ALASS, ALASS!

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9124, 4 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

ALASS, ALASS!

"Woman," says Ouida, "is the enemy of freedom." True, most true. She is apt to marry as soon as she comes of age. She is the dependent of parents and nurse in her cradle, in bondage to her teachers all her school days, a slave of fashion from the day she graduates until her wedding day. After that she is ruled by her husband or tyrannised over by her servants. Than she is a servant unto her children until they are all married, after which she is "bossed" by her sons and daughters-in-law, and at last she lives and dies in loving, gentle bondage to the grandchildren who prattle about her. Yes, indeed, it's little enough of freedom a woman knows. " Oh, you poor women !" we heard amid the chatter and clamour of "Vanity Fair." "Oh, you poor secret martyrs and victims, whose life is a torture, who are stretched on racks in your bedrooms, and who lay your heads down on the block daily at the drawingroom table ; every man who watches your pains, or peers into those dark places where the orture is administered to you, must pity you—and —thank God he has a beard. And, so, if you properly tyrannise over a woman, you will find a ha'p'orth of kindness act upon her, and bring tears to her eyes, a« though you were an angel benefiting her."