 Chapter 1 of Man's Rites or How Would You Like It? Comprising Dreams This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Elsie Selwyn. Man's Rites or How Would You Like It? Comprising Dreams by Annie Denton Cridge. Dream Number 1 Last night I had a dream which may have a meaning. I stood on a high hill that overlooked a large city. The proud spires of many churches rose high. Here and there, and round about the city were beautiful sloping hills, stretching away away into the distance, while a broad river wound here and there, extending a kindly arm toward the city. As I stood there wondering what manner of city it was, its name and the character of its inhabitants, all at once I found myself in its very midst. From house to house I flitted from kitchen to kitchen, and lo, everywhere the respective duties of man and woman were reversed. For in every household I found the men in aprons superintending the affairs of the kitchen. Everywhere men and only men were the brigets and housekeepers. I thought that those gentlemen housekeepers looked very pale and somewhat nervous, and when I looked into their spirits, foreseen to my dreams that I had the power, I saw anxiety and unrest, a constant feeling of unpleasant expectancy, the result of a long and weary battling with the cares of the household. As I looked at those men, brigets, and gentlemen housekeepers, I said to myself, this is very strange. Why these men seem unsexed? How stooped shoulder they are, how weak and complaining their voices. I found too that not only was the kitchen exclusively mans, but also the nursery, in fact all the housework was directed and done by men. I felt a sad pity for these men as I flitted from house to house, from kitchen to kitchen, from nursery to nursery. I saw them in the houses of the poor, where the man did his own work. I saw him in the morning arise early, light the fire, and begin to prepare the breakfast, his face pale and haggard. No wonder I thought when I saw how he hurried, hurried, while in his spirit was a constant fear that the baby would awake. Very soon I heard the sharp cry of the baby, and away ran the poor father, soon returning with baby in his arms, carrying it around with him, while he raked the fire, fried the meat, and set the table for breakfast. When all was ready, Dan came two or three unwashed, unkempt children, who must be attended to, and when all this was done I observed that the poor gentleman's appetite was gone, and pale and nervous he sat down in the rocking chair with the baby in his arms. But what greatly astonished me was to see how quietly and composedly the lady of the house drank her coffee and read the morning paper, apparently oblivious of the trials of her poor husband, and of all he had to endure in connection with his household cares. It was wash day, and I watched him through that long and weary day, first at the wash tub while baby slept, then rocking the cradle and washing at the same time, then preparing dinner, running and hurrying here and there about the house, while in his poor disturbed mind revolved the thought of the sewing that ought to be done, and only his own hands to do it. Evening came and the lady of the house returned to dinner, the children came to meet her, and as she lifted up one and then another and kissed them, I thought, Why, how beautiful is that woman! Then in my dream I seemed to behold every woman of that strange city, and, ah, the marvelous beauty of those women! I hath not seen, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, for beauty almost angelic was so charmingly combined with intellect, and hath burdened so divinely over all that, at their toots ensemble, I was profoundly astonished and intensely delighted. Then I turned myself about and was again in the home I had left. It was evening, the lamp on the table was lighted, and there sat the poor husband I had described, in his rocking chair, darning stockings and mending the children's clothes after the hard days washing. I saw that it had rained, that the clothes line had broken and dropped the clothes in the dirty yard, and the poor man had had a terrible time room zing some and washing others over again, and that he had finally put them down in wash tubs and covered them with water he had brought from a square distant. But the day's work was over, and there he moved to and fro, while his wife and comfortable slippers sat by the fire reading. Well, I said to myself, such is the home of the lowly, but how is it where one or more servants can be kept? Then as by magic I saw how it was, for I found myself in a kitchen where a male bridget was at work, his hair uncombed, his face and hands unwashed, and his clothes torn and soiled. Bridget was cooking breakfast, a knife in his hand, while he was bending over the cooking stove, moodily talking to himself. The gentleman housekeeper pale and unhappy opened the door, looked at Bridget, but said nothing and soon went into the dining room. As soon as his back was turned, Bridget turned around, lifted the arm that held the knife, and with a fiendish look, whispered to himself, I would like to strike you with this. Breakfast on the table I looked and beheld bad coffee, burned meat and heavy biscuits, and I heard the lady of the house, who sat in a morning robe and spangled slippers, said to the poor gentleman, My dear, this breakfast is bad, very bad. You ought to attend to things better. I observed how sad he felt at these words, and I did pity the poor fellow. It seemed to me that I stayed a whole day with this poor gentleman. His health was very feeble, he was suffering from dyspepsia. I saw him attending the children, saw him sewing, saw him go nervously into the kitchen, and sadly and weirdly attend to things there, while the dark glances of the male Bridget followed him viciously everywhere. I saw the waist and thieving of that man Bridget, and saw how