Women and Their Victims.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 332, 9 January 1889, Page 5

Women and Their Victims.

J'l wa& hoped s-onic time ngo that the fashion ot wcai ing the dead bodies of biicK <»-. fi miming? tor bonnets and hats v. a-> goiiu_r out Such a hope, appaicntly, is (loomed (o ch-appointment. Perhaps the da,\ niiu come when the people who ha\c a little icgard tot such lielple^ cicatures as 'j]i\'K will give thorn up to theii tato. it ically ht:oms to be ot no une to try to pio-toc-l them. The loafer from the East End ot London '400 forth with hi* cage's atul hi 1 - lime, and catches them. He, however, nso^th retains the male The, olhei biul muidorer aKo goe.s foifh on his cruel enaiui, and, bv picfcicnuo, catches and lefcains the female. He takes her in the nesting season because the feathci*- arc sott and beau bi hi I then. What matters it (o him thar his \k'tim U often the mothei of a nest-lull ot helplus-. youny, and that they aie left in the nest to die ot starvation : to die whilst piteou^ly crying out hour after hour for the mother that never comes ? The mother birds aie killed, and the young left to die of because certain women insist that ib shall be so. Yet how gentle and sympathetic and tender those very women can pictcnd to be, when it suits their convenience., Jlo\v correct and nice in their ta.sbe in everything that relates to good manners How shocked they arc by vulgarity, how horrified by coarseness. if they could sec them&olves exactly as some men soc them ; could have it once dmen in upon their consciences that in the e&timabion of all rational and light-feeling men they aie incomparably inferior 101 0 many costennongcrs, crossing - swccpeis, and untaught African negroes, they might for one moment pause and reflect upon their worthlesbnes*. Is it really, then, come to this — that a nineteenth century woman is so utterly selhSb, so hopelefcsiy without brains or feeling and so incapable of learning oven the very olements of humanity, that she must and will have birds to adorn herself with at whatever cost ? At bottom it really is want of intellect. This idle modern woman of the wealthier classes is so self-indulgent, so pampered, and so spoilt, that she can no longer be counted upon to exercise a reasoning faculty. Impulses, whims, and pouting alternate with fits of snlkiness or rage ; and so &he spends her lite. When a man comes to the conclusion that any of his fel-low-beings are cither helplessly stupid or hopelessly unfeeling, he has still one source of consolation lott ; he knows they cannot live for ever. They will die some day. Whether that trreab change will open theit eyes, or whether it will close thorn for ever, who shall say ? So far as their intellectual value is concerned, fcho answer is probably of little ov no moment. The movement in favour of the emancipation of women, it may be hoped, will not only give enlarge ment, but n sense of responsibility and duty. No man can contemplate without tho docpost anxiety the gradually increasing mental weakness among the prosperous If the stern necessities of the poorer class 0 ladies develop in them truo strength 0 mind and sternness, of moral fibre, mosi people will think poverty and necessity an blessings, though in disguise. Hardly an;; price too great to pay for brains and 1 , moral faculty,— < Tho Hospital.'