Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/293

Rh statesman as well as the chivalrous gentlemen have forgotten or neglected. For the present let us examine the chivalry and the tender considerations, the secret of which Mr. Gerstaeker has so naively disclosed to us. He makes the observance of these considerations toward the weaker sex dependent on its disqualification. He offers us chivalry as a reward for the renunciation of our rights. As slaves we may hope to sit down in the street car; as free individuals we must stand. So long as I cannot vote my legs are too weak to carry me; as soon as I have the suffrage they suddenly grow strong. To subordinate one's rights to the rights of men is a service that must be rewarded with chivalrous attentions; to be his equal in rights is an offense that must be punished by rudeness. You see, this is the correct interpretation of Gerstaekerian chivalry. He also might have expressed himself thus: So long as you women are satisfied to be our disqualified servants, we are the chivalrous bestowers of compliments; but as soon as you demand and receive rights, we become brutal churls. Mr. Gerstaeker, I mean the namesake of the wine merchant, has had much intercourse with savage men, and ‘beasts, as I see from the accounts of his travels. He also has been a frequent guest at "courts" which has the same effect. Can it be that he has learned his chivalry there? I would quietly leave him to his society if I were not compelled to also see in him a representative of a great number of men, who have