********************START OF HEADER******************** 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 2, an electronic edition Author: Tomlinson, William P. Publisher: Wm. P. Tomlinson Place published: Date: 1869-1870 ********************END OF HEADER******************** THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE.WILLIAM P. TOMLlNSON, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.NEW YORK: 39 NASSAU STREET. 1869CONTENTS:PAGE.Are we Worse than our Grandmothers? Isabella B. Hooker 1A Woman's Story William. P. Tomlinson 85A Mother's Thought. Frances Dana Gage 167Agitation M. F. Burlingame 171Aspirations William P. Tomlinson 226A Plea for Daughters Clara Louise Pendries 232, 259A Review A Woman 268Breakers! Caroline H. Dall 22, 57Be Just and Fear Not Samuel C. Blackwell 81Broken in Spirit Helen Rich 131Concerning one Objection. Jane O. De Forest 115Dare to Stand Alone Frances Dana Gage 236Editorial 43, 94, 141, 185, 237, 284Filling the Ice-House Frances Dana Gage 133Home Intelligence 49, 149Honor Samuel C Blackwell 221I Hear Thee Again, Mother David Plumb 180Justice, or Expediency M. W. Campbell 88John Quincy Adams on the Sphere of Woman David Plumb 235Lost! William P. Tomlinson 27Literary 52, 101, 141, 197, 292My Sphere Faith Rochester 8Modern Wars and Warriors Robert W. Hume 31My Lesson Mary Squires 220Notes. 45, 98, 144, 193, 240, 290Old Maids Frances Dana Gage 9PAGE.Opposition Elizabeth A. Kingsbury 169Patient Grizzle W. J. Linton 266The Mother's Blessing F. E. W. Harper 30The Fifteenth Amendment Wendell Phillips 34The Fifteenth versus the Sixteenth Amendment L. B. C. 39To Warn, to Comfort, and Command Kate. A. Hausen 68, 106Thoughts Frances Dana Gage 79The Law and the Testimony Robert W. Hume 90The Deserted David Plumb 119Thrown Upon the World. 120, 155, 227, 279The Prevailing Fear of Genuine Democracy R. J. Hinton 128The Market Woman Antoinette B. Blackwell 205, 253The Meeting of the Waters Robert W. Hume 217The Hereafter David Plumb 276Tulliver's Philosophy Frances Dana Gage 277Voices Augusta Cooper Bristol 66Woman in Tunis R. J Hinton 42Woman's Rights Wendell Phillips 137Work for Woman Jane O. De Forest 162Women as Rulers John Stuart Mill 177Will Suffrage Demoralize Women? M. F. Burlingame 181"Woman Suffrage," seen as a Fact M. E. Wright 224"Woman is Coming" Mary R. Whittlesey 265THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATEVOL. IIARE WE WORSE THAN OUR GRANDMOTHERS?ISABELLA B. HOOKERTHE women of the present day stand indicted by the critics in several particulars. Principal among these are the following: First, That "they toil not neither do they spin." Second, That they are lacking in purity of sentiment and true womanly delicacy, as manifested in their style of dress, and in the books of an immoral tendency which they read and write, and in their attendance upon public amusements of a corrupting influence.I wish to present a few considerations in defence of woman thus assailed.First, As to household industries; it is largely true that these remain essentially unchanged in number and character in our country towns; and in the cities and larger towns they are not neglected, but are simply changed and modified to suit the demands of a higher civilizationA writer in the Hartford Daily Courant, speaking of the comparative usefulness of boys and girls in the community, makes the following statements, which are so very much in point that I quote them in full:"This question, as to who constitute the real working power of a country, is only just opening and it would be hard to classify just now the drones in our hive. It is easy enough to call all women consumers and all men producers, but looking into the secret places of the family in our own country, I have often thought there was great injustice done to women and young girls, as to the part they really maintain in carrying on the business of life. For, granting for a moment that fathers and brothers do actually earn all the money that comes into the, house, which is far from being the case, who keeps these men and boys in good working order, and supplies a home more or less comfortable for their non-working hours? Suppose every man and boy was obliged to make, mend, wash and iron his own clothes, to supply himself with food well cooked, and decently served on a clean and wholesome table, to sweep, dust and neatly arrange the rooms of his dwelling how many hours would he have left for a trade or profession? Yet this is what a majority of mothers are obliged to do for themselves, besides performing these same duties for a household averaging five members and taking the entire care of very young children; and many add to all this some outside industry by which they contribute to the actual means of the household. I suppose there is hardly a manufacturing town in New England in which a large part of the work of both the factories and the homes is not performed by women and girls. In one village in Massachusetts, I was told by a clergyman there, that nearly every family in his congregation did their own housework and also sewed shoes for the market in very large quantities; and he added that they were also people of rather uncommon culture and refinement. "And this leads me to speak a good word for the young girls of the present day, who have been much commented on in the newspapers and magazines of late for their excessive attention to dress and generally for their rather useless lives. In every large city there is a small class of ultra fashionables to whom such criticism justly applies; but this is by no means a representative class, although it seems to be the one uppermost in the minds of undiscriminating writers. Leaving the hopelessly frivolous ones out of the question (and they would not average one woman in a thousand), let us compare the boys and girls of the same family, all over the country, up to the age of sixteen and onward, and find, if we can, which of the two are the largest contributors to the family wealth and comfort. In country villages the case stands about even between them, perhaps, for if the daughters sew and sweep and churn and cook, the sons do also milk and plough and plant and cut down trees; but in the towns and cities it is far otherwise. So long as the boys and girls of a family are attending school, all the way up from the primary to the last term of high school and seminary, it is rare I think that any serious work is required of the boys outside of school hours. They usually are allowed (as indeed all should be if possible), all their spare time for out of door sports and recreations; while the girls have always on hand a certain amount of home duties, that cannot be neglected without serious loss to the family comfort. In this city of Hartford, for instance, I will venture to say that there are not twenty families where the daughters do not make and mend more or less their own clothes, take some care of their own rooms and assist in preparations for entertaining guests, besides making fancy articles for fairs and benevolent associations of various kinds; and by far the greater part of our girls are expected to do much more than this out of school hours. The same thing is true of. the lady teachers in our schools and seminaries, who nevertheless usually receive a smaller salary than the gentleman teachers of the same grade with themselves. The number of stitches that these weary hands are obliged to take for themselves and for dear friends dependent upon them, out of school hours, would be perfectly appalling I fear to the brother of any one of them, after the close of his day's work, be it what it may. All which goes to show that the work of girls as well as women is apt to be underestimated in its money value; and this is true even in families of the very highest culture and refinement, because the service that unmarried daughters perform in the maintaining of a hospitable home would draw seriously upon a father's purse, if by any means such service could be purchased for money."This tells the whole story in few words. There is, we will say, today, a class of fashionable and utterly useless women which had no existence in the United States seventy or eighty years ago--and there is just such, a class of men--but they are both of them and equally the effect of accumulated wealth in the community and of habits of luxury growing out or such wealth. We can afford to count these out entirely as drones in the hive and then there will remain the workers, or those who profess to be such--the men and women who according to their various capacities and opportunities are responsible for the welfare of the family and the State. Of the men no one doubts that they on the whole are worthy representatives of their industrious grandfathers; can it be true that the women are entitled to less praise.Second, As for the style of dress animadverted upon; I, have no fancy for the scanty covering which constitutes a fashionable dress, and was never guilty of an indiscretion, even, in that direction; but I well remember hearing that my mother of sainted memory and her mother before her were often seen and admired in the public dances of their day, and I have no doubt wore the costume of the period in all purity. In fact one cannot look for a moment upon the pictures of ancient dames which have come down to us without being struck with such exhibitions of neck and bust as are really very uncommon now. I have in mind Martha Washington and ladies of similar character, whose party costume, has always seemed to me seriously objectionable, but of whose personal purity and wholesome influence upon society, I have never had a doubt, nor have I ever beard one suggested. They, when sitting in their chimney corners were as amply clothed as any dames in the land no doubt; but in society they conformed to its customs with a grace and purity that left no room for scandal. Why then should we judge more severely the women of the present day, who having been accustomed from their infancy to the wearing of "low necks and short sleeves" are utterly unconscious in their own experience of any ground for such accusations as are common in the prurient criticisms of the day. I remember hearing from a friend who spent several weeks with the late Duchess of Sutherland, that she was always accustomed to appear at her own dinner table in this very fashion, and Queen Victoria, that model wife and mother, still does the same, I believe. In fact it is so well understood in England that etiquette requires this style of dress at dinner and on most ceremonious occasions, that old ladies of seventy and eighty are not at liberty to wear any other, and are therefore accustomed to protect themselves with a shawl when the weather becomes trying to their age. But in virtuous Paris, etiquette is somewhat less exacting and high necks are more commonly worn. Yet one who should upon a comparison of French and English society in this respect, draw a comparison unfavorable to the latter, would go wide of the mark; in fact I suppose the court of Victoria has never been equalled in virtue and intelligence by any other court since the world began. All which goes to show, not that this is the best way of dressing our daughters by any means, but that too much stress is laid upon the matter as evidence of growing impurity among them, and especially that it has nothing to do with the comparitivecomparative merits of the women of the past and present generations.Closely connected with this is another assertion of the critics--namely, that the advanced culture in physiology to which women are now invited has been a source of moral deterioration. A writer in Putnam's Magazine for February last, a literary lady of talent and distinction, in an article entitled "Men's Rights," thus discourses: "There is a class of subjects the name of which would bring the red to the old lady's cheek yonder, but with which it is the fashion of the day to make young girls thoroughly conversant. There is no need to send Nelly out of the room now no matter what topics the matrons may discuss. The terra incognita of our grandmothers is well trodden ground to her at sixteen" and again--"She hears the social evil coolly discussed as a social necessity," etc. There is something in all this and in the paragraphs which follow that cuts me to the heart, and I cannot help feeling coming into my cheek on reading it the very red spot that is attributed to the old lady yonder. In fact I cannot understand it--for if the writer simply means that it is not wise for young girls who are living in the hope and expectation of a happy marriage and a blessed motherhood some day, to listen to the discourse of matrons and gather instruction from them and from the books and periodicals devoted to physiology and the laws of health which are now so commonly found in the family reading, then I simply disagree with her; for I am entirely sure that God intended that the mothers of his people should begin at the foundation of their own being and learn his laws concerning their own bodies, those temples of the Holy Ghost, those consecrated shrines of childhood. But if she means that matrons now-a-days are in the habit of discoursing before their young daughters, or away from them, in the most secret corners of their homes, on subjects that are uncleanly and unwholesome, and that should not be so much as thought of by those who would live pure lives then I can only say that she must be greatly mistaken--she is judging the many by the few, the thousands by the one. I have lived near fifty years in the midst of an uncommonly large circle of friends and acquaintances, and have been known among them as one of freest thought and speech on all worthy subjects, and never in one single instance have I heard a word from a mother that ought to cause a blush an the cheek of an angel. More than this, we too have a grandmother, and with her I have been accustomed to hold converse on all matters moral and religious that seemed to me of serious importance; and in the light of her serene countenance have I found both courage and assurance while seeking a clean path for myself and my sons and daughters through this wilderness and never has she so much as intimated that her life in its narrower bounds was a higher or purer one than mine and that of my children. It is true we are told at last, that "this evil is, as yet, confined to our large cities, but the feverish taint will spread," etc.;--and it is because I fear that just such articles as this will spread the taint, that I am moved however reluctantly, to criticise it and all others of its kind. I have thought before now that the common method of dealing with this and kindred subjects in our magazines has stimulated curiosity and drawn the attention of thousands to modes of thought and life of which they would otherwise have scarcely had a glimpse; and it has always seemed to me that literature should abound in suggestions of beauty and purity, rather than in criticisms of impurity; for whom can we hope to reach and mend in the limited circle of already debauched ones, by any public outcry whatever? and surely the mass of outsiders to whom all this is but a startling revelation are no gainers thereby, but losers rather, at least of their faith in human progress. For there is progress after all and that of an unmistakable kind, and "the state of society that can make a Swinburne possible," is greatly in advance upon that which read and delighted in a Sterne and Swift, a Fielding and a Smollet.Again, the writer quoted above gives us the following remarkable passages: "The most salient and apparent change in women in the last few years (I do not say the deepest) is not advance in intelligence, marked as that may be; it is the growth of impurity." "She reads, or writes as the case may be, novels in which few of the men are honest, and none of the women are virtuous; or, advancing a step further, she finds that but a mean and ignoble life which is sacrificed to the children whom God has given her." "There is reason to doubt whether the ordinary aliment of all women in literature or art now, is a whit more pure and wholesome than that of men, coarse as we declare their appetites to be." From all this I entirely dissent, and it seems to me easy to be proved, first, that purity is on the gain both among men and women and especially among the latter; second, that literature, since it has been largely open to women both as writers and readers, is immensely more elevated than it was fifty or even twenty-five years ago; and third, that if we could gather into one huge heap and destroy forever from the face of the earth those horribly immoral and obscene books which we are told are secretly devoured by young men, but of which few women have so much as heard one single title, and substitute for them the books that the mass of women now read and some of them write, we should have made a greater advance toward moral purity than can be hoped for from the patient labor of many years. There is nothing of which I am more convinced than of the truth of these propositions and it is to the fact that parents are not yet convinced that associations of a polluting character are as harmful to boys as to girls--and suppose that as the former must encounter them at some period of their lives it is useless to attempt to protect them in their youth--that we owe the moral degradation of the race more than any other one cause. I cannot express the depth of my convictions on this subject, nor the pain that it gives me to hear such loose and careless statements as to the prevalence of immorality among the women of America, and as to their character for purity when compared with the women of a past generation.I come now to public amusements, and at the outset I wish to put in a slight disclaimer in behalf of those of us who have attended one or more of the various theatrical performances that are considered very demoralizing in their tendency and who have thus helped to swell the number that are said to delight in immoral entertainments. I have to confess for myself that I have seen "La Grande Duchesse," and more than this, that I was utterly unable to discover either the charm of the play or its wickedness, though looking with all my mother's eye for both. Since then I have given the subject grave consideration, and have listened to the criticisms of all parties, not omitting those of a French lady and gentleman of the finest culture and most undoubted purity and piety. My conclusion is that, so far, great injustice has been done in the public prints to the mass of respectable people who have occasionally attended these plays, and that the injury inflicted upon the community by their attendance has been greatly exaggerated. The truth seems to be that these plays as acted in Paris have a significance that utterly fails to attach to them here. In our ignorance of the associations, and imperfect knowledge of the language, we are attracted almost wholly by the spectacular exhibitions which are really magnificent in some instances, and are unobservant of the occasional innuendo and suggestion which a more corrupt audience and one hearing its own vernacular would easily understand. This is of course no reason why we should continue to patronize such entertainments after we have become satisfied that they are intrinsically mischievous, whether we can per- ceive the mischief or not; but it is a reason why there should be no indiscriminate denunciation of mothers and daughters who have sometimes attended them, and why they should be persuaded to avoid them in future on the ground of leading others into sin, rather than because their own personal purity has suffered even unconsciously thereby. One must resent a little such implications, and the tendency of human nature, even when somewhat sanctified, is to persevere in a course conscientiously begun, when the argument for a change is an imputation upon one's own modesty and womanly delicacy.The summing up of this matter then, to my mind, is this: Mothers should discriminate carefully as to the dramatic representations, if any, that they and their daughters shall attend; but they should insist that the same rule be applied to fathers and sons; for, in the present condition of the world, women are in far less danger of contamination than men, and the demoralization of the latter is no less harmful to society than that of the former. We are all bound together in the same social life--we stand and fall together--contamination knows no sex--it is the sins of the fathers that are visited upon the children of the third and fourth generation no less than those of the mothers, and he who rejoices in a virtuous wife in whose honor he can securely trust, must see to it that he transmit a virtuous inheritance to both sons and daughters.ISABELLA B. HOOKER.Faith RochesterMY SPHERE.'Tis here! Just here, four lowly wallsEnfold my cottage life:Here childhood sweet me "Mother" calls, And true heart names me "Wife."I bake and wash, I sew and sweep,I play my children's plays;But home is not a grave so deepHeart knows no other ways.My sphere? 'Tis here-my native land!Her weal shall be my care:Toward building up a nation grand, My children do I bear.Good-laws for them; true Peace for all;Fain would I help secure:For Truth and Love my voice would call,For Justice swift and sure.My sphere is here!-the whole earth bright,Where. now God bids me live; My neighbor black, my neighbor white,A sister's help I'd give.And not the less my arms may clasp My babe in warm embrace;While true home-loves but clinch the grasp Of love for all the race.FAITH ROCHESTER OLD MAIDS.Frances Dana Gage"OH, no, Aunt Hannah! I beg, beseech, entreat, implore, pray and protest, not to-day, not to-day; I don't believe I could bear it.""Yes, to-day, Miss Sauce-box, this very day and no other, you have to listen to that chapter on old maids. Do you think I am going to sit here patiently and hear you speak slightingly of that venerable fraternity, to which I claim to belong? 1 tell you, Bell, I more than half suspect you will be an old maid yourself, if you live long enough. But listen-""Wait a minute, till I roll this curl on the left just to match that, one on the right.""Now, are you ready?""One moment more, if you please. I see there is one eyelet in my gaiter through which the lacer does not pass.""Well, now, are you ready?""One moment more. There is a hook off one of my cuffs that must be arranged; and while I think of it there are two spatters of ink as big as pin heads on the skirt of my dress. Excuse me, I would like to change--""Sit down I say, Bell, and listen.""In one minute, when I have swept the hearth; there are three bits of coal that you can't see without your specs, littering its polished surface.""Bell!""In one minute, Aunty; there is the least bit of dust on this mantel.""Bell, I will not give you a tale this day if you do not be still.""Aunty, I will be still, indeed I will. But do you not discover that when you went to the mirror to arrange your cap you left a breath upon its surface? Will you let me wipe it off? just a minute, and then there--I am ready.""You certainly deserve a worse punishment for your impertinence than to hear so good a story as I have to tell about my friend, Sallie Evans. She was a jewel of an old maid, I can tell you--one whose example and precept made beautiful patterns for any one to follow. Of her early history I know nothing, as she came to the West many years after its first settlement; and of the causes that conspired to keep her in a state of single blessedness, I know as little. Some said, it was a big black mole on the side of her nose, that had kept her heart whole; others that her dark skin and her heavy dark eye-brows had had something to do with it; and others (sneering men of course) that the heavy tones of her voice could never by any possibility be made to say 'yes,' but were sure to turn the soft, lisping sound into 'no,' ere it reached the ear. But I never believed one word of all their nonsense, and now as I look back over the long shadows of the past, I am much more inclined to think that the only trouble was that Miss Sallie had too clear and definite an idea of her own ability to take care of herself, to lose her own identity by merging her name and existence in that of another; being obliged, perhaps, to take care of herself and two or three, or a dozen besides, and then have the, world say that she had been supported. No, no: Miss Sallie loved too well to handle her own purse, loosening its strings just when she pleased, and letting the dimes, and even dollars slip out to suit her own fancy, among the poor and needy; to run the risk of working a week for somebody else, and then being gruffly re- fused a shilling's wages at the end of it because somebody had stood up with a book in his hand and told her she must 'love, serve and obey.' Her face was, beautiful to me, for it was always radiant with kindness. She was the school-mistress, and for many a long year exercised the law of love among the urchins of our neighborhood. Her worst punishment was a frown, and the withdrawal of her sunny smile made twilight for us all, and to some of us it was starless night. If we had gone wrong, her keenest rebuke was, 'I shall not love you till you are good.' Occasionally an 'I don't care' was sullenly whispered, but the look of sorrow and wounded feeling that settled on her plain face soon smote upon the conscience of the culprit, and brought him back with penitent tears to be taken into her favor and affection. If we quarrelled, she bade us leave her side until we were reconciled, and seldom a half hour passed ere we joined hands as merrily as ever, agreed to kiss and be friends, that we might again enter into the sanctuary of her love. She was neat and nice; but her things were all free to our young hands, if we would only be careful. We tumbled over her basket, unwound her spools, sewed with her needles, cut papers with her scissors, and looked at her pictures through her magnifying spectacles; our only penalty for all this pleasure was the necessity of putting all things as we found them, and thus we all learned lessons of neatness and care. If some one brought her a beautiful flower or a gay bouquet, she called the poor little neglected ones of the school who had no flowers or beauty at home, and bade them admire, with her, God's handiwork, telling them that those who loved His works, praise Him with their hearts, and she would often pin a pink or a violet on the breast of some modest, heart-crushed little one, whose life-garden lay upon too poor a soil to bring forth flowers."The boys--and she had big boys too, some almost stretching up to manhood-would as soon have been caught stealing water melons as disobeying Miss Sallie, or making her trouble, because 'she never scolded, and how it would look for them to disobey when she always made just the rules they liked best;' for somehow or other she had the faculty of making every bumpkin in the school firmly believe that the good government of the whole establishment hung upon his-shoulders, and without the active influence of his example there would be no les- sons got or tasks completed. At home Miss Sallie was the love-divinity of the household, and the spirit of cheerfulness and good humor followed her like a shadow of herself. There was old Zacharia, who had been ten years groaning day and night with the rheumatism, who said 'O dear' when his breath went out, and '0 Lord' when it went in, from Sunday morn till Saturday night, would actually suspend his monotonous moan for the space of a minute when, she would ask him if be did not really feel a little more comfortable to-day, than he did yesterday. His invariable answer was, 'Why, yes, Miss Sallie, I do raly complain I'm some better. 'Now a good many littles make a mickle,' and one would have thought that "complaining he was some better' as the days rolled on, for years, would at last have made him quite well; but, bless your heart, it was only the magic tone of her voice, which, though a bass, was richly cultivated by kindness, that made the poor suffering man forget for a moment his racking pains, and feel that he was better."But it was by the bedside of the sick, the suffering and sorrowing, where Miss Sallie's great goodness of character loomed up the most brilliant and beautiful. She was never engaged to take tea or attend an evening party when a sick neighbor wanted her; she never had a concert or singing-school to draw her away when duty bade her go among the poor and the lowly. I said she loved to open her purse string - aye, she did, and if all the blessings which fell upon her head for the Money expended in making others comfortable had been made of silver and gold, she would have had her skull broken every day of her life. She knelt down by the sick child in the emigrant's shanty, smoothed its pallet of straw upon the floor, and laid her own soft hand under its head while she bathed its little fevered brow. If the mother was sick, she took the wailing babe in her arms and stilled its cries while the mother slept, or quelled the clamor of the older ones by administering to their necessities. Many a portion of balm and oil did she pour into suffering hearts by adding to the comfort of their loved ones. The poor all blessed her; the rich respected her, and yet, Bell, Miss Sallie was an old maid!""And so is Aunt Hannah," said Bell, archly, and the gleam of her eyes said as plainly as eyes could say it, just as good too. "May I not put a bow here in this corner of your cap border, Aunt?""Well, I don't know; it's many a year since I've had any bows my--""A good many years since you've had a beau? Oh-, Aunt Hannah, how you do talk! and Deacon Smith here only last night, talk, talk, talking till nine, yes, till nine o'clock, about Shakespeare, and Young and Milton and Cowper. Did I not hear him repeating so feelingly: 'A transient visit intervening, And made almost without a meaning; Scarcely the effect of inclination, Much less of pleasing expectation, Produced a friendship which, begun, Has now united us in one, And placed it in our power to prove By strong fidelity and love.'""Yes, put a bow in my border, Bell; a nice, neat one on each side, if it suits you," said Aunt Hannah, without seeming to notice the nonsense of her rattle-brained niece."The next on my list of old maids was Patty Chapelear, who lived unmarried--so she said, and everybody believed her--'because she was the youngest of fifteen, and it was a pity the baby could not stay at, home and mind mother in her old age;' and five, she declared, being the average number of children to a family, she could well afford to live for her mother's sake, since she had done her work for her twice over. Her mother had seen the leaves fall for fifty autumns ere Patty's jet black eyes ever saw the light, and of course when those bright eyes had watched the opening of the spring blossoms for a score and a half of years--long time enough to christen her an old maid--the parent had got along well in years--had reached four-score, when life to most people becomes 'labor and sorrow.' But not so with Patty's mother; she was brisk as a bee, and could tell almost a nation's history in her own experience. But Patty was her second self--the bright shadow of her early days. She set her arm-chair in the best position, placed the stool under her feet, put her slippers on and off, combed her hair, tied her cap, pared her apples and peaches, wound her balls, threaded her needles, and read her Bible for her."When Sunday came, on pleasant days, she harnessed old Dagon to the little carryall, drove the wheels within half an inch of the door step, laid a bit of board, made on purpose, from the step to the side of the vehicle, and mother with her weight of eighty years, walked in and rode to church, got out in the same way, and quietly listened to the sermon, always remembering the text, and making Patty write it down for her in a book when she got home. Old Dagon was only a quarter as old as his oldest mistress but it is said he knew as well when Sunday came as any of them and once upon a time when Patty had a bad turn of pleurisy, and could not go out for a Sabbath or two, the old fellow grew impatient of staying away from preaching so long, pulled out the pin of the stable door, walked up to the door step, stood the proper time, and then trotted of to the meeting house, went through his usual service at the church door, and walked leisurely to the post in the fence corner under the shade of a walnut, which had been put there in old Mr. Chapelear's day -for the good of the family, where be stood, still and solemn, till the services were over, then walked up to the door step again to take in his load, and trotted off home, much to the amusement of the younger members of the congregation, who were no doubt more edified by old Dagon's piety than by the parson's discourse upon total depravity. Patty, after all was a true old maid, for when she was forty, (which she certainly did grow to be, and her mother yet a sojourner among the children of men) she had a pieced quilt for every year in her life, all folded away in goodly pyramids, with linings as white as the snows of January, all of which were to be distributed some day among her nieces, who, though Aunt Patty had been very busy and industrious, already outnumbered her quilts, by two, which made her feel somewhat uneasy lest she might be obliged to leave one of the darlings without a token of love from her own hands. But oh, those quilts ! There was a double nine patch and a single nine patch; a double Irish chain and a single Irish chain; and a block work, and a saw tooth and a Job's troubles, and an M and 0; a bird's eye and a sun-flower; a rising sun and a half moon; the single star and double star, the point star and diamond star, Bonaparte's star and Wellington's star; the cat's cradle and the peony; the Carolina pink and the wild grape vine; the pyramid and the mouse trap; the morning glory and the goosefoot, the bird's pest, the oak leaf, the Yankee pedlar and the Old maid's love; the bride's folly and the husband's choice; the American eagle and the full blown rose; the pride of Virginia, the beauty of Pennsylvania, Susy's favorite, the lover's fancy, grandmother's notion, the rosebud and the tulip, and the buckeye stripe, They were not motley things, I can tell you; but all made of new calico, cut symmetrically and geometrically, and as beautiful as quilts could be, and all pieced and quilted just because Aunt Patty could not for the soul of her be idle, and as she never let slip the 'stitch in time which saves nine' she bad the odd eight to put in when she pleased. And then such piles of blankets and woollen spreads and double coverlets, all of her own spinning-it would do your eyes good to see them all out airing of a sunny day, and almost made one long for a howling winter night to enjoy them and their virtues. Patty found many a spare hour too for reading, and if she did not keep up with all the gossip of the day, it was because she was holding grave converse with the heroes an heroines of olden time."Her mind was a store house of antiquities, and she had a proverb or a wise saying, from some good authority, for all the occasions that her quiet life presented. Patty was a Woman's Rights advocate long, long ago. Those who turn up their noses at the doctrines as 'new fangled,' only show their ignorance, for there have been women as far back as I can remember, who have felt the unjustness of the laws and the cramped and confined condition of their lives, and Aunt Patty never failed to put the officers of government in mind of their want of consistency -when tax-paying days came. 'All just governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed,' Aunt Patty would say, 'and our fathers fought hard battles to secure the right of representation; but when they had cleared themselves from the yoke of oppression, they turned around, and without a qualm of conscience laid the same yoke upon one-half of their companions, and our necks have borne it patiently ever since. My father was a good man, and meant to be just, and when he found he could live no longer, he made a will; yes, gentlemen, he made a will. Now my mother, when she married my father, was worth one thousand dollars, and my father was worth just nothing at all, not even enough as I have often heard them say, to pay the priest's bill; so after marriage, you know, she and her money too were all his, and he said she must come out West. She did not like it much, for her father and mother, and all her kins-folk lived in old Vermont. But he would not be easy, and so to keep peace in the family she agreed to come out here among the wild Indians, and live in the woods. I don't think she ought to have done it; but you know everybody preaches that wives must do just as men want 'em to, and I suppose mother thought the whole world would blame her and say she wanted to wear the breeches, 'cause she had a little money wher, she was married; and so she just gave up and let him take her, and her money just where he had a mind to. Well, as I was saying, they came out to Ohio, and he bought him a nice farm, and a good horse or two, and some cows and so on, built a cabin and went to work. The very first day father chopped in the woods after they had got into the cabin, he got his leg broke by the limb of a tree that struck him, and did not do another stroke that year, and was always a half cripple afterwards, and could not do much. They had a little of the thousand dollars left, and mother hired a man to do the clearing in father's place. She spun and wove, took care of father, and kept house all summer, and nights she would go out and pile and help burn the brush. With her spinning and weaving she supplied all the wants of the family, paid for some wool to make the winter clothing, and laid up provision, some way and another, to do; and so it went on from year to year. Father did all he could, but mother worked day and night to get along and get the farm cleared. After the first year they raised nice crops, and so paid men to work, and she did not work much out doors; but she earned many a hundred dollars with the wheel and the loom to help along with, besides taking care of all the children. Well, the farm prospered wonderfully, and father was counted right well off when he died; but everybody knew mother was the manager, though she never said much. But, as I was saying, father made a will, and gave each one of us girls a hundred dollars, (There were ten of us) to each of the boys two thousand, and to mother, who, as you may say, had earned the whole, he gave the old log house, (for he never would consent to having a better one), and all that was in it--the beds and bedding, and household goods that she had earned and made herself, to be all her own as long as she lived single. If she married she was to have a hundred dollars like the rest of us, and if she lived single it was to be hers as long as she lived, and, then go back to the boys. All this was thought to be quite right with the neighbors; but mother sometimes used to think that she ought to have had at least her thousand back to call her own. He gave the homestead to my two youngest brothers, kindly recommending them to look well to their mother's wants, and care for her comforts while she lived. I was eighteen when my father died, and had that year earned almost the whole of the hundred. dollars he gave me, by weaving, for I could weave everything that was needed in the country. Mother had got too old to keep the loom going then. So I took my hundred dollars and loaned it out, and wove away as hard as I could, to earn more. Elijah and Sam felt very crank when they got the whole control of the homestead, except mother's three acres and the old house; so they went to work and built each of them a fine house, married dashing wives, hired the work done, lived easy, went in politics, undertook to superintend the government, etc.; and by and by Elijah who was a whole-souled, merry fellow, took to drinking. He never would, I don't believe, if he had not been sent to the legislature. But I don't want to talk about that. When I was twenty-three his farm of a hundred and eighty acres had to be sold, and I had money enough to buy it; and now mother and I moved into a better house, and my dear old mother felt that she owned half the homestead again, for I always tried to make her think everything I had belonged to her. Elijah was pretty much cut down by his failure; so he quit drink and went off to Illinois, where he did pretty well, and coaxed Sam to sell out too, and follow him and so when I was thirty I bought Sam's share, and now (and Aunt Patty's eyes would sparkle) I own all my father's homestead, and am ready and willing to pay my taxes; but I can't say I think it's all fair.'"'What are you going to do with all your property, Miss Cbapelear?'"'Good--all the good I can. I have four sisters that have married men who can't make money enough to educate their own children. Two of my sisters have died, leaving their motherless ones to be cared for; one sister and husband both are gone, and their three orphans have no home but with me. They are mine now forever. Ah! Mr. Baker, I can find enough to do with my money and lands; and if I could be permitted to vote, I would try to do some public good with it, as well as private.'"Oh! your influence is better than any man's vote--woman must depend upon her influence.'"'I suppose man has no influence, has he? If influence is so powerful, suppose you men take the influence awhile, and let us women do the voting, long enough at least to vote our district a better schoolhouse and better teachers for the children-to build a more comfortable jail for the poor, erring creatures who have to lie there, and a more comfortable poor-house for the stricken and the sorrowing. All these things I would try to have done, if I could have any say in the doing of it; but I will not give my money (any more of it than I am obliged to) into other peoples' control.'"The men used to say that Aunt Patty Chapelear had some funny notions--that there was more truth than poetry in them too; but they never once dreamed in those days of talking about a woman 'unsexing herself,' or I 'turning mannish,' because she wanted to enjoy a natural right. 'But Bell, you minx you, what are you putting three bows on a side into my cap border for? I never can wear it so.'""Yes you can, Aunt Hannah; it won't make your head ache one bit.""But how will it look on a woman of my age?""Only----, and not a gray hair on your head." "Why did you not say how old I am?""How old you are? Because it's very, very unbecoming and impertinent to name the precise number of years that an unmarried lady may have lived after she has passed the sunn hours of her spring-time. But, Aunt Hannah, I will finish the cap if you will finish your story, and as I let you tell it just as you please, even so you should let me trim this cap just as I please.""I wish you could have seen Aunt Patty's garden. It was there her warm, earnest soul and her love of the beautiful shone out. I do believe she would have been a poet if she had had her mind called that way. There were her borders of pinks and primroses, of wild violets and Johnny jump-ups, (as she called her spotted pansies). Oh they were beautiful, each in its time; her beds camomile, round as the fall moon, and as soft, green and velvety as a bed of moss; her rose trees, every variety that the country produced trained as well as were nephews and nieces, not a rebellious sprout among them to snare your shawl or bonnet as you passed; her great bunches of peonies; her beds of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, candy tufts, larkspurs amaranths, everything--yes, everything that could be found in the land graced Aunt Patty's garden. Her currant bushes bore riper, richer, better fruit than any one's else; her strawberry beds made merry makings in the spring-time that did all the young peoples' hearts good, while her cherries, raspberries and plums, her melon patch and peach orchard furnished many a treat to both old and young; her radishes, peas and cucumbers were always the earliest; her lettuce and pepper grass and string beans the most tender and crisp, and what was better than all, Aunt Patty was so generous and kind with all her good gifts that not a neighbor but was in some way during the season a sharer of her bounties. To this one who was ailing she sent a mess of peas; to another a basket of onions; a third received the first cucumbers or green corn, and somebody else just in the niche of time got a nice dish of fresh fruit, because somebody was going to have somebody to dinner or tea. Every day there was a blessing upon her head from some quarter. Blessings given are very sure to bring blessings returned, and I wonder people will not learn that truth and abide by it more frequently than they do. Aunt Patty seemed to have but one weakness that the world generally imputes to old maids--she was a great match-maker, or at least they thought she was--named all the apple seeds at the parties, turned all the tea cups, and was as good at guessing as most folks. She always had the well-curb stuck full of live-forever roots, in pairs, growing fresh and green and named for her friends; the wall of the porch too was ornamented with more than one portentous couple, and if they inclined to each other she was sure to whisper the auspicious omen into the ears of those whose names they bore. Once on a time two vigorous plants had grown together, and they fairly entwined each other in a loving embrace. But alas! for Aunt Patty's signs, the young man and maiden whose names they bore had not spoken for a twelve-month. No! they would not so much as look at each other; for Jane Davis had offended Ansel Braddock beyond forgiveness by going home from a paring bee with a merchant's clerk just from town, after going with Ansel to the bee. But when the year came round just to a day, Aunt Patty had another apple paring, and Jane and Ansel were both there, and while the rest were all busy she called them both out on the porch, and before they knew what she was about, brought them up face to face."'Do you see those live-forevers?' said she."'Yes,' they replied."Well, they're you and Jane, Ansel; and now see, they have twined entirely around each other. You love each other; you know you do, and there's no use pouting any longer about that foolish little trick of Jane's; I tell you you love each other, and you'll never be happy till you make it up,' and off Aunt Patty ran and left them alone in the soft moonlight among the morning glories."'Is that true, Jane?' said Ansel sidling up sheepishly."But what Jane answered nobody knows; for there were no fairies in those days to tell tales on the lovers; but, everybody knew the next day that Ansel and Jane had made up, and that he went home with her that night. In less than six months they were married, and have been a happy, loving couple ever since. Aunt Patty says her live-forever made the match. She was a favorite with young and old; not a wedding went off but she was master of ceremonies. The cake was not light unless made by her recipes; the preserves could not be clear if she was not consulted, nor the jellies keep their form except by her direction, and the bride took it as a bad omen for her future life if she had not a sprig of mignonette and rosemary for her hair, on her bridal eve, from Aunt Patty's garden. Besides all this, she was the doctress general of the whole neighborhood; well patronized too, for she never went empty-handed, and never charged a fee. She kept wormwood and tansy for the rheumatism; comfrey and ginseng for the consumption; snake-root, balm and pennyroyal for fevers; peppermint, poppies and cayenne for agues; calamus and sweet annis for the cholic; rue and swother wood for worms; peony roots for fits, etc. Indeed 'for all the ills that flesh is heir to,' she had her antidote. Nobody ever refused to ask, and she never refused to give, or to go. 'It's but little good, she used to say, I that I can do in one short life; so let me be doing as fast as I can, and mayhap somebody may live to say, when I am gone, he is the better for Aunt Patty.' Everybody loved Aunt Patty, and Aunt Patty loved everybody, and yet Aunt Patty was an old maid! And there was Lizzle Green--""Oh Aunt Hannah, Aunt Hannah, not another patch to-night; oh! I implore you, for Duncan has promised to call at seven to go with me to the concert, and should you excite my admiration any farther for old maidism, I should surely refuse him admittance, put this same drab-trimmed cap, with its three bows to a side, on my own head, and before to-morrow be turned by some wizard power into old Aunt Isabel.""Isabel, you are too rude.""I know it, Aunt. Now let me kiss that half frown from your brow, and I will be good and tell you just what I do think about old maids. I do not believe they are any more particular or fastidious than other people naturally, but having no families nor little engrossing cares like married ladies, they are expected, nay required, to be scrupulously neat and nice. Wives who have no children grow into the same habits. The maiden ladies of my acquaintance (and I know many) are with few exceptions women far above the common lot; their situation in life, free from the cares and duties that must necessarily confine a wife and mother, gives them better opportunities for education and investigation. They seem to have looked more deeply into life and its duties; and they stand before the world calm, dignified and noble--a living rebuke to the thoughtless folly that speaks with sneering of their independent life; and not from me, Aunt Hannah, will the cold, supercilious, misjudging world ever hear a serious sneer upon any one who sees fit to move on through all her years untrammelled by any cares, doing as it seemeth good unto herself all the days of her life.FRANCES DANA GAGE.BREAKERS![THIRD PAPER].Over the ruin,See I the promise;--There lies the New Land;Yours to behold it,Not to possess it; LOWELL"So you still require women to do better than men? said a friend yesterday, who saw the pain and mortification with which I spoke of the tumults of the New York Convention.Yes, I do demand that women shall not repeat the errors of men. They must carry a new element into the State, or they can never justify the position they now claim. Many things bring to mind a saying of George Macdonald in "Phantastes":"Men have arms; women have only wings."Do our women forget what Agassiz would tell them, that wings are only undeveloped arms?Let us die for the truth, by all means, when God refuses us the nobler duty of living for it, but why enter into vulgar and noisy debate?We may well be glad to see a competent woman in office, but is not an office seeker of either sex a sorry sight?What is better than a woman efficient in business? She gives what is due to others, insists upon it for herself and will submit to no imposition; but what can anybody think of a woman whose sole object is to line her own pockets?I am far from expecting miracles to follow the extension of the Suffrage. I have pressed it earnestly when such advocacy was costly when for any woman to be known as a "Woman's Rights Woman," was to impair her own social position, and to cut off the hand with which she must earn her bread. Yet if I felt it worth while to plead for it at this cost until the faith became the fashion it is at this moment, there never has been a time when I considered it the chief hope of the world. That lies, and will forever lie, in the self-government of men and women. The suffrage is a necessary means of education and development for both sexes. Whether it works well or ill at the outset, it is a part of the "doing justly," without which it is not enough to "love mercy." The first step toward working well, is to concede it. If the whole thing lay in my hand this moment, I should give the franchise first to the black. I would help men to retrieve their moral character to make amends for ancient wickedness before they should sally out like crusaders in search of a new emprise.Those who depend so securely upon the expected advent of womanly influence seem to forget how few wise and thoughtful women there are in this world. Quite as many, I dare say, as there are wise and thoughtful men, but not enough to over-balance altogether those who live by the vices and the follies of the other sex. What I now labor for, is not to got the franchise--for that is sure to come--but to educate women for it, to help them to think out the problems it will present. When a circular was offered to me for signature, about six months ago, claiming that the enfranchisement of women should be the basis of all political action in all elections of State, County and Town officers; that this enfranchisement should be paramount to all political issues, and that no candidate should be considered eligible who had not publicly pledged himself to it, of course I could not sign it. I do not like to see women go to the polls and vote when they know their votes will not be counted. It is a waste of time, and seems to me mere child's play. Do not let these words be misunderstood. I blame no other person's action or counsel. There may be places and people who can be helped by such experiments, but I wish I could see women carrying some of the energy so spent into really noble, unselfish and associated labor. I do not think that because men and women have "equal rights " that their work for the world must be the same. I do not yet understand the limits of sex. I do not understand what men should or what women could do, but I want first of all that entire freedom for both, which shall ensure the carrying out of God's purposes. People talk about the impossibility of women being faithful to home duties, and at the same time "absorbed in political life." But why should we be absorbed in political life? Can we not cast a vote in a few seconds; and where is the intelligent woman, North or South who has not an opinion of her own on some political subject?The Reform in, which we are engaged is unlike any the world has ever seen, for it seems to array one-half the human race against the other half, cutting straight down through all the families in the land from, the highest to the lowest. Those whom "God" has "joined together" it seems to separate, and I suppose the reason that I shrink personally from organizations in behalf of this reform is, because they seem to divide men from women, and in most of their proceedings to authorize the common presumption that the present position of woman is the result of the conscious wrong-doing of men. Things must be called by their right names, whether consciously or unconsciously done, and I have never shrank from so calling them. Until very recently, the subordinate position of woman--which did not in the least prevent exceptional women from exercising their proper influence--was a condition imposed by the necessities of spinning, weaving and household providing. Now that the progress of civilization sets women free and leaves them many unoccupied hours, the first consequence is that home is neglected for balls, clubs and theatres-for the fashionable parade ground, wherever that may be. Let us take care that the second be not the subordination of home, to the external duties of citizenship. The security of the public interest lies in the supremacy or the family and in the strength of natural ties. Although franchise Is not to cone in a moment, women are being educated for it by holding public offices as well as in other ways. In Kansas, women serve as clerks of the Senate, and House. In many Western towns they are "notaries public" and post-mistresses. The Boston Post Office has never had any Department so well managed as "Station A" in Miss Buckingham's hands, and last April Mrs. Sarah Wooster was appointed by the Aylesbury magistrates, 0verseer of the Poor, and Surveyor of the Highways for the parish of Illmire in England. Four other women had filled similar offices the previous year, and they have been declared eligible as constables, sextons, and returning officers. In this country, they are being placed upon the school committees with such rapidity that the town of Melrose will be glad to forget the "bad pre-eminence" it acquired when it refused to listen to the petitioners who were among the first to make this demand. I have more than once regretted the urgency with which I have pushed women as saleswomen, clerks, etc., because of their indifference to customers and to employers' interests after their appointment. I hope the women who go into the offices I have just enumerated will show a pliancy and fitness that shall create a steady demand for their services. It rests with themselves to do it. The current of public prejudice is at this moment in their favor.In reference to the study of medicine, I think the women of the United States have made a great mistake. The first thing to be secured is a first-rate education, such an education as Warren and Jackson, in the first instance, and later still the pupils of such men have obtained, The medical school at Paris, when it opened its doors to Miss Putnam, offered this education to all women able to go to Europe. But not one in a hundred of the women who will practice medicine In America will ever go to Europe. What has been done for the education of such women in America? Absolutely nothing, it seems to me. If the money given to all sorts of female schools and colleges had been given to the medical school at Harvard, expressly to secure medical examinations and degrees for women, and to build operating rooms for them, something would really have been accomplished. We have a few women finely educated abroad; we have many women nobly successful in spite of obstacles; but this cannot last. For exceptional women success is always possible, but we have not done our duty till we have made it sure for the ordinary student. Is it not fair to ask whether there is yet in the United States a single woman who is able to cope with educated male physicians in general practice? Are not our women obstetricians or specialists, and should we not provide against failure from this causeTo this end let Harvard be endowed. In his recent address to the School, Dr. E. H. Clarke said this in substance, and I am sorry that a journey to Europe has prevented the publication of his paper. It was needed as an offset to the coarse and disrespectful humor of last year's address. Wealthy women should take this matter in charge; but there is one thing that only the physicians can accomplish. The formation of medical societies to meet monthly or quarterly for the reporting of cases, and reading of theses to be published in a journal, is a matter which rests with themselves alone, and properly achieved would challenge and secure the respect of medical men. I sometimes hear individuals talk as if male physicians were to be utterly suppressed--as if their vocation were ended. A short time - since I interceded at Harvard for a young medical student, that certain privileges should be granted him because, being the son of a poor widow, it was necessary to shorten his term of study. "I thought," said some one who happened to hear of it, "that you were in favor of female physicians?" How could I explain myself to a person capable of that remark? I hope the time will never come when noble and generous men will not dignify this profession as they done in New England from the very first year of its settlement. The work of women in this field would be poorly achieved without them.So also in the pulpit. Let women come to it to complement the work of men, not to supercede it. In every field the two sexes must labor to secure harmony and fullness. As in music, so in science, and I have never thought that the work of the sexes could be interchanged in either. It ought to be a matter of prudence with individuals as well as associations, not to undertake, more than can be accomplished, and for each to undertake only her own work.When I first entered the pulpit, I was told that I was not a Radical, because I discoursed on Scripture themes and Biblical Interpretation. I was expected to touch Temperance, Anti-Slavery and Woman's Rights;--everything in short except what it was my special object to say. But it seemed to me my first duty to wake the religious nature; my next, to make myself so acceptable in the pulpit, that the propriety of my being there, would never be questioned. Then those who thought my Woman's Rights opinions "short madness," would be willing to listen to them in the Lyceum. This experiment has worked well. I advise others to try it.I cannot see why conventions should not be called in a simple way, to discuss these subjects, Without any advertisements of distinguished names. Let the distinguished people come if they choose, let their possible presence be hinted at, but failures like those at Springfield do the cause great harm, and in the present state of public they are less readily forgiven in women than in men.CAROLINE H. DALL.LOST!Wm. P. Tomlinson"'Tis thing of oft occurrence, Masters!"OLD PLAY.LATE last winter, in one of our more "down town" churches, there was a prayer-meeting and sermon for the unfortunate class known as "night-walkers," of the Empire City. A popular divine--one whose eloquence had stirred many a Western audience--in a visit East had expressed a desire to talk to the Magdalens; and by dint of advertising and the fame blown of the preacher's pulpit successes, a large audience was attracted together, to whom the cushioned seats and brilliant lights of a metropolitan tabernacle were strange surroundings.Ay, it was a large assemblage, but there were well nigh as many men in the galleries to stare down, as there were women below to be converted; and sad to say, there were words and signs of recognition exchanged between the old roues, or boys, young in all save vice, and the more brazen of the unfortunates that augured but illy for the impression sought to be created by the messenger of the Word of Life. It was an audience, by Its very flashincss and unconcern of even the respect due such a place, to move the heart to pity. The slums of vice--Water street and Mulberry, Green and Houston--were all represented; and the few minutes intervening between the assembling of the audience and the commencement of the services were spent in remarks of a by no means edifying character."What can the old muff tell us we didn't know long ago!" would be the exclamation of one; "lend us a wipe, Sal, mine is getting salty a-ready," would be the cheap attempt at wit of another; and a laugh, hopeless and discordant, would run around the audience, to whom the whole seemed a source of unfailing diversion. Yet there were a few among them, not wholly depraved, who manifested glimmerings of a better nature by using their influence to check their more boisterous companions, and preserve something of the respect due the occasion.In a few minutes the minister, a man yet young, broad-limbed, and kindly-faced, mounted the pulpit. After the cries of "hush" "order," from the better portion of the assemblage had secured comparative quiet, he gave out a simple hymn, caught up by a few in the singing, read a chapter from the Bible and at once began, in simple, unaffected language, to comment on the passages he had read. In a voice of weighty solemnity, his hand slightly raised, not a particle of excitement visible in his manner, he repeated: "Like sheep they are laid in the grave."--From the first there was an awakening of interest. The manner of the speaker had won their attention. Upon a few, his words fell vainly as shot upon an iron-clad, but the sympathies of the greater part of the audience were excited. He went on, his voice gathering power:"Their beauly shall consume in the dust."--There was no mistaking now the impression. Rouged cheeks grew pale,' and pale cheeks kindled with interest; there was no more quip or jibe; each leaned forward to catch the next clearly enunciated word:"But God will redeem my soul from the bondage, of the grave"--the man's utterance became rapid, joyous; his face irradiated, turned upward and faces turned upward with it--"for he shall receive me!"Then the sermon, such as has swayed, as the wind sways the pines, the multitudes of many an open air gathering, succeeded: the perishable pleasures of a courtesan's life; the remorse following its swift career; the only healing for human guilt and sorrow, were all depicted:--only sobs broke the pauses of the speaker's voice; fountains long dried were opened; hearts, that bad parted with sentiment for years, were deeply stirred.While some remained tearful in their seats; and some pressed forward, agreeable to the speaker's invitation, to approach the "throne of grace," one slender girl, whose features were concealed by the folds of her veil, arose and stole unobserved from the building. Gaining the street, the sharp air played upon her brow, from which the veil had been swept back, but it had no power to allay the fever which burned in every vein, maddening thought."'Handsome, Emmy' will take a 'stiff brandy,' she murmured, "and forget all about it; but I never can go back to that den--I can never live again as I have in the past."Walking rapidly, as though with a purpose, she soon reached the Bowery, where she took a Third avenue car to City Hall; walked from thence to the Courtlandt street ferry, crossed, took a Bergen car, and alighted in the neighborhood of her old home. All was buried in gloom at that midnight hour. She had not shed a single tear since leaving the building; her eyes were full of a wild light that scorched them.Long, unheeding the keenness of the air, she roamed about in that once familiar locality;--seeing the dear home where her innocent childhood had been spent--the public school where she had been so happy--the private one in which she had "finished her education"--looking now at this house where had lived the playmate most cherished of her sex--now at that of the boy who had so won upon her regard at school by his kindness in drawing and painting pictures for her, telling lessons, explaining difficult tasks, and shielding her from oft-deserved censure--here was the high-stooped dwelling where she had been at parties of pleasure, feeling a flutter of strangeness at the unwonted luxury of the surroundings--there the more modest one where other happy hours had been passed--along this avenue she had strolled so oft with ------ ere the rash step of leaving home to wed secretly, with one above her station, had been taken----At length the agitation of her mind, as event after event in her life whirled before her, grew intolerable, and taking a farewell glance at her childhood's home, she walked rapidly to the avenue on which ran the cars.Soon she was again at the ferry, and soon, also, on board of the boat, rounding out from the slip and heading up the river. It was now long past midnight; there was a clouded sky above, and a blackness on the face of the waters.There were but few passengers on board, and the keen air kept those. in the lighted cabins. The girl was all alone at the stern, leaning over the broad rail. From the first she had kept her eyes on the sullenly splashing waves, removing them only to note the distance of the shore-lights of the great city, which the boat was steadily approaching, or to cast an imploring glance at the black vault of heaven.Two or three times her lips began to move, but the might of the inward conflict, convulsing her being, prevented the articulation of words. At length, moved as by an uncontrollable impulse, she murmured God bless' dear mother, my innocent sister, and all who have been good to me. And God bless my dar---- ah! he who was once my darling!"As she breathed this prayer--and who shall say that it was not wafted upwards--she undid the chain near which she had leaned, and stepped upon iron-fronted edge of the boat--no guard now between her and the river. "For their sakes God forgive," was wailed out on the night air, and she leaped.All unseen by human eye, the waters closed above that form; another human tragedy was enacted; the boat sped on its way; life went on the same, but she, known to her companions in vice as "Lena Rivers," was seen no more on earth.WM. P. TOMLINSON.Frances E. W. HarperTHE MOTHER'S BLESSING.OH, my soul had grown so wearyWith its many cares opprest,All my heart's high aspirationsLanguished in a prayer for rest.I was like a lonely strangerPining in a distant land,Bearing on her lips a languageNone around could understand--Longing for a close communionWith some kindred mind and heart,But whose language is a jargonPast her skill, and past her art.God in mercy looked upon me,Saw my fainting, pain and strife,Lent to me a blest evangelThrough the gates of light and lifeThen my desert leafed and blossomed,Beauty decked its deepest wild;Hope, and joy, and peace, and blessing,Met me in my first-born child;When the tiny hands so feeble,Brouaht me smiles and joyful tears,Lifted from my life the shadowsThat had gathered there for years.God, I thank thee for the blessingThat at last has crowned my life,Soothed its weary, lonely anguishStayed its fainting, calmed its strife.Gracious Parent, guard and shelterIn thine arms my darling child,Till she treads the streets of jasperSpotless, pure and undefiled.FRANCES E. W. HARPER.MODERN WARS AND WARRIORS.Robert W. HumeLIFE is a battle. In this world even the Church calls itself the Church Militant. Agitation is the life of a nation, when that is sapped by luxury or suppressed by tyranny, healthy existence ceases, and its unburied carcase breeds only pestilence and corruption. There was greater vitality in the Roman Republic when the Gracchi demanded the distribution of the land, than when Julius Cæsar gained the battle of Pharsalia; more real health in Greece when Demosthenes thundered against Philip, than when Alexander of Macedon sighed for more worlds to conquer. But the warrior age has passed, and the order of those days is now reversed. Sampsons are at a discount, and even in modern war the skill of the man of science is more honored than the sword of the gladiator.Such being the case, men of thought ought of right to rank before men of action. There are those in whose characters the two are united. Such was the case with the martyr of the Anti-Slavery war. But John Brown dying triumphantly for the Truth's sake was worthier the applause of the world, than John Brown fiercely struggling for the same in the arsenal at Harper's Ferry. It requires a far higher order of courage to maintain calmly a correct principle in the face of an angry and riotous mob, than to die shouting victory at the head of a legion of applauding soldiers.Neither are the merits of modern heroes less than those of the ancients if they be measured by the services they have performed for the good of mankind. What former war will compare (either in the greatness of its actions or the excellence of its effects) with the late war waged for thirty years by a handful of Abolitionists against the churches, the government and a large majority of the people of this country. And as the heroes are worthier, and the results nobler and more important to human welfare, so the theatres of operations are daily becoming grander and more extended. In the transportation of men and goods, days are now reduced to hours by the railroad, and the transmission of thought by the telegraph may be said, in certain instances, to outstrip the flight of time. Only a century ago the leading ideas of a country although triumphant, but slowly penetrated into another. The seeds of the American Revolution were Political and Religious Liberty. More than half a century passed before the former sprouted. In England in the shape of the Reform Bill of 1830, and three-quarters of a century before it blossomed in France, Germany and Spain in the admission of the rigbt of universal male suffrage. The latter, after striking root in England in the Catholic Emancipation bill and budding into vigorous existence in the admission of Jews to the House of Commons, may yet be seen wreathing its chaplet of unfading flowers around the brows of Castelar as he struggles for Religious Freedom in the Cortes of Spain.Now, however, revolutions travel much more rapidly. Although premature and consequently subdued, that of 1848 passed like wildfire throughout Europe. At the present time the most important Reforms approach nearly to universality. The vexed questions of the Rights of Woman and the Rights of Laborers or Producers are at one and the same, time agitating the most enlightened countries. The encounters and tournaments of the past age are beggared into insignificance the importance and grandeur of the reforms of the present. Of yore, such gatherings for war or for sport rarely comprised more than tens of thousands of the inhabitants of the nation or nations interested in the affrays, but the combatants of the present period have, for their audience, the elite of the civilized world. In former times the blows given and taken for the honor of chivalry could only be witnessed comparatively by a few; but the true words now daily uttered, by the champions of human rights resound through continents: and the names of Garibaldi and Wendell Phillips, Victor Hugo and John Bright are household words with the foremost peoples of the earth.But a dignity yet higher distinguishes the warfare of the present period. Brute force being overthrown, the moral power which is destined to succeed it is not monopolized by the males, and knows not the favoritism of sex. The Sisters of Mercy and Charity, of both branches of the Christian Church, have striven (not vainly) for success over Bigotry, Intolerance and Barbarism, on many a well-fought field. Brutality has retired discomfited from before the peaceful confidence and calm resolution of Lucretia Mott, finding in her august presence his shield of Ribaldry an incumbrance rather than a defence. Grim War, in the Crimeas, "smoothed his wrinkled front" in the presence of Florence Nightingale; and Oppression is to-day rolling in the dust, smitten even unto death by the javelin hurled from the hand of Harriet Beecher Stowe.Well will it be for us when moral ideas take their proper, post of honor in the council halls of the nation. When the doctrine that "might is right" which has stained the records of our race with the life-blood of myriads, tyrannizes over us no longer. But this will never obtain whilst the halls where our laws are created, and the courts in which they are administered, are closed against the counsels of our mothers, our wives, our sisters and our daughters. The later wars in Europe and this country have proved that the presence of woman is needed fully as much even on the field of battle, as it is in the cottage of the laborer. Let us no longer proscribe her from any sphere she chooses to adorn with her presence. Alas! all former generations have witnessed her sufferings, but let us hope that the one now existing may behold also her triumph. If she has borne through the ages the almost mortal agony of the Curse, we know that through her also we are taught to hope for the Blessing. Well will it be for Mankind, when the charity of woman is called upon to guide and temper the sterner and grosser decrees and enjoyments of her helpmate; when, imitating the order instituted in the Temple of Solomon, we place the Seat of Mercy above the Ark of Justice. After such amendments we may hopefully look forward for the speedy arrival of that period of peace decreed in the sacred writings, for which we are commanded to pray, when the desires of mankind shall be merged in and consistent with the will of the Ruler of the Universe.ROBERT W. HUME.THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENTWendell PhillipsA FRIEND in Rhode Island writes to us that there is a wide opposition to the Fifteenth Amendment among the advocates of Women's Rights; especially among those who have not been trained in the Anti-Slavery cause. The fact does not much surprise us. Education in reform is such a slow process, simple faith in absolute right is so very rare an element, that it is natural beginners should be confused by the crafty demagogues about them and shrink from what seems such a perilous step. A little experlence and a more profound consideration will, we believe, lift them to the level of a full faith in principles.What is the. Fifteenth Amendment? It runs thus:ARTICLE 15.