaps in empty columns.Some other articles, giving advice to the unfortunate woman, I should like to say a few words about. One of them tells us that "the weak-minded woman is one of many, and their name is legion;" that women as a rule cannot keep house and hope to write and if they will look into "some inner chamber of the heart," there will be found a hand-writing that time would be better employed in deciphering, instead of attempting  original.Now, that there are many silly people in the world, men as well as women, no one will deny, but pray don't put all the fools in one sex and make the other preternaturally wise. There are just as many Jacks as there ate Jills: for one of Nature's fundamental rules is equality.As to the assertion, that women were only intended for the "home sphere," do people, who talk so glibly in this manner, ever realize what is necessary to form a home?  A loving, courageous

heart, a wise, administrative head, capable, willing, helpful hands are not easily to be found, united. And yet women, who are adjudged. to be unfit for so-called authorship, which needs none of these qualifications, only a certain surface smartness; and for occupations, demanding only one of the two last are supposed "by instinct" to be capable of forming, controlling and guiding that small, but difficult to rule, miniature kingdom, a home.It is the right training of heart to imagine, head to plan, and hands to deftly execute and carry out ideas which make a home either a heaven or hell on earth. Neither be heart, head nor hands can be neglected, and just so surely as we depend upon hands alone, as so many do, and cultivate their powers alone, so surely does the home lack that intangible something which makes it home. The obsolete idea that literary women must perforce be slatterns, needs no rebutting testimony; and the greater the cultivation, of a woman's powers, the greater the charm of her home.Any one who has read Mrs. Dall's work "The College, Market and Court," for which all women should be grateful, for the time, energy, patience and skill displayed, in grouping together so many interesting and significant facts,--can no longer deny that there has been, and can be, nothing, from the hardest manual labor upwards, which we women have not done, are not doing, and cannot do.To return to our author, we are asked "If the magazines will not publish your stories, it is a natural inference that you are not exactly, a genius, is it not? Further, "It is sorrowful to see in what crowds women, married and unmarried, flock to the gates of authorship. Here and there you see them with white hands of command turning back the ponderous golden hinges, and entering in where the palms are and the crowns. Down below, they are turning away in great, sad groups, shut out."Where, may be asked, are the gates of authorship? The writer only mentions two magazines, so if the portals through which their editors are reached, are the only gates, and if in those sanctums lie the crowns and palms, can we wonder that crowds flock to those doors?' Will not some one tell, "the great sad groups shut out," that perchance those are not the only gates, that some other "golden hinges" may turn at their knock.Again, "Women have a mania for going where they are not wanted, and then complaining that nobody makes room for them."Who has a right to tell us where we shall, or shall not go? and what place can, there be where we are not wanted, if we have the capacity and desire to fill that place? If some with "white hands of command" may do thus also, how can anybody assert that our hands may not be able to do the same?All these objections to women's writing amount to what? They certainly would seem to prove that the "writing" women should decipher, is either unreadable or unsatisfactory, and that they prefer to make essays of their own skill.The magazines rejecting articles does not always indicate a lack of power in the articles or the writers, for we know there is a "ring" around the periodicals, and if the name of the writer is unknown, ten chances to one the article is returned, often without even a glance at its pages. And as to rejected articles showing the writers not to be geniuses, may it not be asked do we want any more geniuses? 'Tis not they who decide the position of the world, but the common sense people, the average men and women of the day, and if the average men and women would come to the rescue, and write for us, readable and understandable articles, tales and books, leaving the geniuses to befog each other's brains with their Delphic utterances, Sphinx-like conundrums, introverted sentences, and word painting, the community would be greatly the gainer.In a second article meant to be satirical, also giving advice to woman, the writer tells us that talking with her husband she told him: "John, I'm done writing forever." Would she had kept to this resolution; though we are sure the writer is a man endeavoring to simulate what he considers a woman's style. At any rate, the following information is given: that there are no women angels mentioned in the Bible; that the Bible doctrine is, that women should be second to their husbands; that there has never been a feminine Milton nor Shakespeare and never will be, and lastly that "we may hold office, but we never can be men."Has the world ever produced more than one Shakespeare or Milton? Are they not unique and unapproachable? To tell women they must not write because they cannot become either Shakespeares or Miltons, is like telling a rose or pink they must not bloom because they will never, become a century plant nor a

Victoria Regia; or the rank and file of our brave army that they were of no account because they didn't show themselves to be Grants or Shermans.As for the other remarks they can be  taken for what they are worth, that is as "stop-gaps" in an empty page.We sigh over the Lost Arts, but though we cannot make Damascus blades, our Sharpe's and Colt's rifles do more execution. We may have lost the Syrian dyes, but our petroleum blues and purples are surely brilliant enough. We cannot mayhap work in brass, but iron is more to our needs, and yet we are losing an art, which once gone is gone forever; the art of writing terse, elegant English. One of the first things we learn at school, is that Grammar teaches the use of language, but would not one reading our light literature now-a-days think that Grammar was an obsolete study.We have the "Cry of the Human," "The Cry of the Children," will not some one write for us, " The Wail of the Adjectives?"Poor, tortured, misused words, forced from your proper spheres, and jumbled together in wild confusion, will no one be found to right your wrongs? A few extracts, drawn from the writings of those, both men and women, who having found their way into print, have shown according to our author, that they have "hands of command," may serve perhaps to prove that genius is not so much needed in our light literature, as average common sense, written not by those who are styled "masters of word. painting," but by average writers for average readers. What can be made of sentences such as these:"The heights of futurity were foreshadowed in his forehead's marble dream.""His low, dense, passionate forehead."We all know what a dense forest may be, and what a dense intellect is, but a forehead "dense and passionate," must be a marvel. In a criticism of Miss Ingelow's poems, we are informed by competent authority that she has, "no such drowning surge of splendor, such weltering wealth of words as Mr. Swinburne has." This is welcome news, but will any one explain what a "weltering wealth of words" is? As long as adjectives are piled on, and the mouth is full, when trying to read of high sounding words, sense

seems to be considered of no account, but how could one analyse or parse such sentences!One more and I have done, though a volume of such like elegant extracts is beside me. Speaking of Ballanche, the friend of Mme. Recamier, a critic makes the following statement:"His soul was an Æolian harp, through which the music of the pre-historic ages played."We have a dear friend, who has always said, that whenever she thinks of her soul; she imagines it looking like a dropt egg, but a soul that is asserted positively to be an Æolian harp, through which such extraordinary music played, excites my liveliest astonishment. A different writer, speaking of music, says "he played fragments of Egyptian music, ancient as the Pyramids, and just as incomprehensible."Now, if the music of that age is pronounced incomprehensible, and we have historic information of that time, what must the music of "pre-historic ages" (when exactly were they?) conveyed in the disjointed wailings of an Æolian harp, which is we know capable of no connected harmony--be? Imagination fails, there are bounds that cannot be passed, and chords that refuse to vibrate.Poor Ballanche! he deserves indeed pity, if added to his other defects he had such a soul, one like a dropt egg, would be of infinitely less annoyance to its possessor.If these are the writings of those who have "hands of command," to turn back golden hinges, and are endowed with the "divine afflatus," might not average writers stand a chance of being acceptable to average readers of average minds.C. CLARK.* * * So with the question of sex. As long as it can, as long as the question is undecided, the Church will hold its old position. But when the enfranchisement of women shall have been accomplished by secular hands, the Church will step forward and say, "We always told you so; there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus--Extract from Report of Horticultural Hall Lecture.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.SISTER ANNE'S VOCATION.
PART THIRD.Nora Perry"GAINSBORO will cure her of all her eccentric notions," quoth the wise one-and-twenty Frank. "Safely married to him she'll have no excuse to be 'strong-minded' any more." Safely married! This was the burden Of their jubilate.Safely married! But in, the meanwhile how much lay between that time of security. As yet there could be no definite plans. In a year perhaps Mr. Gainsboro's income might be sufficient to hazard the beginning of a small home, for there was a talk of his getting some appointment as clerk connected with the law-courts, which without interfering with his profession would help to eke out the rather precarious subsistence which that afforded. But how many purposes fail in a year. How many new combinations spring up in life within a few short months, which make new measures and even new purposes necessary. At the end of this year instead of the little home John Gainsboro had planned so eagerly, there was indefinite postponement of all plans, and separation in place of companionship. For at the end of this year John Gainsboro was en route for Europe, an invalid in search of health. The accident of a boat upsetting upon a fishing excursion and a forced detention all night in a marshy district, had brought on a malaria fever, which left him in such a condition that a score of physicians united in one opinion--that his length of days depended on a sea voyage and a change of climate. Some easy consulship to one of the minor ports was found for him, where the salary would be sufficient to meet his personal expenses, and the duties light enough to be no burden. Anne bade her lover good-bye with a bright, brave face and cheerful words of hope, but at her heart there was a weight of foreboding. If we could look forward into the future we should find ordinarily that the perils we most dreaded passed by us, and those we did not anticipate took their place. Thus it was with Anne's foreboding. All her fears and anxieties just now clustered about the invalid who was sailing away from her in search of health. She felt the shadow of Death above and around her. She felt that loss and bereavement were to be her portion. But while she waited for the shadow to fall upon that one beloved head, the Angel entered at another gate. While John Gainsboro was slowly creeping back to life, with a distant prospect of health before him, suddenly, in a night, a new and entirely unlooked for sorrow befell, in the death of Mr. Hast-

