sceptre,
and there-upon she induced him to send out another order for the
fellows who were to kill the Jews, and they killed 75,000 or 80,000 of
them. And they came back and said, "Kill Haman and his ten sons," and
they hung the family up. That is all there is to the story. And yet
this Esther is held up as a model of womanly grace and tenderness, and
there is not a more infamous story in the literature of the world.

The next heroine is Ruth. I admit, that is a very pretty story. But
Ruth was guilty of more things that would be deemed indiscreet than any
girl in Brooklyn. That is all there is about Ruth. The next heroine
is Hannah. And what do you suppose was the matter with her? She made a
coat for her boy; that's all. I have known a woman make a whole suit!
The next heroine was Abigail. She was the wife of Natal. King David
had a few soldiers with him, and he called at the house of Natal, and
asked if he could not get food for his men. Abigail went down to give
him something to eat, and she was very much struck with David, David
evidently fancied her. Natal died within a week. I think he was
poisoned. David and Abigail were married. If that had happened in
Chicago there would have been a coroner's jury, and an inquest; but
that is all there was to that.

The next is Dorcas. She was in the new testament. She was real good
to the ministers. Those ladies have always stood well with the church.
She was real good to the poor. She died one day, and you never hear of
her again.

Then there was that person that was raised from the dead. I would like
to know from a person that had recently been raised from the dead,
where he was when he was wanted, what he was traveling about, and what
he was engaged in. I cannot imagine a more interesting person than one
that has just been raised from the dead. Lazarus comes from the tomb,
and I think sometimes that there must be a mistake about it, because
when they come to die again thousands of people would say, "Why, he
knows all about it!" Would it not be noted if a man had two funerals?

Now, then, these are all the heroines, to show you how little they
thought of woman in that day. In the days of the old testament they
did not even tell us when the mother of us all (Eve) died, nor where
she is buried, nor anything about it. They do not even tell us where
the mother of Christ sleeps, nor when she died. Never is she spoken of
after the morning of the resurre