78 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



Our civilization or our barbarism lias already added too 

 mucli to lier duties. We liave added now so mucli that she 

 lias to let department after department of culture and social 

 activity drop from lier grasp wlien she takes up from nature the 

 great office of maternity, and they lie in neglect and confusion 

 around her. And yet we have the coolness to ask her if she 

 could not possibly stagger under an additional burden. 



" The harp that once through Tara's halls 

 The soul of music shed, 

 Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls 

 As if that soul were fled," 



is the requiem that almost every young mother has to sing 

 over many a discontinued accomplishment. With no time 

 now for music, art and literature, we propose to ask her if she 

 will not spend a few days on an investigating committee, on 

 the accounts of the keeper of the house of correction, or pre- 

 pare a speech for the next ward caucus in favor of vacating an 

 alley in somebody's addition. 



The matter seems ridiculous. But Just where ridicule seems 

 now to come in it is more than possible that a cleft might be 

 made for the entrance of the sense of duty if suffrage be opened 

 for woman. 



Woman must stop somewhere or break. She cannot dis- 

 charge the functions of maternity and assume all the depart- 

 ments of man's activity beside. This is as sure as the doc- 

 trine of the conservation of force. In fact that doctrine under- 

 lies the whole matter. When the forces of the system are 

 taxed to their utmost in one direction, if severe efforts in other 

 directions are assumed, it is in vain to expect to avoid catas- 

 trophe. 



Right here is the place to look at the bearing of this matter 

 of suffrage upon the question of the education of woman. We 

 are now attempting to carry up the public education of our 

 young women to the same grade as that of young men. We 

 believe with due care for health and physical development, this 



