Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 2.djvu/948

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History of Woman Suffrage

of a "lady doctor."? Mrs. Dolley's practice brings her fully $3,000 a year. Ina letter to one of our Committee Mrs, Dolley says, "May your labors be prospered, that the women of our country may have a sphere rather than a hemisphere! Dr. R. B. Glasson, of Elmira, Dr. S. Ivison, of Ithaca, New York, and Dr. Green, late of Clifton Springs, who has opened water-cure somewhere in Western New York, all doa large amount of practice, and with the greatest acceptance to those who favor Hydropathic treatment. Dr. Ross, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has a large practice, and commands the respect of the profession. And, as Mrs. Dall says of the many noble women who served efficiently in our armies during the war without even sounding the name of the wonderful Clara Barton, 80 we have to say of our woman physicians, "their name is legion."

The following is an item from the Boston Commonwealth:

Further Progress In Woman's Rights.—Miss Stebbins, of Chickasaw County, Iowa, has received an appointment as Notary Public for that county. She is the first female ever having received such a commission, and is represented as eminently competent.

This from the National Anti-Slavery Standard:

Woman'S Rights In Hungary.—A curious petition has been presented to the Hungarian Diet. It is signed by a number of widows and other women who are landed proprietors, and asks for them the same equality of political rights with the male inhabitants of the country as they possessed in 1848. These ladies represent that they have much more difficulty in bringing up their children and attending to their estates than men; that they have to bear the same State burdens; that they are not allowed to take part in the communal elections; and that, although many of them possess much more ground than the male electors, they have no political rights.

There is one point in the report open to objection. It is not fair to say that Mrs. Farnham's life "was a bitter disappointment to herself." Who does realize in life all that in starting was looked for? Who has nothing to regret? With a heart so generous and sympathizing as hers—a mind so disciplined and stored with general information—a life 0 rich in practical usefulness, she was not only a blessing to others, but she must have had a more than an ordinary share of that peace and happiness that gladdens every Christian life. I have just read her last great work. I took it up with prejudice, not believing her theory of the superiority of woman. I lay it down with a higher idea of woman's destiny, and a profound reverence for the author of the glorious thoughts that thrill my heart. I never met Mrs. Farnham on earth, but I know and honor and love her now, and from the celestial shores feel the pulsations of a true and noble soul.

E. C. S.

LETTERS.

Wayland, April 28.

Dear Mrs. Stanton:—. . . . What I most wish for women is that they should go right ahead, and do whatever they can do well, without talking about it. But the false position in which they are placed by the laws and customs of society, renders it almost impossible that they should be sufficiently independent to do whatever they can do well, unless the world approves of it. They need a great deal of talking to, to make them aware that they are in fetters. Therefore I say, success to your Convention, and to all similar ones! . . .

I am very cordially yours, Lydia Maria Child.
New Castle, Del., April 21, 1866.
Dear Mrs. Stanton:—. . . . I am with you in heart and sympathy, rejecting with contempt the antiquated idea that woman fs only fit for a plaything or a household drudge. Nor can I see how it is less dignified to go to a public building to deposit a vote than to frequent the concert-room, whirl through the waltz in happy repose on some roue's bosom, or mingle in any public crowd which is, in modern times, quite admissible in polite society. Dethrone the idol and raise the soul to its true and noble elevation, supported on a foundation of undying principle, and woman becomes a thing of life and