Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/87

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A NEWPORT AQUARELLE.
79

sible three-syllabled patronymic advised him to come to Boston for the winter, if he should remain so long in America.

She explained that for a man the Athens of America was really the most delightful place in the world. Nowhere else were they so well treated, in spite of all the talk about the rights of women.

"Things are rather reversed with us, and it is the men who have all the privileges. We women are so much in the majority that we practically have the same rights that men do. Indeed, the male sex are, in our community, the privileged class. They are exempt from every social duty, and included in every social pleasure. The charities and the reforms are carried on by ladies, who minister to the sick and uphold the privileges of the criminals. We visit the hospitals and the prisons, pay the taxes, give the parties, oversee the schools, and keep up the churches. It is a fair division, is it not?"