Page:Eminent women of the age.djvu/442

404 speeches, letters, novels, and poems fully show ; those who have seen them in social life can testify that they are good house-keepers, true mothers, and faithful wives. I have kuown women in many countries and classes of society, and I know none more noble, delicate, and refined, in word and action, than those I have met on the woman's rights platform. True, they do not possess the voluptuous grace and soft manners of the petted children of luxury ; tiiej are not clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sump- tuously every day, — for most of them are self-made women, who, through hardships and sacrifice, have smoothed the rugged paths for multitudes about them, and earned a virtuous independence for themselves. All praise to those, who, through ridicule and scorn, have changed the barbarous laws for woman in ma^ny of the States, and brought them into harmony with the higher civilization in which we live.