said of a woman is that there
is nothing to say about her.... When, in due time, the claim for
political rights is made here in Denmark, then will women from
all classes unite in their efforts to secure the palladium which
alone can protect them from arbitrariness and subjection.

* * * * *

We shall now take up the Slavonic countries, beginning with Russia,
which stands first, not only because of its vastness, but also
because of its liberality toward women. The position of the Russian
women before the law is very peculiar. Children, whatever their age
and whether male or female, are never emancipated from the control
of their parents. The daughter can only escape from this authority,
and then only in a limited degree, by marriage, and the son by
entering the service of the State. In the provinces alone girls of
twenty-one may marry without the parents' consent. The married
woman is in the full power of her husband, though she is the
mistress of her own fortune. Divorce exists. Russian women vote on
an equality with men for members of the municipal councils and
county assemblies, and these two bodies choose the boards which
transact the public business, such as superintending the collection
of taxes, keeping the roads in order, directing the schools, etc.
The Russian woman does, not however, appear at the polls, but is
represented by some male relative or friend (as we have already
seen in Austria) who casts the vote for her. Thus the Russian
woman, except that she is ineligible to office, possesses all the
political rights of the Russian man--a privilege, however, that is
of little value in a country where liberty is crushed under the
iron heel of autocracy. The position of the Russian peasant women
is not as good as that of the women of the upper classes. They find
some comfort, however, in the doctrines of the rapidly spreading
religious sects, which resemble somewhat the American Revivalists
or Anabaptists. In fact, the subject condition of Russian women is
one of the chief causes of the growth of these sects; down-trodden
by society and the State, they seek liberty in religion. In some of
these sects women preach. Miss Maria Zebrikoff, an able Russian
writer, sends me this curious information:

We have lately heard of a new sect which preaches a doctrine
exalting woman. She is placed above man, because she can give
birth to another being. Her p