-The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.The form is unexceptionable. If the thing sought is good, the language used could not be better. There is no word "male" (odious to us all, in laws and constitutions) to be found here. Wherever and whenever women vote it will protect their rights as fully as those of men, and be as valuable to them as to men. The object sought is to oblige the States to allow black persons to vote on the same conditions that white persons do. As men only are now allowed to vote, of course the immediate effect will be to oblige the States to allow black men to vote just as wh1te men do.This is all its effect. The talk about its giving the vote to Chinamen, Irish, Germans and other "ignorant foreigners," is wholly out of place. It does not admit one such to the ballot-box; it does not affect them in any way. Such men are excluded from the ballot-box until they are naturalized, on account of their birthplace, not on account of their race. These, are totally distinct elements. It is foreigners not races (excepting in the Negro's case) that we exclude from voting.Race means blood. Nationality means birthplace. Englishmen are men of a dozen races, all born in England. Americans are made up of a score of races, all born here. All races here are equal, all Americans vote,--except the black. The object of this Amendment is to abolish that inequality. A Jew born in New York does not change his race: he is still a Jew. This Amendment provides that he shall not, on account of his race, be denied his vote. A Jew born in Paris is still a Jew in race. He cannot vote, however, till naturalized, because he is a foreigner. This Amendment does not hasten his right to vote at all, does not in the least change his present rights as to voting. So of all other foreigners-Irish, Chinese, and the rest.Let us omit therefore all this idle talk, which only confuses the question at issue. The whole object of this Amendment is to prevent a person's being shut out from voting because he is a Jew, or a Celt, or a Negro. Its immediate effect will be to prevent negro men from being forbidden to vote.What then is the objection to it? We are told that if these negro men vote they will tyrannize over their wives just as white men do; and that so large an ignorant class voting, will make it still more difficult to get woman's right to the ballot recognized. But suppose all this were true--what then? Does it authorize us to resist the recognition, by Government, of the negro man's right to vote?A man has the same "inherent, unalienable" right to vote that a woman has. We humbly presume that the marvellous progress of these last few months has not upset that principle, or produced any woman so terribly in earnest as to deny it.If that be so, is there any intelligent reformer prepared to maintain that we have a right to deny to any human being his, or her, natural rights because we fear he, or she, will misuse them? I should 'like to see the Abolitionist, of thirty years standing, who will look his own record in the face and maintain such a proposition. All history laughs at it. The Pope said, "I cannot allow men to read the Bible, each in his own language and pick out his own faith--the 'right will certainly be misused.'" Tories say, "we cannot let poor and unlearned men vote, 'they will misuse the right.'" What said the Declaration of Independence to that? The Episcopalian said "I cannot let the Catholic vote, 'he will misuse it and harm me.'" What said O'Connell to that?Slave holders said "the black has a right to liberty, but we cannot recognize it, 'he will misuse the right.'" Ask the last thirty years and the war how God answered that. Capital says to the eight hour men--"Yes, an immortal being has a right to some leisure to prepare for this life and the next, but I cannot recognize it, 'he will misuse it.'" What do we reply? --"Recognlze your fellow man's natural rights--those God gave him--aid him, as you can to use them wisely--but leave him, at last, responsible to God alone for their use--art thou tby brother's keeper?'"If the negro man should therefore, in his ignorance, misuse his right and, delay woman's recognition many a year, we are not authorized on that account, to forbid Government to recognize his natural and inalienable right to vote; that is, to oppose the Fifteenth Amendment.It was one of the great promises of MAGNA CHARTA, extorted from the King by his Barons, that he would "neither delay nor refuse Justice." God lays the same duty on all of us.We were not sent into the world responsible that negroes, or any other race, should behave themselves. But God will hold us responsible if we presume to deny to our fellow man any of his natural rights.Fashion--woman's realm--was one of the strongest bulwarks of slavery sometimes; equal to Church and State combined. It is to-day the special bulwark of negro hate. Woman could extinguish that scourge in half-a-dozen years. Suppose twenty years ago when fashion laughed at us, it had been proposed to give women the vote and that Abolitionists had cried out "no--we've enough to convert now, selfish merchants and bigoted chureb-members; do not throw contemptuous and silly women into the scale. It is an 'infamous' proposition." Should we have been justified? But leaving this argument with those who recognize and fully trust all God-given rights, let us come down to those who settle this question by reasons of expediency.Those friends say it is not wise to recognize these rights piecemeal. The Amendment is faulty because it does not cover whole ground, man and woman's vote too, all that relates to voting. Well then, here is Mr. A----, he believes the vote is a snare and a strengthening of the Aristocracy unless every voter is secured in a homestead, his natural right. Here is Mr. B----, he believes voting only plays into the hands, of the Capital, unless our whole system of finance is changed and -Government allowed to issue paper money at discretion, without interest. Here is Mr. C----, who believes no drunkard should be allowed to vote and no convicted criminal, as is sometimes the law abroad. Here is Mr. D----,who believes the whole method of choosing the Senate is a violation of natural right.Shall we wait till the whole country gets educated up to all these ideas and make no change till we can settle the subject in its whole breadth? Absurd. Man gets forward step by step, the recognition of half a truth helping him to see the other half. First we had individual liberty, then separate property, then right of inheritance, then freedom of opinion, then freedom of speech, then voting: - thus, one by one, ray by ray, men got able to bear the full light of day. In what order these steps shall be taken,--which. first, which second--is God's ordaining, not of our plan. Every change large and distinct enough to serve as a point upon which to rally the nation, should have a separate discussion and be decided by itself. This is the most economical and speediest method of reform. Every other method, mixing up separate issues, is like. good Davie Deans' attachment to the Scottish Covenant. From his sick pillow he asked if the Doctor had subscribed the Covenant. That's no matter now, father," said his child. "Indeed it is," cried the old Covenanter, "for if he has not, never a drop of his medicine shall go down the stomach of my father's son."In the present instance this great rule holds. We have drawn the weight so far up; fasten it there and thus get a purchase to lift it still higher. There have been several different tests excluding men from voting in this country. Church membership, property, book-learning, race, sex. The first we have got rid of everywhere. The second is almost gone, except in obsolete corners like Rhode Island. Book learning is vanishing as a test. The abolition of each one has helped to get rid of his comrade. Race and sex alone are left. Abolish the first and you will clear the ground and simplify the question. It will leave the naked, bare, intolerable and illogical test of sex so monstrous as it stands isolated that it will almost topple over of its own weight.No doubt the ignorant prejudice of the working class is one of the great obstacles to the recognition of Woman's Rights. Some over-sanguine advocates seem to forget this, and imagine that when a Legislature is carried the work is mainly done. Not so by any means. When the first line of the enemy's works,--the Legislature,--is carried, there remain two, behind--the Church and the laboring class. Whether the Church line will contest the fight remains to be seen. It looks sometimes and in some places as if it would not. But there's no trustworthy evidence on that point. The working men will, without doubt. And with that whole class the same thorough and weary work is to be done as fell to the lot of the Abolitionists between 1830 and 1850, with the mass of the Nation; patient lecturing, line upon line, precept upon precept, "without haste, without rest." But the enfranchisement of the negro need not give us the alarm which Democrats, masquerading in Woman's Rights uniform, try to create.This reform,--woman's voting,--will never probably be carried by national action. It will be granted State by State. Slavery would have been abolished so but for the war. It was the "war power" which brought and enabled the Nation to kill slavery. Abolitionists looked forward to the peaceful action of successive States. This will probably be the course relative to woman's voting.The addition therefore of seventy thousand black votes in South Carolina will not retard the action of Iowa or Massachusetts on this question. It will rather hasten their action. Desirous to guard as fully as possible against any conceivable ill consequence from such sudden increase of voters, the Northern States will be spurred to call, all the sooner into the field, whatever there is of good and conservative and well intentioned in woman. Just as the lager beer infatuation of the German Republicans out West moves the Republican Temperance men there to accept woman's rights in order to correct that bias in the party so the negro vote will operate in this case. Once carry this reform in half-a-dozen Northern States, and the negro looks so much to us for his example that his vote will be sure to follow ours. If the North once accepts our principles, the time will come when Woman will find her best friend in the Negro, as the Union did. You may be sure he will keep step to the music of any improvement his trusted North initiates. Let ignorance then believe that the only way to improve the world is to do everything at once--"I shall never get to the top of the hill by single steps; the only way is to wait till I can leap the whole way at one bound." Let selfishness cry-"He sball not have his rights till I get mine." The true reformer will say, "Let every class have its rights the very moment the world is ready to recognize them. Thus and thus only will every other class get one step nearer to the recognition of its own. 'First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.'"WENDELL PHILLIPS.THE FIFTEENTH VERSUS THE SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT.L.B.C.THE Woman Suffrage Movement is suddenly developing a new phase. It opposes the Fifteenth Amendment. This opposition is increasing. It has been rather the fashion to accuse those advocates of Female Suffrage who oppose this Amendment of insincerity and treachery to the principles of Liberty. Doubtless some of them are thus guilty: also, doubtless many of them are not. One cannot be false to principles one has never believed. Incredible as it may at first seem, there are many workers in the Woman Suffrage movement who have never learned the lesson set this Nation during the past generation, that distinctions founded upon differences of race are fatal to a people that establishes them. They have only learned the danger of such distinctions founded upon differences of sex. Anglo-Saxon women, they desire to stand equal with Anglo-Saxon men. They say: "If you give the ballot to us, we, of course, will then admit all races to its privileges but, if you give the franchise first to these ignorant negroes, taught by slavery to despise, women, these foreigners, these semi-barbarous Chinese they, 'drest in their little brief authority,' will use it to, put off the day of our liberation,--and meanwhile, grave-yards are crowded with our starving sisters, and streets are filling with desperate ones."What answer? Is Democracy then a dream? Are its principles but "glittering generalities" after all? Was it all a mistake that we deemed that Mazzini and the Cretan, Stuart Mill and the Cuban, Wendell Phillips and Anna Dickinson were leading separate divisions of one army, fighting the world over for the same end a larger liberty? Race-hatred, distinctions of caste, the aristocracy of sex, we had thought them all foes of Republicanism. We had supposed that a victory over one brought nearer the day of triumph over all, the day when the groaning, earth shall be delivered from all these monstrous shams that have cheated us with their hollow mirage for so many centuries."For mankind is one in spirit, and Humanity's vast frame,Through its ocean-sundered fibres, feels alike the gush of joy and shame.""Let justice be done though the heavens fall," as Nasby's paper very sensibly remarks, "the more justice is done, the more the heavens won't fall." Their Maker fashioned them on no such rotten foundation. He created them expressly to stand, and stand they will. If the Democratic principle of extended suffrage is correct, would it be just to refuse it to the Chinese immigrants, for fear that after they receive the franchise they will not vote just as we want them to vote? That, after all, is the question squarely put. I know its naked merits are often hidden in rhetoric, ay, and that thinking of it, trying to see it fairly our eyes are blurred with the tears of outraged, trampled womanhood, and yet, I think, this is the plain question to be decided. We have just finished a bloody war; the nation is racked yet with turmoil and bitter contention, because many years ago our fathers said, "If we expel this germ of race distinction between the black and white, the Republic we have fought for, the hope of the world is delayed for generations. Groaning millions of trampled peoples call to us,--their destiny waits upon our action. It is a little thing, let it go. It will cure itself in time." We see the error now. It is so easy to see an error a generation too late, and the judgment upon this one has been written so plainly upon the wall for, as Wendell Phillips says, though the turning from justice then was so slight, "It took a microscope of the love of justice to see it, but, in a hundred years and less, it widened, and between the two points are half a million graves and three thousand millions of debt."Now a new question of race presents itself beside the new question of sex, as the old one stood beside the question of a Republic's existence in those early days. Fearful and shuddering, women cry, "If we cast out, this little prejudice, our hopes are ruined. Indeed, we ought not to do it. Millions of suffering women call upon us; we cannot turn deaf ears to their cry." Oh! women of America, will you unread the past, and make your appeal to a pride of race which war has almost burnt out from the American heart? Will you fan the smouldering flames of prejudice to gain the ballot for yourselves? It is a slight turning from justice now. Your microscopes can hardly make it visible, but who can tell how far it may lead us? It is idle to suppose that in this year the nation will refuse to pass the Fifteenth Amendment out of any sense of justice to women. If it is done, the country will be prompted to such action by a prejudice against race, and an underlying distrust of democratic principles. Are the women who, in their efforts to gain suffrage for themselves, stand face to face with a similar prejudice against sex, and the same distrust of the principle of extended suffrage, prepared to inflame this kindred prejudice and increase this disbelief? Would we then desire women to wait, to brood in silence over the wrongs of centuries, while men of all races receive the franchise? By no means. This cause is as holy as any other. We only desire that these two divisions of one army, fighting under the one banner of Equality, strong only in virtue of the selfsame truth, whose "changing affluence" alone differs in these questions of race and sex, should not turn their arms against each other. Work together or separately, but in God's name work not in opposition to each other. Remember Anna Dickinson's assertion, "If I know myself I would go wanting all my days, die steeped in misery to the lips, ere I would gain one right or secure one privilege at the expense of any one more helpless and miserable than myself." Do you say that women are greater sufferers than these outcasts, dragged hither from Africa, or thrown out upon our coasts from Asia's swarming lands? Remember O'Connell, who, when twenty-seven votes were offered him for unhappy Ireland if he would be silent on the slave question, answered, "Gentlemen, God knows that I have the most hapless constituency upon which the sun ever set, but may my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth before, to help Ireland, I keep silent on the Negro question."L. B. C.WOMAN IN TUNIS.R.J.H.A NOTABLE fact is mentioned with regard to the position of Women in the Regency of Tunis, by our late Consul there, Hon. Amos Perry, whose interesting volumes on "Carthage and Tunis, past and present," in two parts, published at Providence, R. I.,--will well repay perusal. In reference to the special topic referred to, he says:"Female advocates are found at Tunis, whose distinct office it is to manage the cases of female plaintiffs and defendants coming before the highest tribunal in the land, and also to plead the cause of condemned female criminals, who are subjected to unreasonable sufferings in their cells. There are at Tunis three of these professional advocates, one of whom I heard make an effective appeal to the Bey, at a regular session of his Court."That is pretty fair for a Mahommedan country, where women are almost wholly regarded as being without souls. There may be traceable in this some remnant of the Carthagenian or even older civilization which existed in North Africa, many centuries since, and the traces of which are not entirely departed.It appears also that in Tunis there are a number of women to whom popular opinion accords celestial beatitudes, and to whose memory distinguished honors are paid. It is strange that some of our Positivist friends have not called attention thereto, deifying Humanity in the form of woman as they do. There are some of the sex who at Tunis are objects of public veneration on account of their chaste and pure lives. "This homage," Mr. Perry remarks, rendered to abstinence from sensual pleasures, in countries so corrupt, is very remarkable, in showing the * * triumph of the will over passion, and of the spirit over matter."R. J. H.Editorial Department.THE NEED OF A NATIONAL ORGANIZATION.AT the recent very successful meeting of the New England Woman's Suffrage Association--a synopsis of the proceedings of which we present elsewhere--a Resolution was adopted authorizing its Executive Committee to consult with the friends of the Cause throughout the country for the purpose of forming a Woman's National Suffrage Association.That this is a step in the right direction, no one, we think, having the good of the Cause at heart, will seriously question. As indispensable to the true prosecution of moral warfare is a thorough organization as it is to physical; and that the Cause, moving with such resistless momentum to a front rank in Reform, has not had a central organization, is an error that cannot too soon be remedied. Much of the success of the Anti-Slavery struggle--the most memorable moral warfare yet waged on this continent--is due, we think, to the fact that, throughout its thirty odd years of persistent agitation, it maintained one organization, presenting, without diversity of opinion or defection from its ranks, a united front, which not all the persecutions heaped upon its members ever weakened or disorganized. And in the cause of Woman Suffrage, an efficient and truly representative national movement, wisely administered, with a concentration of effort on the proposed Sixteenth Amendment and such immediate legislation by Congress as maybe obtained without any Amendment,--would effect what no desultory, local efforts, which are not battles, but merely skirmishes along the line, could hope to accomplish.But the exigencies of the hour call not alone for a national organization. From the scores of associations throughout the land--from the earnest friends of the Cause, working in manifold ways to promote its interests--from the thinking men and women desiring to ally themselves with the movement, comes up the demand for a POLICY. A Reform that would invite the cooperation of the age, must breathe the spirit of the age. In demanding a withheld right, it must be careful it deny no right, even to the most hapless or degraded of God's children. In this Reform, pregnant beyond all others in consequences for good or evil, appealing, for the justice of its claim, to the highest sentiments in human nature, there should be the north-star of a principle which all eyes may behold. The standard bearing, free and broad, upon its folds, "UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE," should never be lowered by one selfish or unworthy consideration. Marching on to triumphant success, its adherents, the pure, the wise, and the noble of the land, should have the proud consciousness that not one fold of that spotless banner has been tarnished by an unworthy act, but that, every victory over hoary wrong and prejudice has been won by the power of Truth, and must endure.Friends of Woman Suffrage! there must be a National Organization. Present unity, future prosperity, the honor of the Cause, alike demand it. No time should be lost. Let the New England Association, through its Executive Committee, issue a Call for a Delegate Convention to assemble, at some central point, at an early date. Let every existing organization unite in the combined movement. Let all parts of the country, and all diversities of opinion, be duly represented. Carry zeal, philanthropy and wisdom into council; let there be a generous emulation of devotion for principle and the results cannot but be conducive to the best interests of humanity.THE CAUSE IN MASSACHUSETTS.NOTWITHSTANDING the recent action of the Massachusetts Senate in deciding by a more than two-third vote not to strike out the word "male" from the Constitution of that State as a qualification for voting, we see great cause for hopefulness in surveying the field and reflecting upon what has actually been accomplished.The Lexington and Concord of the war have been fought. In the very able Report of the Senate Committee, valuable hereafter as a campaign document; in the vote it received in that body, and in the interest awakened by the several "hearings," and the discussions upon it, all throughout the Commonwealth, a victory has been won which cannot be too highly estimated, And which affords an excellent vantage ground for future efforts. Over-sanguine friends of the Cause may have felt disappointed at the smallness of the vote, but we beg such to remember that a one-third vote in the Senate of Massachusetts, which represents such diverse elements in population, has a significance beyond a similar vote in any one of the younger States of the West, and that it really indicates a marked revolution of opinion among the masses of that Commonwealth. As confirmation of this, we are assured by one having rare opportunities for knowing, that could the Report have been introduced into the House, ONE HUNDRED votes would have been recorded in its favor, and a verdict for Woman Suffrage have gone forth which would have rendered its enactment into law a necessity not to be delayed.Honor to the Committee who have honored themselves by their noble Report! Honor to the NINE who have risen to the height of clearest statesmanship, sustaining such needed legislation! Honor to the men and women of Massachusetts who have labored so earnestly to secure impartial suffrage and rebaptise their State in its historic fame! So much of the work completed, we are confident the task remaining will find warm hearts and ready hands for the brief period required for its final accomplishment.NOTES."Warrenton," in his correspondence with the Springfield Republican, tersely says: "We do not propose to compel women to vote; and whether we should urge them to, would depend upon our views of whether they would vote wisely or not. We only propose that they shall vote if they desire to; that the Constitution and the laws shall not prohibit them. This is all we ask for."The Boston Commonwealth, to which we always turn with the instinctive assurance of meeting with good things, in its issue of June 12th, says: "Woman's Cause advances! It has just given the encrusted conservatism of Boston a hard knock. Miss Emily J. Harris, a graduate of the Everett school, daughter of Mr. William G. Harris, the President of the Common Council has been selected to read the Declaration of Independence at the ensuing municipal celebration. By another year who knows but that a lady will deliver the oration?"The Rev. Robert Collyer, in his oration at Chicago, on Commemoration day, as reported by the Christian Register, paid the following beautiful tribute to Woman: "I could never hope to pardon myself, let alone be pardoned of God and my country if I failed to speak, at such a time of woman too--and of the woman, in every respect, as the exemplar of the great qualities I have pointed out in the man. The woman stood as truly as the man by this great cause, made her sacrifice as quietly and as perfectly as he did, and on the battle field, or in the hospital, or the home, was hero, and patriot, and saviour, too."Miss Mary J. Safford of Cairo, Ill., who delivered the valedictory address at the sixth annual Commencement of the New York Medical College for Women, sailed from this city on the 10th ult. for Europe, whither she goes to complete her medical education. We understand that it is Miss Safford's design to first proceed to Vienna and familiarize herself with the hospital practices of that city, after which she will visit Berlin, Paris, Edinburgh and other cities offering the best opportunities for observation in medical science. The readers of THE ADVOCATE may expect frequently to hear of her movements.The Providence Journal of a recent date contains a pleasant paper by Mrs. S. H. Whitman, the well-known writer, entitled, "Progressive Women and 'Average Young Men,'" in which there is an admirable refutation of certain views advanced by Mrs. Rebecca Harding Davis, author of "Life in the Iron Mill" and other works of acknowledged ability,--in Putnam's Monthly of some time since. Our readers will observe that our esteemed contributor, Mrs. Hooker, also makes an unanswerable reply to the same article in the very able paper from her pen which we present in the present number of THE ADVOCATE.Bayard Taylor in his valuable "Notes on Foreign Literature," etc., In Putnam's Monthly for June mentions "That the Kirghiz tribes of Central Asia have lately given a remarkable proof of their capacity for civilization. Some years ago they petitioned the Russian Government to allow a number of their women to be carefully educated in obstetric science, in order to act as experienced midwives for the tribes. The petition was granted, and they are so well satisfied with the result that they now apply, to have certain others of their women educated in all branches of medicine. An exception to the Russian law (which prohibits the study of medicine by women) was obtained with some difficulty, and the Kirghizes are at present paying the expenses of board and study in St. Petersburg for their future doctresses."Miss Edmonia Lewis, the young colored sculptor, with whose works and history many of our readers are familiar, arrived in this city, from her long sojourn in Rome, early last month. Miss Lewis during her residence in Italy, which extended over five years, executed a variety of statues, groups and busts of well-known persons and objects, as well as ideal pieces, which rank her among the first of our younger artists, and which have found purchasers, or been executed as orders, at remunerative prices. The most of Miss Lewis' completed works remain in Europe, but she brings with her finely executed photographs of some of the principal ones, from which their rare merit can easily be perceived. As Miss Lewis designs remaining in this country but a few months, those who desire to secure some true work of art from her hand will do well to communicate with her at once.Quite an excitement has been created in the Society of Friends, in Indiana, by the preaching of a Mrs. Frame, who has developed a powerful gift of ministry. Creating a revival in the Society, in Richmond, she has succeeded in drawing crowded audiences to the nightly meetings held by the Friends in that city. Mrs. Frame is spoken of as a woman in the prime of life, tall, commanding in appearance, with a voice full of music, that enchants and melts into tears the audiences she addresses. Mrs. Frame was originally a Methodist, but joined, a year or more ago, the Society of Friends, conceiving she had a mission to perform in the ministry that could be more successfully accomplished with that society than any other. Her success has been remarkable. Presbyterians, Methodists and Unitarians are now vying with each other for the privilege of having her preach to their different congregations.A circular has recently been sent to a large number of prominent women, inviting them to attend a meeting to be held in this city on the first Tuesday in October, to organize a Women's Parliament. The object of this Parliament is to organize a legislative body of women to represent women upon all subjects of vital interest to themselves and their children. The function of the Parliament is to crystallize the intelligence and influence of women into a moral and reformatory power, which will act definitely upon all the varied interests of society. Among the special objects mentioned are public education, prisons and reform schools, hygienic and sanitary reforms, female labor, domestic economy, dishonesty in public life, and so on. It is promised that the Parliament will at once give to women that voice in public affairs which is theirs by virtue of their humanity. We trust that much good may result from so important a movement and await its developing with interest.The first annual meeting of the New England Woman's Club, of which association THE ADVOCATE gave a report in the January number, was held in Chickering's Hall, Boston, May 29th, Mrs. C. M. Severance presiding. Mrs. Abby W. May read a report from the Committee on Work, containing many valuable suggestions, one of the most important of which related to the establishment of a horticultural school for girls, especially with the view of caring for hot-beds and raising early vegetables for market. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe read a report from the Committee on Art and Literature, reviewing what had been done during the past year in the way of lectures, entertainments and social reform, and interesting discussions followed concerning these and other subjects. Mrs. Severance was re-elected President. The New England Woman's Club, we regard as one of the best of existing institutions, of its character, and we are pleased to learn that it enters upon its second year with facilities for the accomplishment of much good.One of the most noticeable features at the recent Printers' National Convention at Albany was the application of Woman's Typographical Union No 1. of this city for a charter from that Association. The Woman's Typographical Union--which was established last winter, and is, we believe, the only Union yet formed by women--deputed two of their number to wait upon the Convention and present their claims for recognition. The ladies were admitted to the full privileges of delegates by the Convention, which, after some discussion, voted to grant charters to Women's Typographical Unions complying with the requirements of the National Organization. This, we believe, is the first instance, in this country, of a Labor Union placing woman upon a level with man as regards standing, representation in council and manual ability; and we are especially glad that so intelligent a class as the printers should be the first to acknowledge to the world that they not only recognize and appreciate woman in the home and social circle, but as an associate, entitled to equal respect and consideration, in all the skilled departments of labor. As THE ADVOCATE, since its establishment, has been under the entire charge of one of those "young women compositors," our readers can judge how deserved is the compliment paid the Woman's Typographical Union of this city.The widow Van Cott, who is just now the topic of talk in Ulster and Dutchess Counties, and who is the only woman preacher that has been regularly Licensed in this region by the Methodist Church, is reported to be a person possessing very superior power as a preacher, and that her efforts have been attended with the best results. In person Mrs. Van Cott is considerably above the middle height, and very stout, weighing over 200 pounds. She dresses plainly, in black; her manners in private are quiet and unassuming, revealing little of the power latent in her. Her countenance, when at rest, is heavy, but in the excitement of oratory her kindling eye exercises a magnetic influence over her audience. Like most revivalists she is more declamatory than argumentative, appealing more to the passions than the reason. Her articulation is distinct and easily heard in any part of the church (we lad almost said village), and her style being varied does not fatigue the hearer. At times she amuses the fancy with familiar talk, filled with flowery imagery, fixing the attention and winning the confidence of her hearers, till rising with her theme she rushes on with the excitement of inspiration, breaking down the fortifications of the ungodly and carrying their works by storm. She is not an educated woman in the strict sense, and her influence as a consequence is chiefly felt among her own class. She is gifted with a very remarkable flow of language, her gestures are graceful, and her general style would give rise to the remark that she must have derived her ideas of public speaking from dramatic performers.Her powers of endurance are very remarkable, speaking nearly three hours every evening through the week, and twice on Sundays. She has already been instrumental in converting sixty persons at Madalin, and upward of two thousand in the Prattsville District, and has the promise of a long career of usefulness before her.HOME INTELLIGENCENEW ENGLAND WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.THE Annual Meeting of this Association was held in Boston on the days of the 25th and 26th ult., commencing at Tremont Temple on the evening of the 25th, and continuing, by morning, afternoon, and evening sessions, at Horticultural Hall, throughout the following day. Large and enthusiastic audiences, to the extent of the inadequate capacities of the halls obtained, were in attendance upon every session, and the interests of the Cause were powerfully promoted by the harmony which characterized all the proceedings of the Convention. Upon the platform--by the most of Whom able addresses were delivered--were Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, Wendell Phillips, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Abby Kelley Foster, Lucy Stone, Stephen Foster and other well known friends of Woman Suffrage.The President, Mrs. JUILIA WARD HOWE, called the meeting to order, and presided with skill and dignity through most of the sessions. The introductory address was made by Mrs. Howe, who spoke of the work of the Association for the past year; the present hopeful aspects of the Cause, and closed her very eloquent and appropriate address by welcoming the friends from all parts of the country to the Convention. Alluding to the present advanced stage of the Cause, Mrs. Howe said: A Christian parable, not quite superceded by the progress of Brahminism among us, receives a new illustration from our experiences. We were all well-wishers to our sex before we began to help them, but our passive good-will was laid away in a napkin, and though it was a comfortable circumstance for us to remember, it was dead capital, and gained nothing. But we have now invested our good-will in effort, and its multiplication surprises us. What marvellous seed did we sow in the field that it should bear such a sudden and weighty crop? Ah! the silent centuries had furrowed it for us. The eternal sun had warmed and fertilized its bosom. When the convenient time came, we scattered our little endeavor, and the harvest is one that shall feed the future."Friends sometimes condole with us on our grave deficiency in means of progress. They say: 'One important thing you want. You have no opposition.' This is not true. We have an opposition, but have scarcely worked long enough to know where to place it. I think that we shall find it partly in the conventional prejudices of society, but far more in the vis inertiæ and indifference of women. From them, if from anyone, will come the temporary ignoring and reprobation of our reform. Intelligent and honest men--the real male power of the community--are almost unanimously agreed that women ought to have the suffrage if they want it, while the wisest see that they should have it whether or no. But among women, large numbers, particularly of the prosperous classes, are indifferent or inimical to, the enfranchisement of their sex. We must remember that reforms rarely begin with this class. To the poor, the Gospel is preached--to the poor, it means something.Following Mrs. HOWE, the Hon. JAMES W. STILLMAN, the able advocate of Woman Suffrage in the Rhode Island Legislature, addressed the Convention. Mr. Stillman spoke at some length of the force of custom and traditionary prejudice, the right of suffrage to every human being irrespective of color, race or sex, and was succeeded by Mrs. MARY A. LIVERMORE, the editor of the Agitator, and one of the ablest advocates of Woman Suffrage in the West.Mrs. LIVERMORE, spoke at length of the disadvantages under which women labor; of the progress of the Cause in the West; of the natural harmony of the sexes; of the good results of women voting, etc. Concerning the services rendered to the country by women, Mrs. Livermore said:"When the rebellion broke out, the Government asked us to give up our husbands and sons. Our hearts said No, our lips said Yes. What multitudes of those dear ones never camcame back; The South is billowy with their graves. During those long years of trial we read, and thought, and grew up to the full stature of men. We cannot go back. We must examine your action and judge of your policy. We shall say this is right, and that is wrong. We have reached a grander development than ever before; and we now look for a fulfillment of the noble words of the apostle:-There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."The address of Mrs. Livermore closed the speaking of the evening session. The following day addresses were delivered by Wendell Phillips, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rev. Gilbert Haven, Lucy Stone, Rev. Phebe.A. Hanaford, Stephen S. Foster, Mrs. Mary F. Davis, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Mrs. F. E. W. Harper, all of whom spoke acceptably and were listened to with interest by the audience.WENDELL PHILLIPS, the first speaker at the morning session, was recelved with great applause. From his very able address, we present a single extract:"It is an error to, suppose that the Woman's Rights cause seeks to obtain for woman any more influence than she has had. What the Woman's Rights cause seeks to do is to drag the irresponsible influence which woman has had in moulding the force of events and the history of her times, up to the light and stamp it with the signet of political power and make it responsible in the face of the day. Our object is to draw her out of her own isolated realm and make her take her fair share of responsibility in the civil arena. Why does the wealth of Beacon street pour out its millions to cover every cradle of the most friendless child of the most obscure emigrant, with the finest influence of Massachusetts civilization? What produces the machinery of our public schools, the wonder of the world? Why is England on the other side of the water a whole century behind us, discussing religious schools and limited schools and private schools and endowed schools, and all sorts of schools except public schools. Because when Lord Shaftesbury looks down into the cradle of a London pauper he has no dread of it. That child will never lift up its hand to influence legislation except in some volcanic hour of absolute revolution. But when the wealth of the Republic looks down into a poor man's cradle it remembers that that tiny hand will in due time wield the ballot, and selfish, careful, far-sighted, sagacious wealth hastens to put on one side of that baby, morality, and on the other intelligence, in order that its own roof may be safe and its own cradle free from peril." (Applause).RALPH WALDO EMERSON, in his eloquent address, paid the following beautiful tribute to Woman:"In all ages woman has been the representative of religion. In all countries it is the women who fill the temples. In every religious movement the woman has been an active and powerful part not only in the most civilized, but in the most uncivilized countries; not less in the Mahommedan than the Greek and Roman religions. She holds man to religion. There is no man so reprobate, so careless of religious duty, but what delights to have his wife a saint. All men feel the advantages that abound In that quality in a woman. I think it was her instinct in the dark superstitions of the Middle Ages which tempered the hardness of theology by making the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, the intercessor to whom all prayers were directed."Among the Resolutions adopted was the following:Whereas, The interests of the Woman's cause require a national organization, therefore, Resolved, That the Executive Committee of the New England Woman's Suffrage Association be authorized to correspond with the friends of the cause throughout the country and to take such steps as they may deem best for the organization of a National Woman's Suffrage Association during the coming year, in which all parts of the country shall be fully and fairly represented.Letters of encouragement and sympathy were read from John Stuart Mill, George Wm. Curtis, Robert Collyer, Lucretia Mott, Anna E. Dickinson and others. The intervals in the regular proceedings of the Convention were enlivened by excellent music by the Hutchinsons', and the Association finally adjourned, rejoicing in all the omens of the times, and looking forward with hope and courage to the labors of the coming year.LITERARY.POEMS. By Augusta Cooper Bristol. Cloth 190 pp. Boston Adams & Co.Many of the readers of the magazines of the day have undoubtedly noticed, here and there amid the multiplicity of verse, occasional contributions far above mediocrity in poetic excellence, and learned to associate the name of the writer with the strains which had left such pleasant echo of melody.Miss Bristol has evidently formed her taste on writers of the Jean Ingelow school, and there is an occasional unpleasantness of a borrowed phrase or figure, of which we doubt not the writer is wholly unconscious; but an imaginative and truly poetic nature has preserved her from any flagrant offence of unwitting plagiarism, as indeed there is no occasion, for assured are we that Miss Bristol has only to draw upon the rich stores of her own fancy--to develop the gifts which she possesses, to make her name one of the most cherished of America's daughters of song.As an illustration of the boldness as well as of the sweetness of Miss Bristol's muse, we extract a portion of the touchingly beautiful tribute to the late President Lincoln: "Simply a common man, you might have thought, At the first glance you gave him. Look again!You find a strange, magnetic beauty wrought Into the features plain."And there was one look you would know him by, From every other man upon the sod;--A majesty around the shadowed eye, That gave a hint of God."His soul, whose vision, place nor power could dim,Moved siow and reverently, that he might scan,And not mistake the part assigned to him In the Creator's plan."This volume is issued in beautiful style by the well-known publishers, and should command a wide audience among cultured readers.THINK AND ACT. A series of Articles Pertaining to Men and Women, Work and Wages. By Virginia Penny. Cloth, 372 pp. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, Publishers.Not one of the least valuable contributions to the growing question of "Woman's Labor and Just Compensation" is the above beautifully issued volume. Miss Penny modestly states in her preface that "It makes no pretension to anything more than it is--a few sober reflections on woman and her business interests," but the careful reader will note much in its pages that betrays a knowledge of contemporary works, a keen observation of existing facts, and a close research into the underlying causes of perpetuated wrong. The author naturally attaches great importance to the need of more varied occupations for women, and a large proportion of the volume is devoted to a consideration of what these should be. Less lo(rical in thou(rht than Mrs. Dall, and less artistic in sentence construction, Miss Penny is yet no unworthy disciple of that able Writer and Thinker; and her volume, pleasant in style and rarely tiresome or unmethodical in arrangement, will well repay perusal. One of the most encouraging signs of the times is the awakened demand for such a class of literature, and we recommend with confidence Miss Penny's book to all who desire information upon the wide range of subjects treated in its pages. The volume is issued in excellent style by the enterprising publishers, Messrs. Claxton, Remen & Co., who are fast establishing a reputation for publishing works of a meritorious character.MOSES: A STORY OF THE NILE. By Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper. 47 pp. Price, 25 cents. Philadelphia.The publication of this sympathetic and beautiful allegorical poem of Moses, by Mrs. Harper, agreeably to a widely expressed desire of many audiences throughout the country to whom it has been acceptably read, is a happy thought. It has many beauties, and gives ample evidence of the sweet and poetic nature of its author, one of the most effective and widely known of our colored speakers. We quote a single passage, not only as a foretaste of the enjoyment of the poem, but as evidence of what may be expected from a richly endowed race who are destined to leave an indellible mark on our literature: "These are but the dreams of thy young fancy;I cannot comprehend thy choice. I have heard Of men who have waded through slaughter To a throne; of proud ambitions, struggles Fierce and wild for some imagined good; of menWho have even cut in twain the crimson threads That lay between them and a throne; but I Never heard of men resigning ease for toil,The splendor of a palace for the squalor Of a hut, and casting down a diadem To wear a servile badge."WOMAN AS GOD MADE HER. THE TRUE WOMAN. By Rev. J. D. Fulton. Paper, 213 pp. Boston: Lee & Shepard.This volume, to which is added Woman versus Ballot, has been so widely discussed it seems scarcely necessary to add a word concerning it. It consists of a series of discourses, narrow and dogmatic in character, by a New England pastor who regards the Woman Question, as Putnam's Monthly very sensibly observes, "precisely as Slavery was regarded in the discourses of those old-time clergy men, who took 'Cursed be Canaan' for their text." In regard to the reverend gentleman's "scriptural argument," the same writer also says, "this argument is, we say, unmitigated bigotry, and will meet with nothing better than contempt from those who believe that the Bible was made for Man and not Man for the Bible."AGENCIES.THE Publisher of THE ADVOCATE makes the gratifying announcement that hereafter N. B. Spooner, of Boston, 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.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.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 comprised within it, 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 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 ADVOCATE resolve to furnish at least one subscription to commence with the July number?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 NATIONAL ANTI-SLAVERY STANDARDVOL XXX. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.Aaron M. Powell, Editor,THE STANDARD advocates entire freedom and immediate enfranchisement for the colored race, as the demand of justice. Chattelism has been abolished, but equal freedom for the colored race has not yet been secured.Eminent writers contribute to its columns, and the Editor is permitted to announceWENDELL PHILLIPS as a Special Editorial Contributor. Full reports will also be published of the Addresses of Mr. PHILLIPS, revised. and corrected by himself.THE STANDARD, though chiefly devoted to the consideration of the Freedom and well-being of the colored race, will, as hitherto, hospitably entertain the claims of movements of a kindred end and aim, as the Rights of Women, Temperance, Education, etc. It will also present a department of choice Literary Miscellany. It is intended that, without forgetting its main object, THE STANDARD shall be carefully and thoroughly edited in all its other departments, and be welcomed by all classes of readers.TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.One Copy, One Year, $ 3.00 Ten Copies to one Address, each 2.50 Twenty Copies, each, 2.00Single Copies of THE STANDARD may be had of the American News Company 121 Nassau street, and at the office of Publication.All communications should be addressed to A. M. POWELL, Editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, 39 Nassau street, New York.WOMAN'S MEDICAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA,NORTH COLLEGE AVENUE & 22d STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA.FACULTY.ANN PRESTON, M. D., Prof. of Physiology & Hygiene. EMELINE H. CLEVELAND, Prof. of Obst. & Diseases of Women. MARY J. SCARLETT, M. D., Prof. of Anatomy & Histology. RACHAEL L. BODLEY, M. L. A., Prof. of Chemistry & Toxicology. ISAAC COMLY, M. D., Prof. of Principles & Practice of Medicine. BENJAMIN B. WILSON, M. D., Prof. of Principles & Practice of Surgery. CHARLES H. THOMAS, M. D., Prof. of Materia Medica. HENRY HARTSHORNE, M. D., Prof. of Hygiene & Dis. of Children.The Twentieth Annual Session will commence on Thursday, October 14th, 1869, and continue five months.Clinical Advantages of the most important character are now available, including, besides access to the wards and Clinics of the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, admission to the Clinics of the principal Hospitals of the City.Address for Catalogue or further information, EMELINE CLEVELAND, M. D., Sec'y., 1800 Wt. Vernon St.THE WOMANS ADVOCATEBREAKERS! [FOURTH PAPER]. Caroline H. DallEverywhereTwo heads in council, two beside the hearth, Two in the tangled business of the world." Tennyson.BEFORE turning away from the public life of women, let me give from my Oriental studies, such a picture of a Queen as I would gladly see our sovereign ladies emulate. The Mahrattas are a Hindu tribe living like Cossacks in the mountains between Surat and Goa. Their last shepherd prince, Holkar, sovereign of Indore, died early in this century. Among the people of rank in this tribe it is neither customary to confine nor to veil the women. Aliah Bae* *The reign of Aliah Bae must have been before 1799, the year in which Tippoo Seib died. He was I believe the only Sooltan of Mysore but my extracts do not show the exact date. therefore offended no prejudice when she assumed the management of affairs after the death of her husband, and transacted business in open council. Her administration in Malwa stands out like a spot of sunny green from the surrounding waste. Her great aim was to raise the agricultural classes. She considered them the backbone of a State which derived its chief revenues from land, and strove to encourage the culture of the soil by light taxes and a sacred respect for proprietory rights. She made use of courts of arbitration but was herself always accessible to appeals, and on all points connected with the administration of justice, she was most patient and unwearied. A deep sense of responsibility weighed upon her. "I am answerable to God for every exercise of my power," said this Mahratta Queen, and when urged by her ministers to put a convict to death, she replied, "Let a mortal hesitate to destroy the work of the Almighty." For more than twenty years she sustained the country. Free from external aggression, it enjoyed the most perfect internal peace. It was the joy of her life to watch the increasing content and prosperity of her people. Instead of considering an increase of wealth as an excuse for increased taxation, she held it as a legitimate claim for protection. Under her care, Indore, the present capital, rose from a straggling village to a wealthy town. She constructed roads across the Ghauts which intersect Malwa, and built resting places, and dug wells for travellers throughout her kingdom. Everywhere she was admired and respected. Any man of her own people would have died in her defense. The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Sooltan of Mysore paid her the same respect as the Paishwa. Mahommedans united with Hindus to pray for her long life.A Brahmin wrote book in her praise. She heard it read with patience and then ordered it thrown into the river!"She was a woman without vanity, a bigot without intolerance, imbued with the deepest superstition, yet harboring no impressions save such as led to the happiness of those under her influence, exercising despotic power not only with humility, but under the severest restraints of conscience, and with a tender consideration for the weaknesses of others.""She was goodness in its widest sense personified," wrote Sir John Malcolm, "and no sooner did she die than her happy people were plunged into civil war by the follies of men!"How many people who read the fifth chapter of Judges, observe the significance of the statements in reference to Deborah's reign?--"The villages ceased, until I, Deborah, arose," and "The land had rest for forty years!"But such sovereigns will not be possible to Western civilization until the wholesome good sense of the following letter prevails everywhere:TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, March 19th, 1869.In the last number of the Independent I noticed a paragraph stating that the compensation of the women in the departments at Washington was about to be made the same as that paid to men; and, as a woman and an employee of the government, I trust there can be no objection against my expressing my views regarding the subject.The masses of women at the present time employed in the departments are not possessed very brilliant clerical abilities. On the contrary, very many of them have scarcely education enough to tell the day of the week by a counting-house calender; and they owe their appointments and continuance in office to their personal advantages. When a man receives an appointment to a clerkship he is obliged to appear before a board of departmental officers and undergo an examination; and, although the examination is not so strict as that imposed on the graduating class of a New England college, it is so difficult that not one woman in a hundred could pass it satisfactorily.I, for one, claim that women-educated women, Of course-are as competent to perform the brain labor as men; but I do most emphatically object to having girls in their teens, With no other recommendation than a pretty face or a pretty foot, place themselves on an intellectual par with men and women of education.I am sorry to make the confession, but the truth forces it, that the departments are filled with females-crowded, I may say, with those who serve the government in no other way except to embarrass the public officials in the discharge of their duties. I could furnish the names of scores and scores of women, whom the heads of departments have tried to get rid for months and years, as being utterly worthless, yet have been unable to do so owing to outside influences. I could furnish the names of scores of women who do not perform an hour's work per diem for the government; not in every instance because they are unwilling, but cause they do not have the work-there being too many engaged in the same labor. In the office of the Comptroller of the Currency, for instance, one-third of the force employed would quite sufficient to perform the labor. This is no speculation on my part. I know whereof I affirm.In the Post Office Department the law provides for fifty female clerks, and desks are arranged for that number; yet ex-Postmaster General Randall appointed one hundred and five. During the two weeks immediately prior to his exit he appointed thirty female clerks; and for what reason Heaven only knows, since nearly one-fifth of those already employed had nothing to do--nay, not even a seat in the office. I can conceive of no earthly object Randall had in appointing these women, unless it was to embarrass his successor.In conclusion, I hold that women who are competent to perform the same labor as men, should receive the same compensation, and be subject to the same conditions, for violating which they should be dismissed.Every woman employed should be subjected to the same examination as men, and personal beauty or laxity of morals ought not to be a recommendation, as is too often the case. The examining board should be women. In order to prevent corruption in all bureaus where women are employed, there should be female auditors. I have an instance in my mind where one malicious woman-clerk caused the removal of some five or six faithful men, simply cause they refused to lend money to her husband (?), a worthless blackguard, who never paid his debts. I am happy to state that the auditor who made these removals has just resigned and gone to the West.Congress or the President ought to afford us some protection, if they allow us to occupy offices. We ought not to be insulted by having the paramours and mistresses of members of Congress forced upon us, and be obliged to tolerate their society day by day. Let Mr. Boutwell clean out the riff-raff and pollution of his department. Let him appoint moral and competent women; and then let us be paid according to our merits. Such is the earnest prayer of every honest woman-clerk.HANNAH TYLER.There has been a good deal of discussion about the identity of Hannah Tyler, but does not the letter carry its own witness ? It is bold and faithful, and revives one's faith in the possibility of a woman's doing thorough work. How significant it is that society will have thorough work of its women--will let them starve unless they furnish it, although there be not a male mechanic capable of the same thing in the length and breadth of the land! The arguments in this letter apply to every field of employment where men and women meet; it is womanly in the best sense, and only sustains representations constantly made to me, from private sources. Her suggestions in regard to "Examining Boards" of women, must be followed eventually in all departments of labor open to both sexes.In the beginning of this paper, I say--" People talk about the impossibility of women being faithful to home duties, and at the same time 'absorbed in political life.' But why should we be absorbed in political life?"This is the tone which it was fit to take in reference to this question, while every man's hand was against us, and only exceptional women were likely to make a stand against public opinion. But things have changed since I made a habit of meeting the popular outcry in this way. Now that clubs are forming everywhere; now that five women--whose names are not worth recording--apply for registration at Washington, in a single week, it is necessary to inquire what are the possible dangers to domestic life from the new condition of things.I do not think these dangers are more serious in connection with political responsibility, than in a literary or business career--than they always must be, in short, to any mother whose duty it is to provide for her children while she is rearing them.Taken against the total number of women, the number of young mothers who are laborers has always been few, and their necessity has so far been considered a misfortune. Such I consider it. Among all the nonsense that Michelet has talked, this at least is eternally true; that while a woman is bearing and rearing children, the charge of her own household, is quite as much as she is capable of, without injury to them. Let her study, let her sew, let her pursue a trade even, but let it be with reference to her children's well-being, for their sakes, or for occasional rest, but let it not be under the pressure of necessity, if she can be spared. The first concomitant of happy motherhood, is an easy, restful mind--the next a comfortable, and never over-taxed body--the third the ability to put everything but home and children under the feet when a woman so pleases.The special danger of the present moment is, that a great many quiet, little women, rushing into club life for relaxation, or into political interests from a sense of duty, should be drawn out of the safe circle where centripetal and centrifugal forces always balance each other, into that unknown ellipse, in which nothing but comets can revolve. I must speak out of my own experience in this matter, for in no other way should I be able to justify the strong words I mean to speak The apparent leaders of public movements I do not hope to influence, but scattered throughout the land on every side are conscientious women, desirous of doing their whole duty, and by them I know that my words will be heeded.I had a double responsibility when my own children were young, and I am not supposed to have failed in it, but I have lived to see other women quoting my example, and following my mistakes, and so I feel a need to let the conscious failure cry out.Only a little while ago, the happy young wife of a clergyman in comfortable circumstances, who had lost one infant and expected soon to find another, begged me to help her to a situation as the teacher of a school. One other in the last years of the war, left a child of ten to very doubtful superintendence, and went with a new hope in her mother's heart into the service of the hospitals for some months. Both of these women were vexed with me because I did not encourage them. When I pointed out what seemed to me their obvious duties to children born and unborn, they retorted sharply : "But you did these things, you wrote, you taught, you took up all the Reforms there were going, why do you want to shut us out?"Truly, why should I? It is hard to show the difference in the way of doing things; to prove first an exceptional organization, capable of very hard labor and great endurance--second, a great fondness for home and children, and the conscientious resolution never to let any hands but my wash and dress my children, never to let household duty wait on other cares but always the other cares on the home duty;--but if the women to whom I plead should allow me these, there are still failures enough, failures that could not have come, had I known no cares but those which properly belonged to the functions of that period of my life.I should have staid so willingly in a narrow circle shut in by the intensest natural affections, that I needed to be goaded out of it, by every discipline and reverse, which God could bring out of my own circumstances. To-day, I see many women who seem to have so little natural love of home, that it needs to be nursed into a proper development. I never left my children to the care of servants or parted from them during the night. Our streets show crowds of little carriages now, whose occupants seldom see their mothers by daylight.I was a housekeeper born, thrifty in all the inherited instincts of a score of generations. It cannot but happen, that among the women now looking outward for happiness there will be many to whom household cares are distasteful, and the outward life in consequence a snare.My ideas of a happy home are very old-fashioned, but I must stand by them for all that.It is not enough that two loving people go together to some house which is filled in the process of time by healthy and winning creatures who owe life to their love. This home must be the centre of wholesome education, for father, mother and children.As a house it must be tidy and well kept, but not with "cold comfort." The radiance of the hearth and the lamp must flow out over the door-stone and tempt others in. It must be cozy, bright with touches of real living, and warm with friendly welcome. Out of it must flow a beneficent stream of help for all living souls so far as they can be served without destroying its integrity. Not only the family must be comfortable, but all other families more comfortable on account of this one."Be ye therefore perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect," said Jesus, but how few of us ever take the words as a practical guide! He is perfect in love, so perfect that it sometimes seems as if He could love no one else at all, He loves us so well. Perfect in beneficence, for his gifts flow in and out and on all sides, and by their very multitude keep us from being conscious of their weight. We sometimes say that men are ungrateful. God does not require them to be consciously grateful, rather to be happy, and like this Father in Heaven, the mother of a family should strive to be, the source of constantly flowing comfort and joy, unrecognized because it is steady. To such a home all the world wishes to come, its gates are always open, and it is obvious that she who presides over it must be chiefly at home. The smallest thing that any one can give is money, and accordingly God does not provide it for every home. Love, care, thought, blessing; these richest providences are possible wherever there is a woman's heart, and through them she may suggest infinite joys to many a bewildered soul. And what is thus given may also be taken into her charmed circle, for why should we refuse what any offer, if it be really "more blessed to give than to receive?" Are we not willing sometimes to be less happy that others may be more so? I think we can all remember home like this--homes that were never empty; on whose hearth one welcoming presence always stood; out of whose doors the stream of hospitality always flowed. They began before clubs and evening lectures and they will long survive them. They are possible with club and lecture, but only where these are held as of a secondary and trivial import.Now, what held these homes together ? It certainly was not the walls of a house, for I have known them transferred from courtly halls to log cabins on the Western prairies. I believe it is generally one motherly presence, if not that alone, it is such a presence sustained by the "house-band" of the old Saxon law. In this home the mother personally cares for every child; its bath, its walk, its daily schooling come under her charge with hand and eye she helps it; with its teachers she forms friendly relations that they may know the children through her and be warned of changes in health, circumstance or character that may influence the daily bearing. When she gathers them under her own wing, she listens to every complaint or doubt, shares every trivial confidence, and with a mind wholly free from every embarrassment, thinking only of them, she makes these complaints and confidences supreme, and gives to them such listening as children love. By constant watchfulness, she keeps their affection, and their friends are her own. If her children have intimates--they do not become tempters. They are drawn into the sweet home-circle over which she presides and she is a mother to them all. However poor she may be, her housekeeping will show some constant thought of these young members. The daily loaf will now and then show a raisin or a taste of sugar that the cook would have left out. If a young visitor appears, something very nice will be "whipped up" unexpectedly for tea, and if a petted playmate is sick, the "delicate morsel" will surely find its way, from this hearth to the other. Oh, howl close and sweet are the ties so knitted, and not one need be lost in the "new time" provided the law of proportion be kept, and the mother remain Queen in her home!I plead earnestly that she will do so, because I know how easy it would have been for me to have lost my throne. My husband used to laugh at me in our early days, because I set my small cares so far above the literary work I loved. One morning I sat down to write a story for which there was immediate demand. I tried it for two hours, but lily conscience kept thrusting at me, a certain inaccessible precinct of my husband's study, which I had made it a law unto myself to dust daily. I had omitted this dusting in my haste to satisfy the printer, and I tried to be callous. But that ghost could only be laid by duty done, and my husband looked up in amusement, when I went back to his shelves."If you had been a mere housekeeper," said he, "you would never have worried about that. It is the morbidness which comes of overtaxing yourself." And so, I freely acknowledge it to be, looking back at it to-day, and knowing that no one would have been the worse for that small neglect. If there is to be morbidness, however, I would rather see it in such a direction, but what of the overtaxing which creates it? That is insidious--an enemy that follows and will never confront us. I should have done well, if all my difficulties had been of this open kind. My literary work was profitable. Reform work could not be. Indeed I could seldom engage in the latter without risking the former and long before I ever spoke in public, the seriousness of all the issues involved, induced a preoccupation of mind which was not good for my little ones. I thought I made them my first object. I should have resented the sug- gestion that any children could be better cared for than mine. Did I not constantly cater with my own hands for their bodily comfort? What nurse ever dragged my baby up "the long path?" But alas! was there no inner world of thought and feeling of which I was only half conscious? Was there no guest at my fireside that I did not know ? I know it very often happened when my babies hushed their voices, and played at my feet, that, feeling safe about them, I lost sight of them altogether, in my work--till an angry word or a merry laugh brought me back to them. How did the angry word or the merry laugh come? I did not know. If I had sat there with my sewing, thinking more of them than my work, I could not have failed to see. As it was, I lost some of my best opportunities, and every now and then a little surprise came and made me feel that I did not know my children. A mother needs leisure to spend with her children. If God spares a whole eternity to lesson man, we may well spare time to the same end, but we are apt to lose sight of the importance of it, until it is too late. At one moment, I feared that my children might grow away from me, but I found out the danger just in time, and some common sorrows soon bound their growing hearts to mine.I had no leisure, and therefore I could not always listen to complaints or share confidences. They felt what no children ever should feel, that their mother, no matter how kind, was apt to be in a hurry. I could not anticipate wishes that I never discovered, and it was not so often as I now desire that I gathered them both in my arms, and rocked them in the twilight. "All this might I have done, and yet not left the other undone."Let my warning words show others where the danger lies.My want of leisure prevented me from being an attractive hostess at the very time when it was most important to my children's welfare that I should be so. Loved by a small circle, I ought to have been liked by a larger. If women cannot see this danger for themselves they know very well that it threatens their husbands. No woman ever married a literary man, without finding it difficult to adjust and sustain her relations to society. His coy muse and his printer's devil, always seem to hover over the very hour sacred to weddings, house-warmings, and friendly receptions. His thoughts are "somewhere else," his mood is unfriendly, his temper and his pneumo-gastric nerve are alike exhausted.Now that women are to be generally welcomed into the wider circle of human interests, I should like to see them begin as children to share the conversation of their parents on the topics it embraces. They will deduce from this such general principles as they need, and can test by their own early married experience. Leaving out of view the exceptional cases which are their own justification I would have women keep outof active public life until the fortieth year is past. Then private and public duties need never conflict."I am a part of all that I have met."CAROLINE H. DALL.VOICES.Augusta Cooper BristolHEIR of an infinite privilege, with earnest zeal I wrought, And gathered the true and the beautiful to the glowing forge of thought.And there in the vital furnace heat, full patiently and long I changed my wealth, in a human way, to deed and simple song.And there came a voice from the world without, oh, very sweet with praise, And the waft that bore it seemed the breath of freshly woven bays.And my soul was glad for a moment in that little breeze of fame,Though a shadow darkened the purity of the living central flame.But the Heavens that loved my loyalty, encompassed me around, Till my spirit ear was opened, and I heard the wondrous sound,Of far majestic voices, beyond the sunset bars,And sweet and mighty utterances between the solemn stars.Till awed to a nobler faithfulness, and humbled very low,I wrought again at the force of thought, since God would have it so.Yet however weak or faulty, the deed and the rhythmic song, I crowned for aye the Eternal Right, and branded the ancient Wrong.And, lo, a voice from the world again! and oh, it was dread with blame! And the waft that bore it like a breath from poisonous ivy came.And my soul sank down a moment, bewildered with a doubt, And the phantom of misgiving was brooding round about.But, the Heavens that loved my loyalty, unsealed my ear again,And I heard the sound of voices, soft and low as summer rain.A voice through all the emerald spires where meadow grasses grow, A colloquy between the leaves where Summer roses blow.A voice from the fairy chamber, behind the sea-shell's lip, And a whisper among the mosses, where woodland rivulets slip.A voice from the swaying lilies among the river reeds; An oracle faintly sighing up from the root to the golden seeds.A voice that the swinging butterfly folds under its downy wings; And a low miraculous murmur from the soul of creeping things.And the prophecy of the joint refrain, the theme of the tiny whole, Was a hint of the infinite value of the earnest human soul.Thus saved by the mystic murmurings, from over pride or shame. I wrought again in my simple way, secure from praise or blame.And between the voices far and high, and whisperings near and low, I live for the true and the beautiful, for God would have it so.AUGUSTA COOPER BRISTOL.THOUGH women go to the polls, there will be faithful wives and true mothers still. The marriage bond will be as sacred, and the sanctities of home the very same that they are to-day. We do not desire to subvert any of the institutions which God has ordained. And we believe the right of suffrage--with all it includes--will help to make better mothers and, therefore, better sons, who, though the dear hands that rock the cradle and adorn the coffin shall hold the ballot also, will yet never forget the Apostolic injunction, "Be courteous."--Address.--By Phebe A. Hanaford.'TO WARN, TO COMFORT, AND COMMAND.'Kate A. HausenIN FOUR PARTS.--PART FIRST.TWO young women crooning in the October twilight, but not talking over their love affairs! Can the vain masculine reader credit this statement? They had been sitting there half an hour, too, in that dainty hall-chamber, talking earnestly of many things; but until the moment when we interrupt them, the pronoun "he" had not passed their lips. The inevitable subject did come at last, however as Anne Markham demurely asked her friend: "How many unfortunates have you rejected since I saw you last week?""O! not a victim!" laughed the clear-voiced Margaret. "I am not quite such a Vanquisher as you always try to prove. There is the doorbell! Now, do you suppose that is any one who will stay and spoil this delicious little tĂªte-Ă -tĂªte? Tom and Alice went off so unexpectedly that the Parish doesn't fully know the fact, and continues to call. So I have some prosy interviews, I assure you."Here the little nut-brown chambermaid and door-tender of the Rectory tapped at Miss Alden's door with a card. "The Rev. Launcelot Jones," sighed Margaret, with a shrug of her faultless shoulders, as soon as Rosa had vanished. "Well, Anne, come down. We'll try not to be entertaining and perhaps he won't, stay long. I never have any quiet chats with you now-a-days."But Anne did not budge from the hassock where she was sitting, her elbow propped on the low window-sill. Shaking her head, with a smile of determination, she said : "I will wait for you here. Who is he? that slim ecclesiastic who escorted you home from St. Ignatius' one day last Lent, when I happened to be with you ? I have played that humble role of third party pretty often, haven't I? Of course he has come to ask you if you will 'love , honor and obey' him, and I won't make myself odious by being third party, this time! Am I too clairvoyant? Sorry, dear, but I can't help my gift of divination. Only be quick! Say 'No,' as soon as possible, and hurry up here again!""Nonsense, Anne, come down stairs!"But she plead in vain. Anne composedly opened "Mill on Liberty," and began to read aloud, with an utterly absorbed expression of countenance. "Don't be afraid! I won't listen over the balluster,"--she said, stopping suddenly, her grey eyes dancing; then plunged into her book again, deaf to entreaties, unmoved by pinches and pulls. Margaret left her at last, in despair, revenging herself by declaring: "If you hadn't been so contrary, I might have sent him word that I was engaged. Now there is no knowing how long he may stay!"After she had gone, Anne read a little farther by the fading twilight then the book slipped from her clasp, and she leaned dreamily upon the window-sill, looking beyond the street and its row of elms, black against the pale yellow sky, over at the river shining faintly among the green flats. She was thinking as she looked off into the fair Western light, how clear and peaceful it was--how she wished she could always live with Margaret, in some pretty place like this, and grow strong and brave and serene, like her. When I can appreciate that true, high-hearted woman so fully, why can't I be like her she thought, and a little scowl of self-disgust knotted her forehead; "Shall I always be incomplete and unstable, doing constant violence to my ideals?--with a streak of nobleness here, and a streak of cowardice there,--strong, for a little space, and then weak and discouraged? Why wasn't I poised like her, in the beginning? and then I needn't be always tinkering at myself, but could go among people to heal and uplift, as she can. I am tired of fighting these despicable foes! Margaret's faults are so different. She is of the true heroic stamp!" She knocked her slender hand impatiently against the fastening of the window-blind, and was glad that it hurt her. It was somehow a satisfaction. Then as her eyes rested again on the calm sky, and the few early stars that were twinkling among the elm-branches, they suddenly fllled with tears, and she repeated to herself the old words which had comforted her many times before: "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves." " I am not to blame for my organization. That is very evident. I must take myself as I find myself, and He will help me to grow into something nobler than I am. I will struggle with my weakness, and grow truer to what strength I have. I really am a little stronger and steadier than I was, thank God!"The earnest, irregular face--the figure which was not without a certain grace, but wanted steadiness of bearing, told to an acute observer just what Anne's own consciousness often and accusingly told her. "If I can only get really poised!" was her secret ejaculation, many times in every day. The type of character is a familiar one. We meet it daily. In fact, is there one of us who does not often feel that the lesson of life will be learned when the soul is justly balanced, and true to the one Eternal Magnet ?Anne was right, too, in believing that she was growing stronger. She was learning slowly what her impressible, easily-jarred nature most needed-that self-reliance which is born of courage and humility. In this development Margaret's rounded character was constantly aiding her by that mysterious but potent force,--unconscious influence.Her reveries came to an end as she heard the street-door shut, and turning her head she waited Margaret's entrance, with an amused, dimpling smile playing about her mouth. "Pink cheeks and a bunch of heliotropes are what you have brought away from that encounter," she remarked, scanning her friend critically,--"Take a seat, Miss, and tell me all about it!"Margaret, with the indefinable grace which distinguished her from most women, sank into a low chair opposite Anne's hassock, and sighed slightly as she said: "It is too bad! but I believe it isn't my fault. I thought I had been as cool and stupid towards him as possible, ever since I saw he had the least penchant for me. But I understand now, he fancies the cool and stupid style, and calls it statuesque! Poor fellow! I hope it will not do him any harm. I do not really think it will."Anne's hands stroked the silver-grey folds of her friend's dress caressingly, and a little silence fell upon the two girls. They had warm hearts that grieved for the disappointment of any man's honest love, though they both must have felt that the graceful, dainty-featured young clergyman was not the true mate for the woman to whom he had lifted his homage.After a pause, Anne said, dimpling again, "I can testify that you took pains, that day, going home from St. Ignatius', to remind him that you were not a church-woman.""Yes, I have lugged all my heresies into our conversations, and shocked him within an inch of his life by alluding to Woman's Rights meetings that I had attended, offering him a pamphlet on Woman's Suffrage, and once, out of pure mischief, but with all apparent innocence, I inquired if he had investigated Spiritualism to any extent!