I was quite interested in this little story of Mr. Hale’s. Indeed, since my attention has been called to domestic science, I have felt a steadily-increasing interest in whatever relates to the condition of women, past, present, and future. Previous to that, I used to think, or rather took it for granted in an indifferent way without thinking, that, in matters of religion, women were on an equality with men. I had the impression that this equality was claimed for one of the results of Christianity as being enjoined by the text, ending, “Neither male nor female, but all one in Christ Jesus.” A few sarcastic remarks of Nanny Joe (which remarks I had in mind while writing one of the early numbers of these papers), together with some of my own observations, have caused me to read with close attention the discussions which are so continually going on in the papers in regard to what woman should or should not be allowed to do. And, with all my reading and all my thinking, I can arrive at no other conclusion than that of my friend who sells “Archangel Bitters;” namely, that woman, having been endowed by her Creator with mind and with conscience, should be left to understand Scripture with her own understanding, and to judge for herself what is right, and what is wrong, man not being accountable therefor. XV. THE WRITER FACES HIS OWN MUSIC. A lady-friend, after looking over my papers, asked why I harped so much on the rather low and trivial subject of eating. “Because,” said I, “daily observation has driven me to it.” And this is just the truth. I see that everybody takes it for granted they must have good living, “whatever,” to use Mrs. Melendy’s word, rather than pleasures of a higher grade, even the pleasure of helping the needy. Take a close fisted man like Mr. David, who, though well enough off, practices the strictest stinginess. With him the spending of each dime is carefully considered. A half-dollar given away is, as one may say, hung up in his memory, set in a frame, for handy reference. When such a man affords his family cakes, pies, preserves, and the like, for their daily food, we may consider such things to be firmly established as “must haves.” Indeed, all classes, poor as well as rich, seem to agree that the earning and compounding of these and similar articles rank among the chief objects of life. The very phrase “good living” shows this, since it implies that to live well is to eat well. A man said to me the other day, “When I can’t eat and drink what I want to, then I want to die.”