Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1890 — WOMAN'S RIGHT VERSUS WOMAN'S RIGHTS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WOMAN'S RIGHT VERSUS WOMAN'S RIGHTS.

BY ANNA CERES FRITSCH.

Zlk ET thos# aMB among our sis- ? f Iters who are ** t/m I dissatisfied bofr 11| caQse we &I 6 ■j IJ || not permitted \A (I if to cast the bal--1 ll * ot ’ an who j I iff think that we l —/ are not enjoy\—ing our proper * measure of yJeSJfcßJj&i'ights because V r * =, *YV we are debar-* V—j?)/ f re d from hold* p U biic offlees of all

kinds, stop to reflect. Are we not now enjoying all the rights we can possibly exercise, without burdening ourselves with political cares and worry ? We have so many rights that God, custom, and nature give ns that most truly womanly women wxrald not know what to do with rights that now belong to the male citizen only. We have the right to cultivate the talents and gifts that God has measured out to us; we have the right to make a careful study of our own mental and moral,peculiarities, faults and weaknesses of disposition; the right to nourish and develop all that is good and beautiful within us; and to weed out those qualities which tend to make us unhappy and to darken the lives of those with whom we come in contact. We have the light to comfort the afflicted and to carry sunshine into hearts darkened by sorrow. In most homes the mother wields a greater influence over the children than does the father, and here we find a golden opportunity for exercising woman’s rights—the right to train up our children to true manhood and womanhood.

And we have the right to be “the power behind the thronethat is, by virtue of coaxing, teasing, and pouting, to induce our husbands and fathers to let us follow “our own sweet .will.” We have the right to bear trials and misfortune with patience and fortitude, and we have the right to order our lives so that our children “shall rise up and call us blessed.” And the very men who now grasp the ballot tightly, and would prevent feminine hands from casting it, are among those who would willingly and gladly accord woman a degree of power of which she may well be proud. Let a woman step into an assembly of men given to degraded habits, uncouth manners and coarse language. She need have no fear of having her fastidious taste offended by rude conduct, or that unseemly language will jar upon her ear. Why is it that this one refined woman can hold all these men in check during her presence among them ? Simply because they willingly and spontaneously afecord her the right and power that belong to womanhood. In view of all these rights, dear to every feminine heart, can we afford to take upon ourselves still more, and with them the duties they impose ? And there is more to be considered in connection with the suffrage question. It is unquestionably true that a woman has the legal right to do a great many things that are usually expected of the male only. It is also true that a sense of fitness and womanly dignity prevents most of us from attempting them. But to those women who groan because they are not permitted to fill public offices which they could not grace, and W'hich would be no honor to them, we quote the words of Dr. Holland: “A woman certainly has the right to raise a mustache and sing bass if she wants to, but while I confess that every woman has a right to sing bass, I should not care to see it exercised to any great extent, for I think treble is by all odds the finer and more attractive part of music. Bass would be a bad thing for a cradle song, and could only silence the baby by scaring it. I will admit all the political rights that any woman claims, if she will only let me alone and keep her distance from me; she may sing bass, but I do not wish to hear her.” Dr. Holland expresses our view exactly. Verily. Jlf we properly exercise the rights we have now, we shall have our , hearts, hands, and brains so full that we shall not find time to wish for more.