--I don't exactly see what he would have done with me if he had got me," she added, laughing."Nor I" said Anne, " it is the strangest piece of daring in a proper young man that I have heard of, lately. I suppose he thought that he and, your sister Alice and your reverend brother-in-law, amongst them, might be able to remodel your opinions. Or, in fact, I suppose the young man was just utterly in love, and that was the end of it!""There comes little Madge, bless her!" said Aunt Margaret, as they heard pattering feet and merry childish lingo in the hall. The door opened, letting in a blue-eyed thing with wonderful flossy hair, which was just as shiny and rippling as if nature had "crimped" it instead of that proud and devoted Nursery-maid, Katy McFarland. Four arms were opened, and the chubby three-year-old was taken into a double embrace. There was grand frolicking and kissing and story-telling, and talk about Mamma and Papa, who would be back in four days more, counted on Madge's plump fingers, and then the sweet morsel was picked up in its Aunty's arms, and carried off to bed. Anne, meanwhile, had time for more of Mill, and for more reveries. As Margaret came in again, she laid her hands gently on her friend's head, saying: "My dear girl, it is a strange world; that is what you were thinking."Yes," said Anne, "Life is strange and Love is strange.""And Love is not all of Life," added Margaret."No," rejoined the other, "lovers' Love is not all of life, but it is a beautiful element in it, and I hope it will some day become a real element in yours. I am quite sure it will, and I shall rejoice! These lovers of yours, so far, have never reached the citadel, at all, I think ?" with a look which had barely the shadow of a question in it.Margaret shook her head. "No, one or two of them are dear friends in whom I shall always trust. One I might possibly have loved, if he had lived, and I had known him better." A slight tremor in her voice was her tribute to the noble heart of that dead soldier. "But whether I ever chance to be sought by the man whom I shall love and reverence as I must love and reverence my husband, is very uncertain, and I think,"-she added, with a smile, and the sweet, brave look in her eyes that Anne loved best of all, and secretly named her "heroine-look,"--"there is a plenty for me to do and enjoy in this world, without that joy in addition.""Very proper sentiments, Miss Alden, but that joy will come to you I prophesy. You are----"'planned To warn, to comfort, and command.'I spare you the adulation of quoting the first line of the couplet, besides I don't think you are exactly a 'perfect woman,' you know. You have shown me that you were mortal several times in our acquaintance. But I think you would 'warn, comfort and command' some gentleman so finely that I can't allow your gifts in those three directions to be wasted.""I suppose I could have done all that for the Rev. Launcelot," said Margaret laughingly, "but, if you please, you dear little Woman's Rights Advocate, I would like a chance to 'obey' once in a while, too." "Yes, I know--combine all the functions--'Love, honor, command and obey,' I think the service should read; and the same words should be put to both bride and bridegroom, if I had my way.""Leaving the proportions of command and obedience to be adjusted according to the respective strength of will of the combatants, I suppose! I don't think you would alter matters very much, after all! But, Anne, you never allude to marriage as among the possibilities of your future. I can reciprocate all these good-natured wishes of yours, I am sure." "No," said Anne, positively, "I am an irregular, incomplete affair. And as I realize the fact, I hope I should have too much principle to impose myself upon any man whom I honored. And I suppose you would hardly want me to marry any one else?""If people waited until they were 'complete,' how many marriages do you think there would be in a year?" asked Margaret. You are half-mad, Anne, on the subject of 'completeness' and 'harmony.' One would think there were no virtues worth mentioning besides 'steadfastness,' 'serenity' and 'self-possession.' Don't you realize that you have qualities, which some of us whom you are so fond of calling 'steady,' may lack? Don't you suppose I ever feel myself selfish and apathetic, when I see you toiling so busily for others? Don't you know that you stimulate me, often and often ? And supposing you should fall deeply in love with some man of the 'steady' sort, don't yon think, while he would be a constant strength to you, you could often inspire him with subtle, electric energies?""O, I don't know, Margaret, I don't think its my vocation. I am morbid and self-conscious; sometimes elated, and sometimes depressed. In short, I have the style of faults that I particularly detest. My insight is ahead of my will, and I think I shall get on faster in whipping up my will if I work by myself. Any of the 'steady' men, unless they are stupid, and then I'm sure I don't want them, would be worthy of somebody different from me. So, if you please, I will be a nun I and I will teach on in the Bunn street Primary until I happen to be promoted to a higher salary, which is the goal of my ambition, just now, and I shall grow strong, as the years go on, and put a little money in the bank beside, after Harry and Johnny are educated, and in my old age I shall retire to a very small cottage, and entertain my brothers and my future nephews and nieces, and you and your children, and by that time I dare say I shall have been knocked and thumped by this queer world into quite a self-possessed old lady! In the meantime, Margaret, I want the pattern of that pretty, gored apron!"Margaret untied it smiling, folded and handed it to her, saying: "Take the apron itself, I have another just like it, and am going to make some more. As to your programme for life, you may alter it. At all events, we both have our I 'dragons,' which we will fight as bravely and cheerily as we can, and we shall both grow stronger for the struggle."Their "dragons" were unlike certainly, as were their lives. Margaret was an orphan with property enough to free her from the necessity of earning her livelihood, --with a happy home in her sister's family--with a face and manner which were an "open sesame" to the hearts of men, women and children--with leisure for the amenities of life which her ar tistic nature thoroughly relished, and for the charities which her warm, womanly heart constantly prompted. These pleasant circumstances, seemed to Anne the vitalizing sunshine which was best suited to develop a rich, harmonious nature, like her friend's; while as for her own daily experience, she accepted it as best she might--household toil, friction with the petulant disposition of an invalid step-mother, the endless care and contrivance needful to make her salary eke out the little income of the family, the struggle to provide for her two young brothers all that their true welfare demanded, and to be to them, in the midst of all her anxieties, an inspirer of noble aims,--the drudgery of the school-room, and the constant crucifixion of her delicate tastes. These were the conditions of Anne's life, which were slowly educating her. In the conflict with them, and in her fervent admiration of Margaret's single-heartedness, she was learning, little by little, to drop the encumbrances of vanity and self-seeking, and to give to things their true perspective. She knew that Margaret, too, had had the discipline of sorrow. The bereavement of double orphanage, only a few years before, had been to her a solemn baptism, hallowing her life, and adding to her experience a tender depth which made sufferers instinctively turn to her as to a fit comforter.The light faded at last, and Anne, with a sudden recollection of -the partly-knit stocking which she had "stinted" herself to finish before bed-time, for that staving lad, her brother Harry, exclaimed: "Madge, dear, light the gas and read Mill to me, while I knit for dear life!""We will go down into the back-parlor, then. And, Anne, by the way, I have been pining for knitting-work, lately. Last winter I did such piles of stockings for Tom and little Madge, that Alice declares she hasn't house-room for any more. So I have nothing to knit, and I hereby instal myself as chausseur to your boys. Give me their measure and hereafter, take no thought for their stockings. It will be a kindness to me, for knitting just suits us 'steady' women, you know, and then I am so fond of your lads that I shall take special delight in doing it for them. So that is settled."Anne threw her arms around Margaret's neck, with one of her impulsive hugs, saying: "Yes, dear, do It, and go on, loading me with kindnesses! How few people there are, to whom I can endure to be under obligation, and yet how little I mind it, with you! Here you are, constantly ministering to my needs of mind, body and estate, and I letting you do it and only occasionally feeling oppressed. While if other people try to do me favors, I either fling them back in their faces, or if I can't quite do that, I smart and chafe under the burden. It is because I love and trust you so fully, isn't it? and know that we understand each other?""And because, you know that if you were in my place, with my leisure, and I in your busy, toiling life, your ready wit would teach you -twice as many ways of serving me, as I ever think of. We won't bandy compliments any farther, my dear little friend, but I will have the last word before I take up Mill, by reminding you that you are a constant help to me. You always understand me. You teach me what it is to work. Well never mind what else you do for me! Be quiet, now, while I read.PART SECOND.Anne Markham in her darkish school-room on a drizzling Monday morning. Sixty-eight little boys and girls, some of them clean, and some of them dirty. Miss Jackson, the sallow-faced assistant, in her yellowish-greenish-brown dress that made Anne shudder, speaking in tones even more weak and plaintive than usual, under the dismal influence of the weather. Out of the windows a view of unlimited ashes, thistles and old hoop-skirts. A picture vividly before Anne's mind of a stormy scene at the breakfast table, where Mrs. Markham had exasperated her stepson Harry by her peevish, senseless fault-finding and the boy, defending himself with hot words, had, at last, in utter desperation at fresh accusations, jumped from the table, dashed his tumbler into atoms, and rushed from the house. An unpaid butcher had dunned her at the last moment, as she was hurrying to school, after washing dishes, dusting rooms, and making beds. "James Malbry, come out, and sit on the edge of the platform !" "Mary, take that pin out of your mouth!" "Third class in Arithmetic." While watching the little troop, as they matched out to their places, she was thinking of Margaret in the cosy back-parlor at the Rectory, with its bright wood-fire on the hearth, sewing for little Madge, perhaps, and "talking things over" with Tom and Alice, before the minister shut himself up in his study. No wrangling there, no disgusts! How happy it all seemed! Then she pulled herself up, suddenly, remembering Margaret's words: "We will fight our dragons bravely and cheerily!" "Margaret has her trials, too--foes within and without. And, after all, her way is not marked out so clearly before her, as mine for me. She has often to find the suffering and sinning, while I am among them, all the time. I will, so help me God, rise to the level of my trials!" With a clear light in her eyes, and a quiet, strong look about her mouth, she opened the dirty Arithmetic which Mike Falvey offered her, and met her class, as if they were a band of princes. and princesses in disguise. Such thorough attention did she give them; such respect suddenly seized her for their little stunted individualities, such faith in their possibilities, such determination to make them, as far as in her lay, worthy of their destiny as real princes and princesses. All irritability vanished from her heart, and a yearning love for the little things filled it instead. Jane Thomson was disagreeable and over-wise as usual; Mary Smith wore her half-impertinent, half-stupid stare; Tom Derby was as hopelessly dirty, Johnny White as clean and happy-eyed, Susy Barker as stolid as ever. But they were all transfigured, and she faced them with a prayer that she might deal with them strongly and gently as each soul needed. As the last question was answered, and they turned toward their seats, there was, a tap at the door. Jim Malbry was sent to open it, and returned with a bouquet of tea-roses and heliotropes and a note. "From Margaret!" was Anne's instant thought, even before she saw the film, graceful handwriting which was so characteristic:Pax Vobiscum! dear Anne. These are from my own plants, and carry with them my most Ioving greeting.Anne's eyes brightened, as did those of many of her pupils, at the sight of the delicious flowers, which Jim Malbry carefully placed in the broken-edged vase, making the teacher's desk an altar for the rest of the forenoon.At noon, Miss Markham hurried to the door of the Grammer School room, just in time to secure Harry. "Where is Johnny ?" she inquired. "Ask him to tell mother that you and I will not be home to dinner. I want you to go on a little expedition with me."Harry was still sore from the morning's conflict with his mother, and eagerly nabbed Johnny out of a game of "Tag.""Why! what's up?" asked breathless, sturdy Johnny. "Where are you going? I'm going too!""No," said Anne, "one of you at a time, and you must go home in season for dinner." Then, walking rapidly off with Harry, she said: "I am going to see a poor family. Some of the children are scholars of mine, and I have just heard of the mother's illness. I want to see her, and perhaps there will be something that you can do for the children. First, we will fortify ourselves with a lunch." So saying, she invested twenty-five cents in egg-biscuits and oranges at the little corner-store with its minute ice cream saloon, where, seating themselves behind the faded red curtain, the sister and brother had a merry meal. Harry pronounced the enterprise "jolly,"--"so far," he added cautiously. I ain't so sure about the dirty little Paddies we are going to see. Who are they, anyway, Sis?""They are not dirty little Paddies, at all, but Yankees, quite as clean as you are," answered his sister, with a smiling glance at two boyish paws, stained with ink, tar and other indelibles in which boys delight, "and their name is Middleton. The mother is an honest, industrious woman who has worked harder than you or I ever dreamed of working, from five in the morning till late at night, day in and day out, doing anything she could find to do, to support her five children and send them school. One boy, Jack, earns something, but the others are too young, and now that Mrs. Middleton is ill, they must be very needy.""Why, I know Jack Middleton. He's in the class below me. He carries papers, mornings. He's a first-rate fellow." These Delphic utterances were somewhat indistinct, proceeding, as they did, from a mouth stuffed with the last of the egg-biscuits.Reaching Mrs. Middleton's house, Anne selected at random one of the three little door-bells, and ringing softly, they were admitted by an anxious-faced little girl, who brightened as she saw her teacher. In answer to Miss Markham's inquiries, she said : "Mother was very sick. The Doctor was in the other room. Would they please sit down?" In a moment the Doctor came out, and recognizing Anne, said heartily: "Miss Markham, I am very glad to see you. Mrs. Middleton needs all her friends now." Then followed a little talk upon "ways and means." Both the poor young Dispensary-physician and the poor young schoolteacher had more "ways" in their busy brains than "means" in their slender purses, and it was by dexterous planning and a wise expenditure of other people's money that they usually arranged affairs when they met in houses of poverty and sickness, as they had done, before this. Their acquaintance, in fact, was limited to such occasions, having commenced in Anne's school-house over a battered little pupil. As they sat, talking rapidly about Mrs. Middleton, an idea flashed through Anne's mind, where ideas always were flashing, for that matter--"The man for Margaret!" "To command and obey?"--and while giving very sensible suggestions as to the best way of securing comforts for Mrs. Middleton, she was inwardly resolving to do a little match-making, convinced that she should only be acting in harmony with the grand "fitness of things." While she listened understandingly to instructions about beef-tea and medicine, she was also dreaming a pretty dream of the noble couple those two would be--this man with his dark-blue eyes telling of a rich and tender heart,--with his fine chin and mouth, saying plainly to a duller student of character than Anne Markham, that he was a brave man as well as a loving one--why should he not be worthy, even of the rare Margaret?As he rose to go, he said, frankly: " Miss Markham, we have met in this way before, I feel as if we were friends.""So do I," said Anne, as frankly, extending her hand--"and I should be glad to meet you again. I live at 34 May street, and I would like to see you there." This was one of Anne's unconventional days, when she was her real, unaffected self. She was as fitful as she had accused herself of being, sometimes bowing "to the pleasant old conventions of our false humanity," and even wearing little affectations, fancying they were a shield; then in disgust, throwing them all aside, and striding on for a while, in the strictest asceticism. With this earnest man she could easily be natural and simple. He thanked her for the permission to call, acknowledging smilingly, that he had half-begged it, and with another word about the sick woman, withdrew. Anne sent Harry upon one or two errands, then went into the little bed-room, and with few words and many gentle touches, made everything more cheery and comfortable. Leaving Margaret's flowers in a tumbler, and telling Mrs. Middleton that she would spend the night with her, and that a friend of hers would aid in any way that should be needful, she busied herself quietly and most efficiently in the adjoining room, until the school-bell rang.To pen an emphatic little note to Margaret, describing Mrs. Middleton's needs, and to dispatch it by the irrepressible Jim Malbry, whose spirits needed vent as often as she could find any excuse for sending him outside of school-house walls, was the work of a moment. Then to her disguised princes and princesses in the foreground, and to pictures in the background of serene Margaret and blue-eyed Dr. Waltham, side-by-side.With the faintest possible blush, she remembered the interview. in Mrs. Middleton's sitting-room, and the simple way in which he had said: "I feel as if we were friends!" That was worth while! To have the prospect of a friendship like that. "There must be something good about me, when such people as he and Margaret claim friendship. So pluck up courage, foolish heart, and grow worthy of them!" Of course another possibility suggested itself. The girl for a moment fancied how sweet it would be to have such a lover. He was rather different from the two men who had hitherto sought to honor her with their surnames. Then she checked herself: "Stop, Anne Markham!" If you are good for anything, it is for discerning the true spirits of people, and you know that you are not the peer of that man, and that Margaret Alden is. You shall introduce them to each other, and nature shall do the rest!" So saying, Anne closed the spelling-book, feeling very much like a priest who had just joined a pair in the bonds of matrimony, and dismissed the class, detaining Jim Malbry who had had time to do his errand, return, and convulse his neighbors by his pranks. The clock struck five at last. Margaret was at the door, clad in waterproof armor, for the drizzle had settled into a driving rain. Anne slipped her arm through her friend's, gaily chattering. "Now we will be strong-minded and jolly! Not another woman out! Very unsuitable, Miss Alden! How I do like to g hold of your arm and go careering, with nobody to molest!""So do I," laughed Margaret, "but don't career through that mud puddle if you please! Now about Mrs. Middleton. I am going to watch with her to-night, and I will provide some one for to-morrow night. You are not to work by night, after toiling all day. That is settled."I will take turns with you," Anne began, but Margaret cut her short."No. I have. too much regard for your scholars, if I hadn't for you. It is absurd for a teacher to think of watching with sick people. I pity Jim, Malbry, the day after!""Both, girls laughed, but Anne said: "O, Jim isn't the one to be pitied! His spirits carry him through everything. Pity Jane Thompson and Tim McCarty and Tom Derby. They have to suffer, when I'm awry. But I knew you would come to the rescue in Mrs. Middleton's case, and now that you and Dr. Waltham have taken charge of her, I think she will get well.""Dr. Waltham, the Dispensary? I heard Dr. Arnold speak very highly of him last evening. I had never heard of him before. How odd it is that a name always comes to one in that double way!""You ought to know him," remarked Anne, quietly. (Ah ! Anne, if all matchmakers were as unselfish, and machinated as innocently as you, who would forbid them the avocation!) "I have met him a few times, and I like him immensely. I have a feeling that we are going to be excellent friends--in a Platonic way. You needn't laugh !" as she heard a little, tinkle of amusement. "My impressions and divinations are generally right, as you know. There is the gentleman, this very moment." A chaise was splashing toward them, and Margaret looked up in time to see: a lifted hat, and a bright smile of recognition. "He has only just established a chaise," said Anne. "Until lately he has tramped around among his patients, almost as poor as themselves. Old Mrs. Vickers, who lives in our chambers, knows the pedigree of everybody in town, and who ever passes her window, as she sits knitting, serves as a topic. Then off she launches into Biography. Dr. Waltham in this new chaise, was the occasion of a very interesting monologue, the other day. His father died thirteen years ago, leaving him, a boy of fifteen, to support an invalid mother and a little sister. He left school, went into an apothecary's shop, for his fixed plan, even then, was to be a physician, and that seemed his only track towards it. He used to wait upon his mother with all the gentleness of a girl, doing housework when she was sick. Mrs. Vickers declares she has seen him wash dishes as handily and gaily as if it were his chosen pastime, quite unabashed by her pres- ence. He studied by day and by night, whenever he could find time. He was twenty-four years old before he had saved money enough to support his mother and sister, while be should attend the Medical School. There he studied with all his might, earning something occasionally by literary work in addition, graduated with the highest honors, and I predict, will become an eminent physician. His sister has much of the same pluck, Mrs. Vickers says. She is teaching in some seminary. The Doctor is a native gentleman, self-possessed and courteous, though there is sometimes a half-sad, repressed look in his eyes that reminds one of what he has foregone, that would have made his youth bright. He has had little time or opportunity for social delights, yet he is a man who, you feel instinctively, would enjoy keenly all that is graceful and genial in society, while, of course, he sees through all its shams. With his training he could scarcely fail of that.""I wonder if he knows your history as well as you have learned his?" said Margaret, smiling."Why no !--though he is acquainted with Mrs. Vickers, isn't he? Well, perhaps he does, then. Only there isn't much to tell about me !""I think there is," said her friend quietly."Here we are at Mrs. Middleton's," said Anne, and shaking the rain from their water-proof cloaks, the Sisters of Charity entered, to soothe and cheer the anxious household.KATE A. HAUSEN.Frances Dana GageTHOUGHTS.The astonishing progress that the question of Woman Suffrage is making in the minds of the people throughout this country is evinced by the quantity of newspaper articles that daily meet the eye, pro and con; the most of them amounting to little as it regards the main question, yet serving like the wooden spoon to stir up the dish and keep alive the agitation.The great fear with our excellent friends of the opposition seems to be that we of the weaker sex shall be unsexed--that Milton's type of womanhood will be lost in the whirl of political excitement. I think his lines run in this wise, and I will quote them in full, for I much fear that though our disturbed Bachelors who have been polished and refined at Yale, Cambridge, Amherst, or some other one sided institution have found time to perfect their knowledge of what a woman should be, by studying the old poets, our bright-eyed "girls of the period" have not had such leisure--but here is the type: "For contemplation he, and valor formed;For softness she, and sweet attractive grace"-- and the "lords of creation" are sorely afraid that the simple act of voting will destroy all of this "type."When the women of England began to clamor for a little share of the book-learning that was so lavishly dealt out to men, and here and there a "Harriet Martineau," or some one else in cap and gown, stirred the nicely adjusted equilibrium of "men's rights," they cried out as lustily against the "blue stockings," and seemed to be in as much mortal fear and terror that they should lose their "type," as are the same class of the present day.Sidney Smith told those trembling knights of the quill, twenty years ago, not to be alarmed, there would be fools enough left for them, even if education in its broadest sense was allowed to women.So as we read the current articles of the hour--the sermons that are poured forth on sultry afternoons to sleepy congregations on the "spheres" and "duties" of woman, and all the prating (whether by the men or the women) of the danger of the sex losing itself and all its "sweet attractive grace," by gaining the ballot--we only want to say in answer: Dear, good souls, there will be "soft sweet creatures" enough left for you all, for the next half century at least. Men vote, but they do not all become Presidents, go to Congress, or hold offices; do not all drink, smoke, chew or swear; do not all neglect business or degrade themselves in club rooms, or saloons.There is not a dram shop in these United States that would not allow me to enter in and refresh myself with a brandy sling if I chose to go in and ask for and pay for it. What keeps me out? Can you tell good friends? Will the "right of suffrage give me one particle additional right to do so evil a thing? There is not a scrap of law to prevent me now from the low practices and vices of the lowest humanity; will voting make them more attractive to me than now? What can make the pipe, cigar, and wine cup, more congenial to women than a husband's theory, that they are necessary, pleasant to the taste and to be desired to make one wise"--backed up by his daily and hourly practice.Many a poor woman, soft as unbaked dough and sweet as sugar kisses, and as attractive as frizzles, flounces, flowers and fidgets can make her, lives with the "degradation of politics" from babyhood to good old age, first with father and brothers then with husband, sits at the same fireside, eats at the same table, and lays head on the same pillow, breathes in the fÅ“tid breath, listens to the profanity, and endures the madness of public life, which is brought home to the "sacred hearth" and retains to the last her softness and "sweet attractive grace." If the contact at home and abroad, with the politicans, (for every man is a politician) three hundred and sixty-three days in a year, Fourth of Julys and New Years' days thrown in, has not spoiled us wholly in the last century, do in mercy let us try the other two days and see for a little, whether we can be any worse than we are.But why multiply words, there is, there can be, no argument in the matter. Woman will be woman, and the man that writes it, down that "I shall not be so polite to her or love her so well if she votes," writes himself down a dunce--that is all.FRANCES DANA GAGE.Samuel C. BlackwellBE JUST AND FEAR NOT![The following paper, prepared for the July number, was unavoidably deferred.--ED.]THE extreme advance of democratic sentiment in America is symbolized in the pending Fifteenth Amendment to the National Constitution, now on its passage through our State Legislatures. It caps the arch of "manhood" suffrage, the partial approximation to Human suffrage thus far achieved by the advocates of self-government.Ten years ago four millions of our countrymen, without "rights," formed part of the personal estate of our people. Two convictions which fed the real life of America and gave it dignity and power, were these: Human existence is enduring and invaluable,--Duty attaches to existence and requires freedom for its fulfillment. These convictions gnawed away the basis of Slavery. When the violence it engendered and relied on proved incompetent to resist those convictions, then religious sanction and force of habit let go, while prejudice of race, tyranny of caste and instinct of property were wrenched asunder, and all the ponderous inertia which had seemed to strengthen the abnormal system, swung over on the other side and crushed the wreck it could not animate. We dared not hold the slave; so unwillingly, sullenly, Pharaoh-like, weary of plagues we let him go. The conscience of the Nation heaved off the nightmare which had broken its peace, but the prejudice of the North and the revengeful jealousy of the South left the freedmen in a plight so helpless that common sense is ready now to recognize the need of the second step--suffrage, to make practical the first step--emancipation. Moreover as the swift years since the war have passed, prejudices have fled with the departing souls who cherished them; the perverted vision of our people has been adjusting itself to the more normal light of a freer era. The remembrance of the patient suffering of the Negroes under generations of bitter wrong-- of their manly gratitude and brave help in the first days of their liberty, has plead eloquently with the white man's nobler nature in behalf of "the Nation's wards." We dare not trust the former South to fulfill a pledge of justice unwillingly assumed, the fulfillment of which is nevertheless an essential condition precedent to all self-defence and self-improvement by the feeble victims of its old tyranny. So we fought for and have won for them this Magna Charta of their race in America.Until recently every brave and freedom loving soul thanked God and watched with eager interest the slow dropping of the affirmatory ballot by Legislature after Legislature. But now from among old friends of freedom and the advocates par excellence of Human Suffrage, an unexpected voice of jealous protest has arisen. "Arrest the ratification." Why? Because the admission of all men to suffrage leaves only women disfranchised, thus seeming to assume sex as the line of ostracism, while this has not hitherto been alone in its disfranchisement. Also, because the blacks whom we propose to enfranchise, being widely ignorant and therefore prejudiced, are likely to throw many more votes against than for our claim of Human Suffrage, as embodied in the proposed Sixteenth Amendment now to be urged in Congress.Emancipation, like a great wave, followed the volcanic efforts by which our "nation" struggled with and threw its enemy, a wave that surging far inward purged our Republic of legalized felony. And Negro suffrage, following the first reaction, now sweeps the tyranny of race and caste into the abyss. Surely this is vantage not lost but gained for a further onset which shall unseat the power which now sustains the inequality of sex. Surely it must make the Victory for Human Suffrage more speedy and complete. "No," it is said, hitherto the disfranchisement of class of men prevented the discrimination which now rests distinctly women alone." But is not this a temporary earthwork thrown by a retreating foe? The Reform which has successively freed and promises to enfranchise the slave, is not a technical contest as the respective rights of men and of women. It is the replacing the old regime of force by the new regime of choice. It is reversal of the old decision "might makes right" by the new decision "right makes might." It cannot be that any paltry logic based on the fact that all males have first gained concession of seIf-government can retard the extension of the same measure of simple justice to women. The argument and the verdict were not for manhood suffrage as against woman suffrage. It is distinctly new ground won for the broad principle of Human Suffrage. By that spirit have its advocates been inspired, and by that sign they have conquered. Of our millions of citizens none look on the Fifteenth Amendment as a concession made to black men merely for logical consistency because white men previously were voters; order to recognize masculinity and twenty-one years as the true and invariable basis for the franchise. On the contrary, with the Fifteenth Amendment a flood of fresh light falls on the idea of self-government and illumines it in the eyes of our people. No congressman designed and no constituent understood that in conceding the justice and necessity of self-government to men of every race, they by that act denied the justice and necessity of self-government for women. "But the blacks, being largely ignorant and therefore prejudiced, will use their newly acquired votes more to oppose than to help the extension of suffrage to women." This is an assumption. Generally the attainment of satisfaction for a just claim, disposes people to value the justice they have longed and striven for, and inclines them to concede to others a right by whose denial they have themselves suffered bitterly. If there be any indication among the colored race, of special opposition to woman suffrage, it probably springs from a natural unwillingness to couple their claim, which has received national assent, with that of women which has not yet been able to command it. Themselves possessed of suffrage, the average sentiment of the blacks will probably be quite as reliable for the support of a humane and righteous measure, the average sentiment of the whites. We need not dread the arbitrament of the intellect of either race. But if it were otherwise, has the school of the New Testament and of our Independence taught us to hinge right upon expediency, or that we may prolong a cruel and unjust disfranchisement because we cannot read the future and we fear lest the franchise may be abused? If this argument holds against the Fifteenth Amendment it is good against all previous steps in the interest of self-government or what is identical with it, universal suffrage.Am I justified in saying, "My neighbor shall not govern himself because in so doing he may incidentally misgovern me: Until my right is recognized, my neighbor's shall not be: Until the nation shall assent to woman's righteous claim which it does not yet admit, that nation shall not do its admitted duty and place in the hands of its "peeled and scattered' freedmen a shield against the horrors of the Ku-Klux-Klan?" I have not so learned duty. As to policy, we shall advocate the cause of woman suffrage before the mixed jury of the future with more confidence and consistency on the ground of simple right, which is its one unanswerable plea, if we can say to all objectors white and black who may doubt the expediency of our claim: "Our Fathers conferred suffrage on all white men despite that doubt. We conferred suffrage on all men despite that doubt, now do unto women as we have done to you, 'Be just and fear not.'"SAMUEL C. BLACKWELL.Caroline H. DallIf God intends woman to walk side by side with man wherever he sees fit to go, the movement now beginning must materially develop civilization. Finer elements will be poured into the molten metal of society; and, when the next cast is taken, we shall see sharper edges, bolder reliefs, and a finer lining, than we have been wont. Nor shall we miss the gentler graces.--Caroline H. Dall.Wm. P. TomlinsonA WOMAN'S STORY.[A Memory of the Cumberland Valley.]O'ER leagues of landscape, hot and dry, The sun of August burned,When, with a chosen comrade, I Into a green lane turned.We'd left that morn the camp behind To climb a rugged crest,But now we sought a spot to find Where we awhile might rest.Before us rose a farmhouse old,Massive its walls and grey,Such as the men of sterner mouldBuilt in the olden day.A something home-like in its look,Our wand'ring steps had drawn,And, crossing o'er the purling brook,We hastened up the lawn.A matron met us at the door, In arbor gave us seat,And freely from her slender storeShe spread us bread and meat."I have not what I would desireIn way of food," quoth she,Since through our valley passed in ireThe rebel horde of Lee."But of the little, 'scaping sightOf the rapacious crew,Each soldier, battling for the right, Is freely welcome to.""Thanks for your goodness great," said we, "No more need man desire;But did you suffer so from Lee--The tale might we inquire?""It was a bright, bright day in June, When first the rebels came,And all of this fair valley, soonWas given o'er to shame."Hushed was the reaper's voice of glee, That rose at morning sun;And ached each loyal heart to seeThe deeds of evil done."They camped in woodlands here-about, They overran the land,And many a vale rang with their shout,Chasing the Contraband."I had two of those creatures poorConcealed within my dwellingAnd how to make them feel secureWas often past my telling."Each morning, with first beams of light,I hid them in my room;And only in the dead of nightWould ope their living tomb."Often and often through the day,Soldiers my house would seek;When, for the poor ones stowed away,Trembling, I scarce could speak.One morning there came to my door,A squad of Mosby's troopers;With foam their steeds were covered o'erFrom bridle-reins to cruppers.They flung them down at cry, 'dismount!' Come, woman, do not dally;Haste, if your life's of aught account,This day we leave the valley!"'We want your meat, and bread, and wine,The best of your providing;And we want--what you'll divine--The treasures of your hiding.'"I gave them all I had in store,Just purchased from the village;I knew the vale was given o'erTo rapine and to pillage.But when they rose to seek their prey;With bosom deeply swellingI told them I would lead the way,If they must search my dwelling."I led them straight from room to room,From floorway up to floorway;But when they reached my chamber's gloom,I stood against the doorway."'Now ye've seen all,' I sternly said,(Words that well my heart meant)'Save o'er my corse no one shall treadWithin my own apartment.'"They glared on me, those baleful men,As baffled tigers glare;I heard the click of muskets--thenI knew no thought or care. * * * * *"When back, like flow of summer tide,Came consciousness again,The robber band had left my side And winding o'er the plain,"I saw the rebel horde of Lee, In columns dense go by,Fleeing as traitors aye should fleeToward the Southern sky."But all secure were they from ill,Who in the covert lay;Than man, a power mightier stillWas outstretched on that day."WM. P. TOMLINSON.M. W. CampbellJUSTICE, OR EXPEDIENCY?SHALL we ask a great nation, whose government has just shown that it can pardon the vilest traitors and restore them to all the rights and privileges of citizenship, to do a single act of justice in the enfranchisement of woman? Or shall we stoop to policy--flatter the ambitious designs of office-seeking men, and say to them, If you work for us now, we will remember you when we are in a position to be of service to you? Shall we sugar-coat all our arguments saying we have no cause of complaint, but the time has come when you need our help, and we are waiting to help you? We are anxious to step in, only to clear away the rubbish, clean up the filth of this pool of politics, and polish up things so that your handy work may shine, with a brighter lustre. "You need our hand to help in the State, just as you do in the family. We won't go to any extremes in politics; we will be just as good at home as we have been, even better, if you will only allow us to show how much we can help you in these matters. We won't wear "bloomers," or make any attempt to imitate you in our dress, manners, or occupations; we will do nothing to offend the most fastidious, we will be women still.Are we to use such arguments as these, while we bow low in the dust, and meekly petition to be admitted to our rightful place as equals? Or shall we ask that a simple act of justice shall be done in removing artificial distinctions, between men and women, placed there by ignorance, and allowed to remain for selfish purposes? I do not believe in the extreme views which I have heard advanced at some meetings. I do not think that our present system of government converts one sex into tyrants, and the other into slaves. It simply allows them to become such. The man who is a tyrant by nature can thrive under the system, and the woman who is inclined to submit naturally can do so to her heart's content, and find at last, when submission has ceased to be a virtue, that there is no power in the laws to prevent her master from governing her by his own absolute will, no matter how unreasonable or inhuman that will may be. It is absurd to say that all men are tyrants or all women slaves, for there are men, thank God, who could not become tyrants under any system, but would be wise, loving husbands and fathers, regardless of all laws; and there are women also who could never be slaves, though bound in chains. Who has not seen them in the humblest walks of life, oppressed with sorrow and cares, yet bearing upon their brows the mark of God's nobility, their husbands and children reverencing them next to the Deity? We are not slaves, nor do we complain of the tyranny of our husbands, but we do complain of injustice, inasmuch as the stronger sex have assumed to control us in any degree. And we ask for simple justice; we want no more, and we will take no less. We make no promises of good behavior; we shall be governed by our own good sense. We ask not favors, but that this Nation shall cease to be governed by Expediency. It has had enough of it in the past. Slavery was tolerated by expediency, and after all the woe it brought upon us, no man can claim that the slaves were emancipated by a simple act of justice. Not till it was found to be expedient to save the life of the Nation, did our government do anything to break their chains, and to-day, the black man holds the ballot through expediency.The time is fast approaching when it will be expedient to grant the petition of woman. Would to God this Nation would do this one single act of justice for justice' own sake, rather than wait until it shall seem expedient.M. W. CAMPBELL.Robert W. HumeTHE LAW AND THE TESTIMONY.THE movements for the legal and political freedom of "Woman" have commenced in a manner similar to that in which the Anti-Slavery Reformers first tried to carry their point in their late agitation. It is believed that the petitions so numerously spread before the public, appealing to Congressional and State Legislatures, will meet the same fate, as was awarded to similar appeals made by the advocates of the abolition of Slavery to the Churches. In the latter case it was, and in the former it is, merely applying to the malefactors themselves for the rendition of the thing they have stolen. The answer of the Churches, when the question was pressed upon them as to whether Slavery was a sin, was given in 1860, when it was declared, "that it was not Malum in se." It is only natural to expect that the answer of our Legislators will also be a similar attempted justification, rather than an admission of their guiltiness and a promise of their amendment.It must be confessed that in both cases such a plan of operations was tempting. Who could conceive that Churches calling themselves Christian would be so readily willing to permit Christ to be recrucified in the person of the negro? Who can believe that a government, theoretically democratic, can continue to deprive half the people of their rights because the injured are physically too weak to compel restitution of the same by force ? It is no answer to assert that the majority of Women are content with their present servile position, for this article is not written for such, but for those who think differently. Dr. Adams informed us that many "slaves" also were happy in their condition, though the Box Browns, Margaret Garners and Douglasses, were certainly non-contents. But where now are the negroes who wish to fall back into slavery? So, in the near future, there is every reason to believe that the women, who now are silent, passively acquiescing in their present forlorn condition, will be equally unanimous in rejoicing at the success of their common deliverance from such thraldom.The Revolutionary War has fixed the status of the American Government to all women desirous of representation. Really they have no right of appeal to a tribunal in whose construction their wishes were not consulted. Before public audiences, which at present are mainly composed of males, they should never allude to it as "our" or even "the" government, but call it what it really is--"your government." Ignored themselves, politeness requires that they should return the compliment. If British Legislators, in former times, were tyrants and robbers, what are American Legislators to women, under similar circumstances? Let us cease appealing to the latter, and organize missions amongst the people for their conversion. Let us carefully examine the charts laid down by the Fathers for our guidance, and see if these semi-sanctioned Legislators are fully warranted in the course of injustice they are now pursuing against probably the greater moiety of the people in this matter. Above all, let us never forget that this is not a question of strength and weakness, but one of might and right.But how shall we prove that we are right, for that will come next in order? The Jewish Reformers, as the Scriptures instruct us, usually appealed to the Law and the Testimony. Until God sent them a king in his anger, they, like ourselves, were governed by a written authority which their Judges expounded. Our great State papers unquestionably are, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The former of these is the foundation on which the latter is built. It will do us no harm to appeal to the doctrines contained in them as laid down by the Fathers, on the important question of the Right of Suffrage.There are but few passages in either of these on the subject, and whilst it is claimed that a fair construction of these ratify, it is asserted that no one of them excludes "women" from the exercise of the political power of the ballot. In so grave a cause, extending over and vitally affecting the status of more than half the people in the community, we should from the foes of the movement, be justified in demanding a specific authority in the aforesaid papers excluding women from the polls. Waiving that argument for the present, it is intended in this paper to prove that they not only do not forbid, but that in certain instances, by a fair and just interpretation of the words used, both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution may truthfully be said to endorse the affirmative of this very important matter.The only sentence in the Declaration of Independence which bears upon the question of Suffrage is this: "that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted amongst men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." From this it may be inferred that governments using power without soliciting (or basing their actions on) this consent are unjust and tyrannical. Cavilers may point to the word "men" in the above extract, but if such limitation be correct, the endowment by the Creator of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness is also circumscribed by the same term to the same sex, which is preposterous. On the contrary if the word "men" be used, as submitted, in its wider signification, it is a logical and unanswerable indorsement of the Right of Women to the Suffrage as contended for in this Magazine.Repudiating the "Fourteenth Amendment," which might better be termed the "First Disfiguration," and appealing to the Constitution as it came to us from the Fathers, we find only two sections bearing upon the point under consideration. The first of these is the fractional foolishness "three-fifths of all other classes"--which has been settled or rather abrogated by the war of the Rebellion. The second, which is to be found in Article 1, Section 2, reads as follows: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year, by the people of the several States; and the Electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature."With all proper respect for the Constitution, it Is evident that here there are two conflicting propositions; one of which instructs us that Members of the House of Representatives shall be chosen by the people, and another that they shall be chosen by a specified part of the people. As we cannot perform both commands, it is advocated that it would not be amiss in us, as Republicans, to follow that which is most Democratic. This brings us to the queries, in which the affirmative can well be maintained: Are not women "people," and is not their Right to Direct Representation endorsed and sanctioned by the Fathers in this section of the Constitution?If common usage could sanctify injustice, slavery would now be conqueror instead of conquered. To appeal to it in answer to these allegations will be vain. The claim of the States to legalize paper as money was held and maintained by them ever since we were a nation, until the necessities of the war compelled the dominant part of the people to assert through their Representatives their Constitutional Right over the currency. Even the Dred Scott Court has moved half way towards the truth in that matter. Mr. R. J. Walker declared that he had noted its illegality for the past twenty years. It would be a nice question for a debating society, whether reticence in a great public officer, under such circumstances, was not criminal? However, regardIess of its long life, the Nation purged itself of the wrong, and freed itself, we trust forever, from such State usurpation. If, as is claimed, the Constitution sanctions the right of women to the suffrage, let us hope that ribaldry, debauchery and brutality, which at present garrison the polls against the advance of modesty, sobriety and piety, will likewise be overthrown; common usage to the contrary notwithstanding. In conclusion, we call upon our opponents to face the music, appealing to the Law and the Testimony, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.ROBERT W. HUME.JUSTIN MCCARTHY, a highly educated, liberal young Englishman now residing in this city, in a thoughtful paper on George Eliot says: "Probably no other novel-writer, since novel-writing became a business, ever possessed one tithe of her scientific knowledge. Indeed, hardly anything is rarer than the union of the scientific and the literary or artistic temperaments. So rare is it that the exceptional, the almost solitary instance of Goethe, comes up at once distinct and striking to the mind. English novelists are even less likely to have anything of a scientific taste than either French or German. Dickens knows nothing of science, and has indeed as little knowledge of any kind, save that derived from observation, as any respectable Englishman could well have. Thackeray was a man of varied reading, versed in the lighter literature of several languages, and strongly imbued with artistic tastes; but he had no careful science. Lord Lytton's science is a mere sham. Charlotte Bronte was all genius and ignorance. Mrs. Lewes is all genius and culture. Had she never written a page of fiction, had she never written a line of poetry, she must have been regarded with wonder and admiration as a woman of vast and varied knowledge."EDITORIAL DEPARTMENTTHE SKIES CLEARING.IF to any friend of the Cause, the tone of THE ADVOCATE has in aught seemed captious, we trust it will be believed that whatever there has been of criticism has been in the spirit of kindness, with only the welfare of the Cause at heart, and with no desire to impugn the motives of those differing in judgment respecting what should constitute a CREED, or be the POLICY of the advocates of Woman Suffrage.To us, who have brought love for all of Humanity with the devotion we would pay one of the noblest and most sorely needed of Reforms, the peculiar attitude of some of its prominent advocates has been a revelation from which we would have shrunk, believing the spectacle of such opposition and want of charity--"The distorted vision of a dream."But as week after week such views have been enunciated with a boldness challenging dissenting judgment, and winning converts even by persistency of iteration, we, reluctantly, have felt it our duty to protest against what has seemed to us a violation of the very essence of Christianity--a proper regard for the Rights of even the most hapless of humanity. That the women of the land eventually could endorse such sentiments, we, have never done them the injustice to believe; but there was a danger-now happily averted-- of their misapprehending the true needs of the Cause, and thus unwittingly dishonoring a Movement they would fain urge to a speedy consummation.But better counsels have prevailed. The rock, upon which the preciously freighted vessel might have been dashed, has been safely passed. Denying not the right of Suffrage to others; claiming it for woman with added confidence that all races and conditions of men enjoy the franchise, henceforth the pathway to success will be easy, and failure to see the straight way impossible. Powerfully assisting the true women of New England and elsewhere, Mrs. Livermore, the eloquent representative champion of the Cause in the West, has pronounced "humanity one," declared, in her ably conducted journal, The Agitator, that "Western women moving for woman's enfranchisement do not oppose the Fifteenth Amendment." With the broadly philanthropic utterances of writers in THE ADVOCATE our readers are already familiar, and to the added light illuminating the subject, we will close by appending a letter from the pen of the honored Frances Dana Gage, breathing her undying love for humanity:THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.Frances Dana GageNo. 70 Willow street, Brooklyn, July 10th, 1869. To the Editor of the Advocate:As all persons supposed to be in favor of suffrage for women are also supposed to be unanimous in their likes and dislikes, and are charged by the opposing party with holding the same opinions, you will permit me to put in my disclaimer to being one of these opposers of the Fifteenth Amendment.When the war first closed and it was said by Mr. Phillips and others this is "the Negro's hour; let us settle this question of race before that of sex;"--I, with many, felt aggrieved, thinking that the two great questions could go on together if pressed with the same persistent energy. But be that as it may--the Congress of the United States has spoken its will in the words of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the States will ratify or not as they see fit; and if they do ratify the Amendment, colored men will enter the open doors of freedom a little in advance of us of the opposite sex.The argument of the opposition is that "Negroes being ignorant and debased through Slavery, and knowing but little of any class of women save their own companions in ignorance, will be violent opposers of the right of suffrage for all women." But even if that be the case, a great principle will have been gained for the Nation, and a million of men, who to-day will not admit that either women or negroes should vote, will immediately see and feel the right and necessity for the-like privilege and power for their own wives and daughters.Could I with a breath defeat the Fifteenth Amendment, I would not do it. That Amendment will let the colored men enter the wide portals of human rights:--keeping them out, suffering as now, would not let me in--then in God's name why stand in their way? Bid them enter, and I will bide my time, which is coming and all the sooner, I believe, that he has gone before.It is my earnest wish that the Fifteenth Amendment may be ratified. Let us apply the Golden Rule now and forever!FRANCES DANA GAGE.TRUE PHILANTHROPY.--MR. PACKARD.MR S. S. PACKARD of this city, the proprietor of Packard's Monthly, has a Business College in which, without distinction of sex, mathematics, book-keeping and other branches of useful knowledge are taught those who desire to enter upon a business life. Mr. Packard, whose College has been a number of years in successful operation, finds the young women who have sought its instruction quite as quick to learn as their fellow students of the opposite sex; and states, as the result of his experience, that equal training and advantages give equal proficiency and expertness. The commendable course pursued by Mr. Packard receives its crown in the generous proposition recently made by him to gratuitously educate, during the next year, fifty young women in his college, the only requirement being that they should come well recommended, possessing a moral character. At the recent Commencement, after expressing the opinion that every girl should be prepared to take the position she is fitted for, and to support herself with brain or hands, he concluded by saying:"I propose, during the next year, to make a speciality of educating women for business, and I shall offer, as I have already done, to educate gratuitously any fifty young women who will come, poor but honest, and well recommended; and then I will undertake to get them situations."This is practical Woman's Rights! Well may the country take hope, with such instances of philanthropy in our midst. While a Stewart digs deep the foundation for the stately pile which is to make fair and inviting a Home within the means of the poorest of our working girls-while a Mrs. Phelps endows a Bureau or Center of Thought, more important perchance than either--fraught with even greater consequences for good--a Vassar or a Packard offer to woman the facilities for the acquirement of that business knowledge which will secure to her a profitable, independent position in life, equally with man. May this noble offer of Mr. Packard's be wisely improved.THE BERLIN CONVENTION.Among the Conventions destined to make the present year memorable may be assumed: the World's Woman's Convention, called at Berlin for the 5th and 6th of November, 1869. At this Congress of the thinking women of all Nations, measures will be taken looking to the establishment of an official communication between the various woman societies for Education, for Instruction in Science and Art, for Industrial and Domestic Training and their relations to Labor. The objects to be discussed will be as follows:1. How to form a regular official communication between the existing associations.2. How to form Industrial, Scientific and Art Schools for women.3. How to form Co-operative Associations for woman's labor, with institutions giving the same advantages to women as has been given to men by their large, and now becoming international, Working Men's Associations.Delegates to the above Convention are invited from all parts of Europe and the United States, and the desire is expressed that-our country in particular may be duly represented. Several of our Societies, following a general movement in England, have already taken steps in the matter, and among those whose possible attendance has been hinted at are Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Mrs. C. M. Severance, as representatives of the New England Woman's Suffrage Association. We trust that this gratifying intelligence may prove correct, as the presence of these well-known and honored advocates of Woman Suffrage, alone would be a guarantee that the Cause in America would be faithfully and efficiently represented. We learn, through private sources, that Mrs. Ernestine L. Rose and Miss Mary J. Safford, both of whom are now in Europe, will also be present and participate in the very interesting proceedings.NOTES.Miss Sallie R. Banks, for some years a teacher of colored schools in South Carolina, has been appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the Sumter District of that State."Le Droits des Femmes" is the title of the journal published by the Woman's International Association of Europe, ably edited by Marie Goegg, at Geneva, Switzerland.San Francisco has lately started a newspaper in the interests of working-women. It is called El Dorado, and furnishes employment to twenty women. It is said to meet with good success.A Miss Garrett has passed the second examination for the degree of doctor of medicine in the University of Paris. The subjects were medicine and surgery. The examiners were "bien satisfaits.An Industrial School for Women has been opened in Boston under the supervision of Mrs. L. S. Bachelder, who, with the most persevering energy, has labored unceasingly for the Cause, under great disadvantages. We trust that her School will receive the support it richly merits.Miss Marwedel, a German lady of culture and liberal ideas, has written an interesting notice of the Convention to be held at Berlin, of which mention is made elsewhere. Miss Marwedel, who is at present in Boston, may be addressed at that place by those desiring further information, respecting the Convention.Harper's Weekly of the 31st ult. in an editorial entitled "Men and Women in Convention," thus expresses an opinion shared by an increasing number of our fairer journalists: "As we deny the right of one class of men to define the rights and duties of another class of men, so do we emphatically deny the right of one sex to define the rights and duties of another sex."A Woman's College is to be established at Chambersburg, Pa., which, it is hoped by its friends will surpass even Vassar College in its appointments. A beautiful farm just north of the town has been purchased for the site of the College, and accommodations are to be provided for from three to five hundred pupils. A wealthy lady, Mrs. Wilson, after whom the College has been named has given thirty thousand dollars to the enterprise.A London telegram of July 19th says: "The first general meeting of the Women Franchise Society was held here yesterday. Among the notables present were the following: John Stuart Mill, the author and statesman; Lord Houghton, Right Hon. James Stansfield, Junior Lord of the Treasury; Henry Fawcett, member of Parliament for Brighton; Rev. Charles Kingsley, the author, and Louis Blanc, the author. There were also many ladies present. Addresses were delivered by many well-known speakers, and a resolution was unanimously adopted favoring female suffrage."A wealthy lady of New York--Mrs. Elizabeth Langdon--has purchased four hundred acres of land about forty miles from the city, on which she proposes to establish an industrial farm for destitute children. Boys and girls without natural protectors will be admitted when under twelve years. The farm is to be planted chiefly with small fruits. It is thought the children will be well adapted to gather these, and can also be employed in manufacturing the baskets for the fruits. A commodious building is to be erected as a home; and when the children have been properly trained they will be sent into permanent country homes.A Boston correspondent of the Chicago Republican says: "Everywhere I go, I hear the great question of Woman Suffrage, discussed in its different bearings, showing that the public mind is being deeply agitated on the subject. Riding recently from Boston to Medford in the cars, I overheard two men earnestly discussing the question--one evidently a physician, the other, I should judge, a lawyer. Says the latter, 'would you wish your wife to mix with low, rude men, in public; to witness all the drunken coarseness and low ribaldry of town-meeting day; would you not be ashamed of her in such a place?' 'I should be ashamed of the men,' was the doctor's quick reply."It will be seen by the advertisement of the University Courses of Instruction at Harvard for the current year, that these courses will be given to competent persons, "men and women." Thus it appears that the ladies are admitted to the outer court of the temple at Harvard. Is this a sign that the whole academical course will yet be thrown open to them? At all events the present innovation is a good one. The lessons Of the course to be given by such men as Profs. Bowen, Hedge and Lowell, Ralph WaIdo Emerson, Mr. Howells and others, are just as well adapted to one sex as to the other, and will be appreciated by both alike. This is doubtless one of the forms of the new President of Harvard, it is certainly auspicious of his administration.Lucia Gilbert Calhoun, under the heading "A Woman's View of Dr. Bushnell's Book," makes a capital reply to the objections of that volume in the Hearth and Home of the 31st ult. We extract the closing paragraph:"For the rest, we acknowledge our belief that God made both men and women, and that his loving care will conserve both the centrifugal and centripetal forces that keep them in their orbits. Man will be man, and woman will be woman, while the world is, because neither can pass the divine limit, and the sooner both pass the conventional limit, and become humanity, the better for both. We confess that we are not in the least alarmed at the muttering or the noisy approach of any Reform against nature."Mrs. Sophia M. Tuckerman Eckley, well known to many of our readers as a lady of artistic and truly literary tastes, has lately returned from a residence of fourteen years in Europe, devoted to artistic studies at Rome and elsewhere. During her protracted sojourn abroad, Mrs. Eckley was a frequent contributor to English and Continental journals, winning the reputation of an able and graceful writer; and within the year an edition of her poems, entitled "Minor Chords," has been issued by the well-known London publishers, Bell & Daldy, Covent Garden, which has received very favorable notices from the press, and of which we will speak hereafter. Liberal in thought, Mrs. Eckley had excellent opportunities for forming the acquaintance of trans-Atlantic reformers, and has sustained intimate relations with Miss Emily Faithfull and the principal workers in the Womans -Movement in Great Britain and elsewhere. She is at present a contributor to Miss Faithfull's Magazine, and will, we trust, be an added strength to the Cause in this country.Very pleasant were the exercises that took place at Newport on July 3d, in connection with the presentation of an elegant life-boat to Miss Ida Lewis, as a token of appreciation of her heroism in rescuing two drowning soldiers near her father's light-house in March last. The boat, which is of the finest workmanship, is called the "Rescue;" and the presentation was in Washington square, which was filled with a crowd of enthusiastic people. An appropriate presentation address was made by Francis Brinley, formerly President of the Boston Common Council, to which Col. T. W. Higginson responded on behalf of Miss Lewis. He commenced by saying: "I am requested by Miss Lewis to return thanks in her name to the donors and to the citizens of Newport. Miss Lewis desires me to say that she has never made a speech in her life, and does not expect to begin now. She has worked out the problem of woman's rights in a different manner. She has been accustomed to assume the right of helping her fellow-men without asking any question. She receives this boat with pleasure, not only as an earnest of the good feeling of her fellow citizens, but also as a means of doing a little more hereafter if occasion should come." . . . . At the conclusion of Col. Higginson's speech, an elegant rudder-yoke, made of rose-wood, with solid silver mountings, was presented by the Narraganset Boat Club; and two silk flags, a miniature anchor of galvanized iron, with cable, an elegant set of cushions, boat-hook, and a velvet carpet were contributed by Captain Kenny and the officers of the steamboat "Newport." The demeanor of Miss Lewis throughout the exercises was lady-like and composed, alike free from embarassment and affectation. This presentation was in the morning; and itt the afternoon the "Rescue" was launched from Long Wharf in the presence of a vast crowd. At the appointed hour, amid much applause, Miss Lewis seated herself at the oars ; and by her quick and vigorous strokes the beautiful boat was guided rapidly toward its destination, the Lime Rock Light-house.LITERARY.HOW LISA LOVED THE KING. By George Eliot, author of "Adam Bede." 16 mo. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co. Scarcely has the first flush of pleasure, excited by the perusal of "The Spanish Gypsey" abated, ere the public are offered a similar delight in a fresh production by this gifted author. "How Lisa Loved the King" can add nothing to the reputation of George Eliot. That may be said to have been crowned by the production of "The Spanish Gypsey," which was one of the few poetical works really enriching our modern literature. But it is the sweetest of trifles--a rosebud dropped in her garlanded path, the fragrance of which will linger Iong with every lover of lofty or graceful thought wedded to verse. This being the case, it would be unfair to institute any comparison between it and its immediate and remarkable predecessor. The seven hundred or so lines tell only the simple story of a Sicilian maiden, of a sensitive and highly imaginative nature, who finds the hero of her dreams in King Pedro, whose noble beauty, bravery and knightly skill in arms has awakened a passion consuming her yet half-child life by its intensity:"--the glances of the King Flashed on her soul and waked vibrations there Of known delights love-mixed to new and rare."But this intense love preys upon her life, and she slowly sinks beneath the load of her secret, and the hopelessness of being loved by the king in return. Her parents watch with dismay the fading away of their treasure:"What wish were left if Lisa were to die? Through her they care for Summers still to come, Else they would be as ghosts without a home."They call in all the aid that physicians can give, ransack the earth for delicacies:"-never tire Of seeking what will soothe her, promising That aught she longed for, though it were a thing Hard to come at as the Indian snow, Or roses that on Alpine summits blow, It should be hers. She answers with low voice, She longs for death alone-death is her choice, Death is the King who never did think scorn, But rescues every meanest soul to sorrow born."At length, however, the sick girl slowly reviving asks her father to bring Minuccio, the great singer, to her bedside, and to him she confides the secret of her love for the King, and her earnest desire to acquaint him with that love:She said, 'Minuccio, the grave were rest, If I were sure, that, lying cold and lone, My love, my best of life, has safely flown And rested in the bosom of the King. See, 'tis a small weak bird with unfledged wing But you will carry it for me secretly And bear it to the King; then come to me And tell me it is safe, and I shall go Content, knowing that he I love my love doth know.'Minuccio does Lisa'a bidding, and having told her story over again to a poet-friend, Mico, persuades him to put it into verse that shall suggest more than it actually tells, and then he sings the song after the banquet to the king. Moved greatly by Minuccio's song, King Pedro desires to know the full meaning of his enigmatic words. Made acquainted with the touching story, his kindly heart prompts him to appoint an hour for an interview with the dying girl, which takes place, and such grace comes to Lisa with the unexpected fulfillment of her brightest dream, that she might be near and hear the voice of the King, that she no longer wishes for death, but consents to live, and after a time weds Perdicone to whom she had been betrothed by her parents. The story ends with the happiest disposition of all the parties in this little drama, Perdicone being endowed with lands and money, and advanced from post to post about the Kings person while--"Throughout his life, the King still took delight To call himself fair Lisa's faithful knight; And never wore in field or tournament A scarf or emblem, save by Lisa sent."Slender in pages as is this little poem--in the estimation of the author probably not worth making a book of--it is yet so truly poetic in its conception and treatment, that we know not, in the wide range of more pretentious volumes, a better companion for a Summer afternoon than the sweetly touching story, "How Lisa Loved the King."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 comprised within it, 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 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 ADVOCATE resolve to furnish at least one subscription to commence with the July number?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.THE NATIONAL ANTI-SLAVERY STANDARD.VOL. XXX. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.Aaron M. Powell, Editor.THE STANDARD advocates entire freedom and immediate enfranchisement for the colored race, as the demand of justice. Chattelism has been abolished, but equal freedom for the colored race has not yet been secured.Eminent writers contribute to its columns, and the Editor is permitted to announce WENDELL PHILLIPS as a Special Editorial Contributor. Full reports will also be published of the Addresses of Mr. PHILLIPS, revised and corrected by himself.THE STANDARD, though chiefly devoted to the consideration of the Freedom and well-being of the colored race, will, as hitherto, hospitably entertain the claims of movements of a kindred end and aim, as the Rights of Women, Temperance, Education, etc. It will also present a department of choice Literary Miscellany. It is intended that, without forgetting its main object, THE STANDARD shall be carefully and thoroughly edited in all its other departments, and be welcomed by all classes of readers.TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.One Copy, One Year, $3.00 Ten Copies to one Address, each 2.50 Twenty Copies, each, 2.00Single Copies of THE STANDARD may be had of the American News Company 121 Nassau street, and at the office of Publication.All communications should be addressed to A. M. POWELL, Editor of the >National Anti-Slavery Standard, 39 Nassau street, New York.WOMAN'S MEDICAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA,NORTH COLLEGE AVENUE & 22d STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA.FACULTY.ANN PRESTON, M. D., Prof. of Physiology & Hygiene. EMELINE H. CLEVELAND, Prof. of Obst. & DiReases of Women. MARY J. SCARLETT, M. D., Prof. of Anatomy & Histology. RACHAEL L. BODLEY, M. L. A., Prof. of Chemistry & Toxicology. ISAAC COMLY, M. D., Prof. of Principles & Practice of Medicine. BENJAMIN B. WILSON, M. D., Prof. of Principles & Practice of Surgery. CHARLES H. THOMAS, M. D., Prof. of Materia Medica. HENRY HARTSHORNE, M. D., Prof. of Hygiene & Dis. of Children.The Twentieth Annual Session will commence on Thursday, October 14th, 1869, and continue five months.Clinical Advantages of the most important character are now available, including, besides access to the wards and Clinics of the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, admission to the Clinics of the principal Hospitals of the City.Address for Catalogue or further information, EMELINE H. CLEVELAND, M. D., Sec'y., 18W Mt. Vernon St.THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE.Kate A. Hausen"TO WARN, TO COMFORT, AND COMMAND." PART THIRD.MARGARET ALDEN was a "Vanquisher," as Anne used to call her. Belonging to the race of natural charmers, not so much by virtue of her beauty, as by the rare grace and tranquility which surrounded her with a magnetic atmosphere, she walked, despite herself, straight into unoccupied masculine hearts--feminine hearts, too, for that--matter,--for her discerning sex felt, whether they philosophized upon the fact, as Anne did, or not, that in her case, a Grecian chin, a perfectly poised head, a free, queenly walk, and a pair of clear, deep eyes meant something, that they were the true exponents of a noble, tender and gracious womanhood, not the false, fair mask which nature sometimes allows her daughters to wear, deceiving the one sex, but never the other.She knew her power, of course, as all queens must, and since the first intoxicating wonder and thrills of vanity with which she had learned it, upon her entrance into society, she had used it as a sacred trust. When she could, she turned her lovers gently from her, before an avowal, but when an avowal was inevitable, the scene was sure to be one of those which make men believe in women. The rejected suitor would pass from her presence, feeling as if he had been knighted and sworn to love Truth and Purity above all things else. His self-respect was never wounded; her graceful, sincere deference to his manhood, her respect for her own womanhood, appealed to all that was real in him, and gave him a glimpse, at least, into the truths of Life.The experience had so often come to Margaret, in its varying phases, that we cannot wonder if she hardly felt a tremor, when on looking up one May afternoon, as she sat sewing with her sister in the Rectory parlor, she saw a middle-aged, unmarried piece of propriety named Stephen Dawson, alight from a trim buggy, and walk decorously up to the door. "Mr. Dawson!" she remarked to her sister."Well, is it you or Tom he wants to see?" asked the pretty matron with a smile."Tom, I hope, but in case it isn't--quick! where is my Woman's Suffrage Petition? I think I can frighten the timid bird away with that!""I'm going up-stairs," said Alice, mischievously, picking up her work: "I must oversee that dressmaker.""Now, Alice, stop! I won't have any such pranks!"