ings. Misfortunes seldom come singly, and thus proved in this instance: for it was not only loss by death which the family were called upon to meet, but pecuniary disaster and discomfort. In the necessities and fluctuations of business it was found that a large property had been exhausted, and only a mere pittance left. What was to be done? Tom had his lieutenant's pay; Frank, just graduated from college, had only "prospects"--a chance in a counting room or an importing house, which opportunity this fine young gentleman, who had been planning a trip to Paris, loathed and abhorred.But even then how are we to live?" moaned poor little Mrs. Hastings. "We cannot stay here; and there will be house-rent and a servant's wages and all the rest out of just nothing at all!" Anne hearing these laments turned over in her active mind some way of help. She could see but one path before her. There was but one idea upon which her mind could fix, and tying on her bonnet one day she took herself and her idea straight to their old family physician, whom she thought most likely to help her to carry out this idea."What did you say, my dear?" he questioned, putting on his spectacles and peering curiously at her. That you propose to go out as a nurse for the sick, to earn your living?""Yes, just that, doctor. I've been in the hospital now as a nurse for two years, and Doctor Dick will tell you I am peculiarly fitted for that work.""Yes, I know, I've heard about it. I dare say you are efficient, but that wasn't what I was thinking of. Do you consider my dear what a step you are about to take? It's one thing for a young woman to go off on the high-heroics as a soldier's nurse, for that is a romantic fashion now-a-days, and another thing for her to hire her services out by the week at family nursing. There is a very different odor to this, and by no means the odor of romantic or fashionable sanctity. This is a species of labor half classed with what is called menial servitude. Do you see, my child, do you see that if you go out in this way that you, must enter a family not as you enter it now, but as a kind of servant?I think Anne was never more completely roused in her whole life than now. Roused, not against the old Doctor whom she quite understood, but against the social state of things which she also understood, but which thus placed before her by another in actual words, struck her, as such things will, with all their vividness.Yes, I see," she replied, "I see that women even in such legitimate occupations as nurse to the sick, are by this senseless society, this 'world' you talk to me about, crushed down and depreciated in such a way that it is made a difficult trial to take up what should be an honorable profession requiring refinement and

ability. I see that unless a woman has genius for some of the fine arts, unless she can paint, or write, or sing, she cannot earn her bread without losing her place and her prestige in this 'society.' She can stay at home and be a wicked and useless burden upon those who are already breaking under their load, yet hold her place and be a welcome guest in fashionable circles; but let her be an honorable woman and go out into the world as a worker, to help herself and others who need her help, and this 'society,' if it does not drop her at once, forgets her, or ignores her as out of its orbit, and she is from thenceforth looked down upon, and regarded as something apart from it. Society! It has become a cruel, remorseless tyrant--a slave-driver to whoever will be driven; and the name of these is legion. I think one of the greatest charities, one of the noblest movements the world has ever seen would be that of a woman of wealth and high social position putting herself at the head of some active business--acting herself in it personally, as any man of business acts at desk or wareroom.""Charity, eh?" remarked the Doctor blinking over his spectacles at his guest."Yes, a great charity. For don 't you see, sir, that such a woman would or could make the matter of active business for women, a fashion, and finally the custom, as it is with men?""My dear, the woman who would come forward and do that would be flouted at by nine-tenths of your amiable sex, as eccentric and strong-minded, or half cracked.""For a time, perhaps, and by a class, but if the right kind of a woman did it--a woman of brain and influence, it would eventually accomplish great results.""Well, I think you are right, my dear; and about this matter of your own, you are right to go on of course, but still I want to warn you that you'll find it difficult and disagreeable, and I should advise you to try something else--teaching, for instance," the old doctor returned, placidly but persistently."Teaching!" exclaimed Anne, scornfully. "Don't I know bow those ranks are overfilled? That is one of the few genteel employments. But I have no gift that way, and so I shouldn't succeed honestly, and I wouldn't succeed dishonestly. As a nurse now for the sick I am confident of myself, and in no occupation could I gain such a competency, for you know, doctor, that a first-class nurse in the city can get twelve and fifteen dollars per week, besides her board."The doctor laughed. "What a little shrewd Yankee you are, Anne!""Am. I? Well, I'm glad I am, for that is part of common sense. But Doctor there's a question I want to ask you. Isn't there needed at the present time a

