, woman is
love; and where the one man loves the one woman the very angels leave
heaven and come and sit in that house and sing for joy." I think that
is nearly equal to this: "If you do not want your wife, give her a
writing of divorcement," and make the mother of your children a
houseless wanderer and a vagrant--nearly as good as that.

I believe that marriage should be a perfect partnership; that woman
should have all the rights that man has, and one more--the right to be
protected. I believe in marriage. It took hundreds and thousands of
years for woman to get from a state of abject slavery up to the height
even of marriage. I have not the slightest respect for the ideas of
those short-haired women and long-haired men who denounce the
institution of the family, who denounce the institution of marriage;
but I hold in greater contempt the husband who would enslave his wife.
I hold in greater contempt the man who is anything in his family except
love and tenderness, and kindness. I say it took hundreds of years for
woman to come from a state of slavery to marriage; and ladies, the
chains that are upon your necks and the bracelets that are put upon
your arms were iron, and they have been changed by the touch of the
wand of civilization to shining, glittering gold. Woman came from a
condition of abject slavery and thousands and thousands of them are in
that condition now. I believe marriage should be a perfect and equal
partnership. I do not like a man who thinks he is boss. That fellow
in the dug-out was always talking about being boss. I do not like a
man who thinks he is the head of the family. I do not like a man who
thinks he has got authority and that the woman belongs to him--that
wants for his wife a slave. I would not have a slave for my wife. I
would not want the love of a woman that is not great enough, grand
enough, and splendid enough to be free. I will never give to any woman
my heart upon whom I afterwards would put chains.

Do you know sometimes I think generosity is about the only virtue there
is. How I do hate a man that has to be begged and importuned every
minute for a few cents by his wife. "Give me a dollar?" "What did you
do with that fifty cents I gave you last Christmas?" If you make your
wife a perpetual beggar, what kind of children do you expect to raise
with a beggar for their mother? If you want great children, if you
want to people this world with great and grand men an