_Question_. What is your opinion of the effect of the multiplicity
of women's clubs as regards the intellectual, moral and domestic
status of their members?
_Answer_. I think that women should have clubs and societies, that
they should get together and exchange ideas. Women, as a rule,
are provincial and conservative. They keep alive all the sentimental
mistakes and superstitions. Now, if they can only get away from
these, and get abreast with the tide of the times, and think as
well as feel, it will be better for them and their children. You
know St. Paul tells women that if they want to know anything they
must ask their husbands. For many centuries they have followed
this orthodox advice, and of course they have not learned a great
deal, because their husbands could not answer their questions.
Husbands, as a rule, do not know a great deal, and it will not do
for every wife to depend on the ignorance of her worst half. The
women of to-day are the great readers, and no book is a great
success unless it pleases the women.
As a result of this, all the literature of the world has changed,
so that now in all departments the thoughts of women are taken into
consideration, and women have thoughts, because they are the
intellectual equals of men.
There are no statesmen in this country the equals of Harriet
Martineau; probably no novelists the equals of George Eliot or
George Sand, and I think Ouida the greatest living novelist. I
think her "Ariadne" is one of the greatest novels in the English
language. There are few novels better than "Consuelo," few poems
better than "Mother and Poet."
So in all departments women are advancing; some of them have taken
the highest honors at medical colleges; others are prominent in the
sciences, some are great artists, and there are several very fine
sculptors, &c., &c.
So you can readily see what my opinion is on that point.
I am in favor of giving woman all the domain she conquers, and as
the world becomes civilized the domain that she can conquer will
steadily increase.
_Question_. But, Colonel, is there no danger of greatly interfering
with a woman's duties as wife and mother?
_Answer_. I do not think that it is dangerous to think, or that
thought interferes with love or the duties of wife or mother. I
think the contrary is the truth; the greater the brain the greater
the power to love, the greater the power to discharge all duties
and obligations, so I have no fear for the future. About women
voting I don't care; whatever they want to do they have my consent.
--_The Democrat_, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1894.