is "separation and hostility between the sexes, brought about by the
advancement and equality of women." Wives in all ages and in all
countries, have felt the painful injustice of virtual pauperism, and
struggled vainly for freedom.

The growth toward emancipation in the case of most of them amounts
merely to the liberty to groan in print and to cry aloud in women's
convocations. If the yoke is easier upon the wifely neck in 1896 than
it was in 1846, it is because women know more of business methods,
and are more competent to the management of money than they knew fifty
years ago, and some husbands, appreciating the change for the better,
are willing to commit funds to their keeping. The disposition of
fathers, brothers and husbands to regard the feminine portion of their
families as lovely dead weights, was justified in a degree by the
Lauras and Matildas, who clung like wet cotton-wool to the limbs of
their natural protectors. Dependence was reckoned among womanly
graces, and insisted upon as such in _Letters to Young Ladies, The
Young Wife's Manual, A Father's Legacy to his Daughters_, and other
valuable contributions to the family library of half a century ago.
Julia, as betrothed, assured wooing Adolphus that absolute dependence,
even for the bread she should eat, and breath she should draw, would
be delight and privilege. Julia, as wife, fretted and plained and
shook her "golden chains inlaid with down," when married Adolphus took
her at her word.

It is surprising that both parties were so slow in finding out how
false is the theory and how injurious the practice of the
cling-and-twine-and-hang-upon school.

From my window as I write I see an object lesson that pertinently