-and seizing Mrs. Grey's little wrist in her firm grasp, she held her until it was too late to escape, discreetly dropping the hand, just before the parlor door opened to admit Mr. Dawson.Straight, drabbish hair, pale eyes, and a wide, thin-lipped mouth were not personal charms, though they belonged to an exemplary man; neither were vanity and a timid regard for appearances, traits particularly calculated to master Margaret's soul. So it is not strange that in all her acquaintance with Mr. Dawson, she had scrupulously held him at a distance. But as in the case of the Rev. Launcelot Jones, her efforts thus far seemed only to charm this man of mould so much weaker than herself, and he was irresistibly attracted by her very strength and self-reliance. Leaving the conversation to him and Alice as far as might be, Margaret served in silence. At the first pause in a somewhat incoherent talk about the church-choir, the gentleman, turning to her asked if she would "take a drive with him, this pleasant afternoon.""Thank you," said Margaret, "I believe I cannot leave all this sewing-work," turning it over in her work basket, and as she did so, disclosing a roll of paper. "O! here is a petition which Alice and I have signed; and here are pen and ink, you see, ready for you.""Not a petition for Woman's Suffrage!" exclaimed the horror-stricken Mr. Dawson, as he glanced at the heading. You have not signed that, Miss Alden!""Why, certainly," said the young lady, lifting her eyes with a look of calm surprise, which, it must be owned, was a small piece of acting in our usually honest Margaret. But she thought she knew her patient, and administered her tonic accordingly."You do not really think--I mean--why, it is so unwomanly--excuse me!" Blushing at his unintended rudeness, he added: "I cannot imagine either of you ladies desiring to walk to the polls among the crowd of low fellows that hang about them.""We can go in little squadrons," laughed Margaret, "under the escort of our gentlemen friends, if it is really such an ordeal. Though I have dropped letters into the post-office sometimes, and found it a very brief ceremony, which must resemble this of depositing a ballot, I should think.""Ladies usually know so little of politics," murmured the drooping Dawson. Then, remembering the few, forcible words and the unassuming manner with which Margaret had incidentally explained to him, a few evenings before, certain differences in the laws of two States, he added humbly: "Exceptional cases like yourself and Mrs. Grey, would hardly prove the contrary.""I know many quiet, domestic women, who are better versed than we, in such matters," replied Margaret, "and I am sure there are countless women of common sense, all over the land who would inform themselves, if there were a necessity for the exertion."The conversation lasted some time, and we spare our readers a report of the arguments on each side, which they have heard so often, in these latter days. Although Margaret spoke as one who had given the subject attentive thought, and presented her views clearly and vigorously, she was by no means prepared for the result. Nor can we fully explain what happened. Was it because Mr. Dawson was convinced by his opponent's logic? Was it the magnetic force of a beautiful woman's presence and will? Was it partly the pleasure of seeing his, name so near the free, smooth autograph--"Margaret B. Alden?" What was it that constrained the man to take a pen from the bronze inkstand, and write his name on that hitherto odious petition? Margaret and Alice exchanged looks which were a comical mixture of dismay and triumph; Mrs. Grey's sewing-work actually dropping from her hands. But, in aspect to Mr. Dawson, when quietly advocated by this elegant young lady, sewing deftly, and talking in her high-bred tones. It did seem suddenly a little presumptuous in him to be telling her and her accomplished sister that they were not capable of having a voice in affairs which concerned them as closely as they did himself. We may be morally certain that after he went home he shook at the thought of his rashness, but at the time he was galvanized into heroism. When he had taken his leave reluctantly, at last, with a tender glance which Margaret would not see, from his drab eyes,--when he had closed the door after him, and embarked in his trim buggy--the two women looked at each other again, and this time with a ringing laugh."O, Margaret," gasped Alice, that was too rich ! I wish Tom had been here! O! dear, if I don't have precious opportunities of seeing love-lorn men! It's worth while to have a young and attractive sister to matronize. My dear, unless you take to smoking and drinking, Mr. Dawson will propose, and I really think you had better! It is dreadful to go on, walking over people's hearts as you do."Margaret looked at the signature in amusement. "Infatuation! I would never have believed it. There come Anne and Dr. Waltham!" she exclaimed suddenly, seeing two figures at the gate."Will there be a scene of any kind this time ?" asked Alice, checking a hiccough, and wiping away a tear."Never fear!" said Margaret gaily, hastening to the door.Since the day, six months before, when Anne had first spoken of the physician to Margaret, the three had often met. First at Anne's home, where Dr. Waltham had called, as we saw he intended doing, and Anne, knowing, either by one of her "divinations," or in some other way, when, he would be likely to come, had contrived that Margaret should be visiting her, that very evening. She was determined that her two friends should know each other, and moreover, it is possible that she felt it prudent to bring Margaret early into the field, lest she should find herself some day in love with this man whom she admired so greatly. "And that shall never be," she said to herself, with a look as firm as Margaret's, "I will be duenna, and they shall be hero and heroine." A- merry, unsuspected duenna she was, that evening, and the trio enjoyed themselves rarely.Through the Winter they had often met, and had grown to be such a friendly triangle that it seemed very natural now to Margaret to see the other two at the door, after Anne's school hours, asking her to walk with them over the hill. "Yes," was the ready response, "come in, while I get my hat and sacque."As she re-entered the parlor, equipped for the walk, Anne was exclaiming over Stephen Dawson's name, and Alice with a slight, roguish glance at her sister, who repaid it with a quick little frown, remarked: "Yes, that was for the special benefit of Margaret and myself. Very few other women are capable of voting, you understand, but Mr. Dawson was too gallant to refuse our request that he would enfranchise us.""It isn't canny!" said Anne, solemnly, shaking her head. "Poor Stephen Dawson was in some abnormal condition. Did you drug him, or mutter an incantation over him, or what did you do? He has repented in sackcloth by this time, you may be sure.""Have you signed it, Anne ?" asked Margaret."O yes, and Dr. Waltham, too. It isn't so very ignominious, after all," she continued, running over the list of names. "Here are Mrs. Butler, Mrs. Dillwynn, Dr. Arnold, and the Tremonts! In fact Mr. Dawson is in very respectable company, and that is what the good man has always desired through life, I believe.""I heard a man declare yesterday," said Dr. Waltham with a smile, that the only men on any of the lists were hen-pecked husbands, who were coerced into signing, by their strong-minded keepers.""My brother-in-law signed this, you notice," remarked Margaret demurely, buttoning her glove. Whereupon Mrs. Grey shook her little fist at her, and the three friends retreated in haste.They were soon out of town, and up on the hill-road, strolling along like happy children, in the blithe May sunshine. As they walked under the maples and elms just veiled with a green film of young leaves, Dr. Waltham exclaimed: "Is there any time in the whole year, when the earth seems so like a thing bewitched, and is so utterly bewitching, as in this leafing season? I always feel bewildered, like a guest at some won- derful fairy transformation. It is a miracle to which I never become accustomed.""No," chimed in Anne, "and the mornings are the strangest and most intoxicating: times of all. Life seems unreal and glorious then,--but by noon I am apt to be sobered down, and find the world a contrary, dingy old place after all. That, however, is from no change in the weather, but because I am so easily jostled and disgusted by things I meet."Anne made this confession rather by way of penance for the days when it had been her experience than because this was one of them. She had been all day in one of her exalted moods, happy and strong, moving mountains as if they were straws. Even if she had been feeling weak and discouraged before, the presence of Margaret and the Doctor would probably have rested and restrung her. When worn by the narrowness and selfishness and vulgarity of the people with whom she often came in contact, this was her unfailing balm.Feeling acutely the countless unnamed currents and counter currents of daily life, lacking by nature genuine self-respect and self-reliance, she found it difficult to follow through fogs of self-distrust, her own ideals. Seeing too clearly sometimes for her own progress, the slender thread of truth that is entwined with most errors,--the vein of beauty that runs through many social fallacies, she often halted, fancying that it was presumptuous for her to hold aloft those standards in which her soul, at its truest, fully believed. Many young women and men know this bitter, corroding experience. May emancipation come -to them, as it did to Anne Markham, and doubtless, when it comes, it will be through the same avenues. On the one hand the blessed ministry of drudgery, suffering and self-conquest, which shall open the eyes of the sufferer to the stern and naked and awful realties of life. On the other the inspiration which such natures are quickest to feel--of ennobling human fellowships, teaching reverence for one's own individuality, and in consequence, a delicate respect for that of every fellow-being.The solemn joy of introversion was almost new to Anne, and she walked quietly this afternoon, happy that her friends were with her, but hardly heeding what they said. The lesson which, by their example, they had unconsciously taught her, of possessing her own soul, was one with which no stranger, and no friend, even, can intermeddle. They were the priests who had led her to the altar; there she found her God, and communed with him only.Were they priests to each other, too, this man and woman? Did each feel an, accession of richness and sweetness, such as true friends always know? Surely they did. And was there, too, another element present in their happiness, that fair May evening? Was there, in both hearts, possessing and glorifying both, a love which was its own assurance of response ? The slanting sunshine which fell in blessing on their, brave, earnest faces, knew. The tender, eager, green leaves on the brown maple branches understood, for was not that the very meaning of the Spring which they were trying to utter? Longing and Life and Glory, asserting themselves out of Death and Dullness? - There had been dullness and the shadow of death in the lives of these two, but they had endured them humbly and hopefully. They had looked, awestricken into the depths of life, and walked afterwards with chastened, but unfaltering steps. Now the time of their supreme joy had come, and they met it with glad hearts. Dullness and Death would come again; that they knew, but this illuminated hour taught them what grief and penitence had as surely told them in the past, that Life and Love are eternal.Anne had strayed musingly down the hill, looking for anemones. The others stood under the maples, watching the boats on the glittering river, feeling in some subtle way, that each was filling the other's heart. So it was easy for Dr. Waltham to turn to Margaret, saying: "It is strange that I am not afraid to ask you. But this golden hour seems like a prophecy, and gives me courage. Can I claim you, Margaret? Is it possible for me to be to you anything of what you are to me?"The calm woman who had fronted so many lovers unmoved, found herself trembling for very bliss, and answering only by quiet tears. The strong man at her side rejoiced in them, and drawing her arm within his, said words which were the sweetest she had ever heard.Anne chanced to look up from the meadow below, saw with a sudden flush of joy, the two figures standing side-by-side, and knew that it was for life. With a quick kiss of her hand and gesture of goodbye, she turned, and walked through the field towards home. Happy lovers, and happy Anne! Tears ran down her cheeks as she shared the joy which had come to her friends. No envy, no vague longing, even intruded. The fair portion which had fallen to them in this earthly life was very different from hers, but she felt to-night that she could walk alone. Her soul possessed itself, and though she knew it would often falter and faint in the march, it would never quite lose its hold of the heavenly things it had grasped in its highest hours. It had been on the Mount of Vision, and could never again be utterly blinded by the dust or darkness or glare of its daily path.Kate A. Hausen"TO WARN, TO COMFORT, AND COMMAND." PART FOURTH.John Waltham had struggled for thirteen years. Poverty, toil, exhausting study, anxiety for those he loved, loneliness--these had been, until very lately, his familiar friends and his faithful teachers. Was it strange that in entering the happy school where "lovers' love," as Anne called it, was the wonderful master, the man was bewildered? After he had left Margaret at the Rectory door, he walked on, the feeling growing stronger every moment that it was only a beautiful dream, a degree more distinct, than the visions that the solitary student had sometimes had--that every young man has,--of the peerless, unknown being, whom he shall some day call wife. He walked and walked, that night, out of the city again, into the darkness, trying to realize his happy destiny--trying to find his place again in life. He had been calm when he told Margaret his love. Now he was dizzy, and could have wept. The wonderful revolution in his life had turned the very heavens. It was a new earth that he was treading, and he must become acquainted with it anew. He had been Margaret's friend, but who could have believed that he would ever be her accepted lover? How had that strange courage come to him in the sunset hour on the hill?When he entered his house, in the dead of the star-lit night, he carried home with him the quiet and solemnity, the wonderful peace which night can infuse into the seeking soul.The next morning as Margaret, Mr. and Mrs. Grey and little Madge, sat at the breakfast table, the former dreamily eating muffins without any butter, the nut-brown Rosa brought in a note. Pretty Mrs. Grey peered over the tall coffee-pot--"Whose writing? Mr. Dawson's, I suppose. To say that, as a slight reward of merit for his performance yesterday, he would suggest himself as a candidate for the office of Consort and General Protector to Miss Alden, and would like her to vote for him at once. Is that the way his petition reads? Why, you sinner! not going to let me read it, when I was present throughout that memorable interview and he all but offered himself in spite of me! Tom, I do believe the creatures will get to proposing before me, some of these days. They soon won't mind me any more than if I were a deaf, blind old duenna.".I don't believe the note is from Mr. Dawson, said Mr. Grey, who had given Margaret a shrewd, investigating glance. If it is, Alice, you and I are going to have Stephen for a brother-in-law, and I shall retire to my study at once to write the dismalest sermon you ever gaped at. Now, Margaret, there is no escape for you! I never saw you eat muffins without butter before, and I never saw you blush so prettily over a note. And there is no Stephen Dawson in the affair, and you shall say who is! Here is some butter for you. Now give us your confidence! And Alice, my dear, mark my words, your arduous career as duenna is over.""Why, Tom--Margaret, what do you mean?" cried Alice, in bewilderment.Margaret, putting the note into the envelope, and then into her pocket, said: "Tom is right. The note is from the man to whom I am engaged.""Dr. Waltham!" exclaimed Alice by an inspiration, and jumping from her chair, the little lady hugged her sister vehemently, laughing, crying and scolding because she had not told her before."Why!" said the smothered Margaret, "I was going to, of course, but Tom saved me half the trouble."--"And deserves to be rewarded," said the clerical gentleman kissing her heartily. "I am almost as much delighted as when your sister made that capital match a few years ago."Alice pinched him, declaring, "O, that fellow proved to be a conceited, saucy creature!"Tom continued more gravely: "Dr. Waltham is the very man for you, Margaret, and you the woman for him. I can bless you both with all my heart!""O! dear, so can I," said Alice, still crying and smiling, but I can't bear to have Margaret engaged, after all."Little Madge had climbed into her aunt's lap, and with her fat arms wound tightly around her neck, declared firmly "It was her own aunty! What for was aunty 'gaged? Was Dr. Walfam 'gaged, too?"Then the wondering blue eyes were taught that the little red lips mustn't tell callers, yet, that "aunty was 'gaged.""Though, Margaret," said Alice, if you are merciful to the Dawson species, you will announce the engagement before long. It will save, let me see, three proposals, I should say!"The council was now reinforced by the arrival of Anne, who rushed in, breathless and bright, on her way to school, declaring that "Things do come right sometimes in this crooked world!" Seeing by the smile which met her oracular sentence that Tom and Alice knew, she sat down for a rhapsody which was abruptly cut short by the sound of her inexorable school-bell.The following summer was the brightest any of the "Triangle" had ever known. Margaret and the Doctor were "models," Alice said. "So sensible and patient, never making you feel that yon, were de trop.' Anne fully endorsed this praise, though, with her old horror of being "third party," she was not very likely to intrude, unsummoned, upon any tĂªte-Ă tĂªtes. The deep friendship which existed between her and the others grew stronger, if possible, day by day.The time fixed for the marriage was in October, and in one of the Rectory councils preceding it, Anne said suddenly to Mr. Grey "Why, you are a clergyman! You will marry them, won't you ?""Oh!" said Tom, with a wry face, "You know Margaret is a naughty dissenter, and devotedly attached to her own pastor, Mr. Baldwin, who is an old friend of her father's besides. So I am to give her away."With a merry glance at Margaret, Anne said: "It is because your service says 'obey', I verily believe! Consistency forbids this strong-minded young woman, who has circulated a petition for Female Suffrage, to promise anything more humble than to 'warn, comfort, and command!'"Dr. Waltham looked up brightly at Margaret. He thought it an odd coincidence. He had been repeating the poem to her, that very after- noon. "I do not feel afraid," he said, "I hardly think she will domineer!""There is no telling," replied Margaret--(how "fair and debonnaire she looked, as she spoke!) "Allow me to remind you that I am "A creature not too bright and good For human nature's daily food."Wooing and wedding are over, now, but the husband and wife feel that life in its maturity has but begun for them.Truly each does "comfort" the other in every time of trial. And when either of them is in any way weak, or false to the truth of life, as even the truest must sometimes be, the other is strong, lovingly to "warn," and by silent example to "command."KATE A. HAUSEN.Jane O. DeforestCONCERNING ONE OBJECTION.A FEW months ago an article appeared in a county paper which, being a fair specimen of those with which the opposers of the "woman question" are flooding the country, I propose noticing a few points which this "Objector" urged against a reform, now pressing forward, as we trust, to a speedy victory.The main argument which Mr. "Objector" uses--and it is about the only missile left which those of his opinion venture to use--is, that woman is too good to vote; altogether too pure and angelic to "dabble in the dirty pool of politics." Now we must confess to a quiet laugh in our sleeve, when we recall what we have read of the objections urged far more vehemently several years ago.It used to be argued that woman's inferiority was sufficient to bar her, not merely from the ballot-box, but from positions which she is today filling nobly and well. If our revered grandmothers and great-aunts could read, write and cipher, their education was deemed complete. When the extension of educational facilities for woman first began, it was met with strong opposition. Her mental capacity was far below that of man, and above all, her weak physical frame could never endure the weight of even Algebra and Latin, much less that of Logic and Men tal Philosophy. But the High School system admitting girls, was established first in the good old Bay State. By-and-by, Western Colleges began to spring up and open their doors to young women; and as the somewhat fearful professors witnessed the ease with which the daughters kept pace with, and often outstripped the sons, they could but proclaim their success to the world. So it was when the early advocates of "woman's rights" took the field; they were everywhere met with taunts about the inferiority of the sex. As the years have rolled on, and our educated ladies are now found in the physician's office, the artist's and sculptor's studio, with the mighty pen in their hands, upon the lecturer's platform, at the book-keeper's desk, before the compositor's frame, and in all our schools, no one ventures to deny them the right of suffrage on the score of inferiority.Think you then that the mouths of objectors can thus be closed ? Far from it; for with a skillful "Right-about-face," they now present their latest weapon, namely, "woman's superiority." Says our objector, "people may talk as they please of the equality of the sexes, but I don't believe a syllable of it. They are not equal, and what is more, they never can be. Woman is certainly superior to man." My dear sir, such a remark as this, years ago, would have been sufficient to brand you as a traitor in the camp of your brothers, but now you undertake to use It as a final settler of the "woman question." Verily, a "change has come o'er the spirit of your dreams." Well, put it upon this ground if you choose; we are willing to meet it fairly and squarely. First, we would ask why pure and upright men (like yourself, for instance) have anything at all to do with that which is so vile and corrupting as the politics of to-day ? Can one descend into the mire and come forth spotless, because, forsooth, he is a man? We think not; and if our political system has indeed become as foul as you represent, we insist that all of those possessed of a true and noble manhood should shun the slightest approach to its vicinity.What! shall our pastors, those appointed to break unto us the "bread of life," descend from their exalted positions, mingle with the "common herd," and wend their way to the ballot-box? Shall our elders and deacons, and other brethren in the church, leave the prayer meetings, where they are expected to do all of the praying and speaking for the edification of those whose "name is holiest," but whom custom will not permit to rise and say that they love their Lord and Saviour--shall these pillars of the church pass out from such scenes to engage in the "villainies of office seeking?" Shall the devoted young men of the Christian Associations of our land, throw off the garb of religion and assist in the skimming of our seething political cauldron, such a very witch broth as it contains? Shall our Boards of Education and School Superintendents, in whose hands are the interests of thousands of young immortals, go forth, and forgetting their high calling, meddle with so gross a subject as the government of their country? And the thousands of tradesmen, honest laborers, and aspiring students, who by their true lives are witnesses that "God made man in the image of Himself"--shall these touch pitch and not be defiled? Nay, verily! My good sir, if politics are indeed past redemption, so shocking in their reaction upon all that have aught to do with them, we beg leave to sound a note of warning for the benefit of that half of the race which is so surely and speedily rushing on to destruction. Shall those noble men, who periled life and limb for our country's sacred cause; who formed about as an irresistable living breastwork, and to whom under God we owe our present peace and prosperity, shall these our noble defenders be permitted to degrade themselves, without a single remonstrance from grateful and loving hearts? Flag of our country, forbid! If, as you affirm, you can only keep woman pure and worthy of your regard by not "permitting her to tamper with that which has a tendency to degrade," so we affirm that in the same manner would we provide for the welfare of our brothers. But you say, perhaps, that woman should be pure and angelic (ahem) at all hazards, but as for man it doesn't matter. In an exalted standard for true womanhood, we allow no one to exceed us, but where do you get your authority for lowering that of true manhood ? Not from the Scriptures, surely; for where will you find commands relating to purity and goodness, more binding upon women than upon men. Does the Bible teach us that "God cannot look upon sin in woman with the least degree of allowance?" Hence we claim that your argument either includes all the good of your own sex, or else it falls to the ground. A mother, mature with the experience of fifty years, may not go to the polls to deposit a slip of paper which makes known her choice of those who shall dispose of her taxes and make the laws to which she is amenable; but her boy, the pride and delight of her heart, upon whose brow has fallen the light of but twenty one summers, walks off conscious of the dignity conferred upon him by his carefully cultivated mustache and the reaching of his majority, to mingle with those whose presence would degrade that noble mother, who follows him with her blessing. Away with such false notions of truth and justice, and let them hide their heads with shame, as the Right comes proudly marching on. Again what noble magnanimity is shown in not "permitting" us to soil our garments by having a voice in the election of our rulers. A youth following the example of his elders, gravely informed a young lady, that "they didn't consider it proper that she should receive the ballot," whereupon she coolly informed him that she preferred to be her own judge in that matter. Sift the subject closely and see the unparalleled impudence (not always intentional, we grant) exhibited by those who say "we are men, the 'lords of creation,' we intend to make the laws to suit ourselves; we are going to tax you, to try, fine, imprison or hang you, just as we please, and you are not going to be 'permitted' to say anything about the matter either, for we don't think it is best." Thank you, gentlemen, for your noble generosity, it is worthy of the Dark Ages.But you say that women don't wish to vote, that they would not if they had the opportunity. We admit that a majority are indifferent about it, although the cause is advancing rapidly. But if there is one who wishes suffrage (and there are thousands who do), what right have you as fellow mortals and fellow citizens to refuse it. If, as " Objector " says, "woman occupies the dearest place in the heart of man," let him show "his faith by his works." Again, the comparing of woman to the delicate vine and man to the sturdy oak, may sound very prettily in a sentimental poem, or fancy love story, but in the stern realities of life nothing can be more absurd. Certainly in these times, after the laying low of so many of our "noble oaks" upon the altar of our country, it would not be very seemly or expedient, for women to undertake to play the role of the vine. We greatly fear that some of them will never have aught to lean upon, save their own exertions. Seeing that so many of us are trying to fight the battle of life bravely and single handed, don't, we beg of you, call us "vines" any longer. At least may we not be likened, to the graceful elm which bows before the passing storm, but losing none of its strength, is soon as erect and beautiful as before. And as the elm needs and receives the same nourishment from the air and soil, the same sunshine and rain, as does the oak, so woman needs and should receive the same rights and privileges as man, in this great field of life.JANE O. DEFOREST.David PlumbTHE DESERTEDO CALL me by my childhood's name, The name I bore, a joyous maiden; For I would cast away the shameOf wearing his, with treachery laden;For he with faithless, ruthless heartAbandoned her he pledged to cherish,And thrust her with a poisoned dart,And left her sad and lone to perish.O call me by my childhood's name,Let his forever be unspoken;'Tis blackened with the double shameOf nameless crime, and pledges broken;By Heaven's plain and just decree,'Gainst such as spurn its laws and break them,My birthrights are restored to me,And I, in virtue's name, retake them.O call me by my childhood's name,And it shall early memories waken;For I would dream myself the sameAs when a girl and unforsaken:Would dream I hear a mother's voice,And share a father's fond protection;And, dreaming thus, forget the choiceThat gave a name but not affection.DAVID PLUMB.THROWN UPON THE WORLD. [PART FIRST.]COMPOSITORS WANTED.--Compositors out of employment will hear of good situations by making immediate application at the office of THE UNIVERSE. Women compositors preferred. A School for Learners is connected with the office.Marian Eveleth sat with a copy of the paper in her hand containing the above notice, a new train of thought awakened in her mind by its perusal. Bereft of both her parents by a malignant fever, which had visited their village home a few months previous to the opening of our story, deprived of the sweet companionship of brother or sister, Marian Eveleth at eighteen found herself alone in the world, realizing, after the first benumbing of sorrow, the necessity of-- --"taking fate in her hands" and resolutely shaping for herself a new existence. While her parents lived, the pension settled upon Major Eveleth for gallant services rendered his country, had been sufficient to afford them the means of comfortable support and enable Marian to gratify the few inexpensive tastes of her retiring nature; but with his death this dependence ceased, and the suddenly bereaved girl after paying the last sad rites of affection and faithfully discharging every incurred obligation, found herself the possessor of only a few hundred dollars, which the sale of the household effects with which she could bring herself to part, had realized. And now the problem of life was before her. Putting gratefully but firmly aside the invitations of kindred or friends to eat the bread of charity beneath their roofs, she seriously pondered in her mind the different methods whereby she could secure independence and the means of livelihood. Living within a few hours ride of the metropolis, with which, from occasionally visiting in earlier years, she was somewhat familiar, she decided, without gravitating in her mind to any particular vocation that the battle of life was to be fought out in New York.With Marian Eveleth to think was to execute, and the cheery sun of a May morning shone upon her, sitting in the far-up little room of a Broadway hotel which she had temporarily engaged while she could institute the search necessary to obtain employment. Poor girl! Alone and in New York! How much more of an ordeal it was all than it seemed, thinking it over in that village home that was no more hers! More than human would she have been--as she gazed out upon that splendor and bewilderment of life, myriads, no one of whom had knowledge of or interest in her--that city so fair to seeming, yet whose concealed, ever-opened jaws of destruction had engulphed thousands as lovely and as pure--if something of her courage had not forsaken her, and a wave of desolation swept across her soul more bitter perchance to endure than the first uncontrollable grief of bereavement. But this revulsion was but momentary. Bravely crushing the tears forcing their way to the clear gray eyes, she suppressed all outward signs of emotion, and once more perused the notice which had so forcibly arrested her attention. Yes, why might she not be a compositor? Teacher or governess she could not endure to be; the shops were over-filled with saleswomen toiling from early dawn to long after dark frequently for a moiety of compensation; with her needle she had no skill, even if work of that kind were procurable; but, though she had not before thought of it, here was something she was confident she could do--set type. True, it would take time to learn. It might be several months before she could earn what it would cost to live in the city, but girls did make good wages at it, she knew, and perhaps her little, carefully hoarded sum would be sufficient to support her, in a very economical way, until she could be earning wages and no longer need to draw upon it. Swiftly these reflections flashed through her mind, and, determining that her first application should be in answer to the advertisment, she cut it out, placed it carefully in her portemonnaie, hurriedly made the few preparations needed, and sallied out to seek the address indicated.The office of The Universe, one of the great metropolitan dailies, forming an attractive feature of Printing House Square, was easily found by Marian. At the date of our story, a peculiar phase of affairs, well remembered as of so recent occurrence, was being witnessed in that establishment so powerfully contributing to the formation of public opinion in our Republic. A strike, threatening the entire derangement of its ordinary working machinery and even that crowning mortification of a New York daily--its regular morning appearance-was in progress. The most thoroughly organized and potent labor organization in the land, the National Typographical Union, in consequence of the culmination, of a long-seated and growing difficulty, had issued its verdict. The "sticks" dropped from the skilled fingers of two-score and more of men at the fiat; remonstrances on the part of the Manager, and even of the Editor-in-chief, who left his sanctum where undisturbed upon ordinary occasions he forged his thunderbolts,--were unavailing to avert the calamity. What was to be done? To miss even a single issue, affording a theme of merriment for envious contemporaries, was too appalling a mishap to be thought of. A council of the entire office staff and principal stockholders was held. All sorts of expedients were resorted to. Unwilling reporters and sub-editors, who had risen from the composing-room to higher positions, were pressed into the service; old matter standing upon galleys, with the mould of time upon it was carefully exhumed; advertisements were kept standing to save composition, yet with all the expedients that fertile brains could suggest, matters steadily approached a crisis. One of two policies was inevitable: the employment of girls as compositors, or a submission to the terms of the Union. The former, regarded as less degrading than a concession to a dictorial body, was the one adopted. Advertisements inserted in the leading papers, and handbills posted in conspicuous places, offering women compositors the same rates of compensation as hitherto paid their refractory workmen, produced the desired effect. Despite the threats of the more villainous members of the Union, many of whom were now roaming the streets out of employment, the girls eagerly availed themselves of such good fortune, soon measurably filling their places; while, in the stress of emergency, even novitiates were taken tenderly by the hand and promised the speediest introduction into the mysteries of Faust and Guttenberg.It was at this favoring stage of affairs for applicants--the first successful bridging of the difficulty--that Marian Eveleth presented herself at the open door of the long, airy composing room of The Universe, somewhat reassured by the first glimpse of its attractive appearance, with the rows of tidily-dressed girls standing or sitting at the stands arranged in methodical order throughout the many-aisled room. A slight ring of the bell brought a bright-appearing boy, by whom, at her re- quest, she was conducted to the inner room of the "Manager." Typesetting at the time of which we speak, although rapidly growing- in favor, was yet regarded as something of a novelty. The barriers of prejudice precluding women from this as from other callings, were yet far from being removed. Applications for instruction in the office of the journal whose offer had been regarded as something of a heresy by its natural constituency, had not been numerous, and Marian found herself even warmly welcomed by the urbane Manager, who was possessed of sufficient discernment to see that the girl before him was superior to the class in their employment, and likely soon to prove a valuable acquisition at the nominal rate paid to learners during the period of tuition. Blandly acquainting Marian with the terms upon which all applicants, were received, the duration of the contract, etc.,--not forgetting to mention the rapid advancement of one or two girl compositors in their employment,--Mr. Stetson soon had the pleasure of seeing Marian to the door of his "den," with the promise of her appearance on the following morning.Days rolled swiftly away. Spring and Summer both were passed; late Autumn came, and Marian Eveleth was still in the composing-room of The Universe, but no longer as a learner. From the first, under the instruction of Mrs. Waldron, Superintendent of the Department, herself a thorough compositor, her progress had been remarkably rapid; and now, although the period of probation had not expired, its conditions for some time had been practically disregarded, she herself, at an increased salary having been promoted to the position of her former instructor, whose failing health had compelled her to seek some less laborious employment. Marian indeed was in her element. From a child fond of books, having formed, under her father's careful supervision, habits of discrimination and criticism upon works, she was enabled, with her rare enthusiasm, to make rapid progress, mastering the intricacies of the art with an ease and celerity rendering her the wonderment of all her fellow compositors. Insensibly, upon all questions relating to orthography or sentence construction, she grew to be regarded as authority; and ere the Summer was over, she had assumed, by tacit assent, almost the entire final supervision of "proofs," hitherto the undisputed province of Mr. Jobson, the somewhat testy yet kindly-hearted old proof-reader. Indeed, could some of her old acquaintances, who received the intelligence that she was setting type with sundry shrugs of the shoulder and ill-natured comments to the effect that Marian Eveleth would soon weary of that sort ot thing;--have looked in upon her as she busied herself with her varied duties, finding the day all too short for their discharge, they would, in very shame have desired to retract assertions so derogatory to her true character, and the admiration extorted by her sedulous discharge of duties.Among the twenty or more girls employed as compositors in the office of The Universe, Marian found a great variety of character and temperament, connected with a uniformity and conservatism of ideas that pained and astonished her. Reserved by nature, she had felt it a duty incumbent on her to cultivate friendly relations with those around her, and seek, by such quiet ways as might suggest themselves, to remove the injurious impressions which pernicious teaching or ignorance had allowed to grow up in their minds. A few weeks following her first connection with the office, while she was yet a pupil with kind Mrs. Waldron, an opportunity was afforded of inculcating the first of her moral lessons. A committee of ladies, canvassing for signers to a Woman Suffrage petition, had visited the workroom and besought, with little success, the girls to unite with the names already appended to the petition. To subserve several political purposes, The Universe for a time had lent its broad pages to the publication of matter more or less connected with the growing question of Woman's enfranchisement, while the employment of girls had been adduced as an evidence of its sincerity; and this, in connection with the intimate relations existing between the members of the committee and certain conductors of the journal, rendered the ladies exceedingly desirous that as many signatures to the petition should be procured among its employees as possible. But they had miscalculated the weight of the impression produced by the half-patronizing, half-satirical articles of the would-be American "Thunderer." Over their "copy" the brighter of the girls, many of whom were foreign by birth, not infrequently converted into ridicule the outspoken opinions of the champions of Woman Suffrage, denying any right or desire to participate in political affairs; and when members of the committee approached them separately, earnestly beseeching their co-operation, our Marian was the only one willing to trace her, name upon the paper."Why, girls!" said the leading spokeswoman, the well-known Mrs. ----, losing, in the vexation of the moment her usual suavity of manners, "do you know that you are doing the most impolitic thing for yourselves imaginable! I do not appeal now to conviction or principle, but ask you in the light of common sense, how you can be so blind to your own interests! At this moment you hold your positions by the uncertain tenure of an accident, which any day you may lose. Baffled men, who have pursued you with threats even to the doors of this office, wait only the first favorable opportunity to hurl you from the places which, with their consent, they mean you shall never fill; yet while the avenues of employment, whereby you may secure fair remuneration for your labor, can only be properly opened by woman's participation herself in government, you stand back, through indifference or abject cowardice--the fear of being termed 'strong-minded'--losing all these beneficent results and allowing the injustice of centuries to be perpetuated.""Come, Mrs.----," said the Manager approaching the corner of the room where she had drawn a knot of the girls by her eloquence, "you must not sow treason among these young ladies. You are not on the platform of Cooper Hall now, and they have no time to listen to your eloquence. The Universe, with your address, comes out to-morrow, and if they are not converted by the labor of composition, you may send the office a score or more of tickets to your next lecture, and we will afford you an opportunity of making proselytes of all of us."Laughingly concealing their discomfiture the ladies withdrew, but the subject introduced afforded the chief theme of conversation that afternoon in the composing room; and Marian improved the opportunity of speaking of the necessity of such petitions, giving her views at length of the "Woman Movement," the effect it would have upon society, and why all women--especially working--women should favor it, for whose condition the repeal of oppressive laws and obliterating of tyrannical forms of custom would do so much. She spoke calmly, yet with that earnestness which is the result of a deep-seated conviction; and was gratified to see that she was listened to with attention, and that the array of testimony which she brought forward to substantiate her position was not without its effect.I shall make converts of some of these poor girls yet, she said softly to herself, as one by one she made a satisfactory disposition of their objections; and when meek, little Lizzie Fay, the pet of the office, stumbled on the name of a certain well-known advocate of Woman Suffrage, whose cognomen for coarseness was in all mouths and brought it forward as the crowning objection, she was enabled to say hopefully:--"Nay, Lizzie, we judge not the many by one: we condemn not a society for the unauthorized action of one of its members. Miss ---- may have done many indiscreet things, but are follies confined to Reformers? Think of the thousand absurdities practiced by the followers of fashion, and marvel not if earnest, thoughtful women, seeking to right these flagrant evils--the tyranny of fashion on the one hand, and the horrors of legalized degradation on the other-should err occasionally in the opposite extreme. And after all, the woman reformers, whose strongly-marked individuality or coarser fibre of being permits them to take positions or give utterance to sentiments which enables the public (itself more culpable) to cry "unsexed" "mannish,"-- are but few. I venture to say that in no society of which women are members, be its purpose what it may, are there more pure, unselfish women, true-hearted and lofty in purpose, than in the so-called Woman Movement. The scroll is blazoned with their names. Ah, Lizzie, I wish you could know some of those noble spirits as it has been my fortune to know them! You would feel that an atmosphere of purity was surrounding you; your soul would be elevated by the contact; glimpses would come to you of a higher life than your unillumined nature had before realized. My father, in a quiet way, was a Reformer, and in my earlier life our house was the stopping-place of the few lecturers, men and women, whom a Paul's burning love for humanity, brought to our quiet village. Then the Anti-Slavery movement--the mother of the Woman Question--was the all-absorbing subject of discussion. How well I remember those days--the little school-house gatherings-the needed but oft unpalatable truths of the lectures--and the, to me, priceless hours of intercourse with those wandering, self-sacrificing missionaries who obeyed literally our Saviour's command of providing naught for their journeys,--beneath my father's roof Then Abby Kelley-now the Mrs. Foster The Universe so reviled yesterday-was a frequent visitant. One of the most fearless of speakers, her coming was always a notable event; and, in her tarryings with us, her words of wisdom and inexpressibly beautiful example made an ineffaceable, impression upon my mind. Dear Abby Kelley! she lies upon a sick bed now, but surely there are those, beside the bondmen for whom she labored through those weary years, who, remembering what a faithful Mentor she was to their undisciplined natures, will 'rise to call her blest!' Then, too, our guest-chamber was once honored by the occupancy of Lucretia Mott--the distinguished Quaker preacher and philanthropist of world-wide reputation. What sanctity and benediction she brought to our roof! In the afternoon she delivered a regular sermon, but in the evening she lectured upon the sin of slavery and such a lecture as it was! Indeed she spake as one inspired. People, attracted by her reputation, came many miles to hear her. It was a large audience, but long ere she concluded there was scarcely a dry eye in all the house. Her husband, James Mott, who takes almost an equal interest in reformatory matters, accompanied her, such a tender affection existing between them that only some imperative necessity is permitted ever to separate them. After the lecture, quite a number followed Lucretia to our house, eager to hear yet more from those lips of eloquence. As she sat that evening in our parlors, the center of an admiring circle, wearing her simple Quaker garb, that became her more than the costliest robe an empress, I could only think of some divinely-annointed priestess ministering to the spiritually hungering, to doubt the holiness of whose mission was a sacrilege. Ah, girls, could you know these noble women whose lives are a constant labor for humanity--who count toil, privation, and even persecution, as nothing so wrong may be righted and human suffering alleviated, you would feel as grieved as I to see their names held up to ridicule by those incapable of appreciating their heaven-recorded sacrifices."Marian ceased, scarcely conscious that she had been drawn into such unwonted length of speech, and the more pressing work of the office prevented further conversation upon the subject. But in more than one mind thought had been awakened, and Marian pursued her task with a light heart, more than ever satisfied that the "seed" sown must bring forth precious fruit in the end.R. J. HintonTHE PREVAILING FEAR OF GENUINE DEMOCRACY.WHAT strikes one as the chief point in all the arguments of such as Dr. Bushnell, is the evident dread of genuine Democracy on which they are founded. It is pitiful to notice how this fear permeates many so-called thoughtful circles. Every evil, social and political, born of the limitations of the Past, is regarded as a striking proof of the dangers of a free and unqualified participation in the functions of Republican citizenship. The idea of limitation, of caste and class, has in some form or another been the rule of all the governments the world has hitherto seen. The resistance among these circles to the practical realization of the opposite, seems to increase with the nearness of its advent.Especially is this the case with a certain type of intellectual culture, best represented perhaps at one of its poles by Dr. Bushnell, and at another by David A. Wasson. The Doctor shows the feelings which animate his opposition to Woman's Suffrage when, in speaking of the Chinese, he says: "God forbid that they ever be so far captivated by our dreadfully cheap way of suffrage as to give up their cadetship way of promotion for it; a plan that has put the whole nation climbing upward, and will keep it climbing to the end of the world." We add, and will continue to produce the same results. It is a "way of promotion" which has existed for twenty centuries, and makes the millions at the end, as all through, "hewers of wood and drawers of water;" utterly ignoring the entire womanhood of the nation, allowing no freedom in marriage, the most sacred and important act, compelling maternity to commit murder, and deeming it wrong to give them education.Dr. Bushnell's Chinese "cadetship way of promotion" results, as the London Times forcibly put it a few days since, in discussing the question of "John's" emigration into this country,--in the making of a people patient, laborious, industrious and pains-taking but without moral stamina and none of that vigorous robustness which is required to lead. More than all, the twenty centuries of competitive examination on which Dr. Bushnell expatiates so admiringly has left as its main legacy a class of cultivated persons, who are there, as here and elsewhere, the chief obstacles to progress to the reception of new, ideas, to the establishment of new forms. It seems to be just as much a necessity of literary culture or scholarship to establish hierarchical limitations, as it is of theological training and practice, to endeavor to do so. Of course there must be a belief in superior fitness to rule, as there is in the priesthood of a conviction of their divine right to guide morally, and control religiously, the characters of those who are about them.All the objections to the suffrage for woman are born, when analyzed to their primary ideas, of a distrust of Republican institutions. All that we hear from such minds as Mr. Wasson's of the dangers of democracy, results from an unacknowledged fear that their ideal of life may not rule, and from a too lively conception of such evils as exist to-day, born of the oppressions of yesterday, and not properly or at all to be charged to the account of Democracy. The advocates, even, of woman suffrage--that logical outcome of Democratic premises--are not entirely free from these doubts. Of some, at least, this is true. Those who exclaim constantly against ignorant men having the ballot, in the limitations of their logic fail to see that a whip is at once placed in the hands of their enemies, were these latter but brave enough to squarely face the true ground on which all of them stand. If an artificial rule of intelligence and not humanhood, is to be the test of one's right to participate in the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, then, on what ground can the ballot be claimed for the great body of the women? Certainly, as a rule they are ignorant of political affairs, and, the very restrictions against which we are protesting, have narrowed and belittled them to an astonishing degree. This, of course, is one of the reasons that animates such men as Dr. Bushnell in opposing this movement. But then, like all the reasoners of whom he is so excellent a type, he confounds Cause and Effect, or rather ignores the former and builds his antagonism on the latter. The wrongs of a thousand years culminated in the French Revolution of 1793. Ever since, shallow but plausible writers and talkers on history and politics, have descanted on the horrors of the Reign of Terror, forgetting or ignorant of the fact, that far worse horrors growing out of oppression oligarchic misrule and autocratic tyranny, daily afflicted the PEOPLE for centuries before the crimes of the Government culminated in that mad vengeance of outraged humanity. Ever since we have had the incompetency of the French to sustain a free government thrust in our faces, forgetful of the fact that under exceptionally favorable circumstances this Nation itself, with but eighty years of tradition and precedent behind it, had to bathe itself in the bloodiest of sacrificial seas ere it could be cleansed of a wrong that was eating out its vitals.Dr. Bushnell declares suffrage is not a natural right, but an acquired privilege, bestowed by the State to secure the public good. This definition utterly ignores the fundamental question of "Who are the State?" Judging by Dr. Bushnell's complimentary reference to the Chinese, it ought to be only those whose skill or wisdom enables them to reach a certain degree of culture, and secure position in the administration of affairs. From the stand-point from which American Independence was wrought out, the PEOPLE constitute the State. Of course it cannot be ignored that the term PEOPLE is a convertible or moveable one, and has a narrow or broader scope attached to it in different ages. But the American idea admits of but one interpretation,--that of all who are governed by law participating in the formation thereof. Every evil that has seriously threatened this Nation has grown more or less directly out of attempts to limit the meaning of the term PEOPLE, just as at the present time the most threatening evil found in American thought and discussion, is the fear which intelligence or culture exhibits at the idea of broadly embracing all the People within the Government. Suffrage may not be, in a strict logical sense, such a natural right as is the right to life, air, water, food or motion. But experience proves it beyond doubt to be the necessary shield of those natural rights; the best weapon with which in a Republican community they can be defended, and the surest lever by which individual position can be advanced, and the security of the whole be ensured. The American idea is inclusion not exclusion. It is a safe rule to work with. If the Dr. Bushnells would only stop opposing the inevitable and turn in and educate and prepare the masses for it, they would really show themselves "wise in their day and generation." But there is a radical and irreconcilable difference. They believe only in individual leadership, and fail to see that the truest way to gain that, is to merge oneself in the modern "the word en masse"--accept Democracy and use all their energies, to make the units worthy of that all comprehensive idea.R. J. HINTON.Helen RichBROKEN IN SPIRIT.WHERE the broken willow sways,In the mournful, moaning wind;--Where the steeple's shadow lies,With the unmarked grave behind,--Lay her softly down to rest,With her nut-brown hair adown, And a violet on her breast,--Drop a tear the whole to crown.Leave her then with sun and stars;Leave her with the dewy grass; She will never hear life's jars;Never see the great world pass. She has now no touch of pain,Dread of want, or fear of scorn, Weight of care or fevered brain--Day for her at last is born.In her past--men call it life--There were mixed so many tears;Head and heart found weary strifeIn the bitter, toilsome years.Gentle heart and brain of fire,Tender form and poet eye Ah! what wonder they expire,When the 'evil days draw nigh?"She was formed for sunny skies,Pleasant ways and perfume sweet;God have mercy when sharp thornsTear such white and tender feet IOh! the keenest weapons lieHid in velvet and in flowers;And the brightest bird may die'Mid the fountains and the bowers.None but angels ever knowWhere the soul's rich sunbeams fall;Never joy and never woeCome for worldly beck or call.Something God-like in us seemsSo to scorn the polished groove,Where the common nature deemsSpirits live, and love, and move.What she was of good and true,It is beautiful to know;Rarely, quiet friend, may youMeet her type superb below.What she might have been (not we--Angels know) 'tis vain to speak; What she is, oh, God be praised!Human words to paint are weak.If I told you of a sail,Shipwrecked on a rocky coast,Would you marvel, if the crewWere--though striving bravely--lost?Thus with her, the waves that bore'Gainst her life-throbs, warm and fast,Must, perforce, dash on the shore Such a fair and fragile craft.And she sank; what might have been Royal ship of power and pride, Slowly sank from mortal ken; Is it better that she died? Strange it seems that in the ground Noble wings for flight are won!And her place at last is found, And her real life begun!HELEN RICH.Frances Dana GageFILLING THE ICE-HOUSE.THE Winter of 1868-9--as will be recollected--was remarkable for its mildness, and up to the first of March there had been no possible opportunity for the farmers of southern Ohio to fill their ice-houses for their Summer use.February had given us only sunny days and frosty nights. The sugar trees were pouring out their juices in profusion. The peach-buds were showing the stir of life within, and the golden crocus lifted its head saucily among the emerald spires beside the door. The boys said the "bottom of the road had fallen out," and one suggested that old Winter "Had folded his tent like an Arab, And silently passed away."March introduced himself in a flurry of snow and sleet, and might be said to "come in like a lion," and the boys--those same six-foot boys that fought the enemies of freedom through all those terrible years of war--were really cowed before the prospect of an empty ice-house."No ice for your butter next Summer, good mother," said Mark."Pho!" answered the energetic house-wife-"No ice for your ice-cream parties, you mean; I know who wants the ice; I've made good butter many a year without it, and I'll be bound I can again. Guess my cream won't suffer so much."Mark and Tom winked at each other and at me and passed out.I was an invalid confined to my arm-chair, and many a jolly laugh I had with my stalwart nephews. The second of March it grew colder. The third, the frost pinched our fingers and nipped the fair cheeks of our russets and pearmain that were left on the sideboard. The fourth--the glorious fourth, that was to wreathe the brow of the hero of Vicksburg and Appomattox with the brightest laurels our country has to bestow--came upon us with a fearful northeaster."Hurrah!" shouted Tom as he came in at night. The ice on Rainbow Creek is four inches thick. It will be six by morning. Let us have a hot breakfast by five to-morrow morning, mother dear, and we'll fill the ice-house before night. Whoop, Hurrah! we'll save your butter yet""Alas, for the cream!" said the happy mother with a twinkle in her eye.The morning of the sixth opened on one of the most fearful of Winter days,--"It blewed, it snewed and whewed;"--the fierce wind, that pierced like a knife, whirled the snow from house-tops and trees, and filled the air with frozen points that cut like knives. It was fearfully cold.But we were all up betimes. Steaming coffee, hot cakes and juicy steaks told of the mother's loving care for those who had shed their on the plains of Shiloh and Antietam, and grown all the more dear to her through wounds and dangers survived."Better wait till to-morrow," said mother-love."Can't trust March weather for ice. Better wind and snow than thaw and rain.""Wish I could help you," said I to Tom, as he sat by my side at breakfast."When you women get to voting," answered he, curtly, "you will have to help fill ice-houses.""To be sure," said I."By George! I'm not going to wait on the girls, get in the ice, make the cream and foot all the bills, after you get the right of suffrage.""Of course, my boy," I answered, cheerily--"Equal rights involve equal labors.""Mother, where are my mittens," shouted he."Here! I sat up 'till midnight getting all your traps ready. Putting broad-cloth patches on the fingers and thumbs to keep your hands from freezing.""Are our coats all ready?""Every one; and your pants double-wadded at the knees. Be careful. Get home by eleven for dinner. I'll have all ready for you," and she watched them from the door until the wind filled her eyes with tears. "Poor fellows!" she sighed, as she turned to her work. "Now I must hurry. Milk the cows, (it will be a cold job); hunt the eggs to keep them from freezing, and catch and kill a chicken for the boys' dinner, (poor fellows, what a day they'll have of it) and they must have something nice and warm, or they'll think they are not rightly served. And Anne is gone too; she said she'd come to-day, but its too cold and terrible, unless she walks the whole twelve miles over the hills."And so the good mother talked as she drew on her overshoes and tied up her ears preparatory to' braving the storm. "But I'll get through, never fear. I haven't been a farmer's wife forty years for nothing.There were no daughters left in this household but the mother was a host in herself. The cows were milked, the eggs secured, the chicken killed and dressed, the dishes washed and the cream churned. Husband, who was confined with rheumatism, had his porridge and then had his back rubbed; while Ned, an elder son, and crippled at Antietam, was duly waited upon.At half-past eleven the dinner smoked upon the table. "The fire fair blazing and the vestments warm," were ready for the ice-gatherers.A complete change of garments-not a thumb-patch or extra heel-tap missing. The wet overcoats were dried and the frost-fringed neckties all in order before the nooning was over. Not a bite did we eat till all was done and they off in good order--hired men and all--to their work again. Nannie came at night-fall. She had tramped it over the icy hill twelve miles--"because she said she would."The ice-house was full at five P.M. The third warm, wholesome meal eaten, and the boys (or men) fresh as from a game of base-ball, cracking their jokes over the chess-board before the parlor fire.But the woman's work was not done. All the dishes were to be washed and preparations made for breakfast. Father's rheumatic back to be rubbed once more, and divers chores too numerous to mention would keep the mother trotting until nine or ten at night.Tom again attacked me on the suffrage question, declaring that "if we voted we must fill ice houses, go to war, and drive oxen."Ned, who was just now laid up with the pneumonia, looked up from his couch: "I tell you, Tom, they'll do it whenever you'll change work with them. But you'll have to sit up at night and patch the mittens, be up at 4 A.M. and get the breakfast, milk, hunt eggs, kill chickens, churn, make beds, sweep, build fires, rub lame backs, make porridge for rheumatics and broths for bad colds, pare apples, wash potatoes, get dinner, dry and fix all the clothes, make every one comfortable, and then get the supper and work till ten at night; while your lady dears are enjoying chess and apples. That will be fair, aunty, will it not?""Yes, if, when Summer comes, he will agree to skim his own milk, make his own ice-cream, and wash his own dishes and floors while the girls enjoy it!""Please Ma'am," said Tom, with his finger in his mouth, "I will fill the ice-house--may I go to bed?"FRANCES DANA GAGE.ALL movements which combine the co-operative energies of many persons, and thus closely bind together the interests of the community, point to a new era of progress. The more varied the talents and functions of these joint workers, the better for the amount and breadth of their accomplishment. Doubtless socialism may have sought too eagerly for an air-line route to the desired goal, for nature approves of but few straight lines! Yet even the mistakes of the past are an earnest of good for the future! When we become nobler as individuals we shall find better modes of co-working for mutual assistance; for the best good of one is the best good of all. Woman must become a broader and more rational worker; more self-forgetfully remembering the well-being of the whole community; while man must equally learn that charity begins with the necessary, unending, small details of home and its inmates; so shall their several talents interweave far more beautiful and perfect results than those which their separate efforts have yet achieved. -Studies. -Antoinette Brown Blackwell.WOMAN'S RIGHTS.LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS.To the Editor of the Woman's Advocate:IN your August number I see a letter from Mrs. Gage in which she says:"When the war first closed and it was said by Mr. Phillips and others this is 'the Negro's hour; let us settle this question of race before that of sex,'--I, with many, felt aggrieved, thinking that the two great questions could go on together if pressed with the same persistent energy."I never made the assertion above attributed to me; I never said, let us settle this question of race before that of sex ;" I never denied that these two great questions could and should go on together; I never denied that they could and should be pressed with the same persistent energy.I know it has been said, a hundred times, that I have done all these things; but said on a level where self-respect forbade me to notice it;--said by those who were perfectly well aware that the assertion was false, but who had no objection, on that account, to continue to circulate it.Mrs. Gage, however, is a woman of integrity and intelligence, and I have, three times at least, in her presence publicly stated my position as to the woman movement;--stated it with such elaborate distinctness that friends present begged me never again to waste time in the explanation, assuring me that all who were willing to understand me, must have done so. Such a misstatement, after all that, by a woman of Mrs. Gage's fairness and ability does indeed surprise me; maintaining, as I have done for thirty years, that woman's sharing in politics would elevate and purify them.Unwilling that fair-minded persons should be misled by Mrs. Gage's mistake, I will once more state my relation to, and views of, the Woman Movement. When, thirty-two years ago, the Abolitionists welcomed women to their platform, I was one of that class of Abolitionists which claimed that woman's right to stand there grew out of her right to share equally with man In all civil affairs. When ten years later an organized movement was started in her behalf, I gave it all the, help I could. it was, practically, in the hands of the Abolitionists. They carried it on, step by step, and side by side, with their other enterprise. No one of us ever postponed one cause to the other. When, and how, and how much respectively, we should aid either, was decided by common sense, having regard to the best economy of our means at the given moment. Mrs. Gage will remember our effort in the West in 1859 and 1860, when she was herself one of the Agents we employed there. When the war came, common sense showed us all that effort in this direction would be waste of means. At its close we resumed our agitation. It was with my cordial vote that our Committee expended, in 1866 and 1867, two thousand five hundred dollars to aid the agitation in New York and in Kansas; and at my suggestion we put another thousand dollars aside to be spent in Massachusetts.When the Fourteenth Amendment was pending I protested, both in public addresses and before our Legislative Committee, against bringing the word "male" into the Constitution. When, early in 1867, a leading member of Congress applied to me for such form of Constitutional Amendment as would satisfy me, I sent him one which recognized woman's right to vote, and informed him I should never rest until this right was secured to her. Up to the present hour I have never refused pecuniary assistance or my aid on the platform. I have done my share before Legislative Committees, and attended meetings as frequently as I ever did. I spoke at the Conventions held in New York city as long as the managers of the cause there deserved the confidence of its friends. I never intermitted contribution or effort, and never advised any one else to do so. I never postponed woman's claim to that of any one else, and never advised any person to do so. I never counseled the giving up, or the slackening of the agitation in behalf of woman's right to vote. What others are now doing, I am doing, so far as I get opportunity. I give, speak and print. The only instance in which I have differed with any of my comrades in the Women's Rights Movement is this: In 1866 and again in 1867 it was proposed to have the American Anti-Slavery Society adopt the Women's Rights Movement as a part of its object,--to unite the two questions. This union I opposed; and this is the only point uponwhich I have ever differed with the single-hearted friends of the movement. In all their other measures I sympathise with, and aid them.I opposed the union of the two questions in one society mainly on this account,--because they were not equally ripe. I saw no reason for changing the policy which the friends of the two movements had followed during all the previous years. We never united them, because we saw that they were essentially distinct, and also that one of them was more advanced than the other. Although the woman question had gained marvellously from 1850 to 1865, it was still far behind the Anti-Slavery movement, even in 1865; as subsequent events have shown. The public was more ready for one than for the other. Thirty or forty years of agitation, followed by five years of war, had made the Nation fully ready to grant all the negro needed and asked. It was not ready to concede woman's rights. I said that to unite two questions of such different ripeness would be like making a wagon with wheels of different size. To unite them would be like expecting Grant, when in command of the Department of Virginia, to threaten Richmond and Vicksburg at the same time. They should be separate Divisions of the same great Army, both engaged in the same general assault; different waves of the same sea--"Distinct like the billows, one like the sea." "The two great questions can go on together," although not joined as the common objects of one Association or Society. Men and women may walk together on the same road without being married.Union would hurt one cause, more than it could help the other. Indeed such union is impossible. The attempt, by the very parties I have mentioned, to form one, has failed.This difference in the ripeness of the two questions was no work of ours. It came in the providence of God. It grew out of events. I did not create it or rejoice in it. I only recognized it and planned my action accordingly.It was in this sense and in this connection that I made the claim, this is the negro's hour"--meaning, as my argument and context showed, that this is the hour of his success; the hour whose ripeness, makes it wise and economical to labor specially for him ; but not an hour in which we could ever be justified in laboring exclusively for him or in smothering any other just cause in order to help him to an unfair advan- tage. When we mow our grass in July, and dig our potatoes in September, but put off gathering Baldwin apples till October, it is economy and good sense--but no injustice to the Apples. July is the "Grass's Hour;' October is the "Apple's Hour."I never gave up working for woman, or omitted any one possible effort in her behalf on this account; or to help the negro at her expense. Indeed Mr. Powell and myself have given to the Women Rights question, during the last three years, nearly double the space in THE STANDARD that was ever devoted to it there before. I have never said that the Negro's cause could claim that the Woman's should be set aside, for one single-instant, to give him a better chance: that any hand should be tied, or any lips, gagged, on her platform, in order to secure him a speedier success. On the other hand the Woman's Movement has no right to steal any strength from the negro's success; no right to ask that his full recognition be delayed to help her, or until her rights are granted.I only counseled to let the two movements stand separate, each on its own foundation. This is good policy on the whole. This is exact justice to each. Whoever complains of it is more of a Woman's Rights man than an Abolitionist; is a partisan and not a philanthropist; his zeal has eaten up his discretion and his sense of justice.August 10th, 1869.WENDELL PHILLIPS.As the details of the internal arrangements of Mr. A. T. Stewart's hotel for working-women become more fully known to the public they seem to promise with great certainty to each occupant the comfort and convenience of a hotel at an exceedingly small cost. Even the eighth story will not seem formidable, as elevators will run on each side of the staircase from the first to the upper story. The sleeping-rooms are to be lofty and well-ventilated. There will be two kinds-the larger ones sixteen by eighteen feet in space, and intended for two sisters or two friends rooming together; the smaller ones, eight feet by nine, for one person only. The dining-room, thirty by ninety-two feet in dimensions, will be conducted on the restaurant plan, and food will be furnished at cost. Each person can therefore regulate her expenses according to her ability and inclination. For the hundreds of working-women who desire such a home this will be found superior to any at present established, and the scheme reflects great credit on the kindly heart of our millionaire merchant, who is rapidly earning the title of a public benefactor.Editorial DepartmentTHE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT.OUR readers will rejoice to learn that the movement for a National Organization is making satisfactory progress, and that a Call for a Delegate Convention may be expected at an early date. The Committee of the New England Woman's Suffrage Association, appointed by that body to correspond with the friends of the Cause throughout the country relative to such a measure, have received, we understand, many favorable responses to their inquiries and earnest requests that the preliminary steps for a National Organization be at once taken.That what we have so earnestly advocated is about to be realized is especially gratifying. Believing it vital to the welfare of the Cause, we trust that nothing will be permitted to delay the consummation of a work fraught with the hopes of thousands of the earnest advocates of Woman Suffrage. Let no hand be stayed. It cannot come too soon. With a truly representative National Organization; with a policy wooing to its ranks every lover of humanity; with co-operative local associations, it cannot be doubted that the way to victory will be easy, or its full fruition long delayed.WESTERN CONVENTIONS.THE West is ablaze with Conventions. Calls are issued for State Conventions in Illinois, Ohio, Missouri and Indiana. The Woman Suffrage Association of Missouri, which leads in point of time, holds its Convention in St. Louis on the 6th and 7th instant; Illinois follows on the 9th and 10th ; Ohio on the 15th and 16th ; while the date of the Indiana Convention at our latest advices was not definitely fixed, but presumed would occur within the month.Concerned in all these movements are earnest, indefatigable workers, and the masses of the liberal West never fail to make a generous response to the demands upon their time and means, insuring to each fresh effort for the advancement of the Cause a gratifying success. The Call for the Ohio Convention is signed by scores of the influential, well-known citizens, men, and women of that State; the St. Louis gathering will be a rally of the generous-hearted sons and daughters of Missouri; while that of Chicago will doubtless be one of the largest and most enthusiastic assemblages yet convened in the West for the consideration of the subject.To each of these Councils of the People THE ADVOCATE extends its kindliest wishes for a season of pleasant and profitable discussion, while for the Agitator and other Western journals so powerfully contributing to the welfare of the Cause, it would desire thrice the share of well-merited prosperity which they are enjoying.THE CASE STATED.To even the most superficial observer the "Woman Question," at this moment, must appear in the full tide of success. Not only are journals specially devoted to its discussion increasing all throughout the country--not only, at home and abroad, are Conventions of the most gratifying character held with a frequency never before known, but a class of individuals and journals, that hitherto have held studiously aloof, are now coming forward and powerfully contributing to a better understanding and appreciation of the Question. As a proof of this we might cite the able contributions of Mrs. JULIA WARD HOWE to The Galaxy and the Atlantic Monthly; those of FRANCES POWER COBBE to Putnam's Magazine; Mrs. ISABELLA B. HOOKER's articles to the same monthly, and more recently to the Nation; the scholarly editorials of GEORGE W. CURTIS in the Harper Publications; the various papers in Packard's; and other contributions, from writers more or less distinguished, to our leading journals.But the most valuable support, perhaps, yet lent the Movement is found in a series of leading articles in the Hearth and Home, from the potent pen of Mrs. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, for which we could wish a yet wider circulation than they will achieve even through the medium of that valuable journal. In the last of these papers in the issue of August 28th, entitled "What Is and What Is Not the Point in the Woman Question," Mrs. STOWE makes a lucid presention of the Movement; recapitulates its progress at home and abroad, and strips the Question of all verbiage by thus briefly stating it:"The practical question now before the American public is this: Have Women the same right to suffrage that men have? In discussing this question, the only logical way is to determine what are the qualifications that give men, a right to exercise suffrage, and to show that women have or have not those qualifications."Further on, after showing the inapplicability of Dr. Bushnell's vital point, "nobody has a right to vote," Mrs. STOWE says:"'Governments owe their just power to the consent of the governed.' "'Taxation without representation is tyranny.' "We do not propose to raise the question whether they were right or wrong in these axioms of government: the simple question is, whether these axioms do not logically lead to Woman's Suffrage?"Still farther, in commenting upon the taxes paid by women, Mrs. STOWE remarks:"Now the question arises, Which is in fault, the Declaration of Independence or the customs and laws of America as to women? Is taxation without representation tyranny or not?"In order further to illustrate her position that the course of women upon this subject has been a strict logical sequence from the fundamental doctrines of our Government, Mrs. STOWE quotes from the Resolutions adopted by the first Woman's Rights Convention held at Worcester in the year 1851, and concludes by saying:"We are curious to see a fair, dispassionate argument on the other side, that shall meet this statement of the case. None such as we know of has been offered."We rejoice at the appearance of these articles. We rejoice that the trenchant pen of Mrs. STOWE, which did so much to abolish one wrong, is to be employed to enlighten public opinion in regard to another glaring evil. The pleasure experienced by reading her temperately written article, all the more valuable therefor, is heightened by the knowledge that the conductors of Hearth and Home have made arrangements for the publication of a series of papers, from week to week, by the best writers on both sides of the question, which will still deepen the hold of this excellent journal on public favor.Mrs. STOWE has cleared the ground. Her woman gauntlet has been thrown down: let us see the knight hardy enough to pick it up, and measure swords with so powerful a champion of her sex!NOTES.MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE preached a sermon on Woman Suffrage in the Unitarian Church in Newport, R. I., on Sunday last, greatly to the horror of the Herald of that city.Madame Dumergne, who recently took the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, has opened a pharmacie in Montpelier, France. This is the first establishment of the kind in France opened under the direction of a lady.The Vermont "Council of Censors" have recently reported in favor of so amending their State Constitution as to permit women to vote. Is the "star that never sets" to be the first, of all, to beam upon Woman Suffrage.The heroism of Ida Lewis is by no means an exceptional case. One of the most recent instances of courage in "tender woman" is that of Miss Borie, daughter of the ex-Secretary, who lately rescued a young Baltimorian from drowning at Cape May. The young man had ventured beyond his depth, and was sinking when Miss Borie, being an expert swimmer, struck out for him, seized him by the hair and drew him to the shore.Lydia Maria Child, in a pleasant paper Concerning Women, in a late Issue of The Independent, says, "When I was a young girl the aged Hannah Adams was pointed out as a great curiosity, because she had written a short History of the Jews. Innumerable stories were told to show how she bad unsexed herself by her learning. She was said not only to be unconscious of a hole In her stocking, but to be absolutely unable to recognize her own face in the glass; and if that was not being unfeminine, pray tell me what could be? When I published, my first book, I was gravely warned by some of my female acquaintances that no woman could expect to be regarded as a lady after she had written a book."The Home Journal, in speaking of women physicians abroad, says: "Doctress Garrett, of London, is described as fragile and youthful-looking. Her talk is easy, chatty, bright, animated--no disquisitions, n o ponderosity, no obtrusion of heavy theories and abstract views of life. If one were to look out for a contrast to the typical strong-minded woman, he could hardly find it anywhere better illustrated than in this bright, animated little creature, with her pretty face and graceful, winning ways. Yet this is the terrible, resistless woman who has actually fought her way into the medical profession, in defiance of the bitterest opposition of the most prejudiced and immovable of all the learned 'bodies.' I believe Miss Garrett stands absolutely alone in England--the one only female member of the medical profession."Among the most pleasant and effective writers upon reformatory questions may be ranked Mrs. Mary F. Davis, the wife of the well-known writer, Andrew Jackson Davis, a name synonymous with spiritual reform and progress. Mrs. Davis has recently contributed to the Banner of Light, of which journal she is corresponding editor, a series of papers entitled "Education for Girls," from the conclusion of one of which articles we make the following, extract:* * * Many and encouraging as are the signs of the times, public opinion has yet a deep gulf of prejudice to span before woman can take her appropriate place in the educational spheres. But never in the history of the world was there so great need of her thorough culture. Such advance has been made In intellectual pursuits since the date of the American Revolution, that this seems almost the fruit-bearing period, of the centuries, and woman must keep tally with the spirit of the age. Such, a lack of acquaintance with the rudiments of learning as is shown in a letter purporting to have been written by the venerated mother of Washington, would no longer be tolerated even among school-girls, to say nothing of "the first families of the land." Unconsciously the progressive minds of the age expect and demand a fine, high culture of the womanly nature. Opportunity should equal this demand. Interspersed through American society is a strata of noble girlhood and maturity. In all those, contemptuous flings at the "girl of the period," "the modern women," etc., with which some of our current dailies abound, this class knows itself to be misrepresented and maligned. In it may be found the daughters of toil more frequently than of wealth; those who looking afar off to the advantages which ample means secure in schools like Antioch and Vassar, aspire with all their souls to such advantages. Supreme is their love of learning, and they would fain "rend the rock for secret fountains, and pursue the path of the illimitable wind for mysteries." Shall these noble girls be any longer compelled to give double the time and toil that their brothers do to earning the means necessary to reach their goal? Shall the injustice be continued of paying young women but half the wages of young men, for the same kind and amount of labor, thus making the task of clearing their own pathway to the temple of wisdom doubly long and arduous? Let justice be done to all, and we shall soon see the happy results in a higher type of womanhood and of civilization.George W. Smalley, Esq., whose London correspondence of the New York Tribune is an attractive feature of that journal, and especially valuable as a faithful record of the progress or the Cause abroad, thus writes: "I went on Saturday to a meeting of the London National Society for Woman's Suffrage. Although a private meeting, to which admission could only be had by invitation, it was largely attended. It was, I believe, the first meeting, of the Society, and the managers were so far from desiring publicity that they excluded reporters. Nevertheless, a pretty full account of the proceedings appeared in one or two papers, and they have made a strong impression. If the meeting had shown nothing else, it showed a capacity for organization, which in English meetings is commonly remarkable for its absence. I don't know when I have known a meeting so well managed. There was a programme of resolutions and speeches, from which no departure was allowed, and the speeches were kept within due bounds. The credit of this is due to the lady who presided, and who is the executive officer of the association, Mrs. P. A. Taylor. You may search some time before you will find one of the nobler sex to go through the duties of a position both difficult and novel with so much dignity and grace. Next to the public championship of Mr. Mill, I think the woman's cause in England owes most to the wonderful energy of Mrs. Taylor. She has had many and very capable assistants, but has, I believe, been the real head of the society since its foundation. "There were about a dozen speakers, all of them celebrities. Mr. Mill's address was the great attraction to many, who have few opportunities of hearing him. I send you a report, on which you will, I dare say, have comments of your own to make, less favorable than mine. He was followed by Charles Kingsley, who has such a horror of being reported that he spoke only on condition that the press should not be represented. You will discover from the presence of a man holding Kingsley's peculiar position, and from the letters and speeches of the So- licitor-General, Sir John Coleridge; of Lord Houghton; of Sir Charles Dilke, M.P.; of Mr. John Morley, and of Mr. Stansfeld, M.P., that the moment in England for women's suffrage has passed beyond the stage when it found its only advocates among theorists, and what the world calls visionaries and extremists. Its rapid progress is due in no slight measure to the moderation and good sense shown by those who have had charge of it. They have limited it to a suffrage movement, and they have not allowed it to become ridiculous by the advocacy of mere mountebanks, nor made it odious by such selfish bigotry as some American champions are now showing in their opposition to the XVth Amendment on the ground of its failure to include woman."LITERARY.OLDTOWN FOLKS. By Harriet Beecher Stowe. 608 pp. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.The world-wide reputation won by Mrs. Stowe in her first great work of fiction would have been a greatness sufficiently oppressive to have precluded any mind less powerful from again essaying the path which led to such bewildering fame. But the laurel of being the most widely read and known of living fictionists has not been sufficient to satisfy a mind ever alive to the interests of humanity, and admirers of Mrs. Stowe's genius in two hemispheres have since had numerous opportunities of learning how keenly throbbed that heart, and how tireless was that pen that had written so much and so well.The Crime of the Nation, which produced an "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or a "Dred," having been washed out in blood, Mrs. Stowe, in later fictions, has naturally turned to the delineations of those scenes and characters which her earliest published sketches give such evidence of being the nooks of fancy in which her thoughts most love to dwell. To her, New England is not only the Motherland, but the rich storehouse whose varied treasure she seeks with the love of a Whittier, a Lowell, or a Hawthorne. In this volume her object has been to interpret to the world the New England life and character of its formative period. Marked in early history by strong theological opinions, Mrs. Stowe has been faithful to her purpose in giving searching delineations of the Orthodoxy of that date. Puritanism stern and cold; gentler human nature; minds quaintly common sense, inquisitive, or groping in the night of unbelief, are all depicted; and so life-like are the delineations, in the illusion, the reader deems them the flesh and blood characters of every day life.Space will not permit us to give even a passing notice of any of the character- istics of this charming volume, possessing an interest not alone for New England readers, but for every lover of the artistic, the refined and the noble in literature. The whole volume is aglow with sparkles of fancy and passages of deep human tenderness, and will be warmly welcomed to thousands of hearths as the latest fruit of the ripened genius of the author.PATTY GRAY'S JOURNEY TO THE COTTON ISLANDS. By Caroline H. Dall. First Volume. Boston: Lee & Shepard.As a writer upon graver themes Mrs. Dall is well and favorably known to the public; and, in her newer field, the volume before us will go a great way towards winning for her as many warm admirers among young as older readers. Some writer has said that "a good book for children is the most difficult thing to create in literature," and we can easily credit the assertion, for, amid the multiplicity of story books, we can recall but few that we would unqualifiedly recommend to parents for their children.But Patty Gray's Journey is one of the few truly meritorious contributions to our juvenile literature. The entertaining and instructive are blent together in its pages in a manner that must endear it to every story-loving child, who at the same time possesses the natural desire for the acquisition of knowledge. This volume--the first of a series--takes Patty from her native Boston home to Baltimore, and the new sights and scenes of the journey are recorded with a fidelity to nature as well as with an artistic perception of the beautiful. Her visit is after the close of the late war, and Mrs. Dall renders good service to the cause of freedom by pointing out the cause of the desolation which is everywhere apparent, and laying stress upon the fact of the wrong done to the African race, which brought the terrible war upon the country.It is issued in a neat and attractive style by the publishers, the picture of Patty Gray in the frontispiece, giving a pleasant introduction to this interesting little personage. We trust that the entire series may meet with the circulation which the merits of the initial volume assure us that they should attain.Newspaper literature has even invaded the Turkish harem. The Zeraki of Stamboul now issues an edition de luxe, printed on fine tinted paper, for exclusive circulation amongst Turkish ladies.Mr. Mill's "Subjection of Women" has appeared in Paris under the title of L'Assujettissement des Femmes.SPECIAL NOTICE.--OUR PRIZE OFFERS.WE regret to announce that the Committee appointed to decide upon the Stories submitted agreeably to the terms of our PRIZE OFFERS, after a protracted deliberation, have decided that they cannot conscientiously award prizes to any of the MSS. under their consideration. We append their report:176 BROADWAY, N.Y., August 10th, 1869.Wm. P. Tomlinson, Esq., Publisher Woman's Advocate:Your Committee, appointed for the purpose of examining MSS. stories submitted in competition for your award, are reluctantly compelled to report that, in their judgment, and after careful, conscientious reading of each MSS., no one of those thus far presented is possessed of sufficient merit to claim a place in your journal.HERBERT VANDYKE, Chairman.The manuscripts thus reverting to the Publisher will be returned to the various writers, upon their due application for the same. To avoid mistakes our correspondents should give the name of each Story and desired address in full.HOME INTELLIGENCE.THE NEWBURYPORT WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE CONVENTION.THE Woman's Suffrage Association of Essex County, Mass., held a large and interesting Convention at Newburyport, July 28th. Among the well-known friends of the Movement present, by the most of Whom addresses were delivered, were Mrs. JULIA WARD HOWE, WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, Rev. PHEBE A. HANAFORD, OLYMPIA BROWN, Rev. GEORGE H. VIBBERT, Mrs. WILLIAM IVES and Rev. B. F. BOWLES. Letters were received from RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Prof. ALPHEUS CROSBY, and others. The Convention was continued, by morning, afternoon and evening sessions, throughout the day, with a deepening of interest and increasing attendance until the close. A series Of Resolutions, excellent and comprehensive in character, were offered by WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, and unanimously adopted. From the very able address of JULIA WARD HOWE, in the afternoon session, we make the following extract:ADDRESS OF JULIA WARD HOWE.* * * And this brings me to one of the most common and most polite arguments advanced now-a-days against our measure, viz., that womankind at large do not desire the suffrage. The immorality of this argument is obvious to me; perhaps I can make it so to others. Do mankind at large desire the best things? Do all the children cry for the slate and spelling book? Does the youth demand to be made acquainted with the higher mathematics, and the doctrine of pure reason? Does the little girl, as soon as she can speak, inquire concerning the shape of the earth, the doctrine of eclipses, the records of the Assyrian Empire, etc., etc.? . Yet you feel it a disgrace, a dereliction, to withhold these things from those who are ignorant not only of their value but of their existence.Let us suppose that one of you has a ward, born heir to possessions of which he can, of himself, have no knowledge. You who hold him in tutelage are careful not to impart to him this knowledge. He grows up the servant of your pleasure, or the pensioner of your bounty, never dreaming of that which belongs to him in his own right. A third party steps in and says, "You are withholding, your ward's birthright. Why do you not give it to him?" You reply, "He has never asked for it." The next question certainly would be, "Did you ever tell him of it?"Man on this wise has naturally held woman in tutelage--man, naturally the inventor of politics, from his greater freedom from the burdensome conditions of nature, his earlier and wider enjoyment of the advantages of education. The opposition of sex suggested to him the political opposition of activity and passivity, control and submission. He has exerted all his predominance and force of authority to continue the mind and habit of the sex in this direction. The friends of woman now say "You are keeping women out of their estate. They are born as free as you are, as capable of the individuality of thought, and the directness of moral inspiration. But you have made them secondary and derivative. You limit their education, prescribe their work, keep down their wages, control their persons and their offsprings and spend their money. Why don't you give them what nature gives to both of you alike, and what superior culture and opportunity enable you to keep for yourselves?" And man replies, "She don't want it." But the further question is, "Have you ever told her of it?" "Not such a fool as that," says the man.But now earnest men and women are telling of this to the less thoughtful and instructed. They show woman a new ideal, erect, free-souled, free-handed. "This is what you would be," say they. Half of your rights, all of your political estate is kept from you; only so much is doled out to you as will enable you to appear in a conceded equality with men. On an actual equality they have never allowed you to stand. And I would have the world take note, awakened by admiration and encouraged by the earnest sympathy of true souls, womankind are asking for their own. * * * * * * *Rev. PHEBE A. HANNAFORD, at the conclusion of her eloquent and deeply impressive address, spoke as follows:* * * It is too late to sneer at the Woman's Rights Movement; it has risen to be acknowledged as the foremost reform of the age, second to none, not even to the great temperance reform, and it is advocated by master minds on both sides the Atlantic. John Stuart Mill lends the weight of his logic, and Henry Ward Beecher and Wendell Phillips the might of their eloquence. Mrs. Dall, with her store of knowledge; Mrs. Howe, with her poetic genius; Mrs. Livermore, with her womanly eloquence; Lucy Stone, with her unanswerable arguments; Lucretia Mott, with her wisdom and dignity of four-score years, and in the beauty of her green old age; Anna Dickinson with her words of power; Olympia Brown, with her life-long enthusiasm and her patient industry and triumphant success; Antoinette Brown Blackwell, with her scholarly pleadings; Madame Anneke with her German, and Madame D'Hericourt with her French experiences and eloquence; all these, and more also, men and women of moral worth and intellectual power, are enlisted in this good cause, and are carrying it on to a final and glorious success. * * * * * * * *Forcible addresses, at various stages of the Convention, were also delivered by WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, Rev. OLYMPIA, BROWN, Rev. GEORGE H. VIBBERT, Mrs. E. F. BOWLES, Judge AMES, Rev. B. F. BOWLES, Rev. Mr. WRIGHT and others; and the evening session was prolonged until a late hour in the desire of the audience to hear all the promised speakers.Announcing the intention of the Association to hold a series of meetings throughout Essex County during the summer and fall, the Convention adjourned leaving an awakened interest in the community as the result of its labors.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 comprised within it, 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 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 ADVOCATE resolve to furnish at least one subscription to commence with the July number?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 Airs. 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, which has received such encomiums from the press, 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 reach of all.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 ADVOCATE.THROWN UPON THE WORLD PART SECOND.THERE was a buzz, a flutter of excitement in the composing room of The Universe. Two young men were lounging listlessly through the apartment, pausing occasionally to note some typographical improvement, or to bestow a second glance upon some more than ordinarily attractive face among the girl compositors. One was a junior editor of The Universe, with whose appearance all were familiar; the other was its noted "special correspondent," whose flying visits to the metropolis and the editorial sanctum, were always an event out of the ordinary.To the latter named of the two saunterers-George De L'Estrange nature had indeed been bounteous of the gifts which she occasionally showers upon mortals. Although yet scarcely three and twenty, by versatility of talent be had risen from obscurity and office boy drudgery, step by step, to the position of a favorite reporter upon a metropolitan journal, towering as a Saul above his fellows, and receiving from all the attaches of the office scarcely less consideration than the editor-in-chief himself Beginning with local reporting, George De L'Estrange had early exhibited such a marvelous talent for investing trite or unimportant subjects with interest, that he was soon detailed by his superiors for distant and more valuable services, all of which were so satisfactorily discharged that he was formally transferred to the "Foreign and Secret Service Repertorial Staff," charged with all delicate, or important missions, and drawing a salary, whether at home or abroad, that would have been deemed fabulous in an earlier day of journalism. A roving adventurous life led De L'Estrange. Constantly "on the wing," in the five or more years preceding the date of our story, he had wandered over half of the habitable globe, familiarizing himself with languages, climes, and the ways of men, and acquiring a knowledge and experience of humanity rarely attained even by the veterans of his profession. Wherever--whether in his own country, where he first won his spurs of correspondent on the embattled fields of the South, or in remoter lands--the magnitude of transpiring events drew public thought and the hearts of men as to a common center, The Universe sent its correspondent, and not more familiar to De L'Estrange were the waters of the Hudson or the Potomac than of the more distant Rhone, from one of whose valleys emigrated the sire whose flashing black eyes and swarthy hue of skin he inherited.And while fortune, was thus favoring De L'Estrange--while he was thus climbing the giddy rounds of popularity, how was it with his inner nature? The life he led, sharpening every faculty, bringing into keenest activity every gift of intellect, was not adapted to foster conscientious conviction, and little pretension made he to the virtues of Iconoclast or Religionist. Yet not depraved, or grossly sensual, was George De L'Estrange. He was ambitious--intensely so. He had a pride in his profession. To be first in the field, to outstrip his fellows in the pursuit of "specials" or freshest intelligence, was the one glory for which no toil or bodily risk was counted too great a sacrifice by De L'Estrange, or any scruple of sensitiveness, not actually conflicting with professional honor, allowed to prevent. More dear to him were the tidings of an enemy's movements, though won from beneath the cannon's mouth, than any honor or pleasure the world could offer beside; and though not all exempt from the vices, or follies of his class, George De L'Estrange had less to reproach himself with than many so flattered by man and woman. Indeed, any element of baseness was foreign to his nature, and when, in hours of ease, perchance he had turned aside to sun himself in the smiles of woman, it was with no intention beyond the light gratification of the moment. Veneration for her he certainly had not: of such a thing as inherent virtue he was even skeptical. His mother had died while he lay a babe in the cradle, and tossed about the world as he had been, it had been his misfortune to meet principally with that large class of women who had deepened the loose impressions which he entertained of the lightness or infidelity of the sex."Tell me, Everson," he said to his companion as they strolled more than once through the aisles of the busy work-room, "tell me where is the paragon of whom such glowing accounts reached me even at Florence. I have peered, closely as my fastidious sense of politeness would permit, beneath each wavy or ringletted brow, without seeing sparkle of orb or dimple of cheek I could for a moment, even with the aid of a powerfully excited fancy, imagine to belong to your favorite. With the exception ot that shy, rose-bud of a little girl there in the corner, they are as ordinary a set of mortals as I have beheld in a long while. Has the goddess strayed from her earth-born subjects, and if so, have you a courtier's art to secure us an admittance to her retreat?""I presume she is in Mr. Jobson's room, reading proof with him," was the rejoinder, "but whether you or I can obtain admittance is beyond my powers of divination. It is a busy hour of the day, and Mr. Jobson's little snuggery is his castle, inaccessible when he pleases even to our chief. If I remember, however, you are something of a favorite with him, and it may be the sight of your travel-bronzed face will be the 'sesame' of admittance. At least we will make the assay.""Oh, yes; Mr. Jobson and I are old friends. He was kind to me years ago when I used to bring in my first reports of a 'Destructive Fire in Division Street,' or 'Pugilistic Encounter in Tompkins Alley,' prophesying I would one day be the Great Mogul of The Universe. The dear old-gentleman will never refuse me, and now I think of it I am really anxious to see him. Lead, your highness, and your most dutiful will follow."Laughingly the two young men turned their steps to the door of a little room in the extreme rear of the larger apartment where, after going through with the required formalities at the portal, they were admitted, the, kindly-hearted old man almost overwhelming his boy protege with welcomes and questionings when he realized that he indeed stood in flesh before him. "Why, my dear Georgie, how well you are looking! And you have been at Gibraltar, at Constantinople, Moscow, Pekin, Burampooter and all those barbarous and unpronounceable places since I saw you last! Do you know, my dear fellow, that I never would allow one of your letters to go into the 'form' I until I had put on my glasses and seen that our thick-headed compositors had made all the final corrections properly, so that when The Universe reached you in some of those outlandish seaports you would not feel like blowing us all up for the errors you would see. Ah, a pretty time Miss Eveleth and I have had of it. Our hands have been kept busy I can assure you. But bless me, here I have been talking all this time and not made an introduction yet. Can you excuse me for such negligence. Miss Eveleth this is Georgie--Georgie De L'Estrange--of whom I have spoken about to you so much. Miss Eveleth, you and Mr. Everson, I believe, are already acquainted."Marian Eveleth, who had remained standing during this animated monologue, with a half smile upon her face at the old man's volubility, honored Mr. De L'Estrange with, as Lizzie Fay was wont to express it, one of her stateliest courtesies, while she extended her hand to Mr. Everson with a pleased look and a frank word of welcome. Much had she heard of George De L'Estrange-his beauty, his powers of fascination; and though she had been interested in his correspondence, touched, even, at times by the lightly-told hair-breadth adventures or the poetical imagery of his descriptions, her knowledge of the character of the writer had prevented her from overcoming the aversion with which she had early been inspired. So, shrinking from direct intercourse with him, she skillfully turned the conversation into a channel from which he was of necessity excluded, and managed, during the remainder of their brief stay, to avoid exchanging more than a few commonplace remarks, for which coolness she was taken to task, immediately after their departure, by Mr. Jobson, who resented almost as a personal indignity such treatment of his favorite. He was a good boy, he remonstrated in reply to Marian's briefly-stated reason for desiring no intimacy, they might say what they pleased, but no living being could stand up and show that they had been illy used by Georgie De L'Estrange. He had a winsome face, and he had, may be, indulged in a few follies, as other young men, but there was no more gallant nature, that he knew, and a few years would show what a position in the world he would attain.Days passed. There was a lull in the outer world, and, longer than an opportunity had been afforded for years, George De L'Estrange lingered around the office of The Universe. More deeply interested than he had ever been in the pursuit of a secondary object--though he could not himself account for the attraction--was the man of the world in winning the ear and interest of Marian Eveleth; and the continuance of the icy barrier of reserve, which he had been accustomed to seeing dissolve when he chose to exert his powers of fascination, only stimulated the ardor of the pursuit. That she was of a higher mold than the many who had crossed his path he could readily perceive, and that, to create even a favorable impression upon the fair compositor, all the latent powers of his nature must be aroused and called into fullest activity. And well he played his part. Perchance not even in fashionable circles, the gay, wild assemblages of Washington or other Capitals, to please some fastidious dame or belle accustomed to homage, had he more exerted himself than now to win a kindly place in the thoughts of Marian Eveleth. There was something in the atmosphere of purity that surrounded her--something in her lofty purpose, her clearness of moral perception, that, as he had opportunities for studying her character, appealed powerfully to every prompting of his better nature; in her presence the blasĂ© man of the world experienced a novel sensation of pleasure, accompanied by a feeling that there was a higher life in which she lived and moved, from which, by grossness and violated laws of nature, he was excluded. Yet brief and few were the occasions afforded him for the interchange of more than the ordinary civilities, or the removing of the barriers of frigid reserve, which it was evident she meant should exist between them. Occasionally he would stroll into the little room where Marian sat so much of her time with Mr. Jobson, by whom at least he was always sure of a hearty welcome; and once or twice, before she could furnish a reasonable pretext for withdrawing or would herself be aware of the interest, she would become an animated listener to some one of his glowing descriptions of some clime or spot she herself had trodden in fancy, and be chatting with a freedom concerning these and other subjects that would cause the hot blood to rush to her cheeks afterwards at the recollection. So passed time. It was nearing the holiday season. Well nigh a month now had, George De L'Estrange led the life of inaction we have described, and though during that period of idlesse he had had but the one purpose, i. e. to subdue the icy indifference of Marian Eveleth, he could not flatter himself that he had even secured, the least of what he so ardently coveted, a place in her respect. "Why do I not tear from my breast this passion," he soliloquized as he strode up and down the outer room of the sanctum in the early gathering gray of the winter evening,--"It is unmanly of me thus to remain, wasting my powers, and sighing for a girl to whom I am as nothing. A word from me, and the mission to Berlin awaits me. I will mingle again with men: I will summon back the old dreams of preferment that once were sufficient to satisfy my nature. I will rise above this weakness: cast out from my breast the image of one who so wrongs my motives, who does not credit me even with a good intention, cost what it may the effort."Filled with this resolution, on the following morning he sought an audience with the Editor-in-chief, the result of which was that ere nightfall it was known to every employĂ© of the establishment that George De L'Estrange would be off by the next steamer for the Continent, to be absent months, and, possibly, years again."Ah, Georgie," said the old proof-reader, as later in the day, with a moody brow, that young man indulged in a leave-making tour of the building, "so you are going to leave us again. It grieves me to think of it, my boy, but take courage. I know what is on your heart, and I could whisper, that haughty as Miss Marian is, and indifferent as she assumes to be, you are not alone in your trouble. I have watched her closely since the news was first brought to us of your intended departure, and she has not succeeded in blinding me as to her real interest in you for an instant. Why, just now she made a mistake as unlike her usual methodical ways as you could imagine, and when I questioned her as to the cause--for I was determined to quiz her a little, in your interest, Georgie--she attributed it to a nervous headache, but she seemed well enough until Mr. Everson came up and told us of your intended departure. There she is now, superintending that awkward squad of learners, and you can see that her face wears a constrained look, very different from its ordinary expression. Go over to her, boy, with a stout heart, and make your adieu. She may say but little, but I warrant you that a God-speed will go with you over the Atlantic, and that, hereafter, a pair of bright eyes will look for 'specials' and 'foreign correspondence' as they have never before."The young man crossed the room to where Marian stood by a window, through which the Western sun streamed full upon her, turning to gold her hair, and, in the ardent imagination of De L'Estrange, causing her to resemble one of the Madonnas before which he had hung so oft enraptured in some Italian or Peninsula gallery. Intent upon her work, the explaining of some doubtful "copy" to a pupil, she failed to notice his approach until that delicate perception of contiguity, which precedes even actual vision, caused her to lift her eyes to find him standing closely by her side."Miss Eveleth," and there was an affection of gayety in his tone to which his heart at the moment illy responded, "have you heard the good news which will relieve the industrious bees of The Universe of at least one drone in the hive? I have at last my orders. Can you believe that one an idler so long can brush the dust of inaction from his wings and easily resume habits of industry? I need not ask if I may bear with me your good wishes, for the relief you will all experience at my departure would insure that, methinks, even from one who holds me in as light esteem as Miss Eveleth.""Yes, Mr. De L'Estrange," and there was more of feeling in the tone than he had before noted, "I have heard of your departure, and can, truly wish you 'bon voyage.' With your acquirements and your capabilities you should not be idle; you were meant to play no useless part among men, and doubt not that we shall always be glad to hear of your movements, and to know that you are achieving that measure of success to which you may so well aspire. Within yourself lies largely the power to determine your future career, whether it shall be ignoble, or far surpass the past. Can I doubt that you will decide wisely?"Thus speaking Marian frankly extended her hand, which De L'Estrange pressed fervently for a moment, uttered the simple words, "vertraue auf mich," (trust in me) and left the apartment.Jane O. DeForestWORK FOR WOMAN."Work, sisters, work, with a hearty good will,While the world turns around, shall its wheels stand still!"So sang a school-girl poetess, and day by day its beautiful truth comes with renewed earnestness to our hearts. The Past, with its glowing deeds and heroic lives, needs no touch of pen or brush to render it more attractive. The Future, towards which we turn with eager, hopeful faces, and which looks all fair and bright is yet uncertain. The path which seems strewn with flowers, may prove a thorny one; but the Present, the noble, active, living Present is ours. Do we mistake when we make the assertion, that none other since time began has been its equal? And if so, how important that the present actors on the world's "great stage," should have their zeal quickened, and souls inspired with great and noble purposes. And let not those purposes be merely pleasing fancies, to be indulged as a kind of offset to inefficient doing. Shall we not arouse again to action--action as vigorous and determined, as when our Nation lay bleeding and struggling for existence? As during the war, our sisterhood formed the important and devoted "left wing" of the Grand Army of the Republic, so now, in the great battles for justice and equal rights, which have but fairly begun, duty calls on woman, as well as man, to arise and prepare for the conflict. Let those scout who will, and proclaim a speedy extinction of the progressive ideas which are daily being pressed upon the minds of the people; many of them shall yet live to see the objects of their contempt making a triumphant march throughout the civilized world. Aye, may we not predict that when our land shall have completed the century of her independence, she shall proclaim, not merely by word but by deed, her belief in the truth of her corner-stone maxim "That taxation without representation is tyranny." Womanhood suffrage has everywhere been defeated, but, "though fallen it shall rise again," and press on to the victory. The proof of its propriety and right has been given by far abler pens than ours, and needs no repetition here, though we would fain urge its further consideration by the candid, and the necessity of woman's faithful co-operation in order to insure speedy success. We have no reason to be discouraged by the action of various legislative bodies in regard to the subject during the past year. Ten years ago, or even five, the idea that such a subject would receive the consideration of those bodies, would have been scouted as a wilder fancy than the expectation of a sudden removal from slavery. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was received with hisses even by professed ministers of the Most High, but a few years ago. Now, no lecturer in the country secures larger audiences than Anna E. Dickinson. Such being the state of affairs, there are none among our great sisterhood, who are unable to do something for the farther promotion of these ideas which sooner or later are sure to prevail.We would suggest a few of the ways in which this should be done. First, let every young woman in the land resolve to educate herself not merely by attending a convenient school or academy for a longer or a shorter time, but by profitable reading and attention to the workings of the great country of which she is a citizen. No young lady should neglect the perusal of at least, one standard newspaper a week. Again, let her not be content with completing the course of study pursued in most Academies and Seminaries, and which is usually deemed sufficient for a woman; but let her aim be, if it is possible, to secure for herself the course marked out in the great colleges of the land. Some of these colleges in the great progressive West, open their doors to ladies as well as gentlemen; but even these present a course of study for ladies, which omits the Greek and Latin languages; and being shorter and easier, is generally pursued instead of the thorough college course. Thanks to these noble Institutions for thus enabling woman to educate herself, but we would pray them to go still farther and banish these departments for ladies from their catalogues. By so doing, they will cause young women to see and feel that their standard of education should not be one jot lower than that of their brothers. "But women have not the time or strength," repeat the objectors to their elevation. No time say you? Indeed! but they seem to find plenty of time in which to embroider and dress, make calls, attend parties, etc."But they are physically incapacitated for anything so severe as a thorough Collegiate course," remarks some pompous divine or small lawyer. My dear sirs, consider the rounds of gayety into which so many of the feebler sex plunge. See them dance night after night, oftentimes to the decided exhaustion of their sterner partners. Look at most of our farmer's wives; how they toil early and late; to be sure they are often so over-worked as to fade and die quite early in life, but let their husbands try the same round of unceasing toil, and, if we mistake not, the, result would be the same. Granted that she is weaker than her brother, yet her powers of endurance carry woman through more difficult paths in life than the securing of a complete education. So long as her education is generally so incomplete, thus long will she remain the gay butterfly or unthinking drudge. Ladies of wealth, who are giving of their abundance to endow colleges for the exclusive education of young men, are committing a great wrong against their own sex. Such colleges are already well endowed and too numerous. The minds of all true philanthropists should be turned towards those which offer equal advantages to young women.Again, the sneering remarks upon the deficiencies of most Ladies' Seminaries or so-called Colleges, made by the opposers of a more thorough education of woman, are far too often founded upon facts. How many Ladies' Colleges are there, which offer to young women a course similar to that of Yale, Williams or Oberlin, and at their graduation grant them the A. B. degree? We must confess that if there are such institutions in the land, they are entirely unknown to us. Yet this is the standard which all Ladies' Colleges should maintain. The idea that women cannot, need not, or should not study the Greek and Latin languages, is one that should be exploded at once. Being in part the foundation of our own language, it seems far more important that they should be studied, than even the higher mathematics which most Ladies' Departments include. All young men do not go through College, neither do we expect all young women to obtain a liberal education; our purpose is to urge those who can be educated if they will, not to stop outside of genuine College walls. Sometime ago we read an article entitled "Room up Higher," which very justly argued that one reason why ladies received such small compensation as teachers was because of their all crowding Into the common order of schools, being incompetent to teach those of a higher grade. Yet even when she is thus fitted, woman is unjustly deprived of her real earnings. We have a lady ac- quaintance in the East, who is said by good judges to be perfectly competent for a college professor. Yet in the same school she received more than a third less than a young man who has since entered college as a student.When, it is asked, will women receive their rightful dues? Not until as a united body they insist that the ballot shall be placed in their hands, and declare that they will no longer teach or do any other work for the paltry sums now doled out to them. Oh, the thousands who feel every day how relentless is the custom which thus cheats and crushes them! And are any to be found in their ranks who will not work long and earnestly to remove such customs? If so, how abject the soul which would thus clasp hands with its oppressor, instead of striving mightily for its destruction.Aye, there is work for woman to do, and far greater than in previous years. She must combat with prejudice, that hydra headed monster, and show by her own life, the capabilities and determination of her sex. Again, she must instil the principles of right and progress into the minds of the youth of the land. The foggyism of the present controllers of our nation's affairs, may not disappear except with their death; but most assuredly when those yet in early life command the field of action, there will be changes made which would have horrified our revered grandmothers. The strong, clear voice of Anna E. Dickinson, is sounding through the land like a trumpet before the morn of battle. May the Lord ever bless and protect her as one of the noblest and most efficient champions for the right. Few may expect to fill her position, but each one can and should do service for such a cause. It does not require the bravery to make known to-day one's adherence to this cause, that it did even two or three years ago. Now a young lady will not of a certainty be called strong-minded, masculine and the like; hence the greater culpability of those who, from carelessness, ignorance or prejudice, refuse to assist in the speeding on of the Right.Women of America! Mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, are ye aroused to the needs of the hour? We fear not, and would beseech you in behalf of your weary, long suffering sisters, who need the ballot as their protector, to give the subject candid consideration. We remember the self-denying zeal and patriotism, which you exhibited but a few years ago. How with trembling hands, and tortured but brave hearts, you "buckled on the sword" for those dearer than your own lives. Oh, we know by sad experience your patient watchings and waitings, and your devoted love for the principles of right and justice, even when your hearts were crushed and bleeding, and you were shedding bitter tears for those immortal ones, who are sleeping beneath the Southern soil. And knowing this, we trust that through your speedy and efficient efforts, the noble cause of Woman Suffrage shall ere long surely triumph. Do not scornfully cast it aside as unworthy of your attention. The dignity of woman can never be lowered by careful investigation. Do not trouble your minds with the idea that you will be subverting the teachings of the Bible, by adhering to these principles. That Holy Book has been used to uphold iniquity too long already. Slaveholders and drunkards have, with as much plausibility as the opponents of Woman's Rights, proved their ways to be righteous and just. If there is anything which should cause woman to love the religion of Jesus with warmest fervor, it is for the fact of its elevating her sex. Where Christianity has greatest freedom, there woman has the most privileges. "Last at the cross, and first at the sepulchre," her Lord will never permit "Peace on earth," till Justice and Equity are extended to all of his creatures. Then arise daughters of this fair land, and declare that "the home of the brave" shall in deed and in truth become "the land of the free." In this time for action, you surely will not sit with hands folded, or do ought to discourage those laboring for your elevation. Rather promote, by pen and tongue, by every means in your power, their sacred cause; and when the smoke of battle shall be cleared away, and we stand beneath the bright heavens a free and happy people, then shall all mankind bless you, and reverently return thanks, that unto woman has been given that crown of honor, the elevation of her race, and the speeding on of that glad day when all the nations shall know and love the Lord our God.JANE O. DE FOREST.Frances Dana GageA MOTHER'S THOUGHT.[The following touchingly beautiful poem from the pen of our esteemed contributor, FRANCES DANA GAGE, although previously published, we reproduce agreeably to the wishes of any readers of THE ADVOCATE.--ED.]SILENT and lone, silent and lone! Where, tell me where, are my little ones gone, That used to be playing about my knee, With their noisy mirth, and boisterous glee? Who litter'd the carpets, misplaced the chairs, And scattered their playthings all unawares; Who called for their suppers with eager shout, And while they were getting, ran in and out; Who kept all the apples and nuts from spoiling, And never saved jackets or pants from soiling; Had ever a want, and ever a will That added a care to my heart, until I sometimes sighed for the time to come, When they'd all be big, and go out from home.Silent and lone, silent and lone! Where, tell me where, are my little ones gone? There are no little faces to wash to-night, No little troubles for mother to right, No little blue eyes to sing to sleep, No little playthings to put up to keep, No little garments to bang on the rack, No little tales to tell, no nuts to crack, No little trundle-bed, brimful of rollick, Calling for mamma to settle the frolic, No little soft lips to press me with kisses(Oh! such a sad, lonely evening as this is!) No little voices to shout with delight:Good night, dearest mamma, good night, good night." Silent the house is; no little ones here,To startle a smile or to chase back a tear.Silent and lone, silent and lone! Where, tell me where, are my little ones gone? It seems but yesterday since they were young; Now they're all scattered the world's paths among, Out where the great rolling trade-stream is flowing; Out where new firesides with love-lights are glowing; Out where the graves of their life-hopes are sleeping, Not to be comforted--weeping, still weeping; Out where the high hills of science are blending Up 'mid the cloud-rifts, up, still ascending;Seeking the sunshine that rests on the mountain, Drinking and thirsting still, still at the fountain; Out in life's thoroughfares all of them moiling; Out in the wide, wide world, striving and toiling. Little ones, loving ones, playful ones, all, That went when I bade, and came at my call, Have ye deserted me? Will ye not come Back to your mother's arms-- back to the Home?Silent and lone, silent and lone! Where, tell me where, are my little ones gone? Useless my cry is. Why do I complain? They'll be my little ones never again! Can the great oaks to acorns return? The broad rolling stream flow back to the burn? The mother call childhood again to her knee, That in manhood went forth, the strong and the free? Nay! nay! no true mother would ask for them back, Her work nobly done, their firm tramp on life's track Will come like an organ note, lofty and clear, To lift up her soul and her spirit to cheer! And though her tears fall, when she's silent and lone, She'll know it is best they are scattered and gone!Silent and lone, silent and lone!Thy will, O Father! not my will be done!FRANCES DANA GAGE.Elizabeth A. KingsburyOPPOSITION.NATURE is continually reporting herself. Everything is busily engaged in writing its own history. Animals leave their bones in the strata of by-gone ages, and the fern pencils its modest epitaph on coal. The rock tears the mountain side in its descent, and the river cuts its bed in the soil. The rushing water rounds the rough stone to a smooth pebble, and the sun gives us shadowy pictures of the tulip and the tree. The falling rain-drop makes its sepulchre in the sand, and the snows of winter reappear in the golden grain of the harvest-field.Man too, has been equally industrious. From the time when he made rude hatchets of stone, and left them in caves beside the mammoth monsters of twenty thousand years ago, till he became wise enough to harness steam to take him round the world, and send the lightnings of heaven to do his errands, has he been writing his name, and his fame, upon every conceivable object.And Woman;--what of her deeds and history? We can say comparatively nothing. Were an inhabitant of another planet to be suddenly landed upon this, sent to learn of men by their achievements in the past, he would naturally suppose the race is represented by one sex alone. So persistently has woman been kept down in all past ages, that with a few bright exceptions, she has appeared only as the slave, the appendage, or the relict of man; solely to minister to his comfort while living, and the insignificant part of him yet above ground, after he has left.Debased, stultified, she became an object of contempt. Of course, those whom men had ruled through all time, were fit only for servitude.But now, when physical might is giving place to mental ability, when brain competes successfully with brawn, woman is slowly but surely, rising to her proper place in the scale of humanity. Slowly, because of the opposition she meets. There are several classes that would still keep her within the narrow bounds of kitchen, nursery and parlor.Among the most bitter and powerful of these, are unprincipled politicians. Those who, with an love of power and the emoluments of office, are determined to obtain them, by any means at their command. These, trample under foot considerations of virtue and friendship and affection, in their eager race for the most prominent places. They enter gambling saloons, they patronize grog-shops, they are on familiar terms with the "rough" and the rowdy.As they succeed in getting the votes of these men, and begin to rise in the political scale, so does their influence increase. Success commands success and admiration, at least among the superficial and the thoughtless. The words of these men are quoted, their actions imitated, their company eagerly solicited, and their advice followed. When they return from the Legislative Hall, they are banqueted and toasted and serenaded. The one who receives any marks of attention from them, considers himself especially honored.Such a man has more influence over a certain part of community than has a clergyman, or a professor in college. And this influence is almost always on the wrong side. There are women in many places in this broad land, who look forward to his leaving town with a sigh of relief, and anticipate his return with terror and dismay, because they cannot keep the boys they love better than their own lives, away from his influence. Many a one has told me weeping, that it is just this man who is enticing her son into grog-shops and gambling saloons, and she is powerless to prevent it. She cannot vote him down from his high official standing, put an honest, temperate man in his place, and save her son from perdition, because, forsooth, she would be out of her sphere!Now, these men fear the moral influence of woman at the polls. They know that when she votes, they will be displaced; therefore they oppose her enfranchisement by every means in their power. One said to me not long since: "Perhaps you women will vote, but I hope it will not be in my day.""Then you will have to die within the next five years," I replied, for by that time so surely as the sun rises to-morrow, so surely women will be enfranchised throughout the length and breadth of the land, and this Government be in fact what it is now only in name, a model Republic."Men of this stamp, with other ambitious ones, who yet hope to obtain office, combine to block our path to the ballot-box. Here is a large and powerful class against us; and we can scarcely imagine the bitterness of their 'opposition, and the firmness with which they will resist Woman Suffrage. We have engaged in a conflict which will be no holiday affair. Wise and good men in every Legislature will vote for us, long before the ignorant and depraved masses, controlled by these unprincipled politicians, can be induced to ratify that vote. But having girded on our armor, let us fight valiantly, not with carnal weapons, but with the sword of Truth, the rifle of Argument, and the bayonet of Justice and Equal Rights, till every opponent shall acknowledge his defeat. Then woman will have finished the first chapter of a history, whose every page shall glow with yet more brilliant deeds, till time shall be no longer.ELIZABETH A. KINGSBURY.M. F. B.AGITATION.AGITATION is the hand-maid of progression. Every movement is characterized by excitement, agitation and discussion. The more agitation, thorough examination, and individual thought, the greater the promise of success, if the cause be founded on principles of right. Agitation and education go together in bringing a people up higher. Christ meant agitation when he commanded: "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."The oft-repeated war-cry "We must agitate," must also be ours. The masses of women need to be aroused from the torpid state engendered by continual dwarfing,--need to be awakened to what they might and should be,--need to be taught the wants of their natures,--need to be elevated to the highest, purest womanhood. The torpidity of woman balks her progress. "The stream that stagnates in its bedTurn s no man's mill."The enfranchisement of women depends upon the interest awakened among women. A mighty power is presented in an avalanche descending the mountain, gathering strength and velocity as it goes; a mightier power is presented in the vast hosts of marshalled men actuated by one common impulse of patriotism; but a grander, a subtler, an irresistible force would be embodied in a nation of women, who, throwing aside caprice and folly, would claim the heaven-born right of full development. Could that unity be attained, success would be certain. It can be approximated only by agitation and discussion, "line upon line, and precept upon precept.""Continual droppings wear away the hardest stones." Preaching makes converts. The meetings, discussions, lectures, and journals in behalf of women voting have their influence. Every once in a while, some one, who has hitherto opposed or remained silent, falls into the ranks.Agitation is a privilege. The waves and currents of the ocean keep its waters pure. But in the general stirring up, so much filth and scum are found floating on the ocean of current literature, that one is astounded at the display of human depravity, until memory recalls the electioneering papers and stump-speakers. The misconstruction, the defamation, the ridicule, and the false statements concerning the "Woman Movement" and its champions, now going the rounds of the would-be witty press, is but a continuation of the Billingsgate for which our corrupt men-politicians are notorious throughout the land. Every candidate for office, however moral, conscientious and upright in character, has been the object of its foulness, but it mostly subsides the day after the election. Of late years, one party has refrained, somewhat, from its extensive use, and it is to be hoped that all speakers and journals, claiming to be respectable, may yet be shamed into decency.Every brainless fop, every ignorant boor, and every foul-mouthed roue cracks his jokes upon the "impending crisis," as some of them term it. Every speaker and writer expresses his opinion concerning it. The question is discussed on the street corners, in the legal and medical offices, in the lyceum halls and in the pulpit. It is well, it shows the movement is gaining ground. Our modesty may shrink from the publicity, but great wrongs have to be publicly probed. The oppositionists fight doggedly, but if the onward march and attack be continued faithfully, they must retreat or surrender.In a recent issue of the N. Y. Independent, a Chicago divine, (the Rev. Mr. Hatfield) offers arguments, in an article entitled "Woman and the Ballot," which differ somewhat from the old, stereotyped logic. His first proposition--"The advocacy of the cause is for the most part in bad hands and is badly managed"--is not new. It is an assertion common to many who wish to see the cause fail, yet are unable to answer the arguments in behalf of its justness. It would be a miracle, if there were not some impolitic advocates, and some bad management. Human managers and management cannot be perfect. They never were, and never will be. Men and women, whose common-sense, refinement and morality are unimpeachable, may be incapable of properly managing a public cause. The Reverend gentleman does not refer to incapability when he asserts: "This Woman's Rights movement is largely in the hands of a class of women with whom the sensible wives and mothers of the country have no sympathy, and for whom they can feel no respect."The fact Is, the great majority of married women, who advocate and favor "woman's rights," are "sensible wives and mothers." The foundation principle of the movement is the elevation and full development of women, and the immediate consequences of a practical adoption of that principle are true, pure wives, and educated, affectionate mothers; notwithstanding the assertions of editors and divines to the contrary. Witness the active interest of Mrs. Horace Mann in the Kindergartens, the spicy common sense of Mrs. E. Cady Stanton, the excellent papers on the proper rearing and culture of children by Mrs. E. Oakes Smith in the Herald of Health, etc., etc. Multitudes of wives and mothers, pure and womanly as Dr. Holland's "Kathrina," are claiming human rights for their sex.He says further: "Many of both sexes who would give the question of Woman's Rights careful and candid consideration are repelled and disgusted by the atrocious sentiments of those who advocate it. How can it be otherwise, when these women proclaim from the platform and through the press that there are 'too many children,' and that when Cornelia finds her children too many for her they are 'Tarpean jewels?' These women 'wonder children do not open their mouths and curse the fathers begat them and the mothers that bore them.'" There are too many children unless their parents can be induced to care for them more and protect them better. Look at the numerous inmates of foundling and orphan asylums. Look at the multitudes of forlorn children whose mothers were killed by lust and by child-birth pain; at the hosts of worse than orphans subject to the abuse of drunken, licentious fathers and inheritors of their brutality. The stamina which should have been given to one is diffused among five or six, thereby swelling the lists of mortality among infants, and the number of effeminate, prematurely old men and women.Women believe that "Cornelia's jewels" form the most radiant crown woman can wear; but one of the saddest sights on earth is a woman whose soul and body has been dwarfed, health sacrificed, life shortened, and children defrauded by the sensuality of her husband and the oft-repeated pangs of travail.Children do curse their parents, when they learn through science how they have been robbed of their inheritance of health and strength. Yet, when women, who know of those terrible and almost unmentionable wrongs hidden in the marriage state, dare to expose and denounce them, men accuse them of want of refinement, of maternal instinct, and of true wifely affection.He quotes from an address that "At the time she became a mother, when there should have been joy alone at the thought that a babe was born into the world, she had turned her face to the wall and wept because her babe was a girl;" and asks "What reputable woman in a Christian land ever before made such an avowal as the one I have quoted?"Hundreds of thoughtful mothers daily make that avowal to themselves, as they think of the dangers with which custom, society, conventionalism and ignorance have surrounded their daughters. One, who has reflected upon the degenerating, hot-house culture of women, upon her oppression from the laws, upon her degradation by man, upon the wounds her too delicate nature must receive, upon the physical suffering she must endure from others' sin and ignorance, cannot look upon a prattling girl-baby, or upon blithe innocent girlhood, without sending up a wailing prayer, God protect her, and God help her!Is it so very atrocious for a woman to weep for sorrow, because her babe belongs to a sex wronged and dwarfed, when, as a trenchant writer expresses it, "the silliest man who has ever lived has always known enough, when he says his prayers, to thank God that he wasn't born a woman.""The strapping Amazons who are now haranguing the public on the rights and wrongs of woman have for their babes when born into the world no better welcome than tears of vexation and disgust." (A. libel). "Who wonders that the destruction of unborn children has become a hideous national crime? They that sow to the wind must reap the whirlwind." The gentlemen who prate of maternity, seem to forget that every case of infanticide, every murdered unborn one, and every sickly, mewling child had a father. Is woman alone guilty? Is there no word of condemnation for the men who ruin an innocent girl, who patronize the fallen woman, who debase the wife? So long as a woman can earn more by selling her soul than by honest labor; so long as the betrayed one finds no channel in which to return to respectability ; so long as girls are taught that marriage is a necessity; so long as their intellects and bodies are dwarfed until they feel they are unfit to become mothers, and so long as a woman has no right to assert that the marriage ceremony does not make her a legal prostitute,--so long will the "social evil" and the "national crime" increase. The advocates of woman's rights are battling against these evils, and trying to elevate woman to true womanhood, wifehood and motherhood. The main difference between the advocates of woman's rights and the class, of which the Chicago divine is a courteous specimen, is, the former take woman as a human being, as a foundation to build upon, while the latter take woman as a female. Let them turn the rule vice versa and see how it will work. If women are to be wives and mothers, men are to be husbands and fathers, but they are far from making that a prominent point in their education.The substance of his second proposition is that the ballot has not been shown a remedy for the evils complained of. That it will not open avenues of labor, will not make wages equal with those of men, and will not break up the liquor traffic. In 1774-5 the American colonists believed that representation and suffrage would remedy the evils imposed on them; and failing to obtain them by persuasion they gained them by war, for which they have been commended ever since. In 1868-9, numbers of the best, wisest and shrewdest men of the nation declared the only way to relieve the negro and make him a man, was to give him the ballot. Still it won't help woman any.In regard to the liquor business, he says: We need something more than votes to suppress the business. What we want is a moral power that will demand prohibitory laws and insist on their enforcement." Where, is that "moral power" to come from? Not from the men, and not from women in their present condition. Woman has tried, persuaded, pleaded and labored; she must become something more than she has been ere she can do more.His third proposition is: "There is little doubt that female suffrage would greatly augment, if not double, the political power of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States." Because ignorant, Irish Catholic women would abuse the privilege, it must be denied to intelligent American women. "It is a poor rule that won't work both ways." Not only are there Irish Catholic men, but ignorant Germans, and ignorant, corrupt Americans both North and South, who cast their vote "solidly on the side of political corruption and against an honest and efficient government;" hence no man in the United States should have the right of suffrage. Why didn't our political Solons think of these things--of misplaced power,--when they gave the right of ballot into the majority of the hands which but a short time ago were fighting against the government? "O Consistency, thou art a jewel!" When woman suffrage is to be dealt with, policy must be considered; when man suffrage is to be dealt with, policy is ignored and "inalienable rights" are prominent.He further asserts, "for years to come there would be no corresponding vote in favor of law and good government to counterbalance the one given by these bigoted and ignorant Catholic women." The Catholics will work energetically for the wrong, but American women will not move an inch in behalf of the right. A compliment indeed! Awaken American women to a sense of duty, and they are ready and willing to perform it. Our women, I do not mean vagrants or butterflies respond when called upon. The women of '76 were applauded to the derogation of their descendants, but the war proved the women of '61 equal to their great-grandmothers."Four-fifths of the American women are utterly opposed to the whole Woman's Rights movement," says our reverend authority. If they are opposed to it, it is because they have not been properly enlightened as to its principles and aims. Every woman who has thought upon the condition of women, feels that as a sex they are dwarfed and defrauded.Some, there are, who delight in their chains, as subjects reverence their despots. Many of the Old World think a monarchy is the best form of government, but their thinking so does not prove it. Many prefer that form, but does that prove that they would not be more happy and enlightened in a republic? Some of the slaves preferred slavery to liberty, but does that prove that slavery is better than liberty? or that they would not desire liberty when awakened to its benefit?Only one who has been a slave can fully realize the blessing of liberty ; but a slave, while a slave, cannot comprehend liberty.Let thorough investigation go on, let the pros and cons of the question be handled, the more there is said, the more will be heard. Agitation will finally cleanse the waters and throw the debris ashore. Specious arguments and paltry excuses show, to us, who are working and waiting, that we can exultingly exclaim with the old Philosopher "And yet it moves."M. F. B.J. S. MillWOMEN AS RULERS.WITH regard to the fitness of women, not only to participate in elections, but themselves to hold offices or practice professions involving important public responsibilities, I have already observed that this consideration is not essential to the practical question in dispute; since any woman who succeeds in an open profession, proves by that very fact that she is qualified for it. And in the case of public offices, if the political system of the country is such as to exclude unfit men, it will equally exclude unfit women, while if it is not, there is no additional evil in the fact that the unfit persons whom it admits may be either women or men. As long, therefore, as it is acknowledged that even a few women may be fit for these duties, the laws which shut the door on those exceptions cannot be justified by any opinion which can be held respecting the capacities of women in general. But though this last consideration is not essential, it is far from being irrelevant. An unprejudiced view of it gives additional strength to the arguments against the disabilities of women and reinforces them by high considerations of practical utility.Let us at first make entire abstraction of all psychological considerations tending to show that any of the mental differences supposed to exist between women and men are but the natural effect of the differences in their education and circumstances, and indicated no radical difference, far less radical inferiority of nature. Let us consider women only as they already are, or as they are known to have been, and the capacities which they have already practically shown. What they have done, that at least, if nothing else, it is proved that they can do. When we consider how sedulously they are all trained away from, instead of being trained toward, any of the occupations or objects reserved for men, it is evident that I am taking a very humble ground for them when I rest their case on what they have actually achieved. For, in this case, negative evidence is worth little, while any positive evidence is conclusive. It cannot be inferred to be impossible that a woman should be a Homer, or an Aristotle, or a Michael Angelo, or a Beethoven, because no woman has yet actually produced works comparable to theirs in any of those lines of excellence. This negative fact, at most, leaves the question uncertain, and open to psychological discussion. But it is quite certain that a woman can be a Queen Elizabeth, or a Deborah, or a Joan of Arc, since this is not inference, but fact. Now it is a curious consideration, that the only things which the existing law excludes women from doing, are the things which they have proved that they are able to do. There is no law to prevent a woman from having written all the plays of Shakespeare, or composed all the operas of Mozart. But Queen Elizabeth or Queen Victoria, had they not inherited the throne, could not have been intrusted with the smallest of the political duties of which the former showed herself equal to the greatest.If anything conclusive could be inferred from experience, without psychological analysis, it would be that the things which women are not allowed to do are the very ones for which they are peculiarly qualified; since their vocation for government has made its way, and become conspicuous, through the very few opportunities which have been given; while in the lines of distinction which apparently were freely open to them, they have by no means so eminently distinguished themselves. We know how small a number of reigning queens history presents, in comparison with that of kings. Of this smaller number, a far larger proportion have shown talents for rule; though many of them have occupied the throne in difficult periods. It is remarkable, too, that they have, in a great number of instances, been distinguished by merits the most opposite to the imaginary and conventional character of women; they have been as much remarked for the firmness and vigor of their rule, as for its intelligence. When, to queens and empresses, we add regents, and viceroys of provinces, the list of women who have been eminent rulers of mankind swells to a great length.Especially is this true if we take into consideration Asia as well as Europe. If a Hindoo principality is strongly, vigilantly, and economically governed; if order is preserved without oppression; if cultivation is extended, and the people prosperous, in three cases out of four that principality is under a woman's rule. This fact, to me an entirely unexpected one, I have collected from a long official knowledge of Hindoo governments. There are many such instances: for though, by Hindoo institutions, a woman cannot reign, she is the legal regent of a kingdom during the minority of the heir; and minorities are frequent, the lives of the male rulers being so- often prematurely terminated through the effect of inactivity and sensual excesses. When we consider that these princesses have never been seen in public, have never conversed with any man not of their own family except from behind a curtain, that they do not read, and if they did, there is no book in their languages which can give them the smallest instruction on political affairs, the example they afford of the natural capacity of women for government, is very striking.--From Mill's "Subjection of Women," published by D. Appleton & Co.Wendell PhillipsFULL justice has never been done to the influence of woman on Literature and Society. Neither the classic nor the feudal age had anything deserving to be called Society. What we call by that name was born in modern times, and owes its existence to woman. Society, the natural outgrowth of the New Testament, without which Christianity was only a dogma, a hermit or a monster--was never born till woman was allowed her true place, and men learned that really, under Christ, there was neither male or female--Society, the only field where the sexes have ever met on terms of equality--the arena where character is formed and studied--the crucible of ideas--the cradle and the realm of public opinion--the spur and the crown of ambition--the world's university--the tribunal which unmasks pretension and stamps real merit--at once a school, and a theater-which gives government leave to be, and out-runs the formal church in guiding the moral sense of the age--who shall fitly tell us the power of this marvelous agent over the civil and religious world? What else can as rightfully claim the first place among the controlling elements of the last two centuries? Yet this is the throne of woman; the throne which, like a first conquerer, she founded and then filled.