better educated and higher class of women as nurses?""Undoubtedly. 'There is no physician but what would be glad to see real ladies with cultivated intelligences, and good judgment, enter upon this work.So you see, my dear, that I merely raised the objections to this plan for yourself, out of consideration for your personal comfort. But I will now say, that if you have weighed all the chances for, and against, if you think yourself strong enough to stand up under a good deal, of pressure, I will aid you in every way I can; and I promise you, you shall not have lack of occupation. But there is your family, you know, what will they say to it?""It will be a blow, of course, but I must do something, and this is the only work I can do to really help myself. I understand your kindness in wishing to save me from its discomforts; but I think I can stand up under the pressure, as you call it. Perhaps, because I feel that I have the courage to do it, I am one of the somebodies set apart to lead the way. I hope I shall live to see the time when it shall be as much the exception in this country for women to be idle as it is now for men."The Doctor laughed out again."I always knew you'd turn out one of the strong-minded, Anne. I expect to see you going in for woman's rights, voting and all, next thing."Anne laughed a little herself here, and presently looking up, said demurely, "Perhaps you'll see me taking my rights, as I propose to do now, Doctor.""I dare say I shall," the Doctor answered, highly amused. But as he saw his young guest disappear down the street a moment after, he shook his head, and said aloud with a pitying accent:"Whatever she takes that goes against the grain of that Hastings pride, she'll have to pay a heavy price for. That family of her's will worry her into her grave if she undertakes this thing."Anne knew that she should meet with great opposition at home, so she was prepared for the storm of indignation, and tears and entreaties that met her."You might as well give up your engagement at once, if this is your plan, for John Gainsboro will never take his wife from the position you see fit to descend into," Julia cried out at her excitedly.Anne's cheek flushed a little at this mention of her engagement, but she said quietly, though with repressed fire:"If Mr. Gainsboro wishes to dissolve the engagement when he receives the news of my determination, I shall be quite ready.""Then you never loved him, or you couldn't give him up for a whim like this."Anne caught her breath. Never loved him! But here was no use of going into heroics with Julia, so she explained very simply;"It is no whim to me, Julia, but a necessity. We cannot all three of us live on the small income that remains to us now; and if Mr. Gainsboro thinks I can be unworthy or demeaned by any honest work which grows out of such a necessity then we had better part, because I should cease to respect a man who could have such a feeling."But even while Anna declared herself thus resolutely, a great pang smote her heart. It is not so easy a matter for us to put ourselves into positions that will test our idols. No human being ever does it without shrinking from the ordeal. Remembering her lover's evident pride in her hospital career, remembering, too, his sympathy with most of her liberal ideas, she had scarcely questioned his sympathy with her present plan circumstances became known to him. But the Doctor's late words, and Julia's sharp suggestion, brought up a startling possibility. And in view of this possibility, with that tender fear which lurks in every loving heart, she began to soften her own judgments. She was wrong to say that if he did not sympathize with her, her respect for him would cease; wrong and very narrow. He had lived in a different world from hers: in a state of society much more English than American, where social prejudices concerning employments were inbred. How should she set herself up to despise him then, for some inherent tendency? But even while her heart pleaded for him thus, it was not as a possession. She never blinded herself for a moment to the fact that separation was inevitable if he took this ground against her purpose. Inevitable, because her mind had fully accepted the work she had proposed, as a necessity and a duty, not as a possession, then, did her heart plead for him; but as the idol and ideal of her dreams. It is not personal separation, by absence or death, that the high soul dreads most; it is the destruction of the ideal, or more really speaking, the discovery that we have been investing another with attributes from our own imaginations, and that there is no individual reality. This experience is for a time appalling in its effects, afflicting one with a kind of atheism. From the suggestion of this experience, Anne shrank back in sick dismay, and called up every imaginable excuse to avoid even the possibility of its truth. But the effort--the very fact of the need of this inward defense of him; proved her fear; proved that no defense could save her from the desolation she dreaded if Mr. Gainsboro took the position her sister suggested for him. Out of these conflicting emotions she wrote him a sad yet frank letter, apprising him of the change in their fortunes, and her proposed plan, and releasing him from his engagement if ho wished release.The reply to this was characteristic of the man who had given up his South, 
that he loved because of her wrong-doing, and yet would never take up arms against her."Give you up, Anne?" he wrote, "what folly are you talking and what injustice are you doing yourself as well as me by this talk? If you were reduced to a street-sweeper I should not forget that you were a gentlewoman in the good old English phrase--a gentlewoman, and the woman whom I loved. No labor can assoil yon or affect my relation with you. But, at the same time, I do not approve of the course you propose. It afflicts me differently, however, from the way you suggest. I am not meanly subservient to custom or afraid of social criticism; but my pride and my love revolts at the injustice which will meet you from vulgar souls who will perhaps have you under their roofs and therefore under their power in certain ways from which yon cannot escape and in which you may be made to suffer. That labor should be dignified for women as well as for men I fully admit, but I do not believe in self-sought martyrdom, and I do not feel willing that you should enter upon it both for your sake and my own. The objections that your family raise, too, are to be considered for their sakes. What society thinks is of less consequence to me than to most men, but to them, as to many, it is of great importance, and makes their happiness or misery. Even though you know this is weak yet out of your larger nature let your affection make you as willing to sacrifice something of yourself to them as to the beliefs which you have accepted. There must be other avenues open to you--teaching, for instance." Anne felt the first thrill of impatience here, but the tender words that immediately followed, the passionate outbreak of sympathy and sorrow--sorrow that his own right arm was powerless yet to save her, and hers, from every care put to flight any feeling of impatience. Altogether it was a manly letter, consistent and noble, not cowardly and subservient as she had dared to fear! And her heart rose with a great throb of happiness as she read to the end; for her idol was worthy! But as she realized this, she realized too how much harder it was to do her duty against this idol who held his throne, than it would have been if he had proved himself unworthy the place. Her duty! What was it after all? Putting necessity out of the question--given that she could find other occupations, might it not be as he had shown--her duty to comply with the wishes and feelings of those nearest and dearest to her? As she thought this, leaning back in her chair, her eyes happened to rest upon an engraving from, Millais' picture--"The Huguenot Lovers." When it first came into her possession, several years ago, fresh from the reading of the inspiring history of that time, she had written underneath the beautiful figures, the significant sentence--
"For conscience's sake."
The blood mounted to her head, and her pulses quickened; and she seemed to hear a girl's voice saying, "If ever I am tempted to give up a principle for any cause whatever, let me look up at this and recall to mind how for a principle--for conscience's sake--one may give up even life rather than the principle, the conscience itself." Even life! and how many were giving that up now, were giving up life and love and home, for conscience's sake. How she had wished that she had been her father's son instead of daughter, that she might enter into the heroic stir and tumult of a soldier's career. To do something heroic!--that had always been the impulse of her ardent and aspiring nature. To do something heroic. And here it was given her to do. Here it was given her to serve her sex, the whole race of women, perhaps, by her example. Did that Huguenot lover consider that he had any right to give up his conscience for the wishes and feelings of those nearest and dearest? Did the men who fighting for a principle now, consider that they had any right to remain inactive at home because of the individual wisheS and feelings? But was the principle before her mind so vital after all? It was not certainly like those others--a matter of life and death. It was not so immediate--ah, no! she would wait, she would wait, and perhaps, perhaps."--Thus she questioned and argued and temporized with herself, this poor Anne, who was so perplexed and troubled at home and abroad. In this perplexity she sought her old friend the Doctor again. She would try something else if he would help her, she told him. He would help her in any way he could, he replied with the inward comment as he looked at tired face:"Knew they'd worry her into their way or into he grave."The "something else" that suggested was the inevitable school-teaching, and, failing that, copying law-papers, or any other matter available. She was to go at the end of the week to see what he had found or her in these directions. At the end of the week this was the news he had for her: There were the names of five hundred applicants already down upon the school-teachers' lists, with no chance for a single vacancy under a year. There was no better prospect at the various offices where copying was given out. They had already an over-supply of copyists for the work. As she heard this, a bitter wave rose over her spirit. How easy to counsel women what to do, and what not to do. How easy for one's friends to put up their fine feelings as a shield and a barrier, and to urge compliance to their tastes as a duty. How easy everything but freedom for a woman to choose where to earn her daily bread. Five hundred anxious, weary women waiting for a five hundredth chance of living, because of a corrupt society's false and wicked estimates! Five hundred, nay, five thousand, each

too cowardly in herself or in her affections to go forward and help to break these slavish bonds!These were the thoughts that rushed over Anne in that moment. This was the bitter wave, that passing, left her, no longer bitter, but lighted from within.PART FOUR.There was a great party at Mrs. Merrivales the other night. The party of the season it was said to be."A little dull, you know, at first as these things are apt to be: bat after Mrs. Gainsboro came in we lighted up," said Col. Van Decker, who is authority on social matters."Mrs. Gainsboro?" in a questioning tone."Why, yes; it isn't- possible you don't know of Mrs. Gainsboro. Not to know Mrs. Gainsboro argues yourself unknown. Gainsboro nee Hastings. Don't you remember that pretty piquante Anne Hastings, who went off as hospital nurse in the war, and then afterwards made such a sensation by turning her talents to account in private families--setting up a new order of things, or endeavoring to, by asserting in her own person and example that the care of the sick is a lady's profession. No? you don't know about it! but I forget you've been out of the civilized world, grilling alive in Bombay all these years; but come in here and I'll tell you the story;" and the Colonel button-holed his friend, and drew him in from the street to the little park they were passing."Yes, it's the greatest thing you ever heard. She went out as I have said, a nurse for the sick, into private families--made a regular business of it to support herself and help her mother and sister. They were very much reduced about that time by the death of Mr. Hastings, you see. Well, there was a tremendous sensation. Society--the society to which she belongs, that is--got up on its high heels in astonishment and dismay. It was done out of bravado! It was an insolent attempt to revolutionize the social order and mix classes! These were some of the things that were said. But the girl held her way. A few right-minded, sensible persons applauded and encouraged; but the right-minded, sensible persons, who see beyond their stupid noses into the real meanings of life, are always the minority in this world, so I suspect Miss Hastings 'way' was a pretty difficult one. But she proved herself a plucky little thing and kept on. The end of it was that she asserted herself and her plan, and made both respected and in a measure understood. She has done more than this, however. She has shown that young and active women of refinement and ability are absolutely needed to displace the superannuated ignorant class who have hitherto

