THE GRIEVANCES OF WOMEN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 209, 2 September 1880, Page 4

THE GRIEVANCES OF WOMEN.

(Eraser's Magazine) I was making an insignificant journey in company with a mnrried pair, between whom there was the moat perfect understanding and good intelligence. The lady wore ft pair of; very shabby gloves, to which, by some i accident or other, attention was called. The husband was shocked and ashamed. 'One would think,' be said, 'that I could not afford to buy you gloves.' He had no wish to be illiberal— he was! fond of his wife and proud of her, and very willing to keep her in gloves and anything else she wanted, but he had no feeling of right in the matter; no sense that her position ought to be anyibing else than that ot absolute dependency.. In this respect, however, the roost liberal and the moat generous, men are often &b much at fault as the I [ coarsest. They will not allow the im portance of the second part in the universal duet. They will give liberally, , and praise freely, but they will not acknowledge • My wife has as much to do as I have. Without her work mine would not have half its value; we are partners in the toil of living, and she has earned the recompense of the toil as well ns I.' No one will say this, nor will the world acknowledge it. What the world does say when a woman outside of (he bonds of marriage claims to be allowed to work for her bread as she best can is that she ought to go back to her proper sphere, which is home, but in that proper sphere, k and at her own individual woik, 1 all credit is taken from her, her exertions are denied, her labor is undervalued. f The only chance for her to get her work acknowledged is to do it very badly, when there will be an outcry. But when it is well done it is ignored, ie is taken aB a matter of course, it is never thought upon at all. Let this be i contrasted with the reverse ease— a case by no means unfrequent, though left out of account in all popular calcu- ' latjons. When it happens that the woman is the richer of the two partnersin life, when the living comes from her "side, or when she earns it, i she is considered bound to assert no : consciousness of the fact. It is a; horror and shame to all spectotorß; when she makes any, stand uppn her moneyed superiority. That she should let it he seen that she ia the supporter j of the household, or remind her bus- 1 band that he is in any way indebted to her, ia a piece pf bnd taßte and bad: feeling for which no. blame is too severe. And the woman herself is the first to! feel it so. But that which seems the.i depth of meanness and ungenerosity i in a woman is the natural and everyday; attitude of the man. It is a roint of; honor on her part to ignore to the length- of -falsehood her' husband's inferiority to herself in this , respect ;[ whereas the, foot of her. dependence! upon him is kept continually before her; eyes, and insisted upon, both seriously! and jocularly, at every point, of her ; career. '

