Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/51

28 these women as wives, mothers, nurses and companions of men imbued with the idea of their superiority and whose selfishness was prodigious. Trained in the rough school of pioneer struggles which required physical strength, brute force, daring courage, and contempt for weakness, one can readily understand that they were unmindful of the finer feelings and tenderness which are the natural fruits of civilization, and that the men accepted the help of the women as their legitimate rights.

When at last an era of success dawned, it was natural that the men as the leaders of the adventurous settlers of the New World should have all the glory and that the prodigious labors and sacrifices of the women should be overlooked. Half a century had passed before women were accorded any measure of their deserts. During the two-thirds of a century since women had any recognition, they have step by step won their way to equality in all respects, save perhaps physically, to the men, though the privilege of suffrage and representation is not accorded in every state because the women themselves disagree upon the expediency of being given the right of suffrage. With this exception, every avenue is open to women in this "land of the free and the home of the brave."

So well and intelligently have women improved their opportunities that to them belongs the credit of greatly expediting the progress of Christianity, education, and civilization. The natural intuitions of women in the discovery of the good in all things and their keen perception as to how to develop that good are admitted. Julia Ward Howe wrote in the preface of a book "Woman is primarily the mother of the human race. She is man's earliest and tenderest guardian, his life-long companion, his trusted adviser and friend. Her breath is the music of the nursery; the incense of the church." Woman's mission and sphere is thus graphically portrayed by the gifted pen of one of the noblest women of our race.