--Address by Wendell Phillips.David PlumbI HEAR THEE AGAIN, MOTHER.As I muse while the soft evening shadows are falling And think on the days of my childhood agone,When I heard thee, sweet mother, in tenderness callingThy boy to thy side as the day's sports were done,And I laid in thy lap, for thy motherly blessing,All a-weary, my head, until by thy caressing,I slept where I made my soft couch on thy knee,Even now, in fond fancy, my spirit possessing,I hear thee again, mother, calling to me.Then it seems, as I fall on thy lap, thou art smoothing Those same silken locks, while my sweat-covered browFeels the strokes of thy palm, all so soft and so soothingAnd again, as I slumbered then, so would I now;But the vision, so sweet, keeps my senses from sleeping, As I feel o'er my face thy long, dark tresses sweepingAnd thy mild hazel eyes looking on me I see;So, all wakeful and sad, I betake me to weeping As I think, mother, once this was real to me:Once was real, but now is a transient illusion,For long years have elapsed since that thrice blissful day;And the silvery threads mix themselves with profusion,In the locks that so oft on thy warm bosom lay:Though but dream of the hour when the shadows are falling,Oft and oft may I hear thee, sweet mother, a-calling,As of old, when, a boy, I went running to thee;And a joy shall it be, every other forestallingThat I hear thee again, mother, calling to me.DAVID PLUMB.M. F. BurlingameWILL SUFFRAGE DEMORALIZE WOMEN?THE above question is seriously asked by many who favor the principles of the woman movement, yet fear its practical results. They fear that women will lose their feminine characteristics, their purity and modesty, and will descend to the roughness, the brazen effrontery, and the vices of men.Said one gentleman: "We now give woman all the rights which will elevate her, and withhold only those which would degrade her."There is no human right degrading in itself. Its surroundings and abuses may be degrading, but not the right. The right of suffrage is not degrading to a man, but the profanity and intoxication attending elections are. The right to hold office is not degrading, but fraud and bribery are. The right to labor in any occupation is not degrading, but the companionship of vicious laborers is.Shall any man forego those rights because of their degrading circumstances? Can not a true, conscientious man exercise those rights without becoming degraded by those circumstances?Let every woman ask herself, "Will I be personally degraded by acting upon any principle, and by possessing any liberty and right involved in the Woman's Rights movement?"What woman will assert the affirmative?What man will assert: "My wife, my mother, and my sister would become coarse, degraded, and vicious by possessing the liberty and rights advocated by the movement?"If there is one, God help and pity him in his affliction.As a woman, aiming at pure and high development, I feel and know that no human right can degrade me.There are no such things really as "woman's rights" and "Man's rights." Human rights is the expression. Man and woman equal in the sight of law and society, without distinction as to liberty and right, without partiality or aggression, even as they stand before God.But will not the mass of women be demoralized?Do inalienable human rights, not assumed rights, founded on license instead of liberty, demoralize the mass of men? If so, is not the suppression of those rights, a question of expediency ?What will demoralize women will demoralize men.Now comes the humiliating admission. The mass of men are rough, profane, and vicious, and we do not want our women to descend to their level.The roughness, profanity, drunkenness and other vices of men are not men the results of liberty and human rights, for they exist among men deprived of liberty and human rights--in kingdoms, in empires and in bondage.The fraud, intrigue and knavery found in politics are not the legitimate fruit of liberty, but the abuses of liberty. Shutting woman up within four walls, and depriving her of the rights of a human being, do not deter her from the vices of men, for a class of women descend to those vices despite law, custom and society. Equal rights would not augment the ranks of degraded women, but, tend to thin them. The arbitrary laws, by which man thinks to preserve woman's morals, do not restrain her, but her own conscience and high appreciation of virtue do.Reverse the position of men and women, or suppose the mass of men to take the present political position of American women, subject to the same restrictions and aggressions at the hands of a privileged few forming the government, and would the morals of men be improved? Would not their aimless, dwarfed lives lead them into greater excesses than at present? This fact stands pre-eminent-wherever women approximate nearest to equal rights, there is found the highest civilization; where women approach nearest the nonentity of bondage, there is found the lowest barbarism.So as woman rises, man rises, and society progresses toward a higher state.Contamination is the bug-bear of the woman movement. It opposed the education of women in the same schools with men, opposed the employment of women as clerks, saleswomen, printers, etc., and opposed the entrance of woman into the medical profession. Yet, in every direction wherein woman has experimented, she has proved the alarm false.Suppose a reformer should go to Turkey and propose to the women of that country that polygamy be abolished, that women appear upon the streets unveiled, that they mingle in the general society of men, that they attend religious services in company with men, and that their daughters be educated in the same schools with their sons; would not every Turkish man stand aghast and protest against the contamination and demoralization of Turkish women?Yet American women possess and use all those privileges and many more, without any resulting contamination and demoralization.No doubt, temporary evils would arise if the American woman's privileges were granted to Turkish women, but if they were educated up to the point, every one must admit that the Turkish nation would be greatly elevated.The woman movement strikes so deep and overturns so many social wrongs, that in the tearing down and building up, some temporary confusion and evil must arise, but order and system will soon prevail.There will always be fools and ninnies. We shall always see the sad sights of men and women perverting their talents, abusing their physical powers, and misusing their time. Under the new dispensation, there will be degraded men and women, frivolous, heartless men and women, and selfish men and women, as there are now, but the general tendency will be upward. There will be desolated homes, neglected children, and, excitement-hunting women, but not more than there are now--not so many.Plato said, "When a man is made a slave, God takes from him half of his soul." The same is true of woman. Their souls have been dwarfed, human liberty and human rights will develop their true proportions. Women are learning more, thinking more. The chrysalis is opening. The coming woman will be better educated, better disciplined. She, will aim at a higher standard. Having knowledge and actuated by high purposes, she will strive to restrain the evil, the animal, in herself, in man, in society and in the nation; and to foster the pure, the spiritual.The weak, dwarfed woman of the present may need to shrink from contamination, but the educated, well-developed woman of the future will perform her mission unscathed.How unwilling men are to trust woman. They elevate her to angel-hood in their theories at the expense or her womanhood, yet they are afraid to let that angelhood be tested. The world does not need angels, serfs, or dolls, but women, with a brave, strong love for humanity, with unfearing, uncompromising consciences, to penetrate and purify by their womanliness.Men have stood supinely while corruption ate at the vitals of society and government; while vileness polluted and villainy defrauded the rights of a free people; but will not woman's energy arouse them to action?The very fact that woman will walk along political avenues, will stimulate men to remove the filth and vileness, that her pure eyes may not be offended.H. W. Beecher says, "If women were to vote there would be an end of indecent voting places;" and the same is true of all the other indecencies men fear to have women encounter.Minor points, the principal of which appears to be the working of roads, will be readily settled when the great questions are carried.Pure, true women will not neglect their duties or forget their womanliness, because, instead of partial liberty, they have perfect liberty.Suffrage will not demoralize women, because the degrading circumstances accompanying political affairs are not the consequences of human rights but the fruits of man's evil propensities. They are not among the rights that woman claims, but among the wrongs she will fight.Secondly, these degrading circumstances will in a great degree be removed.Lastly, suffrage, including all it means, its changes and reforms, will not demoralize women because it is right."O ye of little faith!" wrong cannot result from right. The world moves forward when justice reigns over policy."God never fails in an experiment,Nor tries experiment upon a raceBut to educe its highest style of lifeAnd sublimate its issues."M. F. BURLINGAMEEditorial Department.THE "TILT" OPENED.SINCE our last, in which we made a synopsis of Mrs. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE's admirable presentation of the "Woman Question," the Hearth and Home, in which journal the article appeared, has contained the second of the promised series, from the pen of Hon. HORACE GREELEY, who, picking up the glove of the lady, takes a counter view of the question.To thousands of the educated men and women of the country the words of the veteran Editor of the Tribune come with a greater weight than the utterances of any living American journalist. Irreproachable in moral character, honest in intention, identified with many of the reforms of the day, a careful, pains-taking investigator after truth, whatever its guise, the well-known eccentricities of the writer have never prevented a large class of readers from ascribing to the opinions of HORACE GREELEY almost the weight of authority of an oracle. To the more discerning, however, of his friends, his singular obtuseness upon certain subjects has been a cause of unceasing regret. Especially concerning the growing question of Woman Suffrage, it had been hoped that the scales would have fallen from his eyes, and that he would be annointed, as Saul, to see the Right, and lend his influence in the direction of the broadly democratic principle of Universal Franchise. This last carefully prepared article against Woman Suffrage leaves, we regret to say, but little room for the further indulgence of that hope; and the New World, which leads the Old in so much that is worthy, must yet longer rest under the mortification of seeing lent to the Cause abroad a weight of names, among statesmen, philosophers, and men of letters, which our country is slow to emulate.Mr. GREELEY commences his "Notions of Woman's Rights" with the proposition that "God created our race, male and female, with a clear-seeing intent that it should thereby be rendered more efficient, nobler, happier, than it otherwise could be and that this diversity relates not to a single function merely; but extends to our entire physical, intellectual and emotional nature."Enlarging, somewhat, upon this, and the division of labor between the sexes in the ruder forms of early society, Mr. GREELEY proceeds to his third proposition that when the time arrived for establishing a government or State, other than that oldest and simplest patriarchal rule which doubtless sufficed for a season, the men assembled for the purpose, whether generally or by delegates, leaving the women at home, attending to their proper business, and this because of a mutual and general intuition that such was the Divine Order, dictated by the highest good -of the entire human family."Proposition fourth affirms "that the appointed sphere of man is broader, not higher than that of woman--that the household is her kingdom, within which her influence should be paramount, and her decisions have the force of law. Of course, a true wife will consult her husband on all matters of importance, and will evince great deference to his wishes, tastes, feelings, aversions; just as a true husband will evince like deference to those of his wife; but Nature has assigned to each a distinct, definite sphere, and the happiness of both, the due development and well being of their children, the comfort and enjoyment of their guests, dictate that each should recognize the others' precedence within the proper radius of his or her dominion."Following these, are several kindred propositions explanatory of Mr. GREELEY'S convictions, to which, in detail, space will not permit us to refer. The right of woman to do whatever she can do well, Mr. GREELEY admits, but he deprecates all promiscuous mingling together of the sexes, whether in the shop, the field, the college, or hall of legislation. Touching affairs of Government, Mr. GREELEY would be willing for the women of the country to choose their wisest and best to assemble as delegates, consider the needs and wrongs of their sex, and memorialize Congress for the removal of those wrongs. Valuable suggestions, such as the National Legislature would gladly second, Mr. GREELEY believes might be expected from such a deliberative assemblage of the "gentler and purer sex;" but to make up a Congress of men and women, and such women as would naturally aspire to and enjoy seats therein, he considers would be fraught with deplorable consequences. Concerning the ballot and the holding of office, he thus writes: "Of my seven children, but two survive, both girls, for whom I would make life as fair and hopeful as may be. I presume them quite as capable as most other girls to do their part in whatever befits their sex and their station. I would have their lives active, useful, beneficent, and respected. If I thought it well for them to be voters, jurywomen, electioneerers, and candidates for office, I have no conceivable motive for seeking to interpose a barrier to their following such a career. But I do not, cannot believe that such is the sphere for which they were designed by an All-wise Father. I believe that their chances of usefulness and of happiness would be seriously diminished by precipitating them on such a course. I greatly prefer that they should be women, such as Milton portrayed in Eve, and Shakespeare in Imogen."We have quoted thus at length from this article of Mr. GREELEY'S, preferring so to do to offering much of comment thereon, leaving its force or weakness to the discernment of the reader. That it is most remarkable for its admissions, we think it will be the judgment of every student of this question now agitating to its center all civilized society. The recommendation of an Advisory Congress, of itself is an admission of Woman's fitness and duty to participate in affairs of State, which surely goes far towards covering the entire ground claimed by the most strenuous advocate of Woman Suffrage. When it is once admitted that Woman can fitly and wisely counsel with Man concerning National affairs, the precise manner in which she can best perform her work will be a matter easily determined, nor need we say that when that hour arrives the ballot will be placed in her hand.Mr. GREELEY is not yet old. Years of usefulness, we trust, are before him, and, to the mighty changes witnessed in his life, may be added the crowning revolution in politics of the extension of the ballot to Woman, causing, by its elevating influences, a reconsideration of judgment which he now regards as impossible.THE TRUE POLICY.OUR readers will remember that in THE ADVOCATE for August we printed a letter from Mrs. FRANCES D. GAGE, entitled "The Fifteenth Amendment," in which that earnest, large-hearted woman expressed her convictions concerning that pending measure and the duty of every friend of humanity. As certain sentiments therein ascribed to WENDELL PHILLIPS called forth the article entitled "Woman's Rights," from that distinguished pen, to be found in our September number, we cheerfully give place, to the following letter from Mrs. GAGE, In which it will be seen full justice is done to Mr. PHILLIPS, as one of the truest Reformers of the age; while the duty of every well-wisher of humanity is so simply yet clearly defined that we could wish its brief words might penetrate every home and heart in the land:Frances Dana GageLETTER FROM FRANCES DANA GAGE.No. 70 Willow Street, Brooklyn, September 15th, 1869.To the Editor of the Woman's Advocate:PERMIT me to say to the readers of THE ADVOCATE a few words with regard to the sentence in my article on the Fifteenth Amendment in your August number. When I wrote the words quoted as the expression of Mr. Phillips, I wrote them honestly thinking I was writing the truth.As Mr. Phillips asserts in his denial of the words, "I know it has been said a hundred times that I have done all these things," and I had heard a hundred and more times that he had so spoken, and not having been present at the committee meetings to which he alludes, I accepted the words as his and so wrote them; meaning no more than that he, (Mr. Phillips) felt that the negro's position should be made secure before that of woman, as the greater necessity. I regret that I made the mistake, and rejoice that he has so promptly corrected me and so positively defined his position. I know that by many he has been misunderstood. As an active, earnest and generous friend of woman there is no man who can take precedence of Wendell Phillips. If he had bidden women wait a little, I for one, although "grieved," should have entirely forgiven him, in consideration of his vast philanthropies and his far-seeing sense of fitness and justice.Now, a word for myself. When I engaged in the Reforms of Anti-Slavery, Woman's Rights and Temperance, forty years ago, they three seemed to me like a three-strand cord, so bound together that to leave either out would weaken the whole. I had lived where I saw clearly that drunkenness added greatly to the horrors of the slave's fate, and to the cruelty of woman's life, under the unjust and tyrannical usages of society. I saw, too, that the majority of those that were pro-slavery, were largely the intemperate. I never knew or heard of a mob, a tarring, or feathering, the burning down of a hall or destroying a printing press, the whipping to death or burning of a negro, where whiskey was not the fuel that added fire to the fury of all the diabolical wretches. The most savage wife beaters and wife murderers were always inebriates; and I believe, to-day, that intemperance has whetted nearly every knife, and aimed nearly every bullet, that has made the South such a pandemonium since the war. Sober men do not do these things. Whiskey was not the principle but the bulwark of defense.The Fifteenth Amendment, though a broad and needed justice, would not screen all from drunken rebel hate; nor would the right to the ballot give women protection against the husband who "has tarried long at the wine," or the whiskey bottle. But the right of suffrage will give to both the negro and the woman a foundation for future protection, upon which, if they are wise, they can build beautiful structures of Liberty, Equality and Temperance in the years that are to come. So thinking and feeling I have ever worked for these three great reforms as parts of one great whole. Yours truly,FRANCES DANA GAGE.A DISTINGUISHED WOMAN ON SUFFRAGE.OF the women identified with our Nation's literature, who, from the retirement of their homes, send out thoughts to instruct and elevate mankind, few are more endeared to the liberal reading public than LYDIA MARIA CHILD. In the wide range of reformatory subjects there are few themes that her pen has not touched to inspire with respect or interest; and, let volumes multiply as they may, thousands of readers throughout the land will yet turn over the pages of those dear, delightful "Letters from New York," or, maybe, some graver philosophical work, to dwell upon passages which have afforded them so oft a pleasure. Less identified than of yore with editorial or public life, later years have witnessed no abatement of zeal, or flagging of her industrious pen; and, in addition to numerous volumes given to the press, the liberal journals of the day have been enriched with frequent contributions from her pen, of more than ordinary interest. From the Anti-Slavery Standard of August 28th we quote the following letter, possessing an especial value at the present moment:WOMEN AND THE FREEDMEN.For more than a year past, I have observed in the writings of some advocates of women's suffrage, sentiments, more or less openly expressed, which have excited a fear in my mind that rotten timbers were getting introduced into the foundation of our cause. In allusions to the freedmen's right to vote I have occasionally noticed something of the sneering tone habitually assumed by slaveholders and their copperhead allies. Complaints that negroes were allowed to vote, while women were excluded from the polls have been followed by a very obvious readiness on the part of some to set aside the rights of the colored people for the advancement of the woman cause. Mrs. Stanton, in a letter of invitation to a Convention of Women, last Spring expressed her surprise and gratification at the number of sympathizing letters she received from Southern women. I probably should have been surprised also, if my mind had not previously been excited to watchfulness by the symptoms to which I have just alluded. If the Pope should join the Free Religious Association in Boston, I should at once query with myself how he was calculating to use the Association for the benefit of Rome; and the singular spectacle of Southerners, especially of Southern women, in love with progress, at once gave rise to similar questions. I could not but observe that while they were said to be zealous for women's voting, the freedmen were charged with being opposed to it. Years ago, I used to say that negroes were anti-slavery, as naturally as hens were anti-hawk; and I asked myself, Are their instincts true in this matter also? Do they "feel it in their bones" that Southern women will be certain to aid Southern men in their determined efforts to deprive them of the right to vote? We all know how proofs of that unrelenting determination are piled up mountain-high in the accounts of elections at the South. It requires no great acuteness to perceive what an advantage will be gained by the enemies of the United States if they can secure the elective franchise for rebel women, and take It away from loyal blacks. In the days of slave-holding supremacy, the aristocracy of the South always had a party of male politicians at the North, who, while they talked loudly about human rights, were ever ready to rivet more firmly the chains of the slave, for the sake of securing Southern patronage in carrying out their own personal and party plans. And now, when Southern women manifest a tendency to enter the political arena, we see a party of female politicians at the North ready to sacrifice the rights of colored men in order to secure the co-operation of Southern ladies in their efforts for the enfranchisement of women. What an argument is this to put into the mouths of those who deny that the suffrage of women would tend to purify politics!I was glad to see, in THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE, an article from Wendell Phillips rebuking these women for their faithlessness to principle; and glad to notice also that Mr. Smalley, in one of his Letters to the Tribune, expresses his disapprobation of such a course. For myself, I find it requires a good deal of restraining grace to speak in moderate terms of a compromise so utterly wrong in principle, so shamefully mean and selfish in its spirit. God forbid that women should ever consent to take one iota from the rights of others for the sake of advancing their own! Will human beings never learn that no good thing can ever be firmly established on a basis of violated principle? There may seem to be some present advantages gained by such a course, but, in some form or other, the wrong is sure to return and plague the doer. Grant that women might be allowed to vote a few years sooner in consequence of exerting their influence against the freedmen's right of suffrage, what would be the consequence? They would have obtained an external good at the price of a great internal injury to themselves. They would show that the conscience of woman was in the auction-room, for hackneyed politicians to bid upon its price. They would prove themselves unworthy to vote, unfit to discharge the responsible duties of citizenship; and by so doing they would hinder the real progress of women more than any legal disabilities could possibly do.I am glad to know that many women view this subject as I do. They see, as I do, that when a thing is radically wrong, no array of possible advantages can make it right. As American citizens, we profess to believe that every human being has a right to a voice in the laws by which he is governed; and if we do not believe this, our professions of freedom are hollow brass. The people born with dark complexions have this right in common with all human beings; and, in addition to this universal right, they have an especial claim upon our gratitude, as well as our sense of justice. They hid our hunted soldiers, they fed the famishing, they tended the sick, they guided our wanderers to places of safety. Many a wife and mother among us owes the return of dear ones to their loyalty, intelligence, and tender care. And shall we allow ourselves to become accomplices of their oppressors? Shall our influence go to strengthen the, murderous hands of the Ku-Klux-Klan? If we think our rights would be more perfectly secured if we were allowed to vote, how much more true is it of them, who are living in the midst of cunning and malignant enemies! I regard it as a shame to womanhood that any one should think of bartering away their rights for the sake of more promptly securing her own.I have never been so sanguine as many concerning the great purification that would be wrought in politics by the admission of women to the polls; and therefore I am not much disappointed at this proof that they have the same human nature as men; I am only a little surprised that they should so soon begin to follow the crooked ways of politicians. It does not, however, in the least change my conviction that women ought to vote, and that, their voting would, on the whole, have a beneficial effect upon themselves and the community. In the first place, we are human beings; and I regard it as an eternal principle of right that every human being should have a voice in the laws that govern him. In the next place, the exercise of that right involves large responsibilities, and necessarily ennobles character, in proportion as those responsibilities are understood and appreciated; and we can understand them and appreciate them only by incurring them. Lastly there are several subjects on which it is obviously for the interest of women to vote wisely. The cause of temperance, for instance, would doubtless find powerful allies in them. Some of them will exhibit a talent for politics, which practically means indirectness and compromise; but that class I think will always be a small minority, and will do no more harm than the corresponding class of men do.LYDIA MARIA CHILD."CONSISTENCY, THOU ART A JEWEL!"To the outcry raised by the press at Mrs. Stowe's "Defence of Lady Byron," no one of our metropolitan journals has more contributed than the N. Y. Sun, edited by Charles A. Dana, formerly of the N. Y. Tribune. With an affectation of morality--even piety--refreshing to those acquainted with its true character, the Sun has omitted no opportunity to swell the clamor excited by the appearance of the article in question, pandering to a perverted prejudice, and adding to the obloquy heaped upon an honored woman--one bearing a name identified with what is purest and best in our literature.Concerning either the facts of Mrs. Stowe's article, or the wisdom of giving publicity thereto, it is not our purpose at this moment to speak. Of the former, she will doubtless give, in her own good time, fitting evi- dence; and of the judiciousness of such a step, or the purity of her motives, abler pens than ours have already pronounced an opinion. But whether it all be ill or well done, for a journal which has played the part of the N. Y. Sun--which has defied decency, torn the veil guarding the most sacred of privacies, and, at one unmerciful blow, would have blighted the prospects of a rising young man, one of the brightest lights in American journalism,--to sit in judgment concerning a moral question is a coolness and obliviousness of its own past record of which we had scarcely believed it capable. Lord Byron is dead. To the grave in which he lies no earthly word may reach to disturb; but a living, breathing being was selected as the Sun's target, and having aimed his poisoned shaft the archer waited secure to see the victim drop from the shining heights of prosperity which he had reached. Perhaps not in journalism has there been a more wanton, unjustifiable assault upon individual reputation than that of Dana's upon the standing and good name of JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG. Let Mr. Dana, if he aims to be the Mephistopheles of American journalists, at least study Consistency.NOTES.MISS MARY PUTNAM, daughter of G. P. Putnam, Publisher, of this city, is studying medicine in Paris.The woman's cause in France has just lost one of its best supporters, by death, Emile Barrault, publicist and orator. He was a "Woman's Rights" man since 1832.Miss Frances Power Cobbe says: "The uprising of a sex throughout the civilized world, is certainly a unique fact in history and can hardly fail of some important results."E Progresso, a Portuguese paper, published in Lisbon, says: "The ladies of St. Petersburg solicit permission from the authorities, to establish a publishing house for the literary writings of women.Mrs. Eliza F. Janney, a widow, daughter-in-law of the Indian Superintendent at Omaha, and a Virginia woman distinguished for her brave loyalty during the war, has been appointed Chief Clerk at the Northern Indian Superintendency, at Omaha.We, have received regularly since its first issue Le Droit des Femmes, the Parisian organ of Woman's Rights. It is a very able and interesting paper, whose editor and contributors have obtained fame in the world of science and thought They all belong to the Republican party of France.George Sand has long been a striking example of vigorous imagination and intellect preserved in advanced age. She is now near the limit of three score and ten, and, as she says, is now writing, every day, more than twenty years ago, when she was at the height of her fame. She has a serial novel running in the Revue des Deux Mondes.The first examinations of women under the new regulation admitting them to Cambridge (England) University, have resulted in a triumph for the sex. Thirty-six candidates presented themselves, and twenty-five were accepted, and several of these received special marks of distinction in various branches such as arithmetic, religious knowledge and languages.The Independent says: "Appleton's Journal has a cartoon representing a mother holding a babe in her arms, and underneath is the question, 'Will She Vote?' What 'she' is meant is not plain-whether ,the mother or her child. If it be the mother, we answer that she will probably not live to vote; but, if it be the daughter, we think the chances are flattering that she will. The girl of the next period is bound to vote."The "Union Course" of lectures in Boston the coming winter will be somewhat notable in consequence of the introduction of the "Woman Question." Rev. Gilbert Haven will advocate the extension of suffrage to woman, to which Dr. FuIton--the gentleman of such unenviable reputation--will reply. Truly, the Doctor has no slight stock of self-complacency to be thus ready for a fresh encounter on a field in which his laurels have been so scanty.The Agitator (Mrs. Livermore's journal) says: "There is, at last, a University in Great Britain where women may study medicine and take degrees entitling them to practice. The University of Edinburgh has the credit of taking the lead in the reform, and has made it complete by authorizing the establishment of separate classes for female medical students. This greet concession is due mainly to the energy and perseverance of Miss S. Jex Blake, who refused to be driven out of Great Britain to pursue her studies."Rev. Mrs. P. A. Hanaford, pastor of two parishes, one at Waltham, Mass., the other at Hingham, Mass., is prepared to lecture for Lyceums, on the following topics: "The Woman in White;" or, "Margaret Fuller as a Woman, a Writer, and a Power." "Excelsior,"--A lecture on Woman's Rights and Duties. "The Old Oaken Bucket,"--A lecture on Total Abstinence. "The Crusade;"--A lecture on Good Templarism. "Woman,"--A Lyceum Lecture-Poem. Mrs. Hanaford is well-known as an earnest, effective speaker, and lyceum committees will do well to early treat with her for engagements in their respective courses of lectures.Among the journals not especially devoted the question of Woman Suffrage, yet rendering the cause excellent service, is the Sunday Dispatch of Philadelphia, which sustains a weekly "Women's Department," edited by a woman, abounding in excellent matter, and taking the true grounds so generally ignored by the time-serving press of the country. Such liberality and independence of opinion cannot be too warmly commended, and we rejoice to learn that this otherwise ably edited journal is receiving the patronage from the public to which so praise-worthy a feature justly entitles it.Packard's Monthly, one of the most enterprising and liberal of our periodicals, thus speaks of the "Woman Question": "There seems to be a generous disposition on all hands to give the women a chance for competition in the affairs of life. Their 'Question' is never tabled, postponed, or ruled out of order; and, although it thus has the prominence and importance of a 'privileged question,' it is never moved as the 'previous question,' for the purpose of cutting off debate. At all events, it is always among the 'orders of the day,' and always treated (?) with distinguished courtesy and liberality by the 'tyrant' man."Putnam's Monthly for October says: "We have before us a little pamphlet containing the Constitution and By-Laws of 'The Ladies' Art Association,' a new society formed to promote the interests of women artists. The movement is a good one, and we have no doubt it will prove to be of great benefit to ladies who study art as a profession. We understand that the society has secured the lease of a large and well-lighted room in Clinton Hall, capable of accommodating about thirty easels, which will be rented at a moderate price to ladies engaged in the study of art. They have also engaged rooms in the 'Woman's Bureau' building, in East 23d street, though they have no connection with that institution, as a permanent gallery of exhibition for the works of women artists. Works for sale can be exhibited in this gallery, and the prices can be ascertained from the attendant in charge."The Woman's( Dayton, Ohio) Advocate, speaking of the recent Chicago Convention says: "The Woman's Suffrage Convention held in Chicago on the 9th and 10th instant, was a success, both in point of numbers and in interest. The object of the Convention, as heretofore stated, was to 'bring together the workers and leaders of the Woman Suffrage Cause in the several Western States, to unite on some definite plan of action for the future, to form acquaintance with each other, and to arrange for a more general and complete movement in the West. Hon. C. B. Waite presided temporarily. Among the speakers present were Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Mott, Mrs. Kate Doggett, Madame D'Harricourt, and others of Chicago; Lucy Stone, Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Longley, Mrs. Hazard, Miss Lizzie M. Boynton, Mrs. Bishop, Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Ballou, and others from abroad. Many distinguished men, from the East and West, were also present, and took part in the deliberations. Mr. Livermore was called to preside permanently, with Mrs. Longley, of Ohio; Mrs. Willhete, of Indiana; Mrs. Hazard, of St. Louis; Mrs. Adams, of Iowa; Mrs. Bishop, of Minnesota, as Vice-Presidents. Amanda M. Way, of Indianapolis, was appointed Secretary, and Mrs., Kate Doggett, of Chicago, Treasurer. Many important letters from notable workers in the Cause were read, and reports of the progress of the work in the several States presented. One of the most prominent features of the Convention was the address delivered by Mrs. E. 0. G. Willard, author of 'Sexology, the Philosophy of Life,' on the 'Sphere of Woman, and the Orbit of Man.' It is said to have been the most able and lucid address of the Convention, arguing and explaining away the disgraceful 'sphere' doctrine so much referred to by the opponents of the Woman Cause. A series of resolutions were adopted, the several women justly reprimanded the late temperance body, for excluding the woman suffrage plank from its platform, and the Convention adjourned."LITERARY.RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONFLICT. By Samuel J. May. Cloth, 408 pp. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.If, as has been remarked by some writer, the selection of a subject is the first pledge of the excellence of a work, Mr. May may be congratulated on the wisdom of chosingchoosing a theme which, perhaps, of all others offers the rarest opportunity for a work of absorbing interest. If Slavery was the tragedy played upon the great stage of American history, so, for the last Thirty Years previous to its bloody abolishment, the Abolitionists were the actors around whom clustered the interest which no time will lessen in the recollection of a grateful posterity.Turning over the pages of Mr. May's volume--the various contents of which appeared originally in the Christian (Boston) Register, and are now collected with the author's revisions--one meets with the brief biographical sketches of the well-known pioneers in the Anti-Slavery Reform; that handful of earnest men and women, who, more than a third of a century ago, presented the grandly moral spectacle of assembling and giving birth to that second and truer Declaration of Independence--the Declaration of Sentiments--to which they adhered, with a fidelity such as the world never contemplated, through all those years marked by an obloquy and spirit of persecution such as a repentant Nation would gladly efface from its escutcheon. With what delight one, who has grown with the slow growth of the Reform, and received the ineffaceable impressions of its champions,--lingers over each scrap of by-gone history, as familiarly set forth by the writer! A generation has stepped upon the stage of active life since the first Philadelphia Convention, and many of revered memory, of that "advance guard," were not permitted, in flesh, to behold the fulfillment of their most fervent aspiration. Yet, calling, as Mr. May, the roll, whether still in active life, or promoted to the "higher sphere," battle-scarred and wearing the familiar look, all seem to arise, to rejoice in the fulfilling of their work and the fast obliterating, from the land, of human bondage.Perhaps as well as reasonably could be expected, Mr. May has performed his task. As stated in his preface, he neither hopes nor expects his "sketches" to satisfy the desire for "a more thorough history of the conflict with slavery, in our country and in Great Britain." Noticeable omissions there are of biography and of allusion to distinguished services, which a more complete history, or enlargement of Mr. May's work, should correct. While, amid so much that is fascinating, it is almost impossible to select any particular article or passage, we we would say that, perhaps, Charles C. Burleigh's consecration to the Cause touched us most deeply; while "George Thompson's First Year in America," or "John G. Whittier and the Anti-Slavery Poets," impressed us as furnishing the best illustrations of the pleasant, graphic style of the author. Still, throughout its pages one can scarcely go amiss for agreeable reminiscence, or entertaining bit of history. As an illustration of the high purpose which animated the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, as well as of Mr. May's style, we present a single extract from the paper entitled "The Convention at Philadelphia":"If I ever boast of anything it is this: that I was a member of the Convention that instituted the American Anti-Slavery Society. That assembly, gathered from eleven different States of our Republic, was composed of devout men of every sect and of no sect in religion, of each political party and of neither; but they were all of one mind. They evidently felt that they had come together for a purpose higher and better than that of any religious sect or political party. Never have I seen men so ready, so anxious to rid themselves of whatsoever was narrow, selfish, or merely denominational. I was all the more affected by the manifestation of this spirit, because I had been living for ten years in Connecticut, where every one who did not profess a faith essentially 'Orthodox' was peremptorily proscribed. In the Philadelphia Convention there were but two or three of my sect, which you know at that time had but few avowed adherents anywhere except in the eastern half of Massachusetts, and was then, much more than now, especially obnoxious to all other religionists in the land. Yet, we were cordially treated as brethren, admitted freely, without reserve or qualification, into that goodly fellowship. They were indeed a company of the Lord's freemen, a truly devout company. And the scrupulous regard for the rights of the human mind, no less than for the other natural rights of man, was shown from the beginning to the end of the Convention."The volume is neatly issued by the well-known publishers, and, we trust, may command an extensive sale.GEORGE ELIOT'S NOVELS.Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Romola, and Felix Holt. Author's Household Edition. Boston: Fields Osgood & Co.From our earliest reading of Adam Bede, the first work which on this side of the Atlantic found an extended audience, we have cherished a profound admiration for the writings of George Eliot. For each of the succeeding creations of her genius, which in the estimation of the public may scarcely have held the place of the first favorite, we know not that there is less of endearing remembrance; for while as fictions they may not possess quite the absorbing interest of the initial romance, which at once stormed the hold of public favor, they bear a rich equivalent in the ripened fertility of invention, in philosophical dissertations, in the elaboration of character, and in the care bestowed upon the descriptive and the most trivial details of her finished works.To those who have with us enjoyed the healthful vigor of her writings, from the first portrayal of the English preacher girl, in the volume the scenes of which were laid on the soil she loved, to the flowering of her creative genius in the person of Romola, the high-bred artistic-natured Italian maiden, breathing, moving amid the classic "spells" of her clime, in the depiction of which the author's skill, severely taxed, was equally manifest,--no word of ours at this late day, is needed to stamp George Eliot as one of the writers the world holds justly dear, and to whom is entitled its warmest gratitude.In obedience to the wide-spread desire of American readers, and with the approval of the author, whose printed autograph letter by its frankness of tone adds value to the edition, the publishers have added to their Household Collection, in a series uniform with those of Reade and Thackeray, the six volumes of George Eliot, four of which are already on our table. To say that the publishers, Messrs. Fields, Osgood & Co., to whom the reading public are so deeply indebted, have well done their part is no over tribute. The dainty green of the morocco cloth binding, the clearness of the type, the excellent quality of the paper, are all of a character to afford pleasure; while the astonishing cheapness of price (one dollar per volume) should place it, not alone in every library but upon the humble shelf of thousands.I T E M S.Studies in General Science, by Antoinette Brown Blackwell, has recently received a highly favorable review by a writer in the Fortnightly, a leading English periodical.Messrs. G. P. Putnam & Son, among their forthcoming works, announce Mrs. Hawthorne's "Letters from England and Italy," a book which the public will await with interest.The English press still teems with contributions to the Stowe-Byron controversy, with a settling of opinion in favor of the soundness of Lady Byron's mind, which has been so assailed by the detractors from the weight of Mrs. Stowe's article.Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, it is said, is engaged upon a work of fiction, of a reformatory character, to be issued the coming winter. If this announcement be correct, the thorough identification of Mrs. Howe with reform, and her pre-eminent ability as a writer, will lead the public to expect a rare treat in the forthcoming work from her pen.The "Autobiography" of Andrew Jackson Davis has been translated into German, in which tongue it is having a wide circle of readers. It has been reviewed at some length by Rudolf Gottschall, a noted savan, who accords to it great ability, while denying that more than human significance should be ascribed to its experiences or the teachings of the writer.A work which is receiving more than ordinary attention abroad, is "The Brook-Miller and his Daughter-in-law," a romance in the Esthonian language, published at Dorpat. The author is Lydia Jansen, a young lady of twenty. The critics who are able to read the book, are enthusiastic in its praise, for power and chasteness of language. The Esthonian is properly a branch of the Finnish tongue, but, unlike the latter, it possesses very little literature.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 comprised within it, 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 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 ADVOCATE resolve to furnish at least one subscription to commence with the July number?EXTRAORDINARY OFFER.IN addition to our OFFER of Volume II. of THE ADVOCATE for FIFTY CENTS, we have arranged to furnish to subscribers, or others desiring the same, the First Volume, comprising the numbers inclusive, from January to June, neatly bound, for ONE DOLLAR. This unparalleled low rate will enable our friends to secure for themselves, or others, a handsomely printed, tastefully bound volume, comprising over 300 pages of choice reading matter, embracing the contributions of many of our most valued writers,--at a price that should insure the circulation of very many copies. Orders, inclosing the money and giving the desired address, will receive prompt attention. The postage (also to be inclosed) will be 24 cents per volume.A NEW STORY.OUR readers will be pleased to learn that a "Story" will be commenced in the November number, entitled "The Market Woman," from the pen of Mrs. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL. The wide-spread reputation of Mrs. BLACKWELL as a writer renders superfluous anything further than the simple announcement, to cause the appearance of a story,--the incidents of which, we are assured, have their foundation in the real life and labors of an energetic woman --to be awaited with interest by our readers.RETURNABLE MANUSCRIPTS. -All Manuscripts reverting to writers, in consequence of the decision of the Committee on Prize Stories, will be immediately forwarded upon due application for the same. To avoid mistakes our correspondents should give the name of each. story and desired address in full.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.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.AYER'S HAIR VIGORFor restoring Gray Hair to its natural Vitality and Color.A dressing which is at once agreeable, healthy, and effectual for preserving the hair. Faded or gray hair is soon restored to its original color with the gloss and freshness of youth. Thin hair is thickened, falling hair checked, and baldness often, though not always, cured by its use. Nothing can restore the hair where the follicles are destroyed, or the glands atrophied and decayed. But such as remain can be saved for usefulness by this application. Instead of fouling the hair with a pasty sediment, it will keep it clean and vigorous. Its occasional use will prevent the hair from turning gray or falling off, and consequently prevent baldness. Free from those deleterious substances which make some preparations dangerous and injurious to the hair, the Vigor can only benefit but not harm it. If wanted merely for aHAIR DRESSING, nothing else can be found so desirable. Containing neither oil nor dye, it does not soil white cambric, and yet lasts long on the hair, giving it a glossy lustre and a grateful perfume.PREPARED BY DR. J. C. AYER & CO., Practical and Analytical Chemists, LOWELL, MASS. PRICE $1.00.THE NATIONAL ANTI-SLAVERY STANDARD.VOL. XXX. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.Aaron M. Powell, Editor,THE STANDARD advocates entire freedom and immediate enfranchisement for the colored race, as the demand of justice. Chattelism has been abolished, but equal freedom for the colored race has not yet been secured.Eminent writers contribute to its columns, and the Editor is permitted to announceWENDELL PHILLIPS as a Special Editorial Contributor. Full reports will also be published of the Addresses of Mr. PHILLIPS, revised and corrected by himself.THE STANDARD, though chiefly devoted to the consideration of the Freedom and well-being of the colored race, will, as hitherto, hospitably entertain the claims of movements of a kindred end and aim, as the Rights of Women, Temperance, Education, etc. It will also present a department of choice Literary Miscellany. It is intended that, without forgetting its main object, THE STANDARD shall be carefully and thoroughly edited in all its other departments, and be welcomed by all classes of readers.TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.One Copy, One Year, $ 3.00 Ten Copies to one Address, each 2.50 Twenty Copies, each, 2.00Single Copies of THE STANDARD may be had of the American News Company 121 Nassau street, and at the office of Publication.All communications should be addressed to A. M. POWELL, Editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, 39 Nassau street, New York.THE WOMAN'S ADVOCATE.Antoinette Brown BlackwellTHE MARKET WOMAN.Antoinette Brown BlackwellCHAPTER I. A WALK OVER THE HOMESTEAD.ABOUT forty years ago, one sunny February morning, a young husband and wife stood on the door step, looking off into the distance with dreamy eyes which indicated that neither saw anything of the pleasant, glittering landscape which lay spread out before them. Pleasant and glittering it was, however, as though the whole earth had become one fairy land of pearls, in honor of the bride who had come only last evening to the home of her bridegroom. The low, brown eaves over their heads were hung with long, sparkling pendants, a slender unpainted trough, which came down to the side of the house, was turned into a grand, dark band with a transparent diamond veneering; terminating in a reversed tower of solid, massive diamonds; and the whole dingy house-front was over-laid with mother-of-pearl. Scattered about the yard were shrubs and two or three trees, all nodding and laughing to each other in their new suit of holiday brilliants, and off in the distance lay a wide, rolling plain of forest and field, dotted with occasional houses; all resplendent enough in the morning warmth and sunshine for some outlying province of the celestial country.The bride, in a neatly quilted hood, a half-worn, warm shawl, and a stuff dress already less fresh in color than when she bad first made it up; and the bridegroom in the just coming thread-bareness of his second best; both so fresh, and plump, and hopeful, were quite in keeping with all the unwonted radiance about them. But the grave, absorbed look on both young faces was not that of simple lovers, each tenderly absorbed in the other. Their four days wedded life had already budded out into the practical consideration of mutual interests."The mortgage you say was just eleven hundred dollars, John; but how much back interest is there?""Well! I don't know exactly;" stepping out into the path, and with his restless heel crushing a magnificent pane of glass which the winter gardener had lately placed there to let the morning light into the dark earth below. "I havn't added it up lately; but I suppose a hundred or two dollars or more. It runs up so fast; and we've cut off a good deal of the large timber already to keep it down."The bride stepped out also into the yard, and their eyes went together over the little farm which lay on both sides of them. "No! there is not much more wood to spare," she replied, musingly."We'll do the best we can together, now, Susy, to clear it off. Mother and I never spent when we could help it; but I was only a child when father died, and the mortgage was on the place then; and somehow I don't think either of us know very well how to manage. You don't feel quite discouraged, Susy?" He looked up and scanned her face inquiringly, and with a tender solicitude."Oh no! indeed, John;" and a smile of hope and confidence beamed from her eyes, which shed more sunshine over John's heart than a whole sky full had done before. "We are both young, and we're not afraid of work. Besides, I always had to save and manage at home, you know. It will be ever so much easier here! I only want to know just how it is, John. Your farm ends with the fence over yonder on that side doesn't it? and with that little wood in the other direction ?""Yes, Susy, our farm ends with that fence and that wood, only thirty-five acres now. Since you adopt me, you must take the farm, and the debts, and all.""No very hard task that, Johnniekin!" laughed Susan, springing from a leaning rail to the top of a low fence which they had approached, and reaching up to the over-hanging bough of a tree.The sun had been shining to some purpose. A shower of loosened gems came tumbling about them at her touch, and a long slab of silver separated from tile rail, falling with a tinkling crash upon the sheet of silver below."That's the music of Spring, John. We shall have none too much time to get fairly started with the Spring work. How much land was there before mother sold any?" jumping over into the next field, followed by John."She sold off a twelve acre wood lot; that cleared land just over yonder. There was no one to cut it for us; and we got a pretty good price. The interest was lagging and we had to put up a barn. The old one had nearly tumbled down, and was so small.""And how much is the store debt you spoke of?" The wife slipped her arm within her husband's; speaking as softly as she might have done if she had asked after a lost friend."Nearly seventy dollars;" answered John. "Groceries, you know, and everything; but there's grain enough to more than pay for that; and vegetables.""Yes. Anything else, John?" gently caressing the hand which she had taken into her own."Not much, Susy. Just a few dollars here and there. Does it seem such a great deal?""Not if we meet it face to face, as we will! We've a good deal of corn left, haven't we, and rye, and salt pork?""Oh yes, plenty." They walked on silently a few minutes."This is nice land, isn't it? We can make a capital market garden of it!""Do you think so?" The husband opened his eyes very wide at first; looking about him with new interest and doubtful assent; and ended by fixing them upon Susy's face with a glow of warm admiration. They were mild brown eyes, and the cheeks bronzed with Summer suns had not bleached yet with the Winter's snow; but were still brown, ruddy and comely. Susan was fair-faced, blue-eyed, tall and well built; and they formed as pleasant a picture of a young American yeoman and his wife, taking their first walk over the ancestral acres, as one need wish for. Susan's gentle persuasive tones were very grateful to the ear, and yet there was an emphasis in them as though two notes were blended in one--the deeper tone representing a groundwork of clear conviction which was not to be easily shaken."If this field were taken in hand first, it would bring large returns almost at once. Do you know I have a plan already, Johnniekin, and you must let me carry it out." Her eyes looked up coaxingly into his, smiling, while the glow deepened, on her cheek, and there was just a slight falter in the voice as she spoke. I want to turn market woman next Summer and sell the vegetables and the fruit. I see there is a large asparagus bed already, and there ought to be a great many cherries in the Spring, and peaches in the Fall, if it is a good fruit year, and there'll be no end of wild blackberries and such things out there in the clearing. One way and another we can find things enough to help us a great deal. I like to weed in a vegetable patch. I should like it always if you were working in the next row.""Oh, Susy, don't!" cried the young husband, looking pained. "I didn't marry you to drudge like that! You may come and see me in the fields; but mother is getting old and feeble. You will have enough to do in the house.""We'll both help mother. I'll do up the work in the morning before I go, and you can wipe the dishes for me in the evening, as you did last night when we came home and knew that mother was tired enough already. Your mother says you were always the best boy in the world and helped her a great deal in the house. It will be nice to work together. If you are not ashamed of woman's work then I'm not ashamed of man's work;" and Susan looked up bravely. "You'll see!" shaking her head and looking in John's eyes bewitchingly resolute. Then speaking low and with an undertone of deep feeling: "I'm going to do it, John, till we clear off all the debts and the mortgage. It will do us good, both of us."A mist came over John's eyes, a cloud darkened his face. "Dear Susy, if I was only rich or a moneymaker!""Money grows, John, at least I know it will on this farm. We'll try it and plant the right seed." She spoke in a ringing, singing tone, which he had never heard before, keeping time with her feet as she stood before him. "You know we are bound to leave the dear old homestead without encumbrances to-to-somebody coming all in good time." And with a little, laugh the brave young wife, who knew how to meet debts "face to face," ran forward into a copse beyond to continue a more careful survey of the rather tumble-down fences.Antoinette Brown BlackwellCHAPTER II. HOME."MOTHER let me pare the potatoes for dinner! I know how to make a capital Johnny-cake. Shall I try today?""If you like, Susan; but I'm not much used to being helped all the time. If you don't mind, I'd rather not give up work. There'll be plenty of sewing for you. There always is. Patching and darning are as unfailing as sunshine. I often wonder what industrious women would find to do in the odd hours if Eve hadn't eaten the apple and made her children take to wearing the clothes which keep our fingers so busy." "I can't imagine, I am sure; but I suppose that in her time idleness hadn't become the mother of Mischief. Does John like corn-bread ?" "Oh yes, rather." "And rye?""Yes, sometimes;" spoken rather doubtfully. "Why, Susan?""Because I like them, and John and I ought to eat from the same cake. Isn't that the old rule?""I guess he'll do it heartily enough!" said the old lady, while a queer smile puckered up her wrinkled face. She was a tidy, not very old lady, in a plain white cap with a wide border, a dark calico dress, and an immense checked apron. Her hand was shriveled on the outside and horny on-the inside; but it was always an open hand, free and generous in all things. She was constitutionally a poor economist and a good mother. To her son, she had till now been all in all. She had a nice motherly look, with an amplitude of person suggestive of restfulness and comfort; and breadth of mind sufficient to take the only son's wife into her heart at once."John;" she asked, looking up with the same quaint smile as her son entered, "Will you promise to eat half the Johnny-cake, if Susan makes one and I don't like it?""Half? oh yes! I promise always to share half and half with Susan in everything, down to the meat and drink.""It's a rash promise, John!" said Susan, turning towards him as she went on stirring up the golden batter."Is it though? Try me!" retorted the jovial young farmer. "I will take anything which you do, whether it's as short as pie-crust or as tough as shoe-leather. Give me a test then, and see;" as she shook her head. "I promise blindfolded.""Will you? Will you eat the bread that I eat, and drink the cup that I drink. Don't promise; for I shall certainly take advantage of you!""There, then! don't make a serious thing of it, children!" said the mother as she went in search of something in the next room."I promise, Susy, and seal the contract so;" stooping till his lips left a cluster of kisses on the white forehead."But it's something really very hard, dear, and you won't like it. I don't want to entrap you.""Well, I say again, try me, Sue!""Then I promise not to taste tea or coffee, or to eat wheat bread, or butter, or sugar, or cream, in our own house until after the mortgage is paid off."John gasped, and nodded without speaking, while Susan turned to the stove, depositing the corn-cake in the oven. Then she returned to him with a saucy face. "I'll let you off still, John, if you say so. One must make promises with his eyes open.""Rather steep, Susy!" he began with a grimace, put on to hide some deeper feeling. "But what of Mother?"Oh, mother must have everything she has been accustomed to; with a few luxuries added now and then when the marketing goes right. But you and I are young John; we shall soon get used to it, and I can toss up a great many nice things with what we raise on the farm. I wish it was possible never to eat or wear anything which we couldn't produce ourselves. That would tell in the end, and how much better than having a sheriff's sale always hanging over our heads, ready to fall upon us whenever we are sick or unfortunate or in any trouble so that the weight will be sure to crush us!""Yes, Susy, I promise heartily; but won't that do without the market plan? I had rather do the marketing and work by moonlight to make up the time lost at home.""No! no! Johnniekin; the moonlight is always sacred to lovers! That won't do. We couldn't get through a day's work without an evening's leisure. Why, John, the marketing will do me good. I need go only in the warm weather, and women always get mopish by staying at home too much. Why you are not afraid to trust me, are you, John?" looking into his face with a demure mock gravity."Bless you, Susan! I've trusted you with heart and soul, and I don't think you would cheat me by keeping yours back in the exchange. But market women are always a coarse set!""Then I'll be an exception. I'll keep the market stall as tidy as mother does the kitchen here, and my apron shall be as clean as hers. But that's not all, John. There are a great many very nice market men!" With this Parthian shot Susan went to turn the cake in the stone oven, laughing into it meantime with the shrewd consciousness that John would be ashamed to seem to mistrust her prudence, and that her point was virtually won.The generous girl had thrown all her interests into the new home, and was honestly intent upon retrieving the steadily failing fortunes of the family, which seemed to have long been in a chronic state of decline, and were now near reaching a serious crisis. It may be too that there was a spark of ambition in her future schemes. She had a consciousness of business capacities which she was eager to exercise, and she thoroughly despised the trifling occupations of many women. Her steady convictions carried weight with them and in the end prevailed."When I find time to cut up nice calico into little diamonds to make stars in bed quilts, mother;" she said one day, "I go out instead, and dig in the garden for gold. Queer people are always digging for gold, and sometimes they find it."The mother-in-law smiled, well pleased. She liked her new daughter; but after all her son was her own son, and if their fortunes were too low to keep a hired man, she was relieved to have some one help the poor boy. He worked so much more cheerfully with Susan at his side, and as Susan, like a sunbeam, seemed always active and never tired, the three soon fell into the new order of things as though there had never been any other; and Susan worked outside of he house far more than within.The old garden was dug deeply, enriched as it had not been before since the days of Adam, planted early and planted well, with a large variety of seeds; everything perennial was worked about and daintily fed, and the whole gave early promise of being a fixed, marketable nucleus. Then the chosen field was taken in hand in like manner, and in time the long rows of vegetables came peeping up green and thrifty, over-topping the red-brown earth in conscious beauty. Susan had already churned many rolls of tempting butter; but she and John ate coarse bread and the buttermilk, and called it delicious. Faith can remove mountains; but Hope can remove privations; and Love has a philosopher's stone of its own, which substitutes delightful privileges.A new energy had entered into the whole household; but oddly enough it was shared by every live thing on the farm. The chickens never laid so many or such large eggs, the pigs never grew so fast or seemed so appreciative of cleanliness, the cows never gave so much or so creamy milk; so that the amount of butter was something fabulous; the calves never grew so fast though they were fed on warmed skim-milk at three days old, the horses did more and better work, yet they never looked so plump, sleek, and handsome in all their lives before. Early salads and early pease, spinach, pie-plants, currants, cucumbers, and cabbage; and all the great family of roots to a tuber, shared in the unwonted vitality. The whole outlying precinct of barn-yard and its environs had become a good deal littered and untidy--this was scraped nicely clean and the refuse buried in field or garden, the loose floor of the old barn was taken up, the rich mould which had been gathering beneath it for fifty years was worked in amongst the small fruits and asparagus, and the floor replaced more securely and snugly than before. The persevering leak in the house roof was conquered, loose-principled clap-boards here and there were reclaimed, and even the fences looked as much improved as a German does after he has reached the crisis of transfering the customary beer money into a replenished wardrobe.All this was mainly accomplished by two heads and four hands with the necessary tools; assisted sometimes by two half-grown sons of a neighboring farmer, who on the whole preferred work and small wages to sitting still and over much study."It is a very nice place, mother;" said Susan, as she came in one day hot and tired and stood looking out, leaning upon the closed lower half of the old-time door, split in two at the middle.A pleasant landscape it was and is, as many New York business men have learned since then; but whether Susan thought of the pretty view or only of the snug little farm itself is not apparent. Her day's stint was ended, and she was more than usually content. Something of sunset comfort, and it may be of beauty, had stolen into her heart."Everything is growing so well! If I had time enough, I think I would watch one day to see them grow. Somewhere among the little, young, green things, which shoot up an inch in an hour or two, don't you think I could catch a sight of it really pushing out? It would be nice to try, and I shall when I get a play day! Wouldn't you, mother?" she said, turning to the old lady with a childish caressing movement.The mother's eyes moistened. She smiled and shook her head. "That's a gift even beyond you, child. But 'tis a nice place, Susan. I came to it as young and hopeful as you are, though it has changed enough since then; but many times I have thought that maybe I should not lay down to my last sleep here, as my husband did and his father before him. It seemed slipping away from us! You have changed all that, or will in time, if you are spared and go on as you begin. I don't understand it; but the garden looks as different from ever before as a moss rose does from a wild briar. It never came into my head to take hold as you do!""You see I am stronger than you, mother; and it's easy to work with John, who always saves me from everything hard. And then it is you who take the burden of the house-work or I couldn't do the other?""Yes, we all help.""It's growth of ever thing which does it after all. I couldn't work so for anything that wasn't alive, and wouldn't go on and double itself over and over.""Ah, you have it hard enough, both of you; your face is as red now as a lobster, And when you came in first you might have been rubbing it with my scarlet petticoat. It was just the color of it!""If you knew how I pity you, who must cook something to be eaten up the next hour; and wash the dishes without seeing them grow after all your care. There is nothing like gardening, nothing;" laughed Susan, half in joke and half in earnest."I must say I don't like the market plan, Susan. And I can't like it! It makes our way of going on so public!""Whoever wins may laugh, mother. Let's try it at least.""It will mortify John dreadfully, and at bottom I know you don't like it either.""I don't know that! I want to do something and that will be easier than working in the garden all the time, and pay better. Next year we shall want two or three men, and John can superintend them a great deal better than I can.""Yes, that's so."A half smile stole to the girl's face as she leapt a little farther out, plucking a lilac leaf. "You'll see how very discreet and dignified I shall be, mother, and when we get used to it we shall all be reconciled."Maybe, maybe!" repeated the poor old lady, nervously and doubtfully. She was thinking of sharp-tongued and sharp-eyed neighbors, and shrunk from losing caste in her old age. Her independent daughter-in-law made her ashamed to admit her real feelings; but they had been rankling and corroding her heart for weeks. She sat silent and unconvinced."A door opening in this way, half at a time, is a real comfort;" began Susan by way of breaking up the unpleasant musing. "I like it better than a window.""You'll find it convenient when there are children creeping about the floor," retorted the old lady pointedly, as if she were tartly putting together two and two in thought and speech. She glanced keenly sidewise into the daughter's face to scan the rising flush."Yes, I suppose so," was the cool reply. "It saved poor John many a time from a tumble down the steps, I suppose. He told me about climbing on a chair and trying to swing out over the top.""I don't understand how all that will agree with the marketing;" were the words just rising sharply to the withered lips; but at the mention of this long-ago feat of John's, which came so near terminating in grave disaster, the ice melted from the old motherly heart, and the old lady began at once to relate the deeds and prowess of her child in the years long ago. So a dew drop may extinguish the smouldering embers, or a puff of air fan them into flames.Speaker and listener were alike interested in the narratives which followed, and when the hero himself appeared, both women had resolved anew always to forgive and forget; and to bear and forbear each with the other's cherished wishes, even if need be to her own hurt.Antoinette Brown BlackwellCHAPTER III. SETTING OUT.THE market wagon stood at the door in the early morning. It was a long, single-horse wagon, with a covered top, black and shining; a well-conditioned horse stood in the shafts, and vegetables, butter and eggs were snugly packed away inside; the whole establishment looking thoroughly nice and respectable.It had been fitted up from an almost disused, shaky old wagon, which bad been re-tired by the blacksmith, and re-topped by the united skill of the whole family. Of course it came out as many another such establishment has done before and since--a highly creditable specimen of home-made manufacture.Susan stood in the door-way wearing a dark, print dress, a neat shawl, and a pink calico sun-bonnet--a hood they called it; but it was starched stiffly and came well over in front, partially shading the cheery face beneath. "To-morrow morning, mother, I shall help you to do up the work before I go;" glancing at the table which was standing in the background, in the uninviting state that most tables present when thrifty people with wholesome appetite have cleared away nearly everything eatable."Don't think of it, Susan. If there is nothing to do, I shall be lonesome enough while you are away.""There will always be dinner to get, mother, and the ride will give me a topping appetite. Take care you have enough," looking and speaking as though the dinner were to be the sole reward for the morning's toll."There'll be plenty of potatoes, skim milk and Johnny-cake," retorted the old lady, with a grim effort at pleasantry. She had fallen into the way of eating these things largely herself, in spite of all protest; and her tea got weaker and weaker, and was put to steep half an hour beforehand whenever she made it herself, and she covered up the fact with miserly craft. There is nothing half as infectious as a hearty self-sacrifice! You might as well try to keep a sunflower from catching the sunshine as to keep anybody from sunning and brightening himself under its steady warmth.The mother-in-law felt on this occasion rather more like tears than smiles, though the best outlet for her present mood would have been a grand outbreak of general scolding; but she was deterred from this for very shame. It was only May and scarcely three months since the stranger first crossed her threshold. She had entertained her kindly for her son's sake, often crushing back the maternal jealousy of the supplanter, but she knew now that she had entertained the guardian angel of the homestead unawares. Now she was going out day after day alone to meet the endless friction of a huckster's but little respected calling and the old lady understood perfectly that it wag not all for herself. But if Susan could only have found some other way of helping them! Must it be just this way, and no other? Thus she tasted the waters of bitterness; but with the consciousness of being a recipient of the good to be secured, she checked even the thought and still more its expression. She began also to have some dawning appreciation of the fact that possibly even a market woman might be born and not made; so she bade her kinswoman God-speed as resignedly as she might.Susan had purposely left the unwashed dishes; for she knew that this first day would be a trying one to mother and perhaps a little also to John; who really felt a good deal as a guilty man must who should see an innocent person going away to punishment for his crime. Little to him was the thought of what the neighbors would say. His wife and his mother were his world, and everyone outside could hardly weigh it down in the balance; but he felt as any tender and generous soul must feel when yielding under protest to be benefited by the sacrifice of another, because circumstances beyond his own control made this inevitable. Susan's steady purpose was too inflexible for him to cope with it. An apple as it mellows and reddens under the influence which comes up to it with the inflowing sap cannot repel the charity. Susan's feelings and temperament seemed to be getting mingled with his own confusedly by some process of new but stimulating circulation.Besides his reason was convinced of the wisdom of the market scheme; but not his heart. So he took the cup she offered him like a stoic; as I think he would have taken it knowing it had been filled with the old Socratic hemlock, if offered with the same smiling perseverance. Undoubting faith in one self must always command allegiance from others."Good-bye, mother! I shall have lots of news to tell you both, and that will be the next best thing to going yourself.""No doubt you will do your best, Susan child; so success to you and a brave heart to the end; Good-bye.""If you should get envious of my privileges, mother, we'll take turns now and then, and you shall be market woman too."The old lady smiled affably, but shook her head. "Not in my old age, Susan. Old people don't like new fancies.""Oh! If you can get time, mother dear, just do look a little after these plants. I see they are drooping, and I may find them dried up and vanished at noon like Jonah's gourds. If you could put up a screen before the sun gets high, unless John has time to do it," turning, suddenly to him, with a wife's remembrance. Susan stepped into the wagon as she stopped speaking, and picked up the reins."John hasn't time! I'll do It,", said the mother tartly; but with a dim eye."Don't be lonely, Johnniekin! We shall work together in the afternoon. Good-bye." And the market woman drove slowly out of the yard."Well, it's done, John. I hope it's for the best," the old mother said in a quavering voice, as the farm-gate swang back to its place.Oh, yes, I'm sure it is. Good-bye, mother." John strode back to the field, occasionally grinding the earth a little with his heel as he went; and when there working all the morning as he had never worked before, determined afresh, it may be, to bear his share of the family burdens.Susan plodded along the new road slowly, mindful of eggs and sundries; but her thoughts ran forward, as thoughts often do, far into the future and back also into the past. Thoughts are Time's telegrams. They can bridge over the chasms of centuries, laying down the telegraph wires as they go along, and outvieing any lightning. But Susan's thoughts were less ambitious and kept much nearer to the present, yet they ruled over space also, sweeping from continent to continent. Her's was a Dutch ancestry, and her own grandmother had been a market woman in the Netherlands. From her childhood up she bad heard honorable mention of those better days of honest toil and traffic. At the mention of that early time, she remembered the sudden lighting up of the old grand-dame's eye even long after it had regained its second sight; and the old quavering and often querulous voice, always grew young again when it recounted any of the pleasant incidents of that coveted past. She knew that those were her grandmother's only prosperous days, and that the sun of her good fortune had set when she gave up her huckster's calling.Her own mother also had often wrought in the fields of the Lowlands, she herself had been born to the truck patch of the new country, the profits of which bad been grudgingly handed over to the market men, to the life-long regret and annoyance of the producers. To her, therefore, the market stall was a golden gate to steady and sure gain. It opened into the only road to competence familiar to her limited experience.Yet she was born and reared in a country where girls had other ideas than these. She had mingled with them in the schools and at the social gatherings, imbibing their thoughts and feelings; and something of shame at her own temerity in becoming an ignored market woman flushed her face when she thought of it. Her heart was beating with strong excitement, and the tears sometimes dimmed her eye as she jogged moodily on. She was quite capable of applying the social tests of the country to her chosen calling, and public opinion seemed closing about her like a nightmare. Before her marriage, she could hardly have made the deliberate sacrifice; but now she was steadied by a strong purpose.Yet those at home were feeling even more keenly than she herself. They had only reluctantly consented, and if she had been aware from the first of the strength of the almost silent opposition, and of all the hot and bitter feelings which it represented, even as she did now, she felt in her soul that she might have been overborne in her purpose. But happily now it was all ended. Her market outfit was a tangible fact. Her stall was already engaged, she and her husband had been together and settled everything, and she was even now drawing near to the new duties of her first market day. The half corduroy roads always rough, were now also muddy; and as she approached the city she was rather glad to be obliged to steer carefully in the midst of deep ruts, and to have a pretty constant demand made upon her attention by her various crocks, baskets and boxes. If her face was flushed, all that might be a reflection of the pink sunbonnet. She thought of the old brown farm-house, whose once fresh paint, white on the road side and red on the back, was now alike dingy; and of the eleven hundred dollar mortage with its terrible arrears of back interest, suspended over their heads like the sword of Damocles, hanging only by a single hair; and she drove herself on, wearing a quiet, staid smile, like one resolute on her way to seek her fortune.R. W. HumeTHE MEETING OF THE WATERS.OF the Reforms at present agitating the Community, three stand out pre-eminent: These are the movement for the Liberty of Woman, the Temperance Reform, and the Rights of Laborers. There is no reason why the advocates of these great movements should not unite their forces, and there are good reasons for presuming that policy will induce them to do so. It may be said that the first steps to coalition have already been taken, for the right of women to represent and be represented has been fully conceded by the Labor Union and it is almost impossible to successfully run a Labor Paper unless it advocates also the cause of Temperance.There is also a singularity connected with all these movements which consists in the fact, that the members upholding them are now beginning to find out their true strength lies rather in elevating or seeking to elevate the oppressed, for whom they are now doing battle, than in attacking the oppressor. This is the true Christian method of procedure. Thus the stalwart Artisan of the North finds his strength in associating with himself the cruelly wronged Agriculturist of the South; the reform of Inebriates more powerfully advances the cause of Temperance than the denunciation of Rumsellers, and the virtuous Matron, who abhors the sin, may yet prove that the stoutest weapon in her armory of truth will be " her CHARITY to the Sinner."In addition, it may be stated that they are now all entering, with banners flying, upon the field of Politics. Those women are to be pitied, who are incapable of perceiving, that, in the various Reforms already projected for the benefit of Woman, the Ballot is the only method by which such can be accomplished. The Advocates of Temperance, in General Convention at Chicago, have decreed to throw their gage of battle into the lists, and have already opened the war in Maine. The Labor Unionists at Philadelphia have also come to the conclusion that it is now expedient to test their power also at the polls, and consequently they have commenced the battle in Massachusetts.There is yet a third peculiarity distinguishing these great Reforms which is also well worth noticing. It is, that neither of these great movements is nationally bounded, each being almost as extensive as enlightened civilization. Not only counties and States but mighty Nations are calling to one another and cheering each other forward in these grand efforts for the regeneration of