The Edinburgh correspondent of the Otago Times writes: — There has 'lately been formed in Edinburgh a novel society, under the name of' the Edinburgh Parliamentary Association. It 1 is an initiation House of Commons, with Speaker, Cabinet, Opposition, &c, &c, complete, and is conducted according to Parliamentary fashion. Current political topics are debated with much eagerness and considerable ability, and party feeling occasionally runs high. The society has some 500 members, not a few of whom occupy; places in the best circles in Edinburgh, and it holds its sittings in the Queen- '< street Hall, the galleries of which are thronged at each debate by numbers of fair ladies, who take an active and un- '. concealed interest in the discussions. The whole thing strikes an outsider as a grand display of puerility, and the members certainly confirm the impression by their touchiness under criticism of their doings. Some people must have a new amusement or they are miserable, their mental aad moral resources being scanty. Hence this mock parliament, which would excite great ridicule if it were held in Dublin, but is a much more surprising phenomenon in this stiff and "proper" city. . A telegram appearing in the Melbourne Daily Telegraph, of the 10th instant, states that , on the previous Friday a man named Nicholas Hocking, a resident of Horsham, was burned to death at McKenzie's Creek, under shocking circumstauces. He went to visit 1 a Mrs. Croft, living with some charcoal burners, when all the party appear to have been drinking. Hocking was left in the room with a big fire, at 9 o'clock, and twenty minutes afterwards Mrs. Croft; who hacl gone tohed, became aware of a-blasp'e. something burning, she rushed, out, anjd fouud Hocking on his back,: in the middle of the fire. He was^removed to Horsham Hospital, and died -early on Saturday morning. His 'back was literally .roasted. An inquiry ;Was held, when the evidence given resulted in a verdict of accidental death, ' J The Berlin papers which! af rived by the last mail contain accounts of a rajiher novel attempt at suicide which was made in that city. Qtie 8$ the metropolis police in pursuing his usual rounds, on a certain night found a man suspended from the branch of a lofty tree by a cord tied round his arm. On cutting him down, the mystified constable naturally asked for an explanation of matters, when the half-fainting Fe.nton replied, that being wearied of life he had endeavoured to cut it short. <t But why then, queried the official, did you not tie the rope round your neck ?'' " Oh," retorted the would be suicide with, a convulsive .shudder, ".that would have choked me." ■ The Public Accounts Committee reported recently on the vouchers for £2,000, alleged to have been paid on account of the Waimate Plains. The questions submitted to the committee were: — : Was the money expended for an entirely different service than land purchase, and who is responsible, for the misapplication of the money ? Were the purposes for which. the money was expended disclosed to the Under Sec- 1 retary for Land Purchase or. the Audit Office when the vonchers were submitted for approval and passed ? Who was responsible for the preparation and signature of the vouchers in a form . at. vaiiance with the actual facts, and for the suppression of the true vouchers ?-. To what account should the money, be ■■charged ? The Committee'recommendthat the matter be referred to the Controller and Auditpr-Generaland that such action should" be' taken by him." as the circumstances of the case may seem to require. The Dublin Freeman has just published the following: — "On., Saturday night, in the Grafton Theatre,- shortly after the performance"; commenced, >a. male singer came ou't'aiuTsarig a song' the concluding stanzas of which praised Mr Gladstone and censured Xord Bear consfield. J'Wtien the. song ended a per? feet storm of cheers and hisses arose from all parts of the house and the uproar was indescribable. The hisses and bßeera seemed to\be" about equal^m the: gallery, but in the pit all^cheered again find agaib e^cepj;,oneyoutig-nian>ji.^well dressed powerfully-built young fellow, with -.black whiskery and moustaches, who hissed vehemently. %;cry was raised' to throw out that *(Tdry,' and two men rushed forward to-do so ; but; they miscalculated the sort of customer^they '■ had to' deal .with", lor: : ;tb,e .; yp_ung; man struck out and sent them both rolling over, seeing which the restf hung back, and the performance proceeded ; but not for long, for Lord Beaconsfield's admirer, emboldened by his easy vie-, tory, interrupted the singer again and again, and finally, woundup by . offering., to 'fight the three best .Liberals in S.the house. His taunts at length- became so galling that the Gladstonians again rushed at him, headed by a young man. said to be a clerk in a Government office. The ' Tory ' seeing the odds against him, retreated, to a corner, where he stood at bay, and, las his opponents camo up, with a single blow of his fist he knocked down- the reputed Government clerk, and, catching the unfortunate man by the /collar anc}Waistband, hurled Win at 'his friends,' three or four of whom were knocked down by the novel missile. The ex-, citement in the house was now intense. Several in the gallery tried to get down into the pit to join in the row, while the whole audience stood on the benches to; catch a glimpse of the, .desperate struggle whicli was going on; ~ The combat was too unequal, however* -to" last long, and in a few minutes LordBeaconsfield's : unlucky friend was knocked senseless to the ground, and was carried out by a fe^w of his friends, who had, however, fprudently refrained from helping him before. The performance proceeded, but it was/a long wliile ere the excitement caused by this episode subsided." < . A return of the import duties^levied by our different colonies upon the pro-, diice and manufactures of the United Kingdom has just been issued (says the London Time's)* The duties are those which were in. foice; in March last, when the return was moved ,for in the House .of Common?. It appear^ that Canada levied the highest /rates on*

most articles, 20 to 30 per cenfc ad valorem heibg frequently reached.' Victoria and New Zealand also levy, duties of 15 to 20 per cent in many ; cases, and the other Australian colonies: (except New South "Wales arid Queens-! land), the Cape of Good Hope, Newfoundland, and Jamaica come next, their rates heing mostly from 10 to 15 per cent ad valorem. In New South Wales duties are levied on few products of this country, and in • Queens- ; land' and several other, colonies such duties seldom exceed 5 per cent, the ' rate which also is levied .on many articles iv India. Professor Blackie, of the Edinburg ; "University, recently presided at one of the series of weehly coucerts giyen in the City Hall of GHasgow under the auspices of the Abstainers' , Union. The programme was wholly devoted to Scottish music. The. learned and humorous Professor concluded some remarks which he addressed to the audience as follows :~ " Scottish nationality consists mainly of two things—the Scottish Presbyterian religion and Scottish national song. Don't let these things be' dribbled out of you j by any conspiracy of; school inspectors or anybody else. (Laughter.) Don't run after foreign idols ;. don't send your daughters to fashionable boarding schools, ito sing only German or Italian songs— that is a matter, for t the exercise of the throat and the amusement of the ear ;. but to stir the heart and cultivate the feelings sing a good Scotch song. — (Cheers.) If an angel were to come down from Heaven and say., to me, * Blackie — (laughter) for. tlie many faults you have committed during your septuagenarian march in this ; sublunary world~(great laugh ter)r~.we . mean to take away from you all your i accomplishments and all your, virtues, excepfc one ; . now think, Blackie,' (Roars of laughter.) 1 would answer, :• Take away my Greek, take away my Latin, take away my German, take : away my Gaelic, but leave me the good Scottish ~ song. (Great laughter.) — I J can only say that if, any of the, dozen ;or two or three score of songs I have written, while other people were smokipg their cigars, should happen to- lire in the hearts and thrpats of my. countrymen/ I should esteem it the . greatest. ; honor that couid be done to the | memory of Blackie when he died*-— ; (Cheers.) Constantino ! {]3erring f called , by, : Hahnemach the father of. homoeopathy, is dead,. aged, eighty-one. He died in New York. ■ : Tbe last contingent of Russian war y.esß9ls from Cronstodt are ordered not to hasten to't,he; Pacific, but to cruise in the Mediterranean until further orders are received.