Samantha on the Woman Question

kinder tall and looked out of his eyes and wore a vest. He wuz some bald-headed, and wore a large smile all the while, it looked like a boughten one that didn't fit him, but I won't say

me for it, but I don't like to see anybody too good.

any way, if so to command him to do it or words to that effect. I can't put

my tower. I told over all her sufferin's and wrongs from the Rings and from not havin' her rights, and all her sister's Azuba Clapsaddle's, and her Aunt Cassandra Keeler's, and Hulda and Dr

repta Pesterses er

p one corner of my mantilly, it wuz cut tab fashion, and he took up the tab

autiful creation pipein' or c

ompadouris? Ah, women are lovely creatures, lovely beings, every one of 'em." And he sithed, "You are very beautiful," and he sithed agin, a sort of a deceitful lovesick sithe. I sot demute as the Spinks, and a chi

lected by me, do not seem to be congenial to you. Have you a leanin' toward Natural h

, however parlyzed by just indignation, can

is obtained the valuable fur t

ean waddin' eigh

s are plentiful and cheap, owing t

nstantly. I wil

l use to wimmen, and I'd hearn of their lies, etc.; but truly I felt

rs pondered over and passed laws regardin' hen's eggs and bird's nests. But this is goin' too fur--too fur. But," sez I firmly, "I shall do Ser

a lovely sect. Wimmen are the loveliest, most angelic creatures that e

they ort to have their rights all the same. Now Serepta is disagreeable and kinder fierce actin', and jest as humbly as they make wimm

Josiah?"

"My h

ings! let them have husbands to lift them above all earthly cares and trials! Oh! angels of our homes!" sez he, liftin' his eyes to the heavens and kinder shet

the air, as if it wuz a woman flyin' up there smooth and serene. It woul

nd dragged her down. And there she is all bruised and broken-hearted by 'em. She didn't meddle with the political

ngle with rude crowds. We political men would fain keep them as they are now; we are willing to stand the rude buffetin' of--of--voting

runken husbands and fathers and sons. They are driven to death and to moral ruin by the miserable want liquor drinkin' entails. They are starved, they are froze, they are beaten, they are made childless and hopeless by drunken husbands killin' thei

dragged off to police court for fightin' to defend her children and herself from a drunken husband that had broke her wings and blacked her eyes, got the angel into the fight and then she got throwed into the streets and imprisoned by it? Who ever hearn of a angel havin' to take in washin' to support a drunken son or father or husband? Who ever hearn of a angel goin' out as w

he, "as it

I begun to feel noble a

jest as simple. Why, you might jest as well throw a lot of snowflakes into the street, and say, 'Some of 'em are female flakes and mustn't b

and weaknesses, needin' the same heavenly light, and the same human aids

tell you that she didn't ask the rights of a angel; she would be perfectly contented and proud, if you would give her the rights of a dog-

ts bone to a Govermunt that withholds every right of citizenship from it; a dog hain't called undogly if it is industrious and hunts quie

d respectable. A dog don't have to see its property taxed to advance laws it believes ruinous, and that breaks its own heart and the heart of other dear dogs. A dog don't have to listen to sou

ith 'em, but they come onto her onexpected and onbeknown, and she feels that she must do everything she can to alter matters. She wants to help ma

cal affairs, let her influence her children, her boys, and they wi

Ring, of which her husband wuz a shinin' member, he got possession of her boy. And so the law has made i

st you have no grievance of this kind, I trust tha

You know men or wimmen can't be only jest about so good

arried relations, and your husband is a temperate

ur boy, makes me realize the sufferin's of Serepta in havin' her husband and boy lost to her; makes me realize the depth of a wife's and mother's ag

pityin' words of Him who went about pleasin' not Himself, hants me and inspires me; I'm sorry for Serepta, sorry for the hull wimmen race of the nation, and for the men too. Lots of 'em are good creeters, better than wimmen, some on 'em. They want to do right, but don't

t we can try to git the right answer to it as fur as we can. Serepta feels that one of the answers to the conundrum is in gittin' her rights. I myself have got all the rights I need or want, as fur as my own happiness is concerned. My home is my castle (a story an

find her full content--her entire happiness and thought. A womanly wo

tician, but as a human bein', which would you like best, the love of a strong, earnest tender nature, for in man or woman 'the strongest are the tenderest, the

seein' through an injustice. She may be happy in her own home. Domestic affection, social enjoyments, the delights of a cultured home and society, and the companionship of the man she loves and

d lattice of her home from which your care would fain bar out all sights of woe and squaler, she looks down and sees the weary toilers below, the hopeless, the wretched. She sees the steep hills they have to climb, carryin' their crosses, she sees 'em go down into the mire, dragged there by the love that should lift 'em

they hain't. They hain't any better than men. Men are considerable likely; and it seems curious to me that they should act so in this one thing. For men ort to be more honest and open than wimmen. They hain't

enerous. Give wimmen two or three generations of moral and legal freedom and see if men will laugh at 'em for their little deceits and affectations. No, men will