mankind. In September last, American Delegates, properly authorized by the National Labor Congress, were deputed to represent the Workingmen of the United States at the European International Labor Congress held at Basle in Switzerland; a closer alliance has been demanded and is being cemented between the Sons and Daughters of Temperance of the Old and New continents; Americans delight to honor the memory of Father Matthew, and Englishmen glory in the eloquence of John Gough; while to carry forward the International Interests of the Woman's Movement, six delegates (Julia Ward Howe, Laura C. Bullard, Kate N. Doggett, Mary J. Safford, Mary Peckenpaugh, and Ernestine L. Rose) are appointed to confer with their European sisters in the Industrial Congress which has been called to meet in the capital of Prussia.These harmonious gatherings of representatives of the nations of the earth appear like a commencement of that "Solidarity of the Peoples," so long wished for by the Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth. When that takes place, and surely it is even now rapidly approaching, it needs no prophet to foretell that wars will be fewer, red tape cheaper, and eight hour laws will not be made to be broken, but to be enforced by those officials who are paid by the people for the performance of such duties.It is no wonder, that, under these circumstances, the old political party hacks and wire-pullers are, as the saying is, "all abroad." True, they are beginning to recognize dimly that their vocation is one, and that the people, of both sexes, have discarded them as advisers, and are commencing to think and act for themselves. The Daily Press (with some honorable exceptions) subsidized by the powers that be, perceives the advances of the armies of the Reformers, and neither knows how to advise its patrons, or how to act itself in the crisis. The best it can do for its supporters is to abuse Temperance as Tyranny, to sneer at the reasons of those Women it cannot otherwise answer, and to ignore as much as it dares, the doings of the Labor Reformers now agitating America and England.But, in the meantime, these moral storms, so long gathering, are beginning to darken the face of creation. Even those who have followed with awe the shining footprints of the Deity through our last great war, and seen the modern Israelites again led into liberty by the pillars of Smoke and Fire, have reason to tremble lest "Tekel" be written upon their labors for the good of mankind. This will not be, however, if, when they lay their gifts upon the altar, there be found in them no enmity of heart against their brethren, but only abhorrence of the crimes it is a Christian duty to make all efforts to remove.It may be said of our country that here the second grand curse, viz., "that of Confusion of Tongues," is rapidly becoming a myth of the past. Thus here is again exhibited a Pentecostal gathering of the peoples of all nations, who rapidly melt their peculiarities in our Union, and speedily become, if not yet of one accord, of one speech. The international courtesies heralding and advancing the great and good Reforms above specified are simply an extension of such Christian influences, and are destined eventually to obliterate all the woes of humanity. Not only individually, but nationally and universally, will His word be made good, who still cries unto all who are oppressed--whether they be Laborers defrauded of their hire, Women starved into crime in our cities, or Children over-tasked in mines and factories--"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." R. W. HUME.Mary SquiresMY LESSON.'TWAS a bird that taught me my lesson,As I sat at the close of the day,By the window that faced to the westward;And a tinge from the setting sun's rayWas painting the tree-tops and house-tops,And windows, with crimson and gold,But my soul could not catch its reflection,My heart was hungry and coldAnd weary, with wishing and waiting,For good gifts the future might hold.All life seemed an empty endeavor;The idols we carve out to-day, On the dawning of every to-morrowWe find them not marble, but clay,And they crumble in dust-work away;And the soul with its infinite longingThe heart with its love and its hate,Its passionate pulses, seemed strugglingIn vain, in the bonds of an infinite fate.Oh, the thought sore wearied and vexed me;No ray from the sun in the west,Touched the terrible "Must-be" before meIn darkest of cerements drest.When still on the branch of a rose-tree,A brown bird its vesper begun;And clear through the clear of the sunset,Its notes up the gamut it run,And ling'ring and list'ning. to it,A quiet stole into my heart;And I thought the Creator of all things,To all things has given a part;That the cricket that sings in the grasses,The brown bird that sings to its nest,Each one is fulfilling its uses,And each in its own place is best.And the weakest may strengthen the strongest,By simply fulfilling their partWhere their life and the life-work may find them,For our best is the highest in art.Now sitting alone in the twilightThe stars coming out in the blue;The brown bird at rest in the branches,My lesson I've written for you.MARY SQUIRES.Samuel C. BlackwellHONOR.As the face we love is always near, and, at first glance, each passing form suggests it, so ideal excellence appears at the sight of an heroic word. Honor! In its aspect high and beautiful, noble kindred come to mind. Integrity, Forbearance, Delicacy, Charity, Courage: venerable articles of the sacred constitution which is our organic law.All stars lead our vision to the sky, but each has its own light: as Aldebaran his fiery splendor, Lyra her violet ray. Honor, born of moral strength, responds to the claims of weakness. Consideration for the feeble is the germ of this stately flower which blooms, like Milton's amaranth, "fast by the throne." Meanness ensnares the ignorant; Honor shews the clue and snaps the chain. Meanness breaks the bruised reed; Honor raises those who fall. Meanness, lurking, counts upon surprise and fear with a cruel joy; Honor, strangling the snake, prolongs the free bird's song. Honor strengthens, aids, advises, to its own hurt, shall I say? No, but to immense mutual advantage. It scorns one-sided gain, rejects acquisition wrung from want, abhors indulgence stolen by temptation; but it wins the love of suffering souls, shares the guerdon for which Jesus died, and attains the very highest gladness,--happiness in making happy. This is the serene felicity of the Most High. We are placed here side by side, weak and unwise; yet each endowed with a kind of strength and degree of discretion somewhere and sometime available. To bear the torch and wield the lance, loyally, at our king's behest, in behalf of the frailer and more ignorant, is Honor's privilege. It is the manly effort of the comparatively strong; the saintly office of the comparatively wise.If you and I, my friend, with Honor for our counsellor, look forth upon familiar things, we shall lose much century and national vanity and be incited to unwonted vigilance quite near home. What might not Honor teach us of the Freedman? a citizen by sufferance, his ballot Ient not given: of the Indian? what there is left of him which we have not consumed: of the Chinaman ? timidly tolling on our Pacific coast with face turned towards home, kept an alien by our injustice. What might not Honor say about the common texture of our public spirit, of the ordinary motives of our public men? of the frequent practices of trade ? of the comparative dividends to money and to toil, to shrewdness and to industry, to monopoly and to merit? of the candor of ordinary speech and silence on fundamental theories and practices, or as to the frankness of common intercourse? What, as to thoughtfulness and faithfulness between employers and employed? What, of the paid and forgotten heathen of the kitchen and the garret? And what of that domestic spectre which the noblest minds among us may have thought of least, yet the thought of which for half an hour must make us blush and burn; the frequent conviction, the very general assumption that she whom each husband has vowed to honor is and must be his inferior? that he has a claim upon her service and self-sacrifice which she has not upon his, and, in every sense of the ignoble words, that his will should be her law?Nature's sweet influences assert their power. The implanted tendency in our mental make is to a just sentiment of equal and considerate regard. But what must be the dreadful exceptions, where this cruel and dishonorable assumption bears its fruit of tyranny and woe? Think of the shocking items of each day's newspaper, telling of brutal wilfulness so prolonged and intolerable that the wife appeals to the coarse interposition of the police or drops her mangled body for the coroner to interpret her mute plea or with frantic dread seeks refuge in suicide when, hopeless of human aid, she springs vaguely at the grim chance of fate or the possible mercy of an unknown God. "Horrible exceptions!" Yes, thanks to Heaven's unconquerable limitations by the kind charities of nature but no thanks to the base theory. Its ripened fruit can be none other than such "apples of Sodom."Between the hard decorum of conscientious "headship," which freezes Mrs. ditto's married life, and the grumbling tyranny which threatens and, knocks down "my woman," how many grades of gross assumption and wretched submission intervene! Some husbands cherish the respectful deference of courtship undiminished in their wedded life. But many, perhaps, having never really felt the respect they once affected, drop even the poor counterfeit. And how many who in the generous hope of first attachment, sincerely promised themselves to make the highest mental development and perfection of the fair girl they sought, equally with their own, the leading object of future life, have failed even to try to make that promise good.When a man by years of effort has garnered their normal harvest, wealth, influence, consideration has he meanwhile schemed and wrought to lead with equal step into his enlarging sphere of power or of usefulness, her, who through those years shared his narrower circumstances with never faltering love? She, faithful to their mutual vow, has planned and endured for him. Has he considered the incessant exactions of the family duties they assumed together? Has he guarded her health, and rest, meeting her half way in every sacrifice and self-denial? Has he labored for her mental progress, and sought to help her to a full participation in the acquisitions of his own experience? Has he really honored his wife as he would wish to have been honored were their individualities and positions exchanged ? If he has done less than this, though true to others he has been false to his wife. He has surely failed to redeem that debt, beyond all others one of honor, which he assumed when, in the solemnest of all his pledges, he surrendered all to her as literally and utterly as she to him.Love prompts the wife's unselfish devotion to her husband's welfare. Honor and love together prompt the husband's unselfish devotion to her good. For nature and usage both favor him with immunities and facilities which Honor urges him to make good to her with conscientious care.Until this just equality of husband and wife be advocated in theory and exemplified in practice by worthy and religious people, as a recog- nized moral duty, how can the relation become ennobled among those who shape their actions by no law, but blindly pattern on the common prejudice? From a bad theory they can only deduce a worse practice. The common law with its "femme couverte" tends to extinguish the wife. The common morality with its family "headship" tends to dethrone the mother. Of course the common prejudice despises womankind.The aggregate dishonor in man and the aggregate suffering in woman, born of this heathen creed, none can know till the secrets of all hearts stand revealed. And who can estimate the injury, largely wrought by this unmanly sentiment, on some erratic intellects, followed by a baser crowd with whom it has brought the dear tie of marriage into disrepute and has even ranged some womanly hearts against that law of inseparable union which gleams with the benison of Christ--the Woman's Friend. It is not for man's convenience mainly that nature sets our race in families. It is for ultimate and universal good that the equal union of one with one glitters in the New Testament, a characteristic star.Honor awakens Honor. Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure pressed down and shaken together and running over will men give into your bosom." So will women! "With what measure we mete withal it shall be measured to you again." And still it is more blessed to give than to receive.SAMUEL C. BLACKWELLM. E. Wright"WOMAN SUFFRAGE," SEEN AS A FACT.THE question is often asked: How would you like to see your mother, your wife, or your sister at the Polls? Seen darkly through the glass of distance the appearance, to some eyes, is not enchanting ; but "face to face," as we recently had opportunity to observe it, it is less appalling.In a remote Michican village, a few of the most intelligent women, readers of the Independent, WOMAN'S ADVOCATE, etc., having found that the Law recognized all residents in the School District, possessing taxable property, as legal voters in the School Meeting concluded to avail themselves of the acknowledgment. On the evening of the first Monday in September the school-room was well filled; and a very noticeable feature of the assembly, was the disposal of its members. On one side of the room sat the time-honored and time-serving voters, bearded and bloated, for the most part an ignorant school-opposing set, headed by the proprietor of the hotel, (a liquor establishment); on the other side sat the ladies, with the more gentlemanly men. After questions of school interest were discussed, when put to the vote, the votes of the ladies were not challenged, until after they were deposited, a very significant point, as it, showed the spirit of opposition, and at the same time the powerlessness of the opposers. As successive measures were put to the ballot test, the women with one accord sustained the liberal and progressive; until at last one of the inebriated ignorant foreigners, shouted in that voice. of "thunder," so highly eulogized by the. Rev, Dr. Bushnell, "women agin! women agin!" The only response made to the intimated sneer, was when several motions, for limited outlay and short school terms, having been made and sustained by the lowest men present, one gentleman cried "whiskey again!" thus bringing out very clearly one point of opposition.Some may say that this is very trivial, there being so wide a step between balloting at a school meeting, and casting a vote for a Governor or a President. Yet those will scarcely be able to say it who have so long indulged in toasting our Common Schools as the "Pillars of the Republic." The act of voting in both cases remains the same, and in a country where the Director of a School District may become President there is no incongruity in the thought that those who may vote him into the former may as well sustain his claim to the latter office.From this one school meeting we gain one fact and two questions. In this instance, not the coarse and ignorant women were the ones to first avail themselves of the Law, (a fear is often expressed that they would be), but the most intelligent and refined ladies in the community. Every District holds two classes, beside the competent, school-loving men. One composed of men who never think of entering the school-room, but at one time and for one purpose: Time--Annual Meeting: Purpose--To oppose every liberal outlay, and every measure of progress. The other, composed of intelligent women who will resist no outlay beneficial to the school, even though it involve a taxation which will demand sacrifice of no ordinary character. Which is the better qualified? Which the better right to guide the school? Shall we more reverently listen to whiskey-breathing, oath-laden "thunder" than to Purity and Progression though piped in an ear-offending treble? M. E. WRIGHT.William P. TomlinsonASPIRATIONS.THE lark climbs up the ether stair,The dew upon his dusky wingAnd all the songs he seems to sing,Are lost in voiceless depths of air.Our aspirations mount as far,Our longings are as little heard,As the faint warblings of a birdWithin the orbit of a Star.Yet still the bird of heaven sings,Though none of earth may list the strain;And though the note be all in vain,Song to the singer solace brings.WILLIAM P. TOMLINSON.J. G. Whittier* * I frankly confess that I am not able to foresee all the consequences or the great social and political change proposed, but of this I am, at least, sure, it is always safe to do right, and the truest expediency is simple justice. I can understand, without sharing the misgivings of those who fear that, when the vote drops from woman's hand into the ballot box, the beauty and sentiment, the bloom and sweetness of womanhood will go with it. But in this matter it seems to me we can trust Nature. Stronger than statutes or conventions, she will be conservative of all that true men love and honor in woman. * * I have no fear that man will be less manly or woman less womanly when they meet on terms of equality before the law.--Extract of a letter from J. G. Whittier.THROWN UPON THE WORLD. PART THIRD.WHEN the interview which has been recorded closed, neither Marian Eveleth or George De L'Estrange expected to meet again previous to his departure, which was to occur on the following day, but a woof was even then being woven in the web of events, which in a few hours was to bring them face to face, and under circumstances which would forever establish a bond of gratitude and sympathy between them.At a somewhat earlier hour than her wont Marian left, that evening, the work-room of The Universe. By her instrumentality and unwearied exertions, some months previous a "Woman's Typographical Union," embracing some forty or fifty of the more intelligent girl compositors of the city, had been formed, in which she was deeply interested, and of which she was at that time the President. It was the evening of the regular weekly meeting of the Society, from which nothing but illness ever prevented her attendance, and she hastened her departure to make the needed preparations previous to the time of assemblage. In the earlier days of her working--the days immediately following the "strike," the girls employed upon The Universe had suffered not a little persecution and annoyance from the men hitherto engaged as compositors upon the paper, and more than once the friendly interposition of the police had been invoked to shield some belated girl from the indignities of the more worthless, whiskey-drinking street-roamers, who lived literally from "hand to mouth," and never failed to regard the girls as tho cause of their smarting failure--the one obstacle between them and their old, palmy days of monopoly. Still, by leaving early, and securing as much as practical, some protection or companionship, the girls had managed to prevent the commission of any serious outrage; and as time wore away and the employment of women compositors grew to be less of a novelty, the dread of violence or danger from such a source had almost faded from their minds. Marian, naturally of a fearless temperament, although, through her leadership and established influence over those of her sex, the object of many a curse and muttered threat of vengeance, had never betrayed any uneasiness even when the storm of menace lowered most darkly; and the one or two slight assays at intimidation had found her so calm and self-possessed--so ready to foil their efforts, bringing to shame their ignoble attempts at injury, that latterly she had been allowed to pursue the even tenor of her way unmolested. But in the minds of a few of the most desperate--wretches who sully and degrade, as a body, the character of New York compositors--the thought of vengeance had only slept, nursed to a fiercer desire by the lapse of time which they had vainly hoped would have brought failure to the experiment of "Women Compositors,"--and only needed a favorable opportunity for it to give vent to its ferocity.That night, while Marian presided with her accustomed grace and sweetness of manner over the little Society which she had called into being, a small knot of ill-favored men were congregated in the back room of a low groggery--one of the vilest resorts on the East-side of the Metropolis. That it was not merely for the ordinary dissipation of an evening they had assembled, was at a glance evident. Liquors of various kinds, with pipes, were upon the long, coarse table at which they sat, but they were there sparingly, and the carefully closed door leading to the outer drinking room of the notorious "den," and the air of secrecy which marked their deliberations, all betokened something which they did not care should be whispered beyond their little circle."I tell you, boys," said one of their number, their leader evidently by the respect paid to his opinions, "the job is to be done, upon that we are agreed, and it may as well be put through to-night, as for us to shilly-shally about it as we have for the past six months. A better opportunity Old Nick himself could'nt have furnished us than we have this evening. Pretty Miss is now at that d-d 'Petticoat Society ' which she has hatched out; she'll be on her way to the 'Home' in an hour; the night is as black as a hangman's hat; she'll be all alone, or only have that sickly little shadow of hers, they call Lizzie, with her; we can waylay her at the dark alley by old Mother Crawley's, and--although murder is an ugly thing--if We can't bring her to our terms and make her promise to leave the city, it will be no great harm if the East river does float another body before morning. I tell you, fellows, the girl must be got rid of, and for good! This thing of women compositors-of putty-faced girls sticking their noses into our business must be stopped, or it won't be long before we'll have them in every office in the city and our bread-and-butter be gone beyond the power of all the "Men's Unions" in creation to save it. What do you say? Shall this job we've talked so long about be put through to-night, or shall we just write ourselves sneaks, and give it up altogether?" The words of the speaker, hissed out with the venom of baffled rage, and accompanied by an irony of Manner which was not lost upon his companions, had the desired effect; and drinking a bumper around to the success of their nefarious enterprise, they passed into the outer room, settled their bills, and, attracting as little attention as possible, stole from the reeking atmosphere of the polluted apartment. All this while, wholly unconscious of the vile plot against her, Marian was disposing as rapidly as practicable of the business of the meeting, and having brought the proceedings to a close, accompanied by her protegĂ©, sweet Lizzie Fay, had set out on the dark walk homeward. Totally dissimilar in character, the one all strength and independence, the other all softness and compliance,--these two girls, by associating together in the hours of work and boarding at the same house (the well-known "Home" in ----) had been both-subjects of that strange law of attraction bringing together and closely cementing in friendship those directly the opposites of thought and character, and no opportunity was omitted by either that brought daily walk or duty into a yet closer connection. And, as is always the case in such intimacies, each giving and receiving of the magnetic influence, while Marian imparted to her friend something of her own sturdy independence and liberality of thought, she in turn received daily lessons in the beautiful sweetness of her companion's disposition and in the modesty which seemed to shield her, as a wall, from any contact with the thousand rude surroundings of her life. On this evening the two girls, leaving the hall at which their meetings were held, hastened their steps wherever the condition of the streets or the obscurity of the night would permit, anxious to gain the friendly shelter of the "Home" as soon as possible. "Do you know, Marian," said the more timid Lizzie, half-clinging as she spoke to her companion, "that I can never divest my mind of the idea that our troubles with those "strikers will" yet end in something fearful happening. Those, men are so vile, so wholly the slaves of drink, that, in some moment of intoxication and passion, they may wreak upon some one--and who so likely to be the object of their vengeance as yourself!--the outrage with which they have so long threatened us. You may think me silly, Marian, but I never look around me of an evening like this, but what I fancy some evil-minded person is pursuing me in the darkness, and were you not with me now I know not what I should do to still my own apprehensions.""Ah, Lizzie, we always suffer more from imaginary than we do from real evils. True, we are the objects of dislike by a few, but the whole moral force of the "Union" is now upon our side, and these men, threaten as they may, dare not venture upon what would be regarded as a crime in the eye of the law, or of the better disposed portion of their own organization. No, we are in no bodily peril, and you must disabuse your mind of fears that should have no place in my girl's nature, which is to be brave and above all such weaknesses. Come take my hand, little trembler, lest you should make a misstep. We will soon be where the walking is better, and then a few moments will bring us to the 'Home,' where you can smile at all these fancies.Yes, 'Home' it is indeed since I knew you, but ah, Marian, it was lonely enough for me there until you came! I often wonder now how I endured the life I led as well as I did. Its great walls shut me in as a prison; the regulations were as so many gyves fettering my freedom, and, although with so many girls, all of whom strove to be kind, you could not say it was positively lonely, amid them all there was no one who could understand me as you; with whom, as with you, I could share all my thoughts; who was so compassionate, yet so wise, so far above me--nay,"--as a caressing movement was made to check her,--"Marian, I must speak; you do not know the half you have done for me, and think not I am not grateful to you for all your kindness. Oh, in more ways than I can tell you have been my benefactor! I think sometimes of that early conversation upon 'Woman's Rights' which we had in the work-room the day those ladies with the petition visited us, and as I recall the discussion that ensued, I blush to think what a creature of prejudices I was to refuse even to sign my name to the paper. The scales have fallen from my eyes, since, thanks to your patient teaching, and I have grown, at least, into an appreciation of those noble pioneers of progress whose names I then only uttered to ridicule; while their teachings, patterned after His 'who died for Man,' I trust will be my guide throughout life. I wonder if Lucretia Mott will indeed preach next Sabbath in Brooklyn? She is one of the few divinely annointed apostles of this present day whom I have not yet beheld; and all that I have read, and all that you have told me, only intensifies my desire to behold her. Past the three-score-and-ten! and yet able to travel and deliver sermons said to equal in power even those of her earlier life. How wonderful it is that her interest, her zeal, in doing good can be maintained! You promised, also, to tell me something more concerning Lydia Maria Child, whose writings I have so enjoyed latterly, and who you say leads life as beautiful as her own chastest thought, shunning fashion, and almost toiling herself to give yet more largely to the needy.--Ah, Marian, will poor me ever do any good? Will I ever be of any use in the world?To this unwonted outpouring on the part of her companion Marian could only offer a few soothing words; and, as by common consent, the two girls quickened their step to cross the dark, narrow alley stretching across the street which they were traversing, only a few blocks from the "Home." Suddenly a figure, which unperceived had closely followed their movements, brushed up against their persons; a low whistle was given, and, before the terrified girls could give utterance to more than a smothered cry, their assailant was joined by three or four of the gang by whom they were at once overpowered wad dragged several paces into he deep gloom of the alley.DURING the last session, the students of the Women's College were admitted to the clinic of the Pennsylvania Hospital. I am told that the young ladies, thinking that the privileges of that great institution had been long enough denied to women, silently walked in, one morning, and took their seats among the other students, and that eminent professor who was about to give the lecture, only recognized their presence by a slight change in the form of his address. Instead of merely saying "Gentlemen," he said "Gentlemen and Ladies." So gracefully did he meet the occasion, so courteously did he yield the long-disputed ground; so quietly and easily did they win an advanced position for woman.--Grace Greenwood.Clara Louise PendriesA PLEA FOR DAUGHTERS. FIRST PAPER.THAT Most illustrious of women, Miss Betsy Trotwood, displayed not a little of the independence and force of character for which she was so justly distinguished, when, the expected daughter of her nephew proving to be a son, she squared at amiable little Dr. Chillip, made as if to beat him with her bonnet, "put it on bent, walked out, and never came back." Unlike Miss Betsy, the world in general is disposed to offer unqualified congratulations when any antenatal doubts of sex are solved in the masculine certainty attendant upon the advent of young David Copperfield.The day has indeed gone by when a female infant was but the personification of a family curse, and the wretched little unfortunate was either condemned to immediate death or what was yet more to be deplored, doomed to a life of utter, hopeless degradation. But who can deny that relics of this barbarism exist even in our own enlightened age? In some countries the father of ten sons is dowered by the Emperor, and the mother of such a progeny regarded with not a small portion of the honor bestowed of old upon the mother of the Gracchi. On the contrary, the father or mother of ten daughters would be very universally marked as an object for rather special condolence, and when the day arrives that this parent also shall seem the worthy recipient of public favor, the millennium, I think, will be much nearer its dawn than at present.Truly, in view of the actual existing requirements of society, who cannot readily comprehend the reason of this? Ten daughters! It is not a question of so many mouths to feed and so many forms to cover during the period of childhood and youth; of so many struggles with measles, whooping-cough, scarlet fever, and the train of evils whereto infant flesh is heir; of multiplied hours of parental solicitude and wakefulness, of separate educational accounts and the numberless little household bills which add up to such amazing results. Ten daughters demand no more in this way than ten sons; and in very truth, as full ready regard is ordinarily paid to the early claims of daughters, claims being always considered from the conservative point of view as those of sons. It is later that the real distinction begins. With sons, parental responsibility ceases at manhood. But until the daughter marries she is very generally supposed to require the protection of her father and be dependent upon him in a greater or less degree for her personal support. The continued care of even one child entails no trifling expenditure, and such care being unnatural, must always, to a certain extent, be irksome; but when the individual instance is multiplied by three or by four, as how often happens in our non-marrying, extravagant age, can any one wonder that a household of daughters is at best regarded as a not unmitigated blessing.It is not strange, in view of the current opinion touching this matter, that a certain claim is put upon the subsequent life of the daughter quite unlike anything ever demanded of the manhood and ripened powers of the son. A young man is never expected to leave his profession, his trade, or even the preparatory studies and apprenticeship with which he begins his career, to meet any emergency that may arise on the farm or in the workshop of his father, or to assume any care about his father's business. Yet how frequently does it happen that the girl, engaged in some honorable, remunerative employment away from home, is recalled when any pressure is felt in the domestic circle, which, ordinarily, as is well understood and universally acted upon in the other exigency, might speedily relieved by hired labor. Still more absurd would it be to ask young man to abide at home as the companion of his parent, or to perform the lighter portions of the work; which would indeed save a trifling present expense, but could not half occupy his hands or keep his parental powers from utter stagnation. But this is even more frequently required of the daughter; and very often, I am quite sure, when she would prefer to be independently and actively employed abroad. Moreover a good show of justice accompanies this when the popular notion of woman's work and the fact that she is so rarely provided with aught save temporary employment are alone regarded; but a deeper consideration of the matter, a keener insight into the workings of the scheme, must surely prove that this is not only an unquestionable general evil, but also very often the source of unmerited individual pain. "O, that cannot be," say the parents. "It is really nothing for our daughter to give up a situation wherein she labors from choice during the years of her unmarried life; and indeed, if it were a sacrifice, if she voluntarily deprived herself of some present gain to aid us or give us the pleasure of her company, it will all be made up to her in the future."There are certain time-authorized views of filial duty which are not without weight in this matter, and make it worth one's while to consider precisely how far extend and where are limited the just claims of kindred upon the mature life of a woman; the more because at the present stage of progress in the Woman Question these claims may often become a peculiar obstacle to its rapid advancement. Thus far only one sphere has been recognized wherein woman's best years may be cast for the symmetrical development of her individual being. This, of course, is marriage; and in this alone she is exempted from any claim that could in the least prove detrimental to her marriage interests. But now a future is clearly foreshadowed wherein she will prove herself competent to engage successfully in business on her own account and to her own profit, and wherein she will fill with equal grace many positions of honor and influence now open to man alone. In sure anticipation of which are the improved means of education so lately placed within reach of woman; yet how can she avail herself of these while she is subject to certain external relations that may at any time command the total expenditure of her time, strength and ability.By a sort of tacit understanding among the members of a large family it sometimes happens that one daughter is made, as it were, a sort of reserve force to minister in all cases of emergency to the various individual needs of parents, brothers and sisters. It is settled that this one is to be an "old maid." If there is sickness in one branch of the family, thither she must speed. If company is expected elsewhere, her presence is again demanded. A brother needs a housekeeper for the few months previous to his marriage; and as the parents advance in years the other children are relieved from any personal care of them because their infirmities and the increasing wants of old age become the special charge of this daughter. Not unfrequently the pressure of family claims is so strong that even if the woman does not devote her entire life to her kindred, very many of her best years are quite monopolized by them. And be sure it is not the butterfly of the household upon whom these demands are made. It is the most practical and sensible, the clearest-headed of all the sisters. In fact, this thoughtful, unselfish woman, the best daughter and sister, with the will and the courage to be self-reliant, she who would soonest strike out into the new paths now opening to woman were she at all free to do so.CLARA LOUISE PENDRIESDavid PlumbJOHN QUINCY ADAMS ON THE SPHERE OF WOMAN.WHEN Mr. Adams was in Congress battling the Slave Power to prevent the annexation of Texas to the Union, he presented a petition from women of his district against that infamous and wily scheme of the slaveholders and their pro-slavery abettors of the North. The Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs took ground, not only against petitions in general relating to this subject, but made it a special point to attack the Female Petition on the ground of the sex of the petitioners. He said: "He thought these females could have a sufficient field for the exercise of their influence in the discharge of their duties to their fathers, their husbands, and their brothers, instead of rushing into the fierce struggles of political life. He felt sorry at this departure from their proper sphere, because he considered it discreditable, not only to heir own particular section of the country, but also to the national character." To this, among other remarks, Mr. Adams replied as follows: "Why does it follow that women are fitted for nothing but the cares of domestic life? for bearing children and cooking the food of a family? devoting all their time to the domestic circle--to promoting the immediate personal comfort of their husbands, brothers and sons? I admit it is their duty to do these things. But I say that the correct principle is, that women are not only justified, but exhibit the most exalted virtue when they depart from the domestic circle, and enter on the concerns of their country, of humanity, and of their God. The mere departure of women from the duties of the domestic circle, far from being a reproach to them, is a virtue of the highest order when it is done from purity of motive, by appropriate means, and towards a virtuous purpose. And I say that woman, by the discharge of such duties, has manifested a virtue which is, even above the virtues of mankind, and approaches to a superior nature. That is the principle I maintain; and I hold it to be proof of pure patriotism, of sincere piety, and. of every virtue that can adorn the female character."Were the "Old Man Eloquent" now alive and in Congress and the Sixteenth Amendment before that body, who can doubt that it would receive his eloquent plea and his emphatic Yea?DAVID PLUMB.DARE TO STAND ALONE.BE firm, be bold, be strong, be true, And "dare to stand alone;"Strive for the right whate'er ye do, Though helpers there be none.Nay, bend not to the swelling surgeOf popular sneer and wrong;'Twill bear thee on to ruin's verge, With current wild and strong.Stand for the Right! Humanity Implores, with groans and tears,Thine aid to break the fest'ring linksThat bind her toiling years.* * *Stand for the Right!--proclaim it loud--Thou'lt find an answering toneIn honest hearts, and thou no moreBe downed to stand alone!--"Poems" by Frances Dana Gage.Editorial Department.A COMMENDABLE ENTERPRISE.MISS EMMA MARWEDEL, an intelligent, cultivated German woman, to whom we have more than once alluded, is now in this city industriously engaged in promoting the enterprise which has already made such gratifying progress, viz., the establishment of a "Horticultural School for Women."This plan--with which the public, through its appearance in the Herald of Health, and republication in many journals, are familiar--consists, briefly recapitulated, in the establishment of an Institution which shall organize within itself a well-ordered business by means of the practical labor of the pupils, who shall be employed in profitable occupations--such as cultivating delicate vegetables, fruit, berries, and flowers; collecting seeds, making pickles, and preserving fruit, arranging bouquets and wreaths, and perhaps in preparing and arranging hanging vases and flower baskets. There can also be united to these the raising of bees and silk-worms, and other kindred things. A dwelling-house with twelve or thirteen rooms, a barn, about thirty or forty acres of land, and a green-house should be obtained. There should also be in attendance a matron, a gardener, a female servant, a gardener's assistant, and the necessary household furniture and implements. During the winter there should be teachers of theoretical branches of study, such as botany and entomology, agricultural economy and chemistry, practical drawing, chorus singing, and some foreign language. As pupils are admitted free, and also have their board and washing gratis, they must bind themselves not to leave before the end of the time agreed upon. As soon as the institution becomes self-supporting, and there is a surplus of money, each pupil is to receive such a portion of it as corresponds to the work she has performed. The pupils must also bind themselves to fulfill their duties thoroughly and conscientiously.That there is a necessity for thus enlarging the sphere of woman, and furnishing at once a healthful and remunerative employment is painfully evident; and with a competent, efficient manager, such as Miss MARWEDEL is represented to be, we have no doubt that the enterprise would prove in practice, successful, and become the pioneer agency of great public usefulness. Miss MARWEDEL has already gained for it the confidence and enlisted the hearty co-operation of Mrs. HORACE MANN, Miss ELIZABETH PEABODY and other sterling sympathizers with Reform. In this city, in addition to the sympathy extended to Miss MARWEDEL in her scheme by the Editors of the Herald of Health and the National Anti-Slavery Standard, both of which excellent journals have been freely opened to disseminate her views; valuable co-operation has also been secured among the philanthropic which promises to greatly facilitate the inauguration of the enterprise. As a Principal of the Hamburg Industrial School; Miss MARWEDEL acquired a fund of valuable experience, to which she adds the knowledge derived from an extended study of the best Industrial Institutions of France, England and Belgium.One of the most pleasant incidents that has lately fallen under our observation and one, too, powerfully illustrating the progress of the movement for the amelioration of the condition of woman, was the attendance Of Miss MARWEDEL at a recent meeting of the New York Fruit Grower's Club, whither, through the President, AARON M. POWELL, she was invited to present her plan for a Horticultural School, which awakened much interest and drew forth a Resolution, unanimously adopted, expressive of the full approbation and hearty sympathy of the Club. The announcement was made that President WHITE, and Mr. CORNELL of Cornell University, have offered to present to Miss. MARWEDEL several acres of good land adjoining the University farm, at Ithica, N. Y., for her proposed school, and also to afford to the girls who may become students therein full and free advantages of the University lectures. This is a very timely, encouraging offer, and it will doubtless be promptly accepted. In the course of the very interesting discussion which ensued, Mr. A. S. FULLER, a leading, practical horticulturist, an associate editor of Hearth and Home, and an active member of the Club, warmly expressed himself in favor of the scheme, declaring that he would agree to stock with plants as much land as Cornell University would give Miss MARWEDEL for the purpose-an offer which met with hearty applause from the Club.Capital for the necessary buildings, implements, etc., will be necessary, and this it is proposed to raise by shares, at the low price of five dollar each. Share-holders will be entitled to a dividend of surplus profits. We presume when the arrangements have bee a fully completed those especially interested in the success of the plan, the needed capital can be easily secured.Our heart goes out to Miss MARWEDEL for the success of her enterprise. She is a "stranger in a strange land," but friends have risen up who are kindred in instinct, and her German heart has had cause to glow with the sympathy which has been extended to her undertaking. It is auspicious for the future of the women of our land that an enterprise, promising so much in the way of improved physical health and better compensation for skilled labor, should be so cordially received, and we trust that no untoward circumstance will prevent the speedy establishment of so needed an Institution.NATIONAL ORGANIZATION MOVEMENT.THE following Call, for the accomplishment of what THE ADVOCATE since its establishment has steadily labored, we present with especial pleasure to our readers. It will be seen that not only is the scope and spirit of the paper all that could be desired, but that it is signed by an array of names such as a movement to establish a National Organization rarely secures. Indeed, the names of the signers, for probity and established reputation, are so well known--so much of all that is truly representative in the Cause is pledged to it, that the Movement, in view of the generous support of the press, cannot fail to achieve the success which its importance and the high character of its originators warrant us to believe it will attain:WOMAN SUFFRAGE CALL.The undersigned, being convinced of the necessity of an American Woman Suffrage Association, which shall embody the deliberate action of the State organizations, and shall carry with it their united weight, do hereby respectfully invite such organizations to be represented in a Delegate Convention, to be held at Cleveland, Ohio, November 24th and 25th, A. D., 1869.The proposed basis of this Convention is as follows:The Delegates appointed by existing State organizations shall be admitted, provided their Dumber does not exceed, in each case, that of the Congressional delegation of the State. Should it fall short of that number additional Delegates may be admitted from local organizations, or from no organization whatever, provided the applicants be actual residents of the States they claim to represent. But no votes Shall be counted in the Convention except of those actually admitted as Delegates.MAINE.--John Neal.NEW HAMPSHIRE.-Nathaniel White, Armenia S. White, William T. Savage.VERMONT.--James Hutchinson, Jr., C. W. Willard.MASSACHUSETTS.-William Lloyd Garrison, Lydia Maria Child, David Lee Child, George F. Hoar, Julia Ward Howe, Gilbert Haven, Caroline M. Severance, James Freeman Clarke, Abby Kelley Foster, Stephen S. Foster, Frank B. Sanborn, Phebe A. Hanaford, E. D. Draper, Edna L. Cheney.RHODE ISLAND.--Elizabeth B. Chace, T. W. Higginson, Rowland G. Hazard.CONNECTICUT.--H. M. Rogers, Seth Rogers, Marianna Stanton.NEW YORK.--George William Curtis, Lydia Mott, Henry Ward Beecher, Frances D. Gage, Samuel J. May, Celia Burleigh, Wm. H. Burleigh Aaron M. Powell, Anna C. Field, Gerrit Smith, E. S. Bunker.NEW JERSEY.--Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, John Gage, Portia Gage, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, A. J. Davis, Mary F. Davis.PENNSYLVANIA.--Mary Grew.DELAWARE.--Thomas Garret, Fielder Israel.OHIO.--Hannah M. Tracy Cutler, A. J. Boyer, Mary V. Longley, J. J. Bellville, Miriam H. Cole, S. Boltin.INDIANA.--Amanda Way, George W. Julian, Laura Giddings Julian, Lizzie M. Boynton.ILLINOIS.--Mary A. Livermore, C. B. Waite, Myra Bradwell, James B. Bradwell, Sharon Tyndale, J. P. Weston, Robert Collyer, Joseph Haven, E. R. Allen, Rev. Dr. Forrester, J. B. Harrison.MICHIGAN.--Moses Colt Tyler, James A. B. Stone, Mrs. L. H. Stone, G. C. Jones.WISCONSIN.-Lily Peckham, Augusta J. Chapin.IOWA.--Amelia Bloomer, Mrs. Austin Adams, Edna T. Snell, Mattie M. Griffeth, J. M. Mansfield, Belle Mansfield.KANSAS.-Charles Robinson, Mrs. C. I. H. Nichols, John Ekin, D. D., J. P. Root.MINNESOTA.-Mrs. S. B. Stears.MISSOURI.--Mrs. W. T. Hazard, Isaac H. Sturgeon, Mrs. Beverly Allan, James E. Yeatman, Mary E. Beedy, J. C. Orrick, Mrs. Geo. D. Hall.TENNESSEE.-Guy W. Wines, Charles J. Woodbury.LOUISIANA.--Mary Atkins Lynch.TEXAS.--Elizabeth C. Wright.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.--Grace Greenwood.ARIZONA.--A. K. Safford.CALIFORNIA.--J. A. Brewster.THE ADVOCATE.--1870FRIENDS! as the next number of THE ADVOCATE closes the Second Volume, and the year 1869, we desire, at this time, to say a few words to you concerning a new Volume and the year 1870.From our Prospectus you can learn the minor details of Terms, Premium, Offers, Club Rates, etc., to all of which we respectfully invite your attention, but here, in the familiar manner which a year of close, sympathetic association seems to warrant us to speak, we want to say something concerning the general principles by which we shall be governed, and of the scope and character of THE ADVOCATE for the second year of its existence.And first let us assure the generous friends who have stood by us in our efforts thus far, that in no respect will THE ADVOCATE be less worthy of confidence in the Future than in the Past. To provide the public with a magazine which should be truly representative of the enlightened sentiment of the age, as embodied in the movement for Woman's elevation, has been our earnest endeavor; and the success which thus far has attended our efforts warrants us in the assumption that THE ADVOCATE has a mission to fulfill in the crowded field of journalism which may not lightly be abandoned. We have faith in our work. At every stage we have been cheered by the unwavering support of the press, and the kind exertions of a widening circle of sympathetic friends. Writers, interested in the Cause and in our efforts, have freely given their best, strengthening our hands by their generous cooperation. For 1870, in addition to our present able corps of contributors, we confidently expect to be favored with choice original matter,--Tales, Poems and Essays,--from many new writers whose names are a guarantee of excellence. A careful watch will be kept of home and foreign periodicals, and, from time to time such selections will be made as best illustrate the progress of the Cause abroad, or may be regarded as especially worthy of republication.Untrammeled by any pledge or organization, free to admit or reject as we deem the interests of the Cause will be best served, we have been and will continue. For our Future we only ask to be judged by our Past. If we have ever swerved from the line of principle which we have marked out for our guidance it has been unwittingly. Friends!--Whose faces are strange to us, but whose "well done" has often come to us, lightening our labors--may we ask for the year to come, in view of the necessity of such an organ of opinion, the same generous cooperation of pen and efforts to extend our circulation which thus far have rendered THE ADVOCATE such an acknowledged means of usefulness! That we may not lose a patron, but that our friends, more tried as each month passes, will be induced yet more earnestly and effectively to aid our efforts, is our hope, to deserve which realization we shall spare no endeavor.OUR CONTRIBUTORS.--Since the establishment of THE ADVOCATE many inquiries have been made, by letter and otherwise, respecting this or that contributor to its pages. As all of these interrogatories appear to be prompted by the most friendly interest in our magazine, a somewhat gossipping mood induces us to impart the little of information which our own knowledge, or a sense of what is due to editorial confidence, will permit. "L. B. C.," who is particularly inquired after, is a young lady of culture and superior endowments, a native of New England, who contributed the article on the Fifteenth Amendment under a sense of duty requesting that her name might be withheld from the public. Respecting her wishes, we can only say that we deeply regret not to be more frequently favored with articles from her pen--a regret we know that is shared by many of our readers. "Jane O. De Forest," whose frequent spicy, highly original articles have rendered her a general favorite and won for her larger audiences than our columns, copied as they frequently have been in other journals, is a resident of Ohio, and, as may be inferred from the tenor of her articles, is a teacher in one of the many flourishing Seminaries in that State. Yet young, highly educated, holding a ready pen; a fair future is before this "Buckeye girl," and we congratulate ourselves that THE ADVOCATE has been the medium of extending her sphere of usefulness. "M. F. Burlingame," whose clear, logical articles have elicited numerous inquiries, resides in more distant Indiana. Western Conventions and Western readers know her well. She also, we believe, is in the ranks of the youthful Reformers whose coming tread is already heavy upon New England hills or Western prairies, marching with the assured step of youth and hopefulness, to a speedy victory over Ignorance and Error. There are other contributors, valued by us, also eagerly inquired after, but for the present we must close these imperfect notes. Concerning the well established writers who we rendered us such efficient assistance, Caroline H. Dall, Frances Dana Gage, Wendell Phillips, Lucy Stone, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Samuel J. May, the Brothers Blackwell, George H. Burleigh, Isabella B. Hooker, and others,--the world knows them too well and justly holds their names too dear, to need any special mention, beyond the tender of our most grateful thanks.WE invite especial attention to our new story, "The Market Woman," the first installment of which we present in the present issue of THE ADVOCATE. To those who deplore the highly seasoned fiction of the period Mrs. Blackwell's story will be found a charming relief by its simplicity, while the happily sketched incidents of the opening chapters awaken a lively interest in the subsequent fortunes of the courageous heroine.NOTES.MISS MARY HOVEY has been offered the Horticultural Professorship of the Agricultural College of Kansas.Mrs. Helen M. Rich, an esteemed contributor to THE ADVOCATE and other journals, we observe by an exchange, is speaking upon Temperance, Woman Suffrage, etc., in Western New York with excellent success."Berlin, Germany," says the North German Correspondence, has now a lady doctor. Mrs. Hirschfeldt, who was born in Holstein, and left Germany in 1867 to study in America, has lately returned with a diploma from the Dentist College in Philadelphia, and has obtained permission to practice as a dentist in the Prussian Capital."Mrs. E. A. Kingsbury of Vineland, N.J., a veteran and effective speaker, will lecture for Lyceums and other Associations the coming winter. Among Mrs. Kingsbury's excellent addresses are "Scattered Clouds," "Suffrage for Woman," "The Law of Compensation," "Woman in the Future," etc. Committees desiring to communicate with Mrs. Kingsbury will address as above.Miss Kate Field, whose brilliancy and talent have won for her an enviable reputation in the world of literature, began the lecture season in Boston on the 20th inst., under the auspices of the Mercantile Library Association. She gave graphic sketches of what she saw and experienced "among the Adirondacks" last summer, and her quaint humor and power of description, made the theme more than ordinarily entertaining. Miss Field is in great favor thoughout the country, and her winter campaign promises to be as extended as that of many of our veteran lecturers.The wealthiest woman proprietor of a journal in this country is Madame Ottendorfer of the Staats Zeitung of this city. This well-known journal, the German Herald for its value as an advertising medium, became the exclusive property of Mrs. Ottendorfer on the death of her husband, since which period, now eight or more years, Mrs. O---- has in person attended to its management, devoting so many hours of each day to business, riding to and therefrom in her own carriage, with as self-possessed a manner as the Bennetts or the Bonners of the metropolis.That accomplished woman of letters, Mary Somerville, a name of which not England alone but the civilized world may be proud, is thus spoken of by the N. Y. Times: "This phenomenon of her sex, in her eightieth year, lately published an abstruse and admirable work on Molecular and Microscopic Science, reviewing and criticising the most recent researches and discoveries of the philosophers In the world of nature. Her masculine brain has been wonderfully disciplined by exercise, and is still in good working order, like that of Humboldt at her age, and her mind resembles his in the great purpose of observing and proving instead of theorizing and making systems. When she dies she will leave a void which no one else of her sex can readily supply."The Liberal Christian of this city, a journal which, for its liberal views, we always peruse with interest, says: "The Tribune Association show their interest in the Woman Question by publishing a complete and uniform edition of Margaret Fuller's works, in six 12mo. volumes. Margaret Fuller was the pioneer of the Woman Movement in this country, a sort of female John the Baptist, going before and preparing the way for the great company of Apostles which is now following after. And, in very many instances, these do but pick up the pearls of thought which she dropped without noise on her often unwelcome path, and repeat her splendid prophecies in another tense. Among the truly great women of America Margaret Fuller holds scarcely a second place."The formation of the recently organized "Woman Suffrage Association" in Ohio, calls from the pen of Frances Dana Gage, in that excellent journal, The (Dayton) Woman's Advocate, which is rendering the Cause, yeomanry service in the West,--a letter of congratulation and of interesting reminiscences in relation to the growth of the movement in that State--for so many years Mrs. Gage's place of residence. We have been greatly interested in looking over this letter, overflowing with love for the Cause, to note the important part played by the sons and daughters of Ohio in the "bygone days" of the movement; and we congratulate the thousands of earnest advocates of Woman Suffrage in that Commonwealth on the marvellous change in public sentiment since the "Salem Convention"--the pioneer movement in the West.A St. Petersburg correspondent of the London Daily News contributed the following:It may be of interest to those of your readers who are interested in the 'Woman Movement' to learn that even Russia is becoming excited on that subject. Mr. Mill's work on 'The Subjection of Women' is enjoying a wide circulation in this country, and three extended reviews of it, all highly approving its sentiments, have recently appeared in the journals of Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is proposed to hold a grand Woman's Rights Convention at St. Petersburg, to which Mr. Mill--a sympathetic letter from whom to some feminine reformers of that city has already been published--is to be invited. It is even claimed that the Czar himself is not unfriendly to the principle of the equality of the sexes, and, at least there has been thus far no public manifestation of any objection on his part to the agitation which has already given rise to one public meeting."At a meeting of the "Social Science Society," held in Boston on Monday evening, September 20th, at which Hon. Josiah Quincy presided, a very interesting paper was read by Rev. Charles F. Barnard upon Mrs. Batchelder's Industrial School of that city, the subject which the Association was called to consider. Mother Bickerdyke of Kansas made some effective remarks in support of Mrs. Batchelder's School, which has recently received an appropriation of $3,000 from the School Board fund and addresses from Mrs. E. P. Peabody, Mr. Otis Clapp, the President, and others, in warm commendation of the plan, closed the proceedings. We are happy to learn that the good work which Mrs. Batchelder has commenced, the generous-hearted men and women of Boston will not suffer to languish for want of funds, and that she will be enabled to prosecute it with fresh assurances of success.Die Neue Zeit is the title of the new weekly, which the growing interest among our German residents in the "Woman Question" has caused its projectors to establish. While chiefly devoted to the advocacy of the Woman's Rights movement, Die Neue Zeit will in no sense be a partisan journal, but aim to be the friend and promoter of all just and beneficent enterprises. It has a field of much usefulness before it, which the interesting character of the numbers already issued give earnest it will fill. Surely there is vitality in the Cause when papers thus increase among all classes in the community, and this latest born of journals which the movement has evoked, will find many well-wishers even among those to whom its tongue is strange. May it merit and receive the largest measure of support! The publication office is at No. 19 Ann street. It is edited by Dr. Hoeber. Terms $4.00 per year.The London, Daily News of Sept. 25th, speaking of the progress of liberal ideas on the Continent, says: "Mr. John Stuart Mill has triumphed in at least one European capital. Austria used to have a name for despotism, and the rigid adherence to ancient usages. It is now in many respects quite radical in its tendencies. If we may credit the local and special correspondent of the Independance Belge, the municipal body of the town of Vienna has decided that 7,000 women inhabiting the town, paying its taxes, and otherwise complying with all legal conditions, shall be admitted to the right of an elective vote. The most curious part of the affair is the comparatively speaking utter unconcern of the male population of Vienna. In this respect, however, Austria is as England. In the last session of Parliament a precisely similar extension of the municipal franchise to women was made without exciting even the faintest opposition. Many in the country have not been aware that the question of woman's rights was at all considered in Austria."In pursuance of a Call issued last June, a preliminary meeting to organize a "Woman's Parliament" was held in this city on the 21st ult. About seventy ladies were in attendance, among whom were Mrs. Fanny Fern Parton, Mrs. Mary F. Davis, Mrs. Elizabeth P. Peabody, Mrs. Dr. Densmore, Mrs. Charles S. Pierce, Miss Marwedel and others well known in Reform and Literary circles. Mrs. Pierce was chosen President of the Convention, and Miss Emma C. Ward, Secretary. After several interesting addresses and extended informal remarks, a Committee upon Organization was appointed, and the meeting adjourned until Saturday, October 23d, when several important and interesting papers will be read, and measures taken to organize a permanent Woman's Parliament. As a conservative middle movement, enlisting the co-operation of many worthy, influential women, we believe that the establishment of such a Parliament as proposed will be the means of effecting much good, and we await further proceedings with interest. From the proceedings of the 21st. ult. men, even to the ubiquitous reporters, were rigorously excluded.It has been noticed in England, and indeed it is a noticeable fact, that almost all the magazine literature of England is monopolized by lady writers. Two of the magazines are edited by ladies--the St. James Magazine, by Mrs. Roddell; and the Argosy, by Mrs. Henry Wood; both of these ladies also are writing for Tinsley's Magazine. There is another monthly, the Packet, which Miss Yonge edits; and Mrs. S. C. Hall assists her husband in running the Art Journal.Macmillan's Magazine of last month, besides the extraordinary article from the pen of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, contained articles from Mrs. Muloch-Craik, Miss Olney, and Hon. Mrs. Norton. The leading story in Temple Bar is by a lady, and Miss Edwards's "Debenham's Vow " is the principal in Good Words. Even the Contemporary Review opens its columns to Miss Emily Davies, and a lady has an article on Bells in the Churchman's Shilling Magazine. There seems also an inclination on the part of gentlemen requiring private secretaries or amanuenses to employ ladies. Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist, employs one ; and Sir Francis Goldsmith's secretary, another lady, has translated "Schleiermacher."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 comprised within it, 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 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 ADVOCATE resolve to furnish at least one subscription to commence with the July number?EXTRAORDINARY OFFER.IN addition to our OFFER of Volume II. of THE ADVOCATE for FIFTY CENTS, we have arranged to furnish to subscribers, or others desiring the same, the First Volume, comprising the numbers inclusive, from January to June, neatly bound, for ONE DOLLAR. This unparalleled low rate will enable our friends to secure for themselves, or others, a handsomely printed, tastefully bound volume, comprising over 300. pages of choice reading matter, embracing the contributions of many of our most valued writers, at a price that should insure the circulation of very many copies. Orders, inclosing the Money and giving the desired address, will receive prompt attention. The postage (also to be inclosed) will be 24 cents per volume.OUR BOUND VOLUME.WE are now furnishing, to those of our friends who order, bound copies of the First Volume of THE ADVOCATE, which are winning general commendation by their neatness and remarkable cheapness. Those of our subscribers who desire to preserve THE ADVOCATE will find it almost as true economy to order the bound volume direct of the Publisher, and present the numbers in their hands to some unsupplied friend.CANVASSERS for THE ADVOCATE are desired in all parts of the country. Those thoroughly responsible can make very desirable arrangements by addressing the Publisher.CLUB RATES.--IMPORTANT REDUCTION.THE ADVOCATE hereafter will be furnished at $1.50 per year, single copy, and sent to addresses as desired, in Clubs of four or more, upon the following terms: Four subscriptions, . . . . . . . . .$5.00 Ten do . . . . . . . . .10.00 Twenty " . . . . . . . . .16.00We 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 ADVOCATE.Antoinette Brown BlackwellTHE MARKET WOMAN.[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.]CHAPTER IV. THE MARKET.IT is still an early hour. Most of her future neighbors are not yet here; but our market woman has already conveyed a part of the contents of her wagon to the stall, still keeping a reserved force in waiting if needed. Her horse has been taken from the shafts and stands by his wagon out in the open market place quietly picking at his hay, and Susan is busily arranging, her produce that it may be displayed to the best advantage.There are heads of crisp, green lettuce, long rosy radishes, and young onions with their blended white and green; spinach, kale and chard; all grouped in neighborly clusters like flowers on a parterre. A pretty, shallow basket of delicate young cress is green and fragrant enough for a parlor ornament, the long bundles of mammoth pie-plant lie quietly side by side, and the green and purple clumps of asparagus rest daintily against a white napkin which has been thrown over an old box. It is too early yet for many vegetables; but last year's potatoes, still round and plump, thanks to careful preservation, seem not yet out of season, and even cabbages, beets and parsnips are quite presentable. Then there are nice dried apples, and dried cherries and peaches--the mother-in-law's offering to her daughter's stock in trade. Thrifty young cabbage plants and a few delicate flowers in pots are also for sale here; and a pile of fine eggs make a pleasant contrast to the general greenness. Through the slightly open lid of a long basket is seen the golden gleam of little one and two pound rolls of butter, nicely stamped; and at the other end of the basket are dainty cottage cheeses, in keeping with the snowy plates and napkins with which the whole interior is lined.Susan remembered the few tables of tempting food and flowers which she had seen mingled at fairs and festivals, and acting upon the hint she had set out her market stall in simple and cleanly beauty. In later years, when she had secured her regular run of customers, many of her choicest articles were kept carefully covered to preserve their freshness; now she puts them forward with as much care and ingenuity as the advertiser does his wares, when he is anxious to catch the public eye. No sign-painter ever gave more heed to the construction of every letter and ornamental stroke than Susan did to the placing of every bunch of radishes and every little pot of sweet elyssum and mignonette."What do you ask for your asparagus?" called a loud, strong voice at her side, as she stood taking a last survey of the general effect.Susan had seen the whole table over and over again spread out before her mental vision within the last week or two, but now that it was here really before her eyes, it still affected her like a surprise; and she had almost forgotten, in the interest of her work, that there might be any lookers-on. "It is really very pretty!" she was just saying to herself, when the strong voice gave her a sudden and unexpected start.The great, burly man who stood towering above her gave a good-natured, audible laugh. It seemed so odd for a market woman! It made him think of an old maid standing in the dim light of her best parlor; absorbed in admiration of the pretty little gewgaws which had cost her so much time and thought; and he was prepared to see a sharp, thin face with a drawn down mouth and a sad smile look up at him from under the sunbonnet. He repeated his question more gently; and with a touch of commiseration at the thought of another old maid Pyncheon driven by stress of want into such a calling.The market woman looked down fixedly at her vegetables, as she answered "fifteen cents.""Fresh, eh?""Cut this morning, sir; every bunch by my own hands." Susan was herself again, self-poised, alert, and ready for action. No room now for commiseration. She looked a genuine born huckster from top to toe, as she lifted a fine bunch, and held it towards him."Give me three bunches. It's the finest I've seen this Spring. Grow it yourself?""Why! well, is it you, Susan? Didn't know you! Well, this is a surprise!" offering his broad, open hand cordially."Yes, sir; I grew the asparagus, at least I looked after the top dressing myself this Spring;" said Susan, demurely, as she took the offered hand, well-pleased.Such genuine hand-shaking from an honored acquaintance in the market place had hardly occurred to her in the reckoned probabilities of her experience."Glad to see you here, Susan, it's sensible. Most women are dolls now-a-days, and at first I thought you was one of them, playing at marketing as a fine art; but now I see that you mean business.""I mean business; and this is my advertisement, you know. I must get started.""Right, quite right! I heard you were married; but didn't know you had turned market woman. That's what I call pluck. It's good grit, and you'll succeed!""I shall be here every day, Mr. Verplank, and thank you for becoming my first customer.""Am I? That's right, and I'll stand by you till the last if you are on hand promptly every morning with a set out as nice as this to-day; and if you go on gathering your own vegetables, eh Susan!""Here in the market I am Mrs. Reband, if you please, sir. Come and see us at home, Mr. Verplank, and you may call me Susan as they all do there.""Eh, yes!" laughed the eccentric lumber merchant, evidently pleased by the naive expression of her wishes. "Mrs. Reband, you see my market basket is quite full already. I am always an early customer; but I'll take a pound of your dried cherries. They look tempting. Did you dry these, too?""No, sir. My mother-in-law did that. But I made this cottage cheese only yesterday. Here is nice thin paper to wrap it in, and it would go on the top of your basket.""Yes, so it would. Put me in two or three balls; say four, that is not too many if, they are good.""I'll make the cheese to order if this does not suit; milk or buttermilk, just as you prefer. This is mixed, a part of each.""Yes, there, that will do! twelve cents, eh! that's right. Have you a good vegetable garden to draw from through the Summer, Mrs. Reband?""Pretty good, sir. Everything is thrifty and forward.""Work in the garden yourself?" "Yes sir, when I have time.""I like that. You start right and you've got the spunk--that's everything. You wont die off with consumption at thirty-five, or be ailing and codling all your life. Women are not worth a cent now-a-days; but if they would do something they would get well. That's my doctrine, madam. A fine lady that's ashamed help herself don't deserve to be helped, I say. There is too much false pride. Your old grandmother had more spirit than a dozen sick, kittenish, white things that lie on the sofa and sleep or sew all day, and raise children as puny as themselves. You may keep up heart, for you will win the day. Good morning, Mrs. Reband; you deserve to find customers as thick as black-berries in an old clearing!""With the thorns, too, sir?" asked Susan, quietly."Goose-berries lose their prickles by cultivation; and they say there are such things as white black-berries. If you don't look for the thorns you won't feel them often. You'll find this is a sensible world at bottom after all. Its bark is worse than its bite." And with a bow as civil as he would have given to a millionaire, the eccentric democrat had said his say, and was gone.The market woman looked after him gratefully and smiled as she looked down at the money in her hand, eyeing it for a moment with a far-off look. Fifty-two cents cash in hand, and a grand customer and well-wisher secured. It was a good beginning and far more than she had allowed herself to expect. But she became conscious of the sharp eyes of neighbors peering at her, and the money went hastily down into her pocket. She stood sedately ready for the next customer who was already there in waiting."A good thing ye've made of it, too, Mrs.," said the gossipy Irish woman who had stood a little way off listening, and now came up to the stand. "He's a right down liberal-handed gentleman, that, and sensible like, and not a ha'penny proud. My son Jim works for him; and I wish ye joy of the luck. His good will's a fortune to a poor woman, let alone the custom. How much thin for the young onions; for I'll be afther thrading wid ye, too, in a small way, if ye'll be raisonable. How much the bunch?" picking up a handful and eyeing them admiringly."Only three cents, ma'am; you'll find me always asking no more than the even market price, unless the things are extra good.""The salads are all in the dew yet, I can see that for meself, so I'll take a head of lettuce and three bunches of the onions and a measure of the potatoes. They look splendid. Ye are a rare one for a fine show of things, I warrant."The Irish woman handed her silver and copper coins and went on her way.They fell with a jingle to the bottom of the market woman's pocket, and to her heart the chime was as musical as the refrain of a pleasant song. These first earnings were the forerunner of an honorable independence. "No mortgage-- no more mortgage!" was the song that her ears heard all the morning. "You are in luck for a beginning, Mrs.," called a market man not far off, after disposing of a customer of his own; and I see you've a knack for the business better than most.""Have I?" said Susan, quietly. "I shall keep my eyes open to learn all I can from the ways of you all, and I shall improve in time, I hope.""Little need of that, I reckon;" said a woman whose stand was nearest her own, speaking rather tartly."All is fair in fair trade," said the man. "We have no need to begrudge a new-comer. Good luck to you, Mrs. Reband, I say, and so say we all.""Thank you," was the civil reply; and all three turned again to their own affairs, and were soon busy with the inflow of customers. One and another came up to look or ask prices, or perhaps to buy a few articles of Mrs. Reband, who received them all graciously but with few words, never soliciting custom or seeming greatly anxious to obtain it. "To the market born!" she said to herself as she saw how easily she fell into the ways of her business, easily meeting all her would-be customers half way. "Yes, I am bound to succeed. It is my heritage!"Those who passed on sometimes returned to purchase; but for a good while the sales were very few, and her crusty left-hand neighbor began to regain her affability. Presently a small, carefully dressed gentleman, leading two children by the hand and followed by a black boy carrying a huge basket, came walking briskly forward, when his eye fell on Susan and her wares at a single glance."New market woman; better class; nice set out;" was his mental preface. "Are these things raised in your own garden?" he asked, halting promptly. "They are, sir, all of them."He ran his eye over everything, tasted the butter and cheese, looked through half-a-dozen eggs held against the sunlight, and ended by nearly filling his basket with a goodly variety of articles. "Now, Peter, go forward and wait for me at the meat stall. You ask the regular market price for all these things, of course?" turning back to Mrs. Reband with a penetrating look. "Certainly, sir. A penny extra for the extra quality possibly, if anything is remarkably fine of its kind.""Certainly, certainly! I'm quite willing if it's worth the difference! Is your garden well stocked with everything for the Summer?" "Pretty well, I think, sir.""And if it isn't you can buy what's wanting of the others, I suppose.""No, Sir. I shall never sell anything which we don't raise ourselves. The profits I make shall be clear profits.""Excellent principle. Don't vary from that rule with me; for I hate second-hand dealing.""I never will, sir, you may rely on that."Well, I'll try you. Will you bring me a gallon jug of fresh buttermilk every Saturday?""Yes, sir, and I'll be sure to remember it.""Do you know him?" whispered her neighbor; nudging her."No, I don't know his name or anything about him.""He is the best buyer in the market; and you've caught the big fish; but I won't envy you, for he's awful particular and I can't suit, and don't want to; but you will, I guess.""'Live and let live,' is all we both want, Mrs. Hawks.""Here is a dominie's wife coming, and she s a little of the same sort," was whispered back confidentially."A pleasant-faced lady approached, looking about her with the practiced eye of a careful purchaser, touching, tasting, and questioning with shrewd, practical sense. "The dominie's wife," too, liked the finest and freshest of its kind; but evidently she was not in favor of high prices. A clergyman's family must generally look well to see that they get the worth of their money, and Susan forgot in this case to allude to the possible extra penny for prime articles, but contented herself with pushing some of the most attractive trifles a little to the front; while she looked and answered with a steady self-reliance. This lady, too, became a considerable patron, and had evidently taken a special fancy to the new market stall.Once more Susan repeated over her whimsical parody: "To the market born! To the market born! Well, there might be a worse calling, and one less entertaining. My grandmother was a sensible woman after all. I rather like it, and a fig for what silly people say or think!" But her eye was arrested by the figure of an old acquaintance hovering in the distance--an early