completely that poor gentleman felt crushed and held by his help. My heart yearned toward that poor feeble housekeeper, unable to do his own work and so much at the mercy of that terrible Bridget, and I ceased to wonder at the pale faces of the men everywhere. The homes of the wealthy I visited and almost everywhere I found those gentlemen housekeepers anxious and weary, no matter how many servants were kept. There was trouble about washing, trouble about ironing, trouble about children. There was waste, there was thieving, and oh, the number of poor, sickly gentlemen I found made me very sad. And while in my dream, where his heart was going out in pity and commiseration toward those gentlemen housekeepers, I found myself in the midst of a large assembly composed exclusively of these men. Here almost every man in the city had congregated to hold an indignation meeting, a housekeeper's indignation meeting. Every man wore a white kitchen apron, and some, I noticed, whose sleeves were white with flower, while others had pieces of dough here and there stuck on their clothes. Others, again, had hanging on their arms, dishcloths, and towels. Very many, too, had babies in their arms and one or more children at their side. Then I listened to some of their speeches. One gentleman said, I have kept house sixteen years, and I know what it is to be poor and do my own work, and I know what it is to have servants. And I tell you gentlemen, the whole system of housekeeping, as now conducted, is a bad one. It is, in the first place, wasteful and extravagant, and in the next place it wears out our bodies and souls. See how pale and feeble we are, it is time there was a change. We don't each of us make our own shoes, said another speaker. We don't each of us spin our own yarn or weave our own cloth. The hand loom has departed, and it is now done by machinery, which has so far come to our rescue. It is not so bad for us, as for our grandfathers, who had to weave on a hand loom all the muslin and cloth for the family. But it is bad enough. Here we are kept every day of our lives over the cook stove, wash tub, or ironing table, or thinking about them. Can nothing be done to remedy this? Can not all the domestic work be done by machinery? Can it not be done on wholesale principles? I say it can. There is no more need for a kitchen to any house than for a spindle or a loom. Then followed many more speeches about the extravagance of the present system, whereby one or two persons, and often more, were employed in doing the work of a small family, when it might be done at much less expense for one-fourth the labor, where the wholesale principle applied to that as it is to other things. One man remarked that the kitchen was a small retail shop to every house. Another called it a dirt-producing establishment for every family, sending its fumes and filth to every room. Another gentleman said that the fine pictures painted about the domestic hearth, happy homes, etc. were all moonshine, and would continue so just as long as the present state of things continued. I protest against the present state of things, said a tall, delicate man with a large, active brain. We have this matter in our own hands, and let us here and now begin something practical. Instead of forty little extravagant cooking stoves with each a bridget and so many gentlemen employed as housekeepers, let us have one large stove and do our cooking, washing, and ironing on a large scale. Well, I thought in my dream that I listened to hundreds of speeches and protests and denunciations. Then the scene changed and forthwith there sprang up large cooking establishments in different parts of the city that could, as if by magic, supply hundreds of families with their regular meals. I looked in low what machinery had done, and the weaving of cloth, above and beyond what had been affected by the hand loom, was accomplished here. The inventive genius of the age had been at work, and the result was a wondrous machine that could cook, wash, and iron for hundreds of people at once. I must see the workings of that establishment, I said in my dream, and forthwith a polite gentleman who said that he had been a housekeeper twenty-five years and knew all the petty annoyances of the old system kindly proposed to show me the various doings of the machinery. We are going to cook dinner now, he said, as he walked toward a monster machine. He touched a handle, and then about fifty bushels of potatoes were quietly let down into a large cistern where they were washed and then moved forward into a machine of peeling, which operation was accomplished in a minute or two by its hundreds of knives, and the potatoes came out all ready to be cooked. Turnips went through the same process, and other vegetables were prepared and made ready for the huge cooking apparatus. All was done by machinery. There was no lifting, no hauling, no confusion. But the machines, like things of life, lifted, prepared, and transferred as desired. I saw what was called a self-feeding pie maker that reminded me of a steam printing press, where the paper goes in blank at one end and comes out printed at the other. So the flowers, shortening, and fruit were taken in all at once at three separate receptacles and came out at the other end pies ready for the oven, to which they were at once over a small tramway transferred by machinery. Another machine made cakes and pies. Mealtime came, the dinner was to be served. Two large wooden doors opened by means of a spring which the gentleman touched with his foot. Through them came finally past us, one after another, small, curiously constructed steam wagons, the motion of which caused wet little noise as the wheels were tired with vulcanized India rubber. Those wagons were so arranged as to travel on common roads and much resembled caravans. They moved past machines which were called servers, where