speeches, letters, novels, and poems fully show ; those who
have seen them in social life can testify that they are good
house-keepers, true mothers, and faithful wives. I have
kuown women in many countries and classes of society, and I know none more noble, delicate, and refined, in word
and action, than those I have met on the woman's rights
platform. True, they do not possess the voluptuous grace
and soft manners of the petted children of luxury ; tiiej
are not clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sump-
tuously every day, — for most of them are self-made women,
who, through hardships and sacrifice, have smoothed
the rugged paths for multitudes about them, and earned a
virtuous independence for themselves. All praise to those,
who, through ridicule and scorn, have changed the barbarous
laws for woman in ma^ny of the States, and brought them into
harmony with the higher civilization in which we live.
