Beautiful Tribute to Women.

Manawatu Herald, 17 January 1905, Page 2

Beautiful Tribute to Women.

We have seen many beautiful tributes to lovely women, but the following is one of the finest we have ever read ;

“ Place, her among the flowers, foster her as a tender plant, and she is a thing of fancy, waywardness, and folly—annoyed by a dewdrop fretted by the touch of a butterfly’s wing, ready to faint at the sound of a beetle or the rattle of a windowsash at night, and is over-powered by the perfume of a rosebud.

“ But let real calamity come, rouse her affections, enkindle the fires ia her heart, and mark her then ! how strong is her heart !

“ Place her in the heat of the battle - give her a child, a bird, or anything to protect—and see her in a relative instance, lifting her white arm as a shield, as her own blood crimsons her upturned forehead, praying for her life to protect the helpless. “ Transplant her in the dark places of the earth, call forth her energies to action, and her breath becomes a healing, her presence a blessing. She disputes inch by inch the strides of a stalking pestilence, when man, the strong and brave, pale and affrighted, shrinks away. “ Misfortune affects her not; she wears away a life of silent endurance, and goes forth with less timidity than to her bridal. “ In prosperity she is a bud full 0 ' odours, waiting but for the winds of adversity to scatter them abroad—gold, valuable, but untried in the furnace. “ In short, woman is a miracle, a mystery, the centre from which radiates the charm of existence.”