cultivate a sweet plaintiveness, as of hidden sorrow bravely borne."
It also declares that if any young lady has a robust frame, she must be
careful to dissemble it, for it is in her frailty that woman can make
her greatest appeal to man. No man wishes to marry an Amazon. It also
earnestly commends a piece of sewing to be ever in the hand of the
young lady who would attract the opposite sex! The use of large words
or any show of learning or of unseemly intelligence is to be carefully
avoided.

People have all down the centuries blocked out for women a weeping
part. "Man must work and women must weep." So the habit of martyrdom
has sort of settled down on us.

I will admit there has been some reason for it. Women do suffer more
than men. They are physically smaller and weaker, more highly
sensitive and therefore have a greater capacity for suffering. They
have all the ordinary ills of humanity, and then some! They have above
all been the victims of wrong thinking--they have been steeped in tears
and false sentiments. People still speak of womanhood as if it were a
disease.

Society has had its lash raised for women everywhere, and some have
taken advantage of this to serve their own ends. An orphan girl,
ignorant of the world's ways and terribly frightened of them, was told
by her mistress that if she were to leave the roof which sheltered her
she would get "talked about," and lose her good name. So she was able
to keep the orphan working for five dollars a month. She used the lash
to her own advantage.

Fear of "talk" has kept many a woman quiet. Woman's virtue has been
heavy responsibility not to be forgotten for an instant.

"Remember, Judge," cried out a woman about to be sentenced for
stealing, "that I am an honest woman."

"I believe you are," replied the judge, "and I will be lenient with
you."

The word "honest" as applied to women means "virtuous." It has
overshadowed all other virtues, and in a way appeared to make them of
no account.

The physical disabilities of women which have been augmented and
exaggerated by our insane way of dressing has had much to do with
shaping women's thought. The absurdly tight skirts which prevented the
wearer from walking like a human being, made a pitiful cry to the
world. They were no doubt worn as a protest against the new movement
among women, which has for its object the larger liberty, the larger
humanity of women. The hideous mincing gait of t