SO-CALLED "WOMEN'S

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10365, 13 February 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

SO-CALLED "WOMEN'S

RIGHTS." maggie/ swan's protest. We have to acknowledge receipt from Messrs. Wildman and Lyell, booksellers of this city, of a pleasantly written work of fiction, by Maggie Swan, entitled "A Neglected Priviloye, published by Ward, Lock and Bowden, London. Her views' of the privileges and duties of women are in strong contrast to those sometimes propounded from platforms by itnerant female lectures, and they are characterised by homely good sense. Maggie Swan's sentimsuts are refreshing after perusing the " dotted nonsense," written by the Wild Women or the Shrioking Sisterhood, as to woman's new mission. The work appears to be a counter-blast to the utterances of the champions of " Women's Rights," and the Hew Woman gets but scant courtesy at the hands of the fair authoress. The plot of the story is tljat Dr. Blair, who is up in years, is left with two motherless daughters, Jessie and Elsie. The first-named in the country homo is like Martha, cumbered with much serving, while-- tho other," haughty, proud, and reserved, goes to London to livo for years with a maiden aunt-, Miss Sophy, a champion of women's Dr. Blair, through the infirmities of age is obliged to take young Dr. Gordon into his practice, and he resides with the family. He had been charmed with Jessie's modesty, filial devotion to her father, and good-he&rtedness to tho sick and poor of the adjacent village, but the arrival on a visit of the dashing, brilliant, and accomplished Elsie, changed his affections bofore .ho had compromised himself. Tho hauteur and contemptuous indifference of the new beauty, but stimulated Dr. Gordon's love for her, and the outcome was that they pot married, while Jessio buried her sorrow and crucified her lovo for her faithless admiror in work among the poor, and in attendance upon her aged father. Soon discord enters the homo of Dr. Gordon. His wife is dissatisfied with her quiet home and quiet surroundings; her ways, thoughts, aspirations, and ideals are nob his, and the two young married people drift apart. The upshot is that in a few months Mrs. Gordon leaves, without her husband's consent, 011 a month's visit to Aunt Sophy. The husband is too proud at the end of that timo to express to her in his formal letters a desire to return, and under the influence of her aunb she writes and announces her intention of nob returning home again, Their lives had drifted apart, and her return to her husband and her home with the relations existing between them, would probably result in a social scandal. Dr. Gordon, who, under the influence of a loving and true wife, might have been happy and useful, looks for solace among gay companions at)d in the wine cup, going from bad to worse. At last, under the influence of liquor, while returning from a curling match, he, in a mad frenzy, lashes his horse over the parapet of a bridge, both being killed. The heartless, selfish, indutiful wife in London has to be told the sad story by her own sister, Jessie Blair, whom she had robbed of her lover, Mrs.Gordon's confinement supervened 011 the intelligence of her husband's death, and her own condition became critical. She raved wildly that she was to blame for her husband's death. She refused to see Aunt Sophy, who had been her evil counsellor. The heart of the wife had waked in the mother and though she had lit on love too late to taste its joys the knowledge ot ib to which she had at last attained changed the current of her life. Had she only yielded sooner its happiness might have been hers,, bub she, who mocked at love, spurned the crown and had to take the cross. The young mother returned to her aged father's home, with her little son. A few months afterwards; Aunb Sophy, who has "a mission," writes to Mrs. Gordon, stating that there is to be a Women's Congress held in London, with delegates from all parts of the world, to deal with tho "burning questions," and inviting her to take part in the work. Mrs. Gordon, however, has now other views, and another mission— of caring for and training her little instead of sneering at wifely love and motherhood. She thus expresses herself to her sister regarding Aunt Sophy's invitation :—

.I. have no desire whatever to go.' You. know already how changed my beliefs are on these subjects, which absorb Aunt Sophy, heart and soul. I have thought over the matter long ".and ". earnestly, and it seems to me that it' is not necessary for women to step but'.on the platform of the world to have their wrongs redressed. To begin with, if a woman is pure and sweet and lovable, she will never be wronged in any way; rather she will ,be honoured and blessed wherever she goes, and every man worthy of the name will step aside to make room for her. But if she lacks the essential qualities of .womanhood, ' she will suffer for it. ' So the first and necessary part' for each of us is to see that we attain to the perfection of our womanhood. Our influence for good will then be without measure. ' Few will heed us, though we are zealous in pointing out to them the way in which they should walk, but if we lead on ourselves we will have no lack' of a following. So, Jessie, I want to live up to my present privileges as a woman before: I' ask . any more.; One of my privileges I have sorely neglected in' the past, but lam thanking God- every day that I have learned the truth, even , though it be late, that on this earth— , ''' ■ v , ? There is nothing out of tow hath perpetual worth; v All things flag but only Love, all things, fail or flee; There is nothing left but lore, worthy you and me. : The story is: powerfully written, and the characters carefully. delineated aiyltfue to ''V ~'- ,A . ::;v