ed, how much
more should be expected of us, who are the vanguard of our sex? who have
set out to free women from every sort of senseless bondage they had
endured for centuries, and no more from the tyranny of the physically
stronger sex than through their own silliness and cowardice.

"We are struggling to enfranchise our sex. We would like to try our hand
at regulating the affairs of the nation. Here, in these smaller towns,
all over the country, we have proved a far greater power for
improvements of all sorts than men. Rosewater owes to us, and to us
alone, its beautifully paved and shaded streets--we have no difficulty
in remembering what a barren mud-hole it was--the trees that shade the
poor horses at the hitching-rails; the beautiful squares, the tropical
plants and trees, the improved sewerage system, the cleanliness of the
marsh border, everything in fact that has transformed Rosewater from a
mere set of roofs and walls into a delightfully habitable town.
Moreover, we have raised both the moral and the intellectual tone, for
although I at least have always discouraged too much interest in
people's private affairs, the higher interests, and the increased
intimacy among women, have done much to keep them out of mischief. Until
this card fever descended upon the town, it was generally regarded as
occupying a high place among communities of its size. Cards, however, I
regard as a passing madness; it merely means that even yet we have not
enough to do.

"And--so it seems!--in spite of all that we have accomplished, in spite
of our long and ofttimes disheartening struggle to lift ourselves above
the average female woman, we are as ready to tear reputations to pieces
as ever, to judge by mere appearances, to discount general character and
behavior, to forget our ideals and give unlicensed rein to the mean and
detestable qualities we still cherish in common with the mass of
unenlightened women. I do not assert that I have never heard gossip from
men; but it has always been from the men that spend their lives in Club
windows, never from men that had some better way of filling their time.
From my husband I have never heard a scurrilous word of any one, and he
has a temper of his own, too. Now, so far as I can make out, we have not
only been trying to usurp the time-honored prerogatives of men, but to
attain their highest standards. While I deprecate violence of statement,
I am inclined to agree with Mrs. Toffitt that a w