The "woman's rights" movement seeks the mitigation, and final
removal, of these outrageous wrongs.
My dear girls, think for yourselves this time. Don't simper and
giggle when the fools sneer at "woman's rights." They don't know
what they are talking about.
A few days ago I heard a sort of jackanapes ridiculing "woman's
rights," and several very sweet girls were listening to his coarse
scurrilities; and, must I say it, smiling their approval.
Wearing an unfashionable dress is not half so bad; going into the
street with the bonnet of two years ago, even, will not unsex you
like a smiling indifference to these desperate struggles of your
sisters. To avoid starvation on one hand, and crime on the other,
they plead with the world for justice.
In this city of Boston there are twenty thousand women starving on
needle-work, and five thousand who live, or die, by crime. A few
brave ones, driven to the wall, hope, by calling attention to their
helplessness, to obtain sympathy and justice. This is essentially
the "woman's rights" movement. Suppose you don't like the mode in
which they agitate. When you hear criticisms, or ridicule, if you
haven't the heart to say a word in defence, at least you can keep
silence.
I wish I dared to tell you how we men almost despise you, sometimes,
for this abandonment of each other.
THE "SOCIAL EVIL."
Men go prowling about, seeking to seduce and ruin girls, and will
stand by each other, even in this infamous business. When a poor
girl, overcome by the arts of an oily-tongued villain, perhaps by a
promise of marriage, consents to sin, how you drop her, and shun
her, and sneer at her. A hundred times I have heard chivalrous men
declare that, "women have no honor; they never stand by each other.
If one gets into trouble, the rest forsake her, and run away."
Girls, if you care to commend yourselves to men, stand by these
unfortunate ones, encourage them, help them. You needn't fear being
soiled; the spirit in which you would engage in this angelic
service, would serve as a perfect shield.
I know something of men. I have lived in many countries. I have been
much in society, have been, to some extent, what is railed a man of
the world, and have talked with men about women, hundreds of times.
I am confident that nothing would so elevate a young woman in the
estimation of all noble men, as the brave defence of an unfortunate
sister. It would thrill us all, and lift you into a heroine.
If a few hundred of you would join hands around the social evil,
even in a city like this, where it has attained huge proportions,
you could bring it within easy reach of christian aid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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