tyrannized over sick-rooms and frustrated and set aside even the physician's orders. And she has shown too, that a lady may make an occupation what she pleases, and has thus opened the door of an honorable profession to thousands of her sex. Within the past few years she has trained quite a number of young women for nurses, and has recently organized and opened a training school, which she oversees herself. She knows her ground, you see--knew she was fitted for the work and went forward straight to success. Success is always successful to make an epigram--it always changes the hue and cry of abuse into acclamation at last. So it was in this case. And when the finishing touch was put by John Gainsboro's coming home to marry, her:--John Gainsboro, who was suddenly turned into a millionaire by the death of that old rebel, Gainsboro Shelby--why there was no height too lofty to enshrine Mrs. Gainsboro upon. I thought the other night, as I saw her surrounded by an admiring circle, one and another paying their homage to her, of the time when they would have hunted her down if they could. What is it that old Frenchman says?--'Society always stands ready to devour, either in rage or in admiration.' With equal readiness it will turn victim into a saint, or a saint into a victim, as the wind of popularity rises or falls. It had no power to make a victim of Miss Hastings, because her power was the superior, and so like all tyrants it turned sycophant to what it could not master.""And John Gainsboro, he had his Southern notions spite of his liberality, I remember; how did he accept all Miss Hastings' innovations?"The Colonel laughed. "Well, you may truly say, 'all;' and you will open your eyes when I tell you, that however it was when he was away, he came home to be converted by this little Radical in the most extraordinary manner. John Gainsboro at this day is a firm advocate and supporter of Woman's right to the Suffrage! What do you think of that?" The gentleman who had been grilled alive in Bombay, to use the Colonel's words, thought Mrs. Gainsboro must be a remarkable woman--"a dangerous woman," he laughingly exclaimed, "whom a man might well avoid if he had any prejudices to which she were opposed."But let us say a word privately about John Gainsboro, reader, while Col. Van Decker and the gentleman from Bombay wander off upon other topics. When Anne wrote out to this lover of hers the statement of facts which threw her back upon her original intention, John Gainsboro accepted both facts and intention  with the greatest kindness, but he accepted them as errors and failures. Anne felt this sorely, but bore it sweetly and a little proudly. But when John Gainsboro came back, and looking about him saw that there was nothing beyond the limitations of these facts, when he saw how narrow and proscribed were the

avenues of labor for women, when looking deeper, he saw what a noble work his Anne was doing for her sex--his Anne, whose wisdom he had doubted, he was noble enough himself to ask her pardon for his doubt, to confess himself convinced, and to give not only sympathy but countenance and aid in furtherance of her plans. When the great property of Gainsboro Shelby,--his mother's cousin, who had hated him for his liberal beliefs all his life;--when this great property came into his hands, John Gainsboro proved by his use of it of how fine a fibre were these liberal ideas of his. And acting together always, in every liberal scheme, the names of Mr. and Mrs. Gainsboro have become synonymous with everything that is fine and generous."A remarkable woman," said the gentleman from Bombay, as he pondered over all that Col. Van Decker had told him about Mrs. Gainsboro. "A remarkable woman, for she knew just what to do, and was not afraid to do it!"EMANCIPATION.M. F. BurlingameWOMEN should regard suffrage as a means, not as an end. A means of release from legal restraints which consider her as less than a human being--of enforcing the principle "no taxation without representation" --of protecting property--of receiving a fair equivalent for labor--of social elevation--of mental and moral enlightenment--of awakening to effort--in short a means of emancipation.Ignorant, indifferent men and women view the result of the suffrage movement as merely an increased number of votes polled at the regular elections. "Parties and politics will not be changed," they say, there will be nothing gained, only so many more votes to count." They see nothing of the grand consequences enfranchisement involves, the revolutionizing of woman's social position and individual character.The world needs strong, self-reliant, self-sacrificing, conscientious women for its regeneration. High physical, mental and moral development is what women need. But to this, as a class, they will never attain, while they are treated as inferiors, are deprived of their inherent rights, and are dependent on masculine bounty.Suppose a mother teaches her son in this manner: "My dear, you must not engage in out-door exercises, for they develop the muscular

system, and it is desirable that you should preserve a delicate appearance; and you must not expose your complexion to the rays of the sun. You must submit to tight lacing in order to obtain an improved figure. Yon must conform to all the dictates of fashion, however absurd, unsuitable and uncomfortable; and your attire must claim the most of your time and thoughts. An education is but time and money wasted; a slight knowledge of a few prominent branches together with the fashionable accomplishments is all sufficient. You will never have any use for more, besides learned gentlemen are quite ridiculous."The only aim of your life is to marry. Do not trouble yourself about becoming fitted for its responsibilities, nor think of its various duties; you will learn them when you are obliged to. You can labor a little about home if you choose, but to have a regular occupation, trade or profession is very vulgar. Your sisters and myself will support you till you are grown, and then you must marry a rich wife. Remember that while your sisters are free to follow the inclinations of their minds and choose occupations, you must remain with your mother till you have a wife to provide for you. The property you inherit from me will go into her possession, and you will, at all times, be dependent upon her, but that is as it should be. A woman and her husband should be one.You must not interest yourself in politics; you have no voice in the government. If the laws are oppressive, if your wife becomes dissipated, squanders all your inherited property in gambling and drinking, takes away the money starvation has compelled you to earn, and then beats you for more, you must submit in silence, for you can obtain no redress and if you clamor for reform, you will be termed that horror of horrors 'a strong-minded man.'"Thus taught and trained what sort of a man would he make ? If possessed of any spirit would he not fret and beat against his chains? Then if parental authority and society sneeringly smiled at any higher aspirations, ridiculed his attempts to escape, and forcibly held him in his "sphere," (so-called), would he not become an idling, inane, silly, dandified puppy.Yet the majority of girls are thus taught and trained. From this false system of teaching and practice, energetic reformers are endeavoring to emancipate women. If freedom, education, labor, business, re-

sponsibility, franchise, and aims are needed to fully develop men, are they not also needed to fully develop women? Let women feel that they are "free and equal," that an occupation is honorable, and that their acts, opinions and influence are of some importance, and they will desert the ranks of ignorance, idleness and folly.Suffrage is the gate to fields beyond. Fields of labor, of education, of development. Merely the privilege of voting the Republican or Democratic ticket is not our aim, but to make "perfect women, nobly planned."Croakers prate of evils which will follow the legal and political equality of woman. Every great change is accompanied by temporary evils. But this fact still remains--right is right. And further, liberty does not mean license; nor does the right of ballot annul woman's peculiar duties and responsibilities.With woman's enfranchisement will come elevation and thorough education. With thorough education will come a just appreciation and a better performance of her duties. In the marriage relation she will take her true position as a help-meet--a woman, not merely as a female."But women do not use the privileges they have, why give them more?" ask the oppositionists. True, women as a class do neglect their privileges, they are yet sleeping in a chrysalis state, but there is a promise of what they can be, of what they may be. In the old slavery days, men said: "The slaves will not work without a driver, they cannot support themselves, they are incapable of self-government, and they must remain dependent." But the emancipation has shown how unfounded, how empty their assertions. In the same manner the emancipation of women will reveal stamina, powers and resources among them yet unimagined.M. F. BURLINGAME.WOMEN are thought to be more credulous than men. That arises from circumstances. They perhaps have not their trust so often misplaced. They have not so often occasion to test the truthfulness, or reverse, of human nature. If before the fall woman was more credulous than man, surely she was less responsible for heeding the words of the tempter.--"Think and Act."--Virginia Penny.A WOMAN'S MISSIONnot givenI AM sorry if my choosing pains you--We choose little in this world, I think:Walk the path that God lays out before us;Drink the waters that He gives to drink.Are you wiser mother than the Father;Who gave me the talent for this artTill the smallest work of the great MasterFinds a loving echo in my heart?Ah! you say, "a woman's joy is lovingLoving--yes! and being loved again!"And to those who love not, mother,Is there nothing in this life but pain?Do you wish that I should still sit waitingAs in an Arctic night one watches for the sun?Aye! and dies perhaps before the morning,Having waited only--nothing done!Ah! this wide world is no Arctic regionThe broad harvests lie out in the sun;There are many fields for many workers--All the laborers labor not in one.Do you think--if something of the storyAll the world's rich beauty tells to me,I should tell to some who walk in blindness,That this single life would wasted be?If--perhaps, in some day that I know notOne should come to call me from this fieldTo another, where the harvest waits me,With a voice so strong that I must yieldWhy, then! I should gladly follow, lovingGathering his children at my knee;Feeling their soft hands upon my bosom,Giving them all life had given to me.But if this call cometh never, mother,Life is still quite full and rich for me;Each day's work with each day's sunlight coming,And beyond them all--Eternity!A KANSAS HEROINE.not givenTEN years ago--how long the time seems looking back from this period--it was my fortune to be in the then sparsely settled Territory of Kansas, acting at once as a Tribune correspondent, and as a volunteer aid to the noted Free State hero--James Montgomery.It was the year 1858, the culmination of the difficulties in the southern part of the Territory, known as the "Fort Scott Difficulties;" and the theater of action was chiefly in the Counties of Lynn and Bourbon, in the latter of which the Fort, then an important military station, is located. I was fresh from the East. Reared among Quakers, the descendant of those who through love of its "simple faith" had followed Penn to the Western world, myself partaking largely of its influences, it was long before I could contemplate unmoved the desperate character of my surroundings. Indeed it would be difficult to depict in colors too vivid the atrocities perpetrated by the "Border Ruffians" in the last of their long line of aggressions on the freemen of that disputed soil. Fort Scott, although nominally a garrison for the preservation of law, was the rendezvous of some of the most notorious characters in the Territory, who, aided by their willing tools, the soldiery, made frequent forays on the scattering settlements, laying waste the property of Free State men, and making the lintels of many a cabin home drip with the blood of inoffensive victims. Along the Osage and Marmaton rivers, where the settlements were most numerous, scarcely a night passed without witnessing some depredation on life or property; and the sorely needed labors of the husbandman were almost wholly suspended in the efforts to preserve life itself from the bullet of the assassin.Yet far more deplorable would have been the condition of the settlers hardy enough to remain exposed to the assaults of the ruffians, wearing as in mockery the uniform of the soldier, without the powerful arm--the volunteer organization of James Montgomery. Inspired with a love of liberty, marvelous in one so reared and educated, bringing to council a clearness of judgment and promptitude of action, his well-known courage, his deadly skill in the use of arms, and natural fitness for command, enabled him, to assume leadership, and exert unquestioned authority over the undisciplined natures persecution had driven to his standard. Perhaps not even some ancestor If his name, in the years agone, on Highland heath, received fealty more loyal from his clan than Montgomery from the gallant spirits whom circumstances had drawn around him, and whose presence, wherever emergency called them, was guarantee to the harassed settler of protection from the marauders, who, by bitter experience, had learned well to flee from where, as the stern Marion of old--"Rode Montgomery and his men."Ay, the outer world then received, and may even yet credit, tales of lawlessness of the operations of this same volunteer organization, but I who for months shared, as it were, their crust, rode in the saddle with them, was cognizant of their daily deeds and intimately associated with their chieftain, know how false were the reports of their abuses of freeman trust, and the Kansas settler, who to-day by the fireside recalls those "dark hours" of Territorial history, teaches his children to bless the name of Montgomery.One evening--and this much of needed prologue--brings me to my story--we were encamped in a dense body of timber bordering on the Little Osage river, a stream some twenty miles north of Fort Scott. It was just after the visit of Gov. Denver, already half a proselyte to Free State theories, to Southern Kansas; light was breaking on the political horizon; fresh hopes animated the defenders of freedom, and on the evening, in question light-hearted merriment presided over the Free State camp. Tale, joke and song alternately went the rounds, and peal after peal of laughter burst from the lips of the men, and was borne by the night-wind until lost in the hoarser murmurs of the Osage. Among stories narrated was one, which I refresh my memory by reference

