ruth and justice, and
that is "free-love." Here are some specimens of Mr. Holmes'
assertions:

The advocates of woman's rights want, not the ballot so much
as the dissolution of the marriage tie. They propose to form
a tie for the term of five, six or seven years. Mark the men
or women who are the most strenuous advocates of woman
suffrage. They are irreligious and immoral.

Who are more strenuous advocates of woman suffrage than Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mrs. Isabella
Beecher Hooker, Mrs. Lucy Stone, Mrs. Lucretia Mott, Mrs.
Livermore, T. W. Higginson, Henry Ward Beecher, Bishop Simpson,
Governor Claflin, Gilbert Haven, Wendell Phillips, and scores of
others whose lives are as pure and intellects as fine as his who
dares stand in the sacred desk and call these persons
"irreligious and immoral"? His argument seems to be like this:
Some advocates of woman suffrage are in favor of easy divorces.
These men and women advocate woman suffrage; therefore these men
and women are in favor of easy divorces. Or, to make the matter
still plainer, some ministers of the Gospel are immoral. Mr. H.
is a minister of the Gospel; therefore Mr. H. is immoral. The
method of reasoning is the same, but it don't sound quite fair
and honorable, does it?

"In our land woman is a queen; she is loved and cared for," says
Mr. Holmes. In sight from the window where I write is a sad
commentary upon this. One of these queens, so tenderly cared for,
is hoeing corn, while her five-months-old baby--the youngest of
nine children--lies on the grass while she works. Her husband is
away from home, but has left word for the "old woman" to "take
care of the corn and potatoes, for he has to support the family."
When they are out of meat, she must go out washing and earn some,
for "he has to support the family," and cannot have her idle. Not
long since they were planting corn together, she doing as much as
he. At noon, although she had a pail of milk and another of eggs,
he brought her the two hoes to carry home, as he could not be
troubled with them. Had he ever read:

"I will be master of what is my own;
She is my goods, my chattels--
My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything"?

"No woman reaches such di