school-mate lately married like herself, and now a resident of the city. Susan had been an invited guest at her wedding; but the fashionably-dressed lady would ignore the pink sunbonnet and the market stall. Susan caught the flash of her black eye as it turned away from her in feigned unconsciousness; and her face flushed suddenly much more than the sunbonnet would justify."She will not come here today. I guarantee so much," thought the market woman. "By-and-by I shall have her for a customer. She who Wins may laugh," and she turned to supply the needs of a small boy who was in quest of radishes; but heart and brow were both ablaze, and they went on burning and would not get cool again till the market broke up.Noon came, when the remaining articles were locked away in a box or packed in the market wagon, the patient horse was kindly patted and offered a few refuse green leaves, which he took with manifest thanks and good will; and horse and driver set their faces homewards with lightened hearts, lightened boxes and baskets. Mrs. Reband had a heavy, heavy pocket. Those were days when copper and silver were both in circulation and everywhere abundant. Nearly thirty dollars, chiefly in small coin, she was carrying home as so much clear profit going to liquidate the mortgage."Better than I ventured to hope," she mused as she drove on at a brisk trot. That will help to reconcile mother. John, too, poor fellow! they felt it more than I did. I shall like it in time; but will they? I can hardly tell."Clara Louise PendriesA PLEA FOR DAUGHTERS. SECOND PAPER.IN the older portions of our country the number of unmarried women is constantly increasing, and of this number may be found many of the most energetic, the strongest minded and the strongest hearted of the sex. It is to this class of noble single women who feel within themselves a fund of native, unemployed power that the advance of thought upon the Question of woman's work is largely owing. These women would do much if they could; the world is acknowledging their ability, and society at last making a way for them; but until woman's time is held of as much value to her as man's time to him; until woman's strength and talents are as sacredly at her own disposal as man's strength and talents at his, under what obstacles are they placed! But there are certain claims which arise in families of the middle classes, including neither the poor nor yet the wealthy of our country, that ought particularly to be considered.The mistress of a large family needs help. Who so efficient in rendering it who so pleasing to the mother as her own daughter? Inas- much as there is no imperative need of the daughter earning her own livelihood abroad, and as food and raiment can well be afforded her at home, the question never enters the mind of either parent whether the world and society have not the highest claim upon the maturity of a well-educated child, especially when all the personal needs of her kindred may be readily, if indeed a little less agreeably, supplied by hired labor. But herefrom also arises a strong and subtle temptation to the daughter. A conscientious, energetic girl, unsparing of herself in the generous purpose of sparing her friends, responds to this demand for personal aid without the faintest suspicion that by so doing she is not treading in the path of the very highest duty life can open before her. How adapted is she to the place! How well acquainted with the requirements of the household, the family tastes, interests, peculiarities! Who so easily as she can please every member thereof! Moreover there springs up within her a delightful consciousness of living in constant forgetfulness of self, and what principle so fascinates while it is at the same time so injurious to certain earnest natures, as this of self-abnegation! Indeed, are there not many who will exclaim, what can be nobler than the spirit of sacrifice? Is it not the very breath of heroism and martyrdom? And are not martyrs and heroes the loftiest souls of earth?Surely the virtue of martyrdom lies only in necessity. And true heroism is hardly more than the resolute pursuit of all that is high and pure in the noble scorn of sacrifice; while the obvious purpose of every soul should be the attainment of perfection, or, at least, the most complete possible development of every faculty. And inasmuch as education is paramount to the more accident of birth in determining a person's true value to society, so, other things being equal, it must also determine the particular field wherein a man or woman may labor most effectually and achieve the greatest usefulness. If the claims of kindred also allow the widest range for the culture of heart, mind and body ; if they permit the greatest freedom of thought, the loftiest energy of purpose; if they carry the soul upward to an atmosphere that promotes the quickest, strongest growth of the inner life, then these must indeed represent the sphere an Infinite Being would have his creature fill. Women are indifferent to the demands of their nature more often than men because their liberty is more restricted; or they fail to assert themselves, because heedless of the great truth that an individual Is responsible for the perfection of his or her entire nature and that only the utmost of every faculty can please God--hence not a little of their personal suffering. And how is it with the unquestioning submission to these long-established family claims? It is very easy for the daughter to adopt her strong, young shoulders to a burden of care which is gradually, almost mechanically, shifted thereupon from the mother's. Yet how much heavier is this burden for her than for the parent upon whom it fell naturally in her capacity of wife and mother. And once accepted, if the daughter is the pains-taking, conscientious girl she is assumed to be, it must require no slight struggle to cast it off again. Family interests grow around her and cling to her until her very life is woven into their fabric. Months, years slip by. Can she be spared now? Not yet. Now? Not yet. The parents may be truly unconscious of any injustice done their child because they think, "She will lose nothing in the end. She has a good home with us, and protection; and we shall amply compensate her hereafter." But ought this to be so? Such devotion may be praiseworthy, is it justifiable? Such unselfishness would be truly beautiful in her own household where it would also be natural, is it called for in her father's? And with regard to compensation: Can inherited wealth compensate for a life contracted within the full measure of its possible growth? Can inherited wealth make amends for the loss of youth's bright promise? Can it light up a lonely old age, and purchase for declining life the tender ministries, the loving care, then so needful? Thoughts like these come to find lodgment in the girl's heart as she realizes at last that she has taken upon herself a perpetual burden of care, such as can only be cheerfully, happily endured in the exercise of wifely and motherly devotion. And is it strange that she has to lament the early decay of her best powers, and is conscious of an incongruity in all her life relations that speedily engenders the saddest feelings of loneliness and desolation? But some one here asks, and very justly too, Are there not other evils at the root of this matter which ought to be considered? Is it nothing that the mother be unsupported beneath the weight of her daily cares? And how is it unworthy the most cultivated young lady, this tender, graceful recognition of a parent's need? In answer might be put the counter questions: Is it often that any sacrifice is really demanded? If the constant personal aid of a son is neitherexpected nor desired by the father, why should the mother require the continued assistance of a daughter ? If out-door labor is bought and paid for, why not purchase in-door help also? Many women, however, who are quite able to obtain such help refuse to do so because the presence of a stranger in their well-ordered, methodical households is disagreeable or they shrink from the effort necessary to the thorough instruction of a raw untrained foreigner. Others again are not allowed to exercise their own judgment touching these domestic necessities and have not the command of sufficient money to enable them to purchase such timely aid as would ensure to themselves continued health and vigor. Yet is not here represented a large majority of the cases where a daughter's services are claimed quite as a matter of right and justice? Perhaps a more frequent demand is that which would require the young lady to remain at home simply to be the companion of her mother. Two ladies meet in society. Says Mrs. B---- to Mrs. A---- "How can you let your daughter be away so much, teaching? There is positively no need of it, you know; and she would be such delightful company for you at home." Answers Mrs. A----, "Oh, well, Carrie wanted to teach, so I lot her. But I do miss her at home and I shall have her return before long." Caroline A---- belongs to the large class of our educated girls who have hitherto so generally found in teaching an easy, agreeable means of independence. She enjoys this work above her quiet, rather dull home life, because it affords her a wider range of observation, gives her influence, gains her respect, and opens to her an ample field of useful endeavor. Nevertheless, cherishing sincere affection for her parents and acknowledging the obligations by which she is bound to them, she regards their wishes to the letter and returns home. She may be less happy, more restless, conscious of an unsatisfied want in her life; but she is in the path of duty, she "honors her father and her mother," she is doing right. "O, my dear," says her kind mother, "I do not wish you to take any care. You need only dust the parlor, water the plants, and see that the table is in order when we have company." If the daughter possesses an active mind and has been engaged in earnest, useful labor abroad, surely she must fail to obtain from these daily tasks, and too often from any of the surroundings of home, that excitement absolutely essential to her continued health and happiness. If indeed she aspires to more than ordinary culture in music, the arts, literature, then her situation is desirable. But such aspirations imply peculiar gifts, and scarcely touch the multitude; while the wants of society, the enlargement of woman's sphere, require only the clear head, the resolute will, the pure and lofty ambition, every young lady ought to possess. Abroad, again, the daughter has doubtless gathered around her a circle of friends endeared by the ties of mutual labor and community of interest; at home, many of her early associates are absent or removed from her by the inevitable changes of time, or fallen behind her in the march of intelligence; while nowhere is it more difficult than here to break over old bounds and select in society the exact level of personal adaption. I question whether any healthy young girl can remain at home a companion to even the tenderest of mothers, when that mother is well and not in particular need of a daughter's ministrations, without serious detriment to her own mental and physical well-being. What but the idle, inefficient life thus rendered imperative is the cause of the vast amount of ill health showing itself in depression of spirits, nervousness, neuralgia, now so common among our young women that a really robust girl is as great a rarity as was a delicate one in the days of our grandmothers. Not long since two ladies were conversing in the street, when the elder of the two, a very respectable matron, was heard to exclaim, "You have a pleasant home, child; why in the world aren't you contented in it? You ought to be!" The younger lady's face, earnest, spirited, full of character, was shaded with doubt and annoyance. Whatever her answer may have been, her bearing and expression fully justified the conclusion that she ought not to be contented at home, that a nobler, even if a more laborious, life awaited her abroad, and her own instinct was urging her to break away from idleness and the unnatural bonds which held her that she might seek the sphere for which she was well adapted and in which therefore she was surely needed. In short, why should any young woman, strong and healthy, between the ages of twenty and thirty years, remain at home? I limit the age because these years seem peculiarly the period of preparation for efficient labor in later life; and if a woman has controlled her time thus long she may reasonably be supposed to have acquired the firmness of purpose and maturity of thought that will enable her to judge how she is in duty bound afterwards to employ herself. What law of nature requires that the young lady be provided for at home while the young man is away cheerfully, bravely providing for himself? When the Red-breasts reared a family in the old apple tree, and the children birds were fledged, did papa and mamma Robin peck young Cock Robin out of the nest, but suffer Miss Robin to plume her feathers on the mossy bough over above the Redbreast homestead, and receive dainty bits of insect and choice morsels of worm after she was able to fly and provide for herself? Truly any human being, whether Male or female, if possessed of the ordinary powers that distinguish man from the lower orders of life is without excuse if such powers are suffered to rust through idleness or are employed in any way save to the accomplishment of the greatest good in the broadest possible field! And is this at all incompatible with the rendering of any just claim a parent may hold upon his child? Who would question the duty of either son or daughter to guide with tenderest care the faltering steps of age down the hill of life? To recognize with grateful attentions the need of the parent who is sick, overtaken by poverty or crushed beneath some deep affliction? Who would not honor the strong man or, the loving woman that puts resolutely aside the hope of personal gain in order to be quite devoted to the father or mother in actual want of such assistance! But is it not true that the forgetfulness, perhaps sometimes the selfishness, of parents in comparative ease and comfort, is doing much to delay the long looked-for morn of woman's complete enfranchisement? Already the promise is dawning. The eastern sky brightens. There is a glory upon the hill-tops ; but that the sun shine forth in perfect, unsullied radiance, let the strong winds of justice and generous consideration waft afar certain mist clouds, which now slumber heavily upon the horizon.CLARA LOUISE PENDRIES.Mary R. Whittlesey"WOMAN IS COMING."WHEN boughs are waving in fresh March winds,Alive to their budding tips,And the robin's song in the snow begins,Glad words leap from out lips:"Summer is coming."Summer is coming, Earth will be blithe,Which was so cold and dumb,She will be young again, and lithe,To herself we shall hear her hum."Summer is coming."Oh! the Summer comes to the waiting earth,Like a friend to a lonely heart,And there's naught too beautiful for birth,When the buds and blossoms start."Summer is coming."Oh! the Summer comes to the pining earth,Like a mother to her child;And there's no more dreariness nor dearthIn garden or forest wild."Summer is coming."But the Summer of Summers is yet to comeTo this waiting, pining earth;Age after age has she lain dumb,And suffered wasting dearth."Woman is coming."Woman is coming, hearts will be blithe,That ne'er were blithe before,No more will souls in prison writhe,Earth shall have love galore."Woman is coming."Ah! she will come to this darkened earth, Like a mother and lover in one, And buds and blossoms will have birth, That never have seen the sun. "Woman is coming."MARY R. WHITTLESEY.W. J. LintonPATIENT GRIZZLE.FEW stories show more plainly how the mixed domain of morals and literature has been managed by the tyrant man than the story of patient Griselda, borrowed by our old poet from the Italians, doubtlessly borrowed by them, too, for the story with all its revolting masculinity of cruelty must be world-old. Healthy, manly old Chaucer takes especial delight in it. The story, as I recollect it, not having my Canterbury Pilgrims at hand, is briefly this: A certain nobleman, out of jealous suspicion of the real devotedness and self-sacrificing nature of his wife's love, or else out of the very naughtiness of his male heart, tries her patient fidelity by stealing from her her two children, stealing them in their first infancy, and persuading her that they are dead; then crowning the trial by repudiating her and, adding insult to injury, ordering her to be present at his second marriage to do honor to his new bride. Of course the revengeful poet rewards her with a pleasant surprise, her grown-up son and daughter being presented to her, and the lordly husband taking his poor ill-used old wife to his arms as the new bride, with whom he amiably means to be very happy ever after.My thought goes just now in this direction as I hear of a lady similarly situated. Her amiable husband after a dozen years of marriage without complaint against her, walks off with a new wife, and kidnaps his children in quite the old lordly fashion. To be sure he does not ask the first wife to be present at his second marriage--that is not the custom in Fifth Avenue--but be asks her affectionately by letter to bestow her blessing upon the bigamy; and the lady has her opportunity of studying Chaucer to some purpose and playing Patient Grizzle to the life. May I say I am somewhat pleased that her inclinations tend in rather an opposite direction. I would like to express my satisfaction pretty strongly, before following out the strange reflections which the case in point suggests.What did the old poets mean by this ideal? An ideal certainly: for, thank Heaven, there are no such women. And no woman could have imagined or written such a character. Something like to it indeed, occurs in George Sand's Leone-Leoni; but there the sufferer is plainly meaned to exemplify the folly of infatuated love. But Chaucer's husband is a magnificent fellow in all but the husbandly relations; and the poet certainly means the wife as an example for all time. There is nothing like to it in womanly literature. George Eliot has in her Romola some hard words against impatient wifehood, and well worth a man's or a woman's reading. Tito, however, is not a kidnapping father, and the reproof of the runaway Romola comes out of the mouth of Savonarola. Chaucer, I say, deliberately sets up his Griselda as a model. And what a model! A model of slavishness, if ever there was one! A model of servile submission, of cowardly surrender to evil for herself, not resisting it even for others, letting the tyrant take his own way, turning the cheek for a second and a third blow, encouraging oppression by a low mean acquiescence in it, and confounding good and evil by giving to the evil-doer the love and faithfulness which were all she could have given in most grateful recompense to even a devoted and self-sacrificing husband. So slaves make tyrants. Thank God! I say it earnestly, our women in these days are not of so slavish a mould. Nor can Christianity be now invoked to sanctify such wrong as this.But--that invocation of Christianity a little disturbs the conclusion. When Christ was preached as the great exemplar, if submission to all manner of rulers, the cheek turned to the smiter, the patient, unresisting bearing of evil--hoping only to educate evil into good through long forbearance and absolute submission to it,--if this was to be inculcated as the highest manly virtue, it seems not very surprising that a poet should be logical enough--and not so very curiously or absurdly imaginative--to suppose that the womanly should not be very different from the manly, certainly that the difference should not consist in the display of a more active, not to say brutal force. The man Christ necessitates the Christ-like woman; and as male theologians had found the male Christ, the more femininely-natured poet naturally followed-with the female.I am not about to argue against our Great Exemplar, nor am I going to expose a sneaking fondness for Griselda. It may be that I think John Brown as great at Harper's Ferry as when be took that little black child in his arms, as Christ himself might have done, on his way to Calvary. It may be that, in my unregenerated condition thinking force is not always evil, I may esteem the hero as highly as the saint, and find none more saintly than poor fighting Joan of Arc in all the Calendar of the Canonized. Be it so, or not, that is not my present argument. What I would call attention to now is that, whether I like it or not, the Griselda is the type of the Christian woman, and that (not to speak too seriously, nor too lightly either) on the good common ground of the equality of the sexes--what is good for the gander holds just equally good for the goose.W. J. LINTON.A Woman.A REVIEW.Women's Suffrage; the Reform against Nature. By Horace Bushnell. 184 pp. New York: Charles Scribner & Co.HAVING introduced himself to the reader in two short prefaces, more playful than grammatical, Dr. Bushnell enters upon his task with a statement that "power naturally runs to oppression, and man is gravitating towards some practice of wrong against women, all because the wrong is in him, and having the power must be somehow issued in the deed, even though he disavows it and protests he would not have it." Does Dr. Bushnell mean that "he protests" he would not have the power, or the wrong? whichever it may be, as he only protests, but continues to have it,--the wrong, or the power, or both,--"it results that the lot of woman comes to be a lot of abridgment and suppression much more commonly than we have been observing ourselves." This he calls "gravitating towards some practice of wrong."That women's lot of suppression may not continue, their kind patron inquires, after bestowing upon them some little praise:-"So richly gifted, have we still no further use to make of them, than to put an extinguisher on them?" He lifts the extinguisher a little and proposes to "use them" as deaconesses, and medical nurses, and silent, indoor lawyers, and as professors, even of mathematics, adding:--"If we undertake to legislate for them we must bow them gallantly forward into all best conditions and positions appropriate to their sex."Having thus "prepared the question of suffrage," he says:--"Many persons who mistook their ground in opposing the abolition of slavery, are naturally shy of being caught again and are half ready to leap into the gulf of what they call the emancipation of woman before they can distinctly see the bottom of it." As it is safer for these Curtius' to see the bottom of the gulf before being swallowed up by it, he informs them that, "in the distinction between the reforms that go against Nature and the reforms that go with Nature, lies the question of the fearfully momentous question of woman's suffrage," and that in the abyss of this "question of be question," the American sun is likely to set; which seems to show that it must be very, very deep, and perhaps goes quite through to the Celestial Empire.His next remark about the abyss is:--"The proposed reform is only a fair extension, or logically right version, of the American doctrine of rights; or, as it is sometimes put, of equal rights, natural rights, rights of equality;" and he acknowledges that "the advocates of women's suffrage have as good right to hold them in faith, and draw them into their particular applications, as many others have to hold them in faith and yet eschew the applications."He asserts that "these rights were built up from below," (below what ?) "out of mere nature, " (why mere nature ?) into a complete civil order, binding on each citizen, because general citizenship so orders and decrees," and pathetically adds:--"Even the really great mind of Locke took in somewhat of the infection without being aware of the sophistry and dangerous falsity covered up under these pretentious guises." He accuses "our fathers of the American revolution of being taken by these catch-words of liberty;" which accusation will probably so awaken every American conscience, that all the citizens of the United States will immediately rush to tear down the Stars and Stripes and repudiate a citizenship based upon "sophistry and dangerous falsity."But even of they should continue to believe in men's equal rights to citizenship they need not accord suffrage to women, because Dr. Bushnell thinks, "women may not be equal to men; they may be superior or inferior but are probably unlike, and had therefore best stand back from an claim of right in the public administration of laws." Yet he has just said that "the proposed reform is only a fair extension, or logically right version of the American doctrine of rights." He now states that "we do not say a yard is equal to a pound, because the two measures have no common quality," Therefore a pound is to impound a yard, and men are always to govern women without their consent. To which statement does he intend to adhere; to his second, that "natural rights do not exist,"--or to his first, that if they do exist "they should logically be extended to women,"--or to his third, that women, being yards, and not pounds, have no rights?He now tells us: "The right to vote is not grounded in nature because no man has yet discovered it twisted in among our functions and rational categories," and continues: "Some will imagine that the payment of taxes involves a right of representation; but who has ever imagined, till quite recently, that such a right must accrue on the payment of taxes; and it is not to this day discovered, that women paying taxes have, by consequence, a tight of representation." No one can read the journals without knowing that this discovery has been made by women, and for women, and is considered an equal right for both men and women, by just persons.He argues thus: "If the great law of consent constitute a legitimate government, there has never been one; because no fifth part of our people, in fact, ever consented to government. Minors, women, invalids, absentees, voters of the opposing party,--take these away, and how much of consent is left?" The inference is that women must not ask to vote, because there has never been a legitimate government, because they never have voted. They are classed with minors, (children,) with invalids, (lunatics and idiots,) with absentees, (absent from their own choice,) and with voters of the opposite party, who yet are voters. Is this a just classification? and is there not a long stretch between babies on one side and voters on the other?The result he obtains from these arguments is, that "if women can only make it appear that they themselves will be put into a more favorable condition of life and character, by thus opening the political arena to them we shall even deem the controversy, if there be a controversy, to effectually ended."Having thus leaped into the abyss from which he so graphically recoils a previous chapter, he endeavors to uphold himself from falling through to the Celestial Empire by quotations from Scripture.As "Scripture authority" is often quoted against the rights of women, they have a right to ask in what that authority consists. Why should a few men, who lived some eighteen hundred years ago, and were full the prejudices of their age and country, be referred to as authority, direct or indirect, on a great practical question of the present day? Living in an age when the world has attained greater liberty than in that of Paul, having carefully and candidly studied the subject of political rights, with access to the theories and experience of all nations and ages, is not John Stuart Mill a better authority upon this subject? Mr. Mill believes that it Is a great wrong to hold women in subjection; Paul believes that a state of subjection is according to their nature. What have they themselves to say upon the matter? Mrs. Mill writes: "A whole half of the human race is even now passing through life in a state of forced subordination and a large number of women, both in America and England, have asked for a right to vote; thus we see that women themselves know the subjection to be forced which Paul considers natural.Having quoted Paul's harsh dictates to women, Dr. Bushnell kindly consoles them thus: "For one, I have a considerable satisfaction in having women; just such, I mean, as can be and love to be women. I want them exactly not to vote, not to govern, but to do the disinterested part of the world's life, and then we are sure that there is something great in the world." Does the right of suffrage prevent men from being disinterested? If so, why does not Dr. Bushnell relinquish it? Perhaps because this abnegation, being voluntary, on his part, would not ensure subjection, which he considers the high road to exaltation.As an Irish father points to a bit of suspended bacon while starving his children on small potatoes, thus does Dr. Bushnell point to heaven, with an air of easy congratulation, and announce to women that, "the complementary natures are on hand there," (by this familiar phrase making us feel quite at home in that hitherto unknown region,) "and women break into eminence there, and are put into the tier of power and honor," because they were kept in subjection in this world. We do not see the argument, but the women who do and who are ambitious, and who prefer two birds in the bush to one in the hand, must rejoice in their present "lot of abridgement and suppression;" while those who do not desire, either in this world or the next to be "set in the tier of power," but simply to receive equal rights with others, will turn away from Dr. Bushnell's "glittering generality" of bacon and ask for legal rights instead of legal suppression.There is a queer, quasi religious sentiment, stirred into this book which can only be detected by a certain oiliness that prevents it from mixing with the subject matter. For instance, we come upon this exclamation: "Oh! if there was nothing in this world but these workers in will, and war, and wrong, called men, it would be a most unblest and wretchedly dry concern. Nothing can ever lift the picture till a subject nature appears, milder, truer, and closer to the type of God's own dear submissions in the cross of his Son ; allowing us to bless our sight in the beholding of so many women by graces and benignities of self-forgetting love." Piety by proxy often goes by fine names; but is it humane to turn women out into the darkness to shiver in the blasts of a bitter superstition? And again :--"But there is an aspect of privilege, in this matter of subordination, which instead of inferring the inferiority of women, gives them, when morally considered, the truest and sublimest conditions of ascendency." This is very mean reasoning for men to indulge in with regard to women and slaves; reasoning which they would not accept for themselves. If a woman chooses to adopt it for herself, let her do so, and sell her birthright,--for what?--for something so intangible that it can only be perceptible to the initiated. But why should any one wish her thus to believe that suffrage is a question of mysticism, and not of common sense? Why twist physical force on one side into a morbid spirit of self-abnegation on the other?That women maybe induced to cease their "clamorings for legal rights, and be satisfied with those doled out to them by a government in which they are not represented, Dr. Bushnell proposes to bribe them with very hard and influential work; particularly with the care of common schools. Does he not fear that labor so important, requiring intelligent observation and a nice sense of justice, may develop character and claims for right in many who are now living in a state of abject frivolity? Let him leave them their coral and bells, if he wishes them to remain among babes and idiots.He says: "If Jenny Lind had been able to get the place of Port Warden at Gottenburg, I do not see that her political success would have done much for her." Dr. Bushnell knows very well that a right to vote does not prevent him from singing, year in and year out, if he pleases, without fear of being made President; and why should it force Jenny Lind to abdicate her right of song and have office thrust upon her?He says that women are represented by their husbands and yet, that "one of their misfortunes is their subjection, so often, when married, to an overbearing tyrant will they have no counter-force to resist." Does this tyrant will adequately represent them? and by whom are unmarried women represented? By some hocus-pocus, he arranges that they shall be represented by men in general, yet avows that, "full three-quarters of these men, who get stuck in their bachelor life, can never in their lives muster courage for an advance, just because the shrine has too much divinity in it for their mortal approach." Must not these divinities consider their worshipers as rather distant, ghostly, uncomprehending representatives? Presently he turns the mirror, to show that it is the glory of women to idolize men. All this idolizing and idealizing may exist on both sides, among enthusiastic people, but it does not prove that either represent the other.Now comes another bit of exhortatory sentiment:--"Alas! that so many women, some of them really gifted women, do not conceive at all what it is to be elected to the dreadful lot of violence and tyrant cruelty endured." They do conceive, but too well, that this "election" means a wretched fate, which men may force upon them individually, but should never confirm by law, or public opinion, which is partly the result of law. If the law gives power to the "tyrant" in addition to his own strength, to whom can women appeal for protection? To the law, which he, among others, has made for her, simply because he is stronger than she is? The subjection of women Is, in fact, a military despotism. Dr. Bushnell says they are ruled by the look of force. If so, it is, of course, only because they fear the exercise of it.He believes that nomination to office will necessarily follow suffrage, and that women have not the personal dignity and air of command requisite for office. Many women have both the habit and air of command, while many men are elected to office who have neither; so this argument has little weight. The fear that women will rush into office is superfluous. As a general thing they will not wish for it; and except by some chance, such as has been known to occur with regard to men, they will not be elected unless they are particularly well qualified, men having the prestige.Dr. Bushnell gives a vivid description of the evil results to be expected from the meeting of men and women at the ballot box; but as he was once shocked even by the rumor of their joining in University studies, and afterwards became convinced that the system was beneficial to both, let us hope that experience may again cause him "the loss of a considerable cargo of wise opinions." Undoubtedly, some difficulties will arise in determining the best methods for women to vote; but perhaps no more than in any emancipation. Shall half the human race be kept always in subjection, for fear of some temporary perplexities, when we have proved that slaves can be freed without any consequences ensuing as evil as their slavery?Another uncomfortable fear expressed, is, that when women become legalized persons, they will all wish to be Presidents and Governors; or that,--even if they are contented to vote for their representatives, --they will cause family disputes by voting differently from their husbands. If government be instituted to prevent family quarrels, it should prohibit tough beefsteaks, and elaborate upholstery, and dressmakers' bills, which are much more likely to excite angry contention, than the exercise of judgment as a citizen. Some foolish, headstrong men may insist upon their wives voting as they vote, but these same men would insist still more upon some other unreasonable thing, if their wives were legally in their power. But Dr. Bushnell wishes all insistance to be upon one side with no resistance upon the other. Does he candidly believe it an advantage to men thus to legalize self-will? and to women, to be deluded victims, or hypocritical flatterers? There are many husband and wives who could differ all their lives in political, as well as in religious views, without one word of contention. Their affection is deepened by their mutual respect, and they do not believe in the "absurd but touching idolatry," with servile self-sacrifice on one side, and the pompous condescension with domineering exaction on the other, which seem to constitute Dr. Bushnell's ideal of marriage.His ideal condition of the human race is that one-half should always represent the other; but as such unrestricted power "naturally runs to oppression," will he not permit the two halves to alternate in representing and being represented, from century to century? No, he insists that the same half must always be in subjection because it is not so large and brawny as the other, and because it always has submitted, and loves to submit, and Paul says it must submit, and submission is its glory; and because it is clamorous, and is not a sounding trumpet, and is not Sinai, nor thunder, nor a dahlia, and because it can easily disguise itself, and there are wicked men and women in the world, and because husbands want an "anchor-element" at home, and because of the Bushnell veto; "I object." For these reasons, women must remain in bondage so long Time shall endure.A man who believes in ambition for power over others, in personal influence, whether right or wrong, in debasement of one person before another, in legalized selfishness, in assertion instead of reason, in preaching down sad, conscientious appeals for just rights, should not write about Freedom. He has yet to learn that human nature is the same in all human beings, whether their fists be little or large.Yet Dr. Bushnell will withdraw his veto and accord political existence to women if they can prove "that they themselves will thus be put into a more favorable condition of life and character." This has been done in an able essay by Mrs. John Stuart Mill; and every woman of good sense can assure him that a life-long and hopeless subjection cannot be a condition as favorable to life and character as that of equal freedom and equal rights; therefore he is bound by his promise to cease advocating the classification of women among "idiots and lunatics."Dr. Bushnell says that he "partly waited for the forthcoming book promised by Mr. Mill." He has probably since read it and regretted that he had not wholly waited for a book which renders his own unnecessary.A WOMAN.David PlumbTHE HEREAFTER.To the inner sense such sights come, Voices such as brook no laughter; To the inner Light of Lights come, Hither from the Night q Nights come,Come from out the dread HEREAFTER.They no phantom sights that greet you,Sirens' songs nor lightsome laughter; False things through the sensuous meet you, Haunt you only here and cheat you,Ne'er illude the soul HEREAFTER.Substance there, the shadows here are;Tinsel show and hollow laughter Ever in the NOW and NEAR are, In the transitory sphere are,Fly the absolute HEREAFTER.Real are the things supernal,Ne'er provoking jest or laughter; Sights and sounds of realms infernal Herald thence the truth eternal,--Here the false, the true--HEREAFTER.Passed the sepulchre's dark portals,Jesters from their jokes and laughter Wisdom's trump of thunder startles, Sounding there amid immortals,'Mid the realms of the HEREAFTER.Titles, crowns, and wealth, and fame there,Flaunting show that prompts to laughter;Every proud and glittering name there, Lost, like forfeits in a game, there,Lure not in the great HEREAFTER.Pilgrim thither, Wisdom know thou,Dance not on thy way with laughter; Substance grasp, not hollow show thou, Else a naked SOUL shalt go thou,To the dark and dread HEREAFTER.Build, O SOUL! thy being rightly,Flouted though thou be with laughter; Falsely build no part nor slightly, Build it upright, strong and sightly,Beauteous for the grand HEREAFTER.Thy ideal though it elude thee,And provoke the fools' mad laughter; Though thy pinions here delude thee, Lack of wing shall not preclude theeFrom the highest flight--HEREAFTER.DAVID PLUMB.Frances Dana GageTULLIVER'S PHILOSOPHY."DID you ever bear the like on't?" said Mr. Tulliver as Maggie retired,--"it's a pity but what she'd been a lad. She'd ha' been a match for the lawyers--she would! It's a wonderful thing," here he lowered his voice,--"as I picked her mother because she wasn't o'er cute, being a good-looking woman too, and come of a rare family for managing. But I picked from her sisters o' purpose 'cause she was a bit weak like, for I wasn't going to be told the rights of things by my own fireside. But you see when a man's got brains himself there's no knowing where they'll run to; an' a pleasant sort o' a soft woman may go on breeding you stupid lads and cute wenches, 'till it's like as if the world was turned topsy-turvy. It's an uncommon puzzling thing."--George Eliot's Mill on the Floss.Was there ever more philosophy crowded into one sentence than that excellent and pithy writer has here put into the mouth of Mr. Tulliver? Possibly the Todds and Bushnells, not to mention scores of others, who feel that the present excitement among women, and to them "onpleasantness," is unaccountable--who can't possibly comprehend why the women will not be "content within their sphere"--why they can't all be "housekeepers"--might be enlightened if they would but study the subject a little from Mr. Tulliver's stand-point. They might find that "the sin of the fathers" had visited the daughters. How many great and wise men do you and I know, Mr. Editor, who have married a woman for her pretty face, or for her "managing," who was "weak-like," thinking that there was no use for brains but on one side of the house, and found when too late, like poor Tulliver, that the girls were cute and the boys, the opposite.And will a wise, thinking man continue to assert that, when, through a law of nature and of God, a child is born into the world, inheriting his own mental powers, his genius, taste for fine arts, his mathematical force, his mechanical precision, his musical taste, his logical brain,--that that child, because It is born of the female sex, shall bury all these God-given talents in a napkin? Nothing seems more clearly apparent than that nature is continually seeking an equilibrium; and it seems to me nothing is more sure to turn the world "topsy-turvy" than for the wise men who have "brains" themselves to cry out, and that continually, against the possession of the article in a woman who is to be a life-long companion. "Deliver us from a 'blue-stocking,'" was the cry some forty years since : "we want women to soften our cares; to play with us and amuse us, not to reason with us and think with us--to make home cheerful for us, to cook for us, etc.When a learned Judge in Ohio, twenty years ago, received a petition with the name of every respectable woman in the town appended, beseeching him not to license certain liquor dealers in their neighborhood, he read a few words of it and threw down the paper with contempt, saying: "he perceived it was a petition from women; he would advise them to keep in their legitimate sphere; attend to the bouquets in the parlor, and broil the beef-steaks in the kitchen, and he would attend to the license laws."--And he did, and many a mother's son went through the fearful door which he opened, and down the dark steps into perdition.Do men expect to be wise and strong to assert themselves; to live out their highest ideals, and to entail none of their energy upon their daughters? Are women to be asked to be industrious, earnest, educated; to fill out the whole measure of their ability, according to man's requirements, and never to think or act independently except when he wills?The arguments against "Suffrage for Women," of the present time, seem to us who desire that right, to be simply puerile. A woman who as to earn her own bread, pay her own taxes; reads the paper and thinks for herself, will fail to see why voting is any more out of her sphere, than her brother's,--especially if she has inherited her father's brains, and he has not.FRANCES DANA GAGE.THROWN UPON THE WORLD. PART FOURTH.WHEN George De L'Estrange parted from Marian Eveleth, on the day memorable in both of their lives, it was with emotions powerful as strange to his nature. As the removal of the surface earth reveals, ofttimes the rarer ore concealed beneath, so the sweeping away of the grosser elements of his nature, by the purer influences by which he had lately been surrounded was revealing depths of thought and aspirations of which he hitherto had been wholly unconscious.Wondrous indeed was the transformation going on within his mind. The gay, careless reporter, the flattered, feted representative of the press, who had turned carelessly often and often from the presence of wit and beauty, the thousand bewildering allurements of the world of wealth and fashion, was beginning to realize that there was something In life more worthy of gaining than the hollow applause which hitherto had satisfied his nature, and had learned to prize the hardly-obtained approbation which came from the lips or looked at times from the dark-brown eyes of an obscure daughter of toil. To what all this novel development of feeling would lead--whether he could hope, in the end, to awaken in Marian Eveleth warmer sentiments than calm regard--he did not pause to inquire. He was only conscious of an intense desire to win esteem where none had been entertained, and to remove the unfavorable impression which the knowledge of past excesses had left upon a mind noble and unhesitating in pronouncing judgment upon frailty or weakness. To show Marian Eveleth that he was something more than the light trifler he had been considered--by nobler deeds and higher life to extort as it were her friendship--was now the one purpose of his mind, to carry into effect which he was ready to turn his back upon all that hitherto had seemed fairest or most attractive for the moment in life.For this evening--the last in America--De L'Estrange had an invitation to a grand up-town reception, which he was in no mood to accept. Better feelings stirred some of the old chords of affection, and, dispatching his business at the office of The Universe, he sallied out in the gloom of the evening to visit an aged relative, an aunt who had been kind to him in his well-nigh uncared-for, motherless boyhood. To reach her residence De L'Estrange had to penetrate the mazy labyrinth of streets honeycombing the east side of the metropolis, and familiar as he was with every by-lane and thoroughfare, the way had never seemed more gloomy or tedious, in his frame of mind. Good Miss Dermot, one of the much ridiculed yet noble sisterhood of spinsters, lived alone in her liliputian cottage, hers by freehold right, the legacy of a long-departed relative. Strongly attached to it, and to the neighborhood in which she had resided from a child, she had resisted all importunities upon the part of her nephew and others to sell or rent her cottage and remove to some more healthful and safer locality, preferring to end her days where so many quiet years of her life had been passed. Arriving at her residence, De L'Estrange spent a pleasant evening with his sober, common-sense relative, deriving more than ordinary pleasure from her quaint remarks, replete with homely wisdom. When he rose to take his leave, after his contemplated journey had been fully discussed, his aunt accompanied him to the door, and, laying her hand affectionately upon his shoulder, said:"Georgie! you are getting famous now and, maybe, the words of your old aunt may fall on your ears lightly; but she has not known and watched you from a boy to fail now to read your nature, and she can see, by every word and look, that some influence, powerful for good is at work in your mind. O, my boy, as you love the true, as you revere the memory of your mother, my own dear, dead sister, I conjure you never to banish that influence which, if you treasure it, will shield you from all of ill! From whence it comes I do not know, nor will I seek your confidence. Enough it is there, and that so long as it abides with you, you are safe from the numberless temptations of the great world which you roam so much!"Powerfully affected by the touching earnestness of her appeal, De L'Estrange uttered a few reassuring words bent to kiss the quivering lips that vouchsafed such affectionate warning, and again strode out into the murky night."She lives at the 'Home,'" he murmured softly, as he walked briskly along the well-nigh deserted thoroughfare, "and I am 'lorn lover' enough to go a block or two out of my way, as Shakespeare says, "'To moon beneath her window.' although-"-as the ludicrousness of the idea appeared to him--"slight chance there would be, among three-score, of knowing her apartment." Acting upon the sudden impulse, he turned into the narrow street which led direct to the "Home," and leisurely walking, was indulging in a pleasing revery, when his quick ear caught a cry as of distress, seemingly some two or more squares in advance of him. Too familiar was De L'Estrange with such sounds to doubt that a fellow creature was in some peril. Without waiting for a repetition of the cry, he bounded forward, guided in the direction by the sound, his ear strained to catch again what to his excited fancy, seemed a tone strangely familiar. Gaining the spot from whence the scream had seemingly proceeded, he paused a moment, when the sound of quick retreating footsteps up the adjacent alley caught his ear, mingled with suppressed curses, as of men compelling unwilling action, or committing some deed of violence. To bound through the narrow passage-way was but the work of a moment for De L'Estrange. From the time when a street-boy he had lost no opportunity of practicing at boxing, to later years, when he had familiarized himself with the best sword and pistol practices of half the galleries of Europe, the "manly art," properly restrained, had been a passion with De L'Estrange; and a dozen situations of peril, through which he had passed unscathed, had attested to the value of those early lessons of self-defence. As, with blood already beginning to course more hurriedly, De L'Estrange pressed close upon the party, which the reader has already surmised as the assailers of Marian Eveleth and her companion, the thick gloom slightly lifted, enabling him to see the two girls in the grasp of four ruffians, by whom they were being borne rapidly in the direction of the river. One glance at the tall, slender figure of the nearer girl, whose cloak had been torn from her person in her unavailing struggles to escape, afforded recognition; and one leap, the first intimation of pursuit to the ruffians, planted De L'Estrange by their side. Better had it been for those revengeful, luckless compositors that type had never been touched by them than thus to have drawn down upon their heads the full measure of wrath and punishment from the hand of George De L'Estrange. Once, twice, thrice, the swift blow descended. No attempt was made at resistance. It was all the work of a moment. The wretches stood as paralyzed, going down one by one, as beeves, to the pavement. But as the third measured his length, the remaining villain sufficiently recovered from his astonishment to take suddenly to his heels, leaving without thought his comrades, in the wild desire to escape such summary punishment. The girls were saved. Excitement had kept both from sinking while in the clutches of the ruffians, but when relieved of the bandages which had been placed over their mouths to prevent their giving alarm, and realizing that they were indeed safe, the highly wrought tension suddenly relaxed, and sweet Lizzie Fay, with a moan, slipped insensible to the pavement, while Marian leaned against the rude wall almost overcome by exertion, and the thought of the fearful danger through which she had passed.De L'Estrange knelt by the insensible girl, lifted her head gently to his knee, and aided by Marian, who had quickly regained her wonted composure, and the little knot of persons attracted to the spot by the sound of the disturbance, soon had the satisfaction of seeing her sufficiently recover to be able to rise, and seek Marian's side, as though that of her natural protector. The policeman first on the spot had summoned his fellows, a squad of whom arrived in season to convey the now rapidly recovering assailants to the nearest station, against whom an appearance was promised the following morning, and De L'Estrange volunteered to escort the girls to their home, they having assured him that they could easily walk the little distance remaining.But little was said in that homeward walk. There are times, when the heart is too full for words, and as De L'Estrange, his handsome face flushing with the exercise he had undergone, walked between the two friends,--one of whom at least clung closely to his arm,--a forced listener to the thanks which their overflowing hearts could not repress, he blessed the Providence which had led him to the spot, the while inwardly rebuking himself for the selfish thought that in the events of the evening lay another chance to win the favorable regard of Marian Eveleth."I will not see you again, I suppose, previous to my departure," he said as he lifted his hat in adieu to them at the door of the "Home." "A part of my morning must be devoted to disposing of that petty police case so neither of you need give it further thought, and I must be on board the Baltic at midday. But I shall hope often to hear from you through our mutual friend, good Mr. Jobson, and, in turn, when yon read my Universe Letters you can recall our last meeting and my pugilistic prowess."Thus gaily concluding, he stepped lightly to the street, lost in a moment in the gloom but the picture he made standing in the lighted doorway, the wind tossing the long, black hair from the fresh, ruddy cheeks and the questioning look of his yet darker eyes,--was one indellibly daguerreotyped upon Marian's memory, to be pleasurably recalled in many an after-time revery.Miss MullochCAN we not bring up our girls more usefully, less showily, less dependent on luxury and wealth? Can we not teach them from babyhood that to labor is a higher thing than merely to enjoy; that even enjoyment itself is never so sweet as when it is earned? Can we not put into their minds, whatever be their station, principles of truth, simplicity of taste, hopefulness, hatred of waste, and these being firmly rooted, trust to their blossoming up in whatever destiny the young maiden may be called? --Miss Muloch.Editorial Department.A DISGRACED HALL OF SCIENCE.THE recent atrocious conduct of the medical students of Philadelphia, at the clinical lectures of the Pennsylvania Hospital of that city, with the details of which our readers are familiar, has met with justly-deserved censure from almost the entire newspaper press of the country. So disgraceful, indeed, was the outrage perpetrated, that even the most conservative journals have been moved to express their abhorrence of the cowardly act. In this city, no paper has lifted its voice save in condemnation. The Herald has stigmatized the action in its strongest language, and even the News cried, Shame.That Philadelphia medical students were ever famed for refinement or true manly sentiment, those who knew the city in the days when its colleges were largely filled with the worst type of Southerners, who gave their peculiar tone to those institutions and carried their ribaldry, indecency, and even violence beyond their halls, to annoy peaceable citizens, will not pretend to say; but until their disgraceful treatment, on November 6th, of the students of the Women's Medical College of that city, who had complied with every formality and had an equal right to the benefit of the course of lectures, we had no idea that they were capable, in this more enlightened day, of downright brutality.That a narrow professional jealousy was at the bottom of the Pennsylvania Hospital outrage is clearly evident. More, perhaps, than any calling to which the liberal tendency of the age has invited woman, the profession of medicine, through those who have embraced it, desiring selfishly to retain it as a monopoly for a sex, has resisted her approach. This feeling of intolerance and illiberality, upon the part of medical practitioners, exhibited not only when a dogma is questioned, but in the sick room, in every walk of life, towards those who come into competition with them, while it accounts for the slow progress which has been made by medicine in attaining the position of an exact science, furnishes the best possible argument for women physicians, not only for the benefit of a Profession, but of Society. We are glad to know that since the disgraceful occurrence of November 6th, the pressure of public opinion has been so strong that the disgraced young men, at a subsequent lecture, were compelled to an outward show of decency,--the students of the Women's Medical College with commendable spirit persevering in their laudable intention to attend the "lectures" and reap the full benefits of thorough Medical education. That, there or elsewhere, they will surely receive. Nothing is more certain than that hereafter both in this country and in Europe, there will be an increasing number of skilled, qualified women physicians. She has conquered her place in the medical fraternity, and no door of science can be so barred as to long exclude her. In the irresistible march of progress, the inevitable must be submitted to. The puny efforts of a few students to throw an obstacle in the way, are of as little avail as were the monarch's command to the tide that approached his feet.But be the conduct of those boorish young men in the future what it may, it will be long before the disgrace, which they have brought upon an honored Institution and a high calling which they have chosen, will be suffered to be forgotten in the minds of all well-disposed members of Society. The chivalrous treatment of women by American gentlemen has frequently won the admiration of foreigners. Hereafter, Philadelphia medical students cannot be held to belong to that class; for by their conduct they have forfeited all claim to the title of American gentlemen. Of the darker stain thrown upon some of the Medical Colleges of Philadelphia by the alleged unscrupulous practice of their faculties in selling diplomas and other venal acts, grave reports of which reach us through the press, we forbear at present to speak; but we call upon Philadelphians who hold as dear the good name of the city of Rush and Parrish--whose legacy from the Past is so illustrious--to see to it that her once honored institutions become not a hissing and a reproach for their corruption, and that the olden name it bears for sobriety, liberality and public spirit be still maintained.WENDELL PHILLIPS ON THE "WOMAN QUESTION."IT was our privilege, a few evenings since, to form one of the large audience which gathered at Steinway Hall, in this city, to listen to WENDELL PHILLIPS in his new lecture, "The Question of Tomorrow."After well-nigh thirty years of tried, apostolic service in the lecturing field, during which period countless new favorites, with the newer generation have risen to enjoy their little reign of popularity with the fickle American public, WENDELL PHILLIPS stands confessedly the first of lecturers. The once most obnoxious of Reformers, the man regarded as the very embodiment of the idea to stifle which, in days past, men deemed no indignity or outrage too condign a punishment, lives to find his life-work justified, and to be followed by multitudes, who hang upon his utterances--that indescribable blending of logic, appeal or pitiless sarcasm--as upon the words of no living orator. There is poetic justice in the triumph. The man who, through sublime devotion to a principle, held as naught the good or ill opinion of men, finds, even in his day, in the praise bestowed, the earthly reward of heroism, and lives--the more fitted for new work--an illustrious example to the Martyrs of the Future who must catch up the sacredly-transmitted Word and Torch which are yet to lift to a loftier plane the world.In his new lecture Mr. PHILLIPS, in treating the "Question," presented the three cardinal reforms,--TEMPERANCE, LABOR, WOMAN. Around these three central questions, with consummate art, the speaker grouped the proper subordinate issues, presenting each as a distinct whole, with the brilliant, shifting kaleidescope of coloring which learning, research, fancy, all suggested, to impress or illuminate the particular theme. As those melifluous sentences dropped from the lip, and the speaker passed from point to point of his address, it was highly interesting to note the reception of those advanced ideas by the cultured, critical assemblage, constituting one of our finest metropolitan audiences. Seated, chance-directed, by the side of one whose woman name is almost as familiar to the public ear as that of the peerless orator, we compared notes, mutually agreeing that no portion of the eloquent address drew forth more hearty or seemingly spontaneous applause than the touchingly moving plea for the Rights--Legal, Social and Political--of Woman. In itself the applause bestowed upon a lyceum speaker is of little moment, but it is significant of the advance of a cause until recently odious with the masses, when a fashionable assemblage, from the lips of a speaker banned himself well-nigh a generation from favor, listen rapturously to sentiments hitherto scoffed at in public or by the home-altar. But the world moves. Of earnest, pledged adherents to the cause of Woman Suffrage, the roll of illustrious names already far exceeds the anticipations of its most sanguine advocates; and the impression deepens, with all thoughtful minds, that the hour which sees the extension of the ballot to the Mothers, Wives and Daughters of the land cannot long be deferred.With WENDELL PHILLIPS, as with Abolitionists as a body, Woman's Rights," in all its significance, is no new tenet of faith. Imbibed simultaneously with his Anti-Slavery convictions, Mr. PHILLIPS has been constant, in season and out of season, in avowing his belief in the necessity of the recognition of the full Legal and Political Equality of Woman, and the cause, so rapidly absorbing the best brain of the Nation, may justly count him as a pioneer worker and one of its chiefest ornaments.THE BYRON CONTROVERSY.WHILE our warm sympathies have been with Mrs. STOWE in the condemnation which her "Defence of Lady Byron" has drawn upon her head, we have forborne adding to the angry comment, partly because we deemed the public were not in the proper mood to turn from the hue and cry and form a dispassionate judgment, and partly because we believed that a Beecher and a woman of Mrs. STOWE's rare endowments might safely be left to make her own defence, in the season that seemed to her best.The following letter from Rev. PHEBE A. HANAFORD to Mrs. STOWE, in reference to her Atlantic article, as the view of an intelligent, Christian minister, and an advocate of every worthy cause, we take pleasure in laying before our readers, cordially endorsing the earnestly expressed sentiments. We are permitted, in this connection, to state that Mrs. HANAFORD has in preparation an article of an interesting character, for THE ADVOCATE, which will be furnished as soon as her numerous engagements will permit.LETTER FROM REV. PHEBE A. HANFORD TO MRS. STOWE.READING, Oct. 27th, 1869.MY DEAR MRS. STOWE:Ever since I rode from Hartford to Waterbury, last August, reading, in the cars, your article in reference to Lord and Lady Byron, I have felt a desire to write to you and express my sense of the propriety of penning such a statement, and the emotions with which, as a woman and a Christian minister, I read it.I felt assured that you would never have given it to the public without evidence, sufficient to your own mind, of its truthfulness, and of course I was pained to find that Byron was even more wicked than the world had before believed. But Lady Byron was vindicated, and there was pleasure in that thought. The argument that some of the press have used in condemnation of your course, is no argument, viz., That Byron's works will thereby gain increased circulation, for the antidote would go with the poison, and then neither you nor I have any objection to the spread of all that was good in his writings. The world must learn to sift--to accept the wheat and throw the chaff away.With my religious convictions I am willing that truth and error should have a fair field, for truth must win the victory. All that is genuine poetry--real in operation--will live and will bless his readers, whether he was good or not, and, thank Heaven! the angel that Lady Byron believed was in her unfaithful husband, had power enough to conquer the devil in him, I fully believe, when he crossed the river of death to that land where the temptations of the flesh are no more, and the grace and truth that come to earth by Christ has nothing to hinder its full triumph.I thank you then, as a woman, for thus defending the saintly but much abused Lady Byron. I thank you, as a minister, for so much in your article which shows your faith in the ultimate triumph of good over evil, and I thank you, in both capacities, for telling "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," as I believe you have done.I believe in retributive justice, although I am a Universalist, and we are often falsely accused of believing and preaching that God winks at sin and does not punish sinners. And your article is a proof of the retributions of history--if I may so speak--and shows that "there is nothing hid that shall not be revealed," and "though hand join in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished."There are others whom the world has deified because of brilliant genius and mighty intellect of whom the truth ought to be told, that young men, especially, may take warning and be assured that neither Websterian powers, nor Byron genius are an excuse for vice or crime, and that licentiousness, like murder, "will out." We have bowed down to intellect long enough. It is time that goodness alone should be esteemed greatness. You have done much by your writings to hasten that day, and with all my heart I thank you and pray God to bless you evermore. PHEBE A. HANAFORD.THE CHURCH VINDICATED.THE following letter from a well-known worker in Reform, vindicating the Methodist Church from the charge preferred against the so-termed Christian denominations, of want of sympathy with all reformatory matters, in justice to a Christian body which we believe, in many respects, to have been an honorable exception to the bygone hostile attitude of the Church, we present to our readers:LETTER FROM ELIZABETH HEYWOOD.To the Editor of the Woman's Advocate: SIR:--I see in the June number of THE ADVOCATE which you so kindly presented me an extract of a lecture by Wendell Phillips, in which he says: 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.'" I answer there is one church, the Methodist, which has always acknowledged that portion of her strength, her praying and exhorting women, and in its early days women preached. The mother of the Wesleys herself preached to her husband's parish in his absence, and stoutly maintained her right to her own conscience by refusing to say amen to her husband's prayer for the king whom she did not consider the rightful sovereign. The Women of Methodism of these days, too, are struggling up to the pulpit, and they get there too, for one has already obtained license to preach. Can't you keep on your grand secular way, Mr. Phillips, and let the churches alone? We have ministers among us who are fighting for the Woman Question as you fought for the poor slave years ago almost single-handed, and have you no sympathy with them? Church women, too, are aroused and coming along with the secular hosts, but they come praying and believing that Jehovah marshals the moral hosts for any great revolution.Yours of the Church, ELIZABETH HEYWOOD.WE invite especial attention to the very able review of Dr. Bushnell's book, "Women's Suffrage; the Reform against Nature," in this number of THE ADVOCATE. The article, the production of a fine mind and a practiced pen, will repay careful perusal. According to our contributors all proper latitude of opinion, we deem it proper, in this connection, to state that we do not concur with some of the views of the talented writer, but cheerfully present them for the intelligent consideration of our readers.NOTES.A YOUNG girl, Miss Nelly Mackay Hutchinson, made an excellent report of the recent Hartford Convention for the N. Y. Tribune.Miss Vinnie Ream is now in Rome, industriously engaged upon the statue of Abraham Lincoln. During her stay in Paris, she modelled busts of. Mrs. Fremont and Gustave DorĂ©. The latter took much interest in her, offering her room in his studio, and extending to her many courtesies and kind attentions.Miss Edmonia Lewis, the colored sculptor, has departed for Rome to renew her studies. A farewell reception was tendered her in Boston, when a large number of her friends assembled to testify their respect and regard for the artist. In the course of the evening, Miss Lewis was publicly presented with a purse of money and an ivory mallet.An industrial school for girls is to be established at Middletown, Conn., where a farm of forty-six acres, with a good house upon it, has been given for the purpose. The work of building two family houses has already begun. Nearly $70,000 has been raised for the fund, and more is promised. The State will pay the board (at $3 a week) of such girls as are sentenced by the judges of probate; but the school will be managed by a private corporation.A Woman Suffrage journal of much promise, the prospectus of which is not yet issued, is to be established in Boston entitled the Woman's Journal. The Journal, which will have upon its editorial staff William Lloyd Garrison, Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, Mary A. Livermore and T. W. Higginson, it is understood will be the organ of the New National Woman's Suffrage Association. Of course, with such a brilliant array of names a first position in literary rank is assured."The number of women studying medicine at the University of Munich," Bays the Pall Mall Gazette, increases steadily in geometric progression. Four years ago there was but one, the next Year there were two, the next year four, last year there were eight, and there are now sixteen. "We are assured (it is true by a partisan of the movement) that none of the inconveniences which it was feared might arise from women being allowed to share the school with men have at present been experienced, the classes are as large as ever, and the Dean reports that the innovation has undoubtedly improved the discipline of the school."The N. Y. Tribune which has won an enviable reputation among our metropolitan journals for its correspondence, is indebted largely to women pens for the peculiar vivacity and sparkle which characterizes that department. Last Summer Miss Field lent its columns more than ordinary interest by her "Adirondack Letters" and "Seaside Loiterings," and now the brilliant pen of Mrs. L. G. Calhoun is bringing the wonders of the Pacific slope to our gaze with a freshness that no Greeley or Richardson hitherto has excelled, if equalled. Yet though woman excels as a correspondent in the first of journals, its editor argues learnedly against her exercise of the ballot.Julia Ward Howe is descended from an old soldier of Cromwell, who left his country because it became too hot to hold him. He married a daughter of Roger Williams, and became father of Richard Ward, Governor of the State, and the grandfather of Samuel Ward, a member the Continental Congress. The work that she daily does may seem almost incredible to ordinary mortals. She will superintend her domestic affairs, take a two-mile walk, a two-hours' dose of German Metaphysics, and receive half a dozen callers--and all before noon; and then will write poetry all the afternoon, and entertain all the evening a dozen "philanthropists" or prosy philosophers, who revolve round her very much as mice revolve round a cheese--just to get a nibble, now and then, at one of her strong bits of genius. She is rich; lives in good style in Boylston Place; is an affectionate wife, a devoted mother, and a Woman of the largest heart and broadest sympathies. She reads half a dozen languages; is familiar with Hegel, Compte, Goethe, Dante, Swedenborg, and all the great masters of song, faith and metaphysics.Mrs. CHARLOTTE LOZIER of this city, the eminent physician and Dean of the Women's Medical College of New York, is entitled to public gratitude for upholding the dignity of the profession and administering a just rebuke to a wealthy Southerner, one Andrew Moran, who, with his victim, a relative, approached her to induce her to engage in malpractice. Although the infamous proposition was accompanied by the proffer of a large sum of money, Mrs. LOZIER unhesitatingly refused to accede to the villainous request, earnestly counselling the unfortunate girl against resorting to such a criminal and dangerous remedy, and lodging complaint against the seducer which, we trust, will result in his trial and punishment to the utmost extent of the law. This act upon the part of Mrs. LOZIER, although in keeping with her high character, is one of great delicacy, involving moral courage of no common order, but which, as a duty to society, will be unflinchingly performed. Is it such ornaments as these to the profession those boorish young men at Philadelphia would exclude from medical practice?LITERARY.THE WOMAN WHO DARED. By Epes Sargent. 270 pp. Boston: Roberts Brothers.Is there a nook or cranny in literature left uninvaded by the Woman Question?" Learned disquisition, stately history, florid romance, tender verse, all bow to the popular desire, and show alike the deep hold the question has taken on the public mind.One of the latest contributions, of this form of literature, is the unique, fascinating poem, "The Woman who Dared, " from the pen of Epes Sargent, the well known poet, essayist and novelist. This thoughtfully considered story in verse, which has received the close attention of American critics and awakened the deep interest of the public, is one of those indescribable creations of genius of which no brief review can give an adequate idea. The life-history of Linda, the heroine of the pages, a type of the self-reliant, fearless, yet pure-minded American girl, is so charmingly narrated that the attention of even the most conservative reader will be retained and the interest remain concentrated upon the fortunes of the lovely heroine, leading her through a series of acts in which her individualism is strikingly manifested, until the height of world-regarded glaring impropriety is reached by her unsolicited avowal of love to Charles Lothian, the object of her affection.For those who read poetry merely for that sensuous delight which rests in highly-wrought figure or fanciful expression, this poem of Mr. Sargent's may fail to carry that pleasure which the Swinbourne school of verse ministers to; but the reader who, with the ornaments of rhyme, the sweet nothings that gratify for the moment, desires the more substantial food of healthful, vigorous, practical thought, will find in "The Woman who Dared " as rare a pleasure as any recently issued volume offers. The marriage relation, the intercourse between the sexes, all the vexed problems of the hour, have received Mr. Sargent's sympathetic, attention, and if it may not be said that he has presented a satisfactory solution for them all, he has at least furnished the public with food for close, earnest consideration. The volume is neatly issued by the well-known publishers, Messrs. Roberts Brothers, and we trust will command an extensive sale.THE UNCLE SAM SERIES FOR AMERICAN CHILDREN. Rip Van Winkle's Nap, Ballad of Abraham Lincoln, Story of Columbus, and Putnam the Brave. Illustrated. Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.Perhaps in no respect is the advance in the art of book-making more strikingly illustrated than in the beautifully-colored, tastefully-issued Children's Books, which the approach of the holiday season invariably brings in profusion to the counters and shelves of our large publishing houses. Whenever we glance over any of these richly colored, artistically designed publications we recall the days of childhood, and the few, plain-covered juvenile-books with which, in our country home, we were acquainted; and we wonder whether, after all, the younkers of the present derive any fuller enjoyment from the bewildering feast which the restless enterprise and Croesus-like purse of modern publishers places before them, than we elders from the few well-thumbed story books which rare good fortune threw in our path.The present series are an admirable acting upon the modern theory of placing the best before that keen critic, the juvenile reader. Each book in the Uncle Sam Series is the best that pen, brush and handicraft in all detail can make it. Rip Van Winkle's Nap is told in most charming verse by Edmund Clarence Steadman, and illustrated by S. Eytinge, Jr.; the Story of Columbus is happily versified by J. S. Trowbridge, the sketching by Alfred Fredericks; Putnam the Brave is fitly sung by R. H. Stoddard, the coloring by Fredericks, and the closing and most touching ballad of the series, the Ballad of Abraham Lincoln, is tenderly unfolded by Bayard Taylor, the illustrations by S. Eytinge, Jr.The enterprising publishers, Fields, Osgood & Co., add to the weight of public obligation by the issue of this rare and beautiful series, which good Santa Claus should bestow upon the curly-headed inmates of every household in the land.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 comprised within it, 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 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 ADVOCATE resolve to furnish at least one subscription to commence with the July number?EXTRAORDINARY OFFER.IN addition to our OFFER of Volume II. of THE ADVOCATE for FIFTY CENTS, we have arranged to furnish to subscribers, or others desiring the same, the First Volume, comprising the numbers inclusive, from January to June, neatly bound, for ONE DOLLAR. This unparalleled low rate will enable our friends to secure for themselves, or others, a handsomely printed, tastefully bound volume, comprising over 300 pages of choice reading matter, embracing the contributions of many of our most valued writers,--at a price that should insure the circulation of very many copies. Orders, inclosing the money and giving the desired address, will receive prompt attention. The postage (also to be inclosed) will be 24 cents per volume.OUR BOUND VOLUME.WE are now furnishing, to those of our friends who order, bound copies of the First Volume of THE ADVOCATE, which are winning general commendation by their neatness and remarkable cheapness. Those of our subscribers who desire to preserve THE ADVOCATE will find it almost as true economy to order the bound volume direct of the Publisher, and present the numbers in their hands to some unsupplied friend.CANVASSERS for THE ADVOCATE are desired in all parts of the country. Those thoroughly responsible can make very desirable arrangements by addressing the Publisher.CLUB RATES.--IMPORTANT REDUCTION.THE ADVOCATE hereafter will be furnished at $1.50 per year, single copy, and sent to addresses as desired, in Clubs of four or more, upon the following terms: Four subscriptions, . . . . . . . . . $5.00 Ten do . . . . . . . . . 10.00 Twenty " . . . . . . . . . 16.00We 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.