to my note-book to repeat, illustrating as it does traits of character the world never wearies to hear--bravery and filial affection. As it fell from the lips of the speaker, a comely, sun-burnt fellow of five-and-twenty, whom I shrewdly suspected was more deeply interested in the heroine than he would have cared to acknowledge, the narration was unnecessarily prolix, introducing much not strictly relevant in character, but assuming the historian's privilege of abbreviation in immaterial passages, his story was substantially as follows:"Well, boys, you may talk of your exploits, and I don't deny courage to many of you, seeing I have faced the same dangers with you, but I am going to tell you something a little Kansas girl did the other day that for pluckiness I'll match against any of your yarns, not excepting even noisy Dick Halsted's. You all know Parson Kimberlin, he that lives down on the Marmaton, and maybe many of you know, or would like to know his daughter, pretty Susie Kimberlin. Well, the old Parson is a mighty strong Radical, and what with his mixing politics and Free Stateism up with his sermons, and writing such out-and-out letters to the Lawrence papers, he has stirred up a perfect hornet's nest among the gentry down at the Fort, and more than once he has been threatened that if he didn't quit ink-spilling and talking about his betters they'd find a way to make him. About a month ago a party of them visited his cabin and read what they call the 'Regulations' to him, saying that if the had ever occasion to call on him again they'd bend a limb with his carcass, but the plucky old fellow has just kept on preaching and writing as though there was no such thing as Judge Lynch or a slip-noose in the Territory. Last Sunday week at a meeting up on the Fork he paid his respects to the Fort gentry in language more forcible, I suppose, than polite (and good reason the old gentleman had to be wrathful, for his best horse bad been run off just the previous evening); but some sneak in the crowd made it his business to carry the talk, which lost nothing in his hands, down to the Fort, and the rascals there, Brocket, Clarke and the rest, decided at once to make short work of Parson Snivelton, as they call him. So a strong posse of them, a dozen or more, rode up to the Marmaton, one pitchy black night last week, and cautiously approaching the old man's claim, they surrounded the cabin, catching him at home, alone and utterly unsuspecting danger,

sitting in" his, easy chair, the pretty Susie, reading some of his favorite Bible chapters to him. Of course they pounced in like so many tigers, but not before Susie, whose quick ear had caught their approaching tread, managed to thrust her father, unwilling though he was, into the small adjoining room, snatch up the six-shooter the old gentleman always carried on his journeys, and bar the way to his retreat, her slender form erect, her right arm extended, and that eye of hers blacker, boys, than a Kansas night at ordinary times, but now blazing with excitement, and leveled straight on the barrel's 'sights,' and covering the foremost of the ruffians before her. I tell you it was a picture, and one not greatly relished by the blood-thirsty pack, who could have fought a man well enough but who, villains as they were, rather shrunk from such an encounter as was offered."'Stand aside, girl!' thundered old Brocket, 'it will be worse for you if you give us not instant access to yonder canting hypocrite. We have an account to settle with him, and your puny person shall be no obstacle between us and our vengeance. Back, or, by G----d, we'll riddle you!'"'Never!' said the brave girl, 'I stir not from here, but the first wan, who advances so much as even one plank of this floor, courts his death and meets it instantly. Not one of you has my father wronged, and I warn you that not the first one who tries will live to reach him. Away, ere the vengeance of a higher power overtakes you for the thoughts of blood you have harbored in your hearts this night!'"Boys! it is said that there are special interpositions of Providence--times when, in direst extremity, the Divine arm is reached out for the preservation of mortals. How this may be I know not, I am no hand to advance a fine theory, but it would really seem as though a miracle were performed that evening for Susie Kimberlin. For, as she stood there, calm, yet so inflexible in purpose, her eye losing never its fixity of gaze, the ruffians from very shame began to cower; there was a wavering on the part of the foremost; old Brocket, smothering his curses, turned on his heel, muttering something about 'a breath of fresh air;' his example was followed by his panic-stricken men, and the whole pack, baffled for once in their keen scent of blood, stole away

under the night's cover; black as their own hearts, from the Marmaton."
 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
Ten times, since I listened to that tale of a maiden's heroism, the grass has waved green on those river banks, and the prairie rose flung out its sweetness over broad acres, populous now with busy life. The lawlessness of those days lives only in story, and our loved poet's prophecy--
"Free homes, and free altars,And fields of ripe food"
hastens rapidly to fulfillment. Perchance, in the swift march of events, that girl by the Marmaton, who, in an hour of danger, took her life in her hand to shield her sire, will yet grasp the ballot, and who will say that she has not earned the right, or has not the capacity to make a judicious exercise of it?NEARING IT.W. J. LintonEVERY minute in the night,Be it dark and dread,Is a step toward the lightOn the mountain head:Till our eyelids reach the dawn,And the fearful night is gone,As swift as startled fawnFrom the hunter's tread.Every blow struck in the fightOn a foeman's shieldIs a promise for the Right,That the Wrong shall yield:And each determined word,Like some ancient hero's sword,Returneth to its lordWith his hest fulfill'd.Every step into the light,As the dawn-mists fly,The hours increase in might,Till the noon rides high:And as night's black clouds disperseAt the sun-god's burning curse,So drives Oppression's hearseFrom our conquest-cry.W. J. LINTON.WOMAN'S WAGES.Jane O. DeForestIN no other way do we find more striking evidences of the injustice which woman has always received, than by considering the wages which have been doled out to her. And although the majority of our country-women are as yet, perhaps, opposed to the suffrage question, still, we venture to assert, that with an almost unanimous voice, they will admit that the present system of wages is outrageous. According to our ideas, this wrong will never be fully righted until woman receives the ballot; still we think something can be done to improve her prospects, even before reaching that goal.Women have been, and are, altogether too timid about asserting their rights in this respect, and it is about time that they were arousing themselves, and showing a proper resistance to a tyrannical custom. We suppose that at least three-fourths of our Common and High schools are taught by ladies, and they generally receive about one-third or one-half the pay that gentlemen would got if filling their places. Now we think that this manner of doing business has been carried on quite long enough, and would fain suggest a remedy. Let this great army of teachers unite their voices and demand as their lawful right, those wages, and only those, which gentlemen would receive in their positions. The expense of obtaining an education is as great for a young woman as for a young man, and there, can be no sound reason given, why she should not receive the same compensation as he does, in the faithful use of it. Let all those who are employed as compositors, government and dry goods clerks, seamstresses, milliners, or in other industrial pursuits, at once make a brave and decisive movement for their own welfare, and refuse to be longer ground beneath the iron heel of Injustice.We cannot find terms too strong with which to urge the prompt and earnest consideration of this subject. Take this matter into your own

hands, and you can without doubt, do very much to ameliorate your condition. But some of you say: "If we ask higher wages, other women will underbid us, and then we shall get no employment." Not by any means, if you are acting together. Talk the subject over with your fellow-laborers, hold meetings to discuss the question, sustain the weak and faltering, and you are sure to succeed in a partial securing of your rights at least; then when you are ready to ask for the ballot, you will get the full complement, if we do not greatly mistake. During the coming Summer, State Teachers' Associations will be held all over the land. Friends of woman! do not, we beg of you, fail to present this cause on all such occasions, and with such zeal as to gain the attention of all. Those whose means or engagements will not permit an attendance upon the State organizations, can, and should, press the subject warmly and strongly upon the consideration of those assembled at the Town and County Institutes. And above all, ladies, see to it that you ask greater remuneration for your services during the next school year.If the teachers take the lead in this matter--and who more fitted to do it--other women, who are bravely fighting the battle of life, will follow in their footsteps. But some of you say, "We don't intend to follow this vocation for many years, we are going to get married." Right and proper that you should do so, if a suitable opportunity occurs; still would you not feel decidedly more independent, should your earnings be sufficient to admit of a little laying up of money, wherewith to furnish your now home, or otherwise assist in your "partnership business?" We think all sensible women would rejoice if permitted to do this. The wages of to-day, barely allow a young lady to board and clothe herself comfortably for the present, but permit of no provision for the future, yet there is no reason why she should not be able to save money, as well as her brother.Again, we say to our countrywomen, arouse yourselves, and with the utmost of your abilities, strive to place the wages of your own sex upon an equal plane with those of men; and in so doing you will forge one of the most powerful weapons for the destruction of Vice and Misery, ever beheld by those who battle for the cause of Truth and Justice.JANE 0. DEFORESTEditorial DepartmentSHALL THERE BE UNITY?THE Third Annual Meeting of the AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, held in this city on the 12th and 13th ult., presented features to the friends of the Movement, and to the world at large, which we cannot consistently with our convictions allow to pass without comment.Not as time-honored as some of the Reform Societies, THE EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, in its establishment three years ago, drew into its organization many of the truest men and women, of those actively engaged in the promotion of the noblest Reform movements of the last fourth of a century. Particularly from the American Anti-Slavery Society it derived a large accession of members, whose self-sacrificing labors for the slave had educated them into a clearness of moral atmosphere in which they recognized humanity standing on the basis of equality, man and woman alike. Its President by common assent was the honored LUCRETIA MOTT, and among its officers, or upon its roll of members, giving tone and vitality to the organization, were such names as ROBERT PURVIS, FREDERICK DOUGLASS, LUCY STONE, STEPHEN FOSTER, ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL, C. C. BURLEIGH and other well-known champions of human rights. Its creed, as enunciated, was broad, simple, unmistakable. It was not distinctively Woman's Rights; it was not the Negro's Rights especially; it was each and all--the WATCHMAN of the Rights of humanity.Thus grand in purpose; its banner upborne by the purest spirits, the clearest intellects, enlisted in the Reform movements, THE EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION had a purpose and a mission such as is rarely confided to an organization. To no one of the pleadings of the victims of oppression, be color, nationality or sex what it might, could it be unmindful without recreancy to its principles. That it should travel the

world in Don Quixote search of wrongs to champion, in order to maintain its consistency, was not a necessity ; but its position required that, concerning any National sin--any wrong battled by the good and the true for years--it should speak with no doubtful voice; and both by its official acts, and by the attitude of those high in trust, it should present to the world an unspotted record.Why, it may be asked, do we assert principles, the correctness of which no one will call in question? Because, in the judgment of some of the best of its members, THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION stands dishonored. Tried at the tribunal of public opinion, in the light of its creed and its history, its fame is tarnished. Need we say what it costs us thus to write. Need we say, with the love we have for the Cause in which we are enlisted, and in which so much is at stake, that we would fain commend, or, at least, pass all by in silence, were such a course consistent with our sense of duty. When such men as STEPHEN FOSTER, FREDERICK DOUGLASS and CHARLES BURLEIGH, names synonymous with Reform, feel it their duty either to withdraw from an organization, or make an ineffectual struggle against odds for the establishment of a principle, it is time to consider well what is vital; and, in the interests of independent journalism, we declare the tendency, which compelled STEPHEN FOSTER to withdraw from the AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION, a fatal error. An attitude so hostile to the very principles from which the Society drew its life-blood--for, at every stage, the DOUGLASS Resolutions excited the bitter opposition of the Convention, making the spectacle at times more resembling a Tammany Hall than a Reform meeting--cannot, unless checked, but result in the destruction of all future usefulness on the part of the organization. Not faithless to one fundamental principle can a Reform Society be, and win enduring success for another. Not alone is the treason as criminal, but God suffers, not the perpetuation of triumphs won by expediency. When, with indefensible haste, misled we think by sophistic reasoning, the Convention voted down freedom of speech and, in effect, arrayed itself in hostility to the Fifteenth Amendment, it placed the seal upon its own condemnation and destroyed, very greatly, its capacity for future usefulness, We

pass by all of detail. We have no heart to probe deeply into the cause of the effect. We know that there were noble natures there who would fain it should have been otherwise--who, looking beyond the near, saw the embodied rights of humanity--but these were powerless to prevent the consummation of the evil.Henceforth, while we shall labor as earnestly for the Cause to which we are pledged; while we recognize the purity of motives actuating many of its members, we shall in no wise regard THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION as loyal either to its charter or the claims of humanity, until a new spirit, proscribing not the humblest or the most outcast of our race, is infused into its organization. But, whatever may be the mistakes of individuals or of associations, the work itself must go on. In that we have an abiding faith. Truth is eternal, and our Cause, founded on the immutable principles of justice, cannot perish through human error. All of imperfection will pass away, but the good will remain, and human strivings for excellence, manifesting themselves in truer channels, will be continued, until the world sits in darkness no more.THE ADVOCATE-VOL. II.WITH the current number closes the First Volume of THE ADVOCATE. It is in no light spirit of boasting we say that its success thus far has been beyond our most sanguine expectations. Generous friends devoting time and energy to the promotion of our interests; the cooperation of able pens, and a heart fully enlisted in the work and determined to present to the public a worthy offering to the Cause, have all combined to win for our infant journal a circulation, perhaps, rarely attained within so brief a period.Turning over the pages of the initial volume of THE ADVOCATE, more numerous by one-fifth than was promised, the reader meets with the names of such well-known writers and earnest Reform laborers as

ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL, FRANCES DANA GAGE, CAROLINE H. DALL, SAMUEL J. MAY, LUCY STONE, HENRY B. BLACKWELL, PHEBE A. HANAFORD, GEORGE BURLEIGH and SAMUEL C. BLACKWELL, each of whom have contributed thoughtful papers, giving the volume a permanent value to all interested in this foremost of questions pressing upon the civilized world for solution. In addition to the more carefully considered Essays from these and other writers, the Departments of "Notes," "Home Intelligence," "Literary," etc., have furnished measurably a record of current events, and given a varied interest to the pages of THE ADVOCATE.For the Second Volume such arrangements are in progress, or are already consummated, as will be an assurance to our friends of no diminution of interest in its pages. The July number will open with a paper entitled, "Are we Worse than our Grandmothers," by Mrs. ISABELLA HOOKER, one of the ablest and most esteemed writers of the day and a careful observer of the Woman Question. FRANCES DANA GAGE will contribute the first instalment of a paper on "Old Maids," and other features will lend varied attraction to the number.Closing with such pleasurable feelings the initial Volume, we look forward to the second with the confidence inspired by the success of honest effort. If, in the widening circle of friends, one regard has been lessened, we are unaware of it; if any word or criticism of ours has given offence, we regret the necessity of its utterance; for the Past we have only kindly thoughts, and for the Future, hope and word of cheer at the advancement of the Right.NOTES.IN Paris, a woman, Mme. Donmerque, has passed the examination which entitles her to be an apothecary. She is the first woman in France who has done so.A Mrs. Norton has applied for admission at Cornell University as a student. Mr. Cornell and several of the Professors favor her application, but the Trustees remain opposed to her admission.Dr. Adelaide Grennan of! St. Louis has been appointed examining Physician of the Homœopathic Mutual Life Insurance Company of this city. It is the first appointment ever made of a woman to fill such a position.A Committee of the Bloomington, Iowa, Temperance League recently made a canvass of the women of that city as to their position on the temperance question, with the following result: Women in favor of prohibition, 1,433; Women opposed to prohibition 143; Women neutral or indifferent, 31.Miss Kate Field, whose gratifying successes in Boston have been previously chronicled, has since delivered her lecture on "Woman in the Lyceum," both in this city and in Brooklyn, to large and appreciative audiences. Miss Field brings to the lecture-room all the varied requisites of success and the critics are unanimous in according rare excelenceexcellence to her efforts.The Joint Special Committee of the House and Senate of the Massachusetts Legislature, to whom were committed the petitions of eight thousand intelligent men and women of that State asking for Woman Suffrage, have made a report declaring themselves strongly in favor of such an enactment, and the Report goes now before the Legislature for its action. We learn that strong hopes are entertained of its passage. May the old "Bay State" be the first to receive the laurel!At the recent Woman Suffrage Convention in Brooklyn an additional interest was lent to the proceedings by the presence of Lucretia Mott, the honored President of the American Equal Rights Association. Mrs. Mott although advanced in years, and bowed yet beneath the irreparable loss of her beloved husband, was able to make a few remarks, leaving a benediction with an assemblage with which, in this life, she may not again meet. Few women have lived such a life as Lucretia Mott, and the sun of a well-spent existence goes to its setting without a cloud dimming its radiance.The Working Women's Association of this city are taking measures for the establishment of an Intelligence Office for Working-women, whereby their true wants and needs can be properly brought to the notice of the public. The plan also looks to the opening of a Salesroom and other desirable agencies for the great class of toiling women. Among the ladies active in this good work are Mrs. Celia Burleigh, wife of the poet, Wm. H. Burleigh, Mrs. C. S. Lozier, Mrs. Sarah A. Norton, Mrs. Mary F. Davis, Mrs. Eleanor Kirke and others. We trust that an enterprise so commendable will succeed.Among the notable women at the recent Anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was Mrs. A. K. Foster of Worcester, Mass., better known in the days of the old Anti-Slavery warfare As Abby Kelly. Mrs. Foster, who from a long and dangerous illness, is regarded by her friends almost as one raised from the dead, is looking remarkably well, although yet feeble, and manifests all her olden interest, not only in the Anti-Slavery movement, which approaches the full fruition of arduous labor, but in the growing Question of Woman's Enfranchisement. We trust that Mrs. Foster will be spared many years, to witness the full consummation of the principles to which she has rendered such valuable support.The following beautiful tribute to one whose daily life bears witness to the fidelity of the portrait, we take from The Anti-Slavery Standard of the 22d ult:SONNETS.
To E. B. C.I.FRIEND Of the friendless! true as tempered steel,And just as keen when some outrageous wrongIn wealth of fraud, or pulpit-fortress, strong,Sets on the poor of God its mailed heel,--But quick with all a mother's heart to feelFor the scarred outcast,--souls devoted longTo pain and loss;--I see around thee throngAll bleeding bosoms for thy touch to heal!Pale Sorrow comes for soothing, Hunger waitsHer daily bread, and Penitence to renewHer virtuous strength. The stranger in Thy gatesMay find home-welcome, and the noblest Few,--Truth's chosen champions, eager for the fray,An Ally clear and constant as the day!II.Thy earnest soul hath natural eloquence,Not the lithe posturing of consummate art,But simple movements of an honest heartThat withers vice, and folly, and pretence,With upright truth, and downright common sense!The timid soul might shiver, the bigot start,At thy tongue's bluntness, but the True departBlessing the love that is their firm defence,Among thy gods, the gallant, strong and free,Beauty stands eminent in her regal niche,And household Love with children round her kneeSits by her lamp, and sheds a beam more rich;Though now an armed Apostle, battling Ill,A Woman, Mother, Friend, and Sister still.G. S. BURLEIGH.VALLEY FALLS, R. I., April 8th, 1869.SPECIAL OFFER.IN order to increase as much as possible the circulation of THE ADVOCATE, we offer to our present subscribers who will send one, or more, subscriptions, Volume II, the six numbers remaining in the year, for FIFTY CENTS. This offer, applying only to those whose names are upon our books, will enable our friends who have paid a full subscription on for the year, to furnish, or present, to others a valuable publication making, in the six numbers, over 300 pages of choice reading matter, for the nominal price of FIFTY CENTS. Surely, with such inducement, those who recognize the importance of disseminating correct principles, will assist in spreading broadcast the seed which, wherever it may be sown, cannot but bear fruit compensating for the little of extra effort. Will not each subscriber to THE ADYOCATE resolve to furnish at least one subscription in season for the July number?OUR PRIZE STORIES--EXTENSION OF TIME.IN consequence of the difficulty of obtaining stories, in the judgment of the Committee really meritorious, an extension of time has been granted to July first, when the awards will be male public. We share in the disappointment of our fiction-loving readers, and will endeavor, by sketches and interesting matter, to make the unavoidable delay as little of an annoyance as possible.FRIENDS at a distance having occasion to visit New York and desiring a comfortable boarding-place, will do well, in advance of their visit, to write to Mary E. Gage, No. 70 Willow street, Brooklyn, who is prepared to accommodate a few friends, reasonable notice being given in advance of their desires. Miss Gage, well known to many of our readers as the daughter of Frances D. Gage, is a young lady of superior culture and real executive ability; and, having secured a most eligible location on the "Heights," with pure air and a charming outlook, those who avail themselves of the hospitality of "Aunt Fanny's" daughter will find one of the cosiest of homes in which order reigns, and none of the mere "boarding house" negligence is permitted. For the information of Mrs. Gage's numerous friends, we will state in this connection that it is her expectation to reside in Brooklyn, and in future all persons desiring to communicate with her can address as above. Once more in the "arm chair," so near as our sister city we may promise our readers that her pen will be frequently employed for their benefit.LITERARY.TALE OF A PHYSICIAN: OR, THE SEEDS AND FRUITS OF CRIME. By Andrew Jackson Davis. Cloth, 325 pp. Price, $1.00. Boston: Wm. White & Co. Now York: J. B. Loomis, 25 East Fourth St.The class of minds rejecting all reformatory writings without any investigation, because they may be deemed visionary, or dealing with subjects improper for mortals to investigate, is rapidly lessening, as the light of the age breaks in upon the old domains of ignorance and superstition. Ideas, once deemed heresies, are accepted by the world as truths; and, daily, new principles are unfolding which give to inquiring minds rare glimpses of the rich fields of thought beyond.Among the various works which Mr. Davis has given to the public--and our memory goes back twenty years, or more, to when, a boy in the old farmhouse, we pored over the "Revelations "--we believe there is no one which is destined to exert a wider influence on liberal thought than the volume before us. The most important problems which can possibly affect society are discussed in a familiar and felicitous manner, in which, through the charms of narrative, the reader is made acquainted with the most vital truths. The book reveals two important aims; first, the sacredness of the family relation; second, that the amelioration of society is to be secured through the elevation of Woman, and a knowledge and application of hereditary laws. In the startling events of the story, founded the author states "upon the facts, with only a thin veil between the reader and the real characters," Jaques Del Aragoni, Capt. Nelson, and Dr. Morte are traced through their career of crime, and the history of their paternal and maternal antecedents graphically delineated, revealing the reason that hatred for mankind is so often coupled with genius of intellect. Madam Sophia, rarely endowed with personal attractions and depth of spiritual sentiment, has also unfortunate hereditary tendencies, and want of self-reliance. Her redemption is wrought out through suffering. Twenty years of severest trial were necessary to bring to her external recognition, what she had spiritually discerned and unconsciously revealed while in the somnambulistic state, namely: that herself and the noble Dr. Du Bois were soul-mates, destined to be the "happy companions of an eternal life." Dr. Du Bois, an eminent physician of New Orleans, is the principal character delineated. He accumulates a large fortune, which is freely expended in the labors to which his genius is consecrated--the history of criminals connected with their maternal antecedents.Having spoken thus freely of the merits of the volume, we must add one word of regret that the author has felt the necessity of speaking so undisguisedly of evil, in passages of the book, which we think should be more inferred; and also that any profanity, natural enough to the characters to which it is ascribed should sully even one page.The style of the book is fascinating, riveting the closest attention, yet appealing powerfully to the noblest sentiments of human nature. We bespeak for the volume an extensive circulation and a wide influence.SPEECHES AND LECTURES. By Samuel C. Fessenden. 267 pp. New York: Wm. P. Tomlinson, Publisher. 1869."IT is my monument," said Erskine pointing to a collection of his speeches, "other stone I need not," and the remark applies forcibly to the volume before us, which is indeed a monument of a well-spent, laborious life.Coming from a stock hardy as any be boasted by any of the children of the "Pine-tree State," bearing a name representative in its history, Mr. Fessenden has contributed his full. share to its honorable perpetuation, not alone in State but in National councils, where his voice was heard through some of the darkest hours in our Nation's history, breathing always a loyalty powerfully assisting in the maintaining of the just authority of the Government.The volume is naturally divided into three parts, embracing, first, the principal speeches delivered by Mr. Fessenden while a member of Congress from the Rockland District, Maine; second, a series of sermons preached at different periods principally in earlier life; third, miscellaneous lectures upon Temperance, National Affairs, etc.Although making no pretensions to oratory, Mr. Fessenden's style is concise, his argument is cogent; and, not infrequently, rises to rare eloquence. A true Reformer, upon all the questions of the day, whether as Representative, as Minister, or as simple Lecturer Mr. Fessenden pronounces decided opinions, and the volume, throughout, gives abundant evidence of being the work of an earnest thinker, and one in advance of his age.It is of such men our country should be proud; and it is such books, written by men careless of their fame, that are among the most valuable accessions to our literature.BREVITIES.Antoinette Brown Blackwell's new book, Studies in General Science, we are pleased to learn, is meeting with excellent sale.The whole of the first edition of the second part of Little Women, consisting of four thousand copies, was bought by the trade on the day of publication.C. S. Francis announces a new edition of The Progress of Religious Ideas through Successive Ages, by Lydia Maria Child. The increasing demand for this valuable work, which has been for some time out of print, renders its republication necessary.Mrs. H. B. Stowe's new novel, Old Town Folks, which has been so favorably noticed by the critics, has already passed into a second edition.J. G. Whittier's poems sell better in France and Germany than the works of any other American poet.Miss Alcott, who seems to be one of the most laboriously industrious of writers, is engaged upon a novel of New England life and manners.The Woman in Prison, is the title of a work by Mrs. Caroline H. Wood, who acted as matron in the Massachusetts State's prison in order to ascertain the facts of the prison life of women.RECEIVED.WOMAN AS GOD MADE HER. By Rev. J. A Fulton. 250 pp. Boston: Lee & Shepard.OLD TOWN FOLKS. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. 608 pp. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.TALE OF A PHYSICIAN: or, THE SEEDS AND FRUITS OF CRIME. By Andrew Jackson Davis. 325 pp. Boston: Wm. White & Co.MOSES. A Poem. By Mrs. F. E. W. Harper. 47 pp. Philadelphia.Henry Ward Beecher's Sermons. New York: J. B. Ford & Co.THE AMERICAN EQUAL RIGHTS ANNIVERSARY.THE Second Anniversary of the American Equal Rights Association, held in this city on the 12th and 13th ult., was largely attended throughout all its sessions, showing unmistakably how general is the interest in the Questions properly claiming the attention of the Association.We present the Resolutions adopted in the earlier stages of the Convention; also a list of the officers elected for the current year:RESOLUTIONS.First: Resolved, That the extension of suffrage to woman is essential to the public safety and to the establishment and permanence of free institutions; that the admission of woman to political recognition in our national reconstruction is as imperative as the admission of any particular class of men.Second: Resolved, That as woman in private life, in the partnership of marriage, is now the conservator of the private morals, so woman in public life, in the partnership of a Republican State, based upon Universal Suffrage will become the conservator of the public morals.Third: Resolved, That in seeking to remove the legal disabilities which now oppress woman as wife and mother, the friends of woman suffrage are not seeking to undermine or destroy the sanctity of the marriage relation, but to ennoble marriage, making the obligations and responsibilities of the contract mutual and equal for husband and wife.Fourth: Resolved, That the petitions of more than 200,000 women to Congress and to their State Legislatures during the past Winter asking expression of popular sympathy and approval, everywhere manifested throughout the land, ought to silence the cavil of our opponents that "Women do not want to vote."Fifth: Resolved, That while we heartily approve of the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment, extending suffrage to men, without distinction of race, we nevertheless feel profound regret that Congress has not submitted a parallel amendment for the enfranchisement of women.Sixth Resolved, That any party professing to be democratic in spirit or republican in principle, which opposes or ignores the political rights of woman, is false to its professions, short-sighted in its policy, and unworthy of the confidence of the friends of impartial liberty.Seventh : Resolved, That we hail the report of the Joint Special Committee, just rendered to the Massachusetts Legislature, in favor of woman suffrage, as a fresh evidence of the growth of public sentiment in our favor, and we earnestly hope that Massachusetts, by promptly submitting the question to a vote of her people, will maintain her historic pre-eminence in the cause of human liberty.Eighth: Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention are due to the Hon. George W. Julian in the House of Representatives, and to the Hon. Henry Wilson and the Hon. S. C. Pomeroy in the Senate of the United States, for their recent active efforts to secure suffrage for woman.Ninth: Resolved, That we recommend the men and women of every Ward, Town, County and State, to form local Associations for creating and organizing public sentiment in favor of suffrage for woman and to take every possible practical means to effect her enfranchisement.OFFICERS.PRESIDENT.-Lucretia Mott.VICE-PRESIDENTS AT LARGE.--E. Cady Stanton; Ernestine L. Rose; John Neal; and Arminia White, New Hampshire; James Hutchinson, Jr., Vermont; Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Massachusetts; Julia Ward Howe, Massachusetts; Elizabeth B. Chace, Rhode Island; Isabella B. Hooker, Connecticut; Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglass, and Martha C. Wright, New York; Portia Gage, New Jersey; Robert Purvis, Pennsylvania; Thomas Garrett, Delaware; Ellen M. Harris, Maryland; John C. Underwood, Virginia; Mrs J. R. Miller, North Carolina; M. Pilsbury, South Carolina; Elizabeth Wright, Texas; Mrs. Dr. Herkens, Florida; Hon. Guy Wines, Tennessee; Francis Miner, Missouri; Mrs. Sturgeon, Hon. Chas. Robinson, Kansas; Gov. Fairchild and Mme. Aneke, Wisconsin; the Hon. Mr. Loughridge, Iowa; Mary A. Livermore, Illinois; the Hon. Geo. W. Julian, Indiana; the Hon. Benj. F. Wade, Ohio; Gilbert Harris, Michigan; the Rev. Aaron L. Lindsly, Oregon; J. H. Moore, California; the Hon. F. Nye, Nevada; and the Hon. James Ashley of Montana.EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Elizabeth R. Tilton, Lucy Stone, Edwin A. Studwell, Susan B. Anthony, the Rev. Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell, T. W. Higginson, Anna C. Field, Edward S. Bunker, Abby Hutchinson Pattan, Oliver Johnson, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Margaret E. Winchester, Robert J. J. Johnson and Mary F. Davis.CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES. Mary E. Gage and Harriet Purvis. RECORDING SECRETARY.-Henry B. Blackwell. TREASURER.-John J. Merritt.