meals were dished and transferred to the steam caravans, which latter were termed waiters. All this was done systematically, quietly, yet rapidly, by a few persons in charge of the machines by which meals were prepared for and distributed to hundreds of families. I saw that there were hundreds of these servers as well as hundreds of waiters so that the dinner was dished and served almost simultaneously in double tin cases, containing all requisites for the table. Then away went the steam waiters, delivering the meals almost simultaneously at the houses, which by the by were rapidly being reconstructed to meet the new state of things with dining rooms to accommodate hundreds at once in blocks or hollow squares with cookhouses, laundries, etc. at the center or in circles similarly arranged, combining in a most inconceivable degree, economy with beauty. To return to the steam waiters, at a time understood they called for the tin cases containing dishes and debris and then wended their way back to headquarters where all the dishes were washed and transferred to their places by steam power. The washing and ironing I discovered was done in the same expeditious manner by machinery, several hundred pieces going in at one part of the machine dirty and coming out at the other end a few minutes afterward rinsed and ready to dry. The ironing was as rapid as it was perfect, smooth, glossy, uncreased, unspect, all done by machinery. Then I looked once more into this strange city and behold an emancipated class, the pale, sickly faces of the men who were giving place to ready health. Anxiety once so marked in their features was departing, no bridget to dread now, no washing day anymore, no sad faces nor neglected children. For now the poor gentlemen housekeepers had time to attend to the children and to the cultivation of their own minds. And I saw that the dream of the poet and of the seer was realized, for husband and wife sat side by side, each sharing the joys of the other. Science and philosophy, home and children, were cemented together, for peace, sweet peace, had descended like a dove on every household. I awoke. It was all a dream. My husband stood at my bedside. Annie, Annie, he said. Awake, Annie, that new girl of yours is good for nothing. You have to rise and attend to her, else I shall have no breakfast. I have been late at the office for several days past, and I fear I shall be late again. I rose, and as my husband ate his breakfast, I pondered over my strange dream. As soon as he was gone I transferred it to paper, feeling that it really did mean something, and is intended as a prophecy of the good time coming, when women will be rid of the kitchen and cook stove and the possibilities of the age actualize for a woman, that which I have dreamed for man. End of DREAM NUMBER ONE CHAPTER TWO OF MAN'S RIGHTS OR HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT? COMPRISING DREAMS This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Louise J. Bell. MAN'S RIGHTS OR HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT? COMPRISING DREAMS By Annie Denton-Kridge DREAM NUMBER TWO Once again I have visited that strange city in Dreamland, where men and only men were the housekeepers and bridgets. It is midnight. I have just awakened from my dream and risen to pen it down, lest in the morning I should find my memory treacherous. My good husband has protested against writing by gaslight and very gravely given his opinion on midnight writing, and, oh well, he is sound asleep now, I see, and so at once to my dream. I thought my husband and I were walking along some beautiful streets when all at once I exclaimed, Why, husband, here we are together in that very city I told you about, where the men are the housekeepers and kitchen girls. Oh, I'm glad. Let us find out everything about these inhabitants, both men and women. While we were talking together, several gentlemen, pale and delicate in appearance, past us. Some were dressed in calico suits, trimmed with little ruffles, ruffles round the bottom of the pants, ruffles down the front, and round the tails of the coats. And on both sides of the buttonholes of their vests were rows of small ruffles. From some of their little flat hats flowed ribbon streamers while on others were placed jauntily and conspicuously feathers and flowers. More and more gentlemen passed us. What a variety of costume. I was almost bewildered. Gentlemen in red, green, yellow, drab and black suits, trimmed in such elaborate and fanciful styles. Some suits were particoloured, that is to say, the pants perhaps yellow or red, the vest blue, the coat green, crimson or drab. Some of these suits were trimmed with lace, lace down the sides of the pants and round the bottoms, lace round the edges of the coat and beautifully curving hither and thither as a vine, over the backs and down the fronts of the coats and also over the fronts of the vests. Some suits were almost covered with elaborate embroidery or satin folds or piping or ribbon while bows and streamers of the same or contrasting colours according to taste were placed on the backs of the coats, shoulders and here and there on the vest and pants. It really makes me laugh at this moment to think of that comical sight. Their headdresses too were most fantastic. Flowers, bits of lace, tall or blonde, feathers and even birds were mixed in endless profusion with ribbon, tinsel, glitter and ablipitum grease. Many of these gentlemen carried little portemonnais which hung on their jeweled fingers by tiny chains. Others carried fans, some edged with feathers or covered with pictures or inlaid with pearl, etc., varying, I suppose, according to the purse. Each of these gentlemen seemed particularly interested in every other gentleman's costume for they turned and looked at each other while several exclamations reached my ears such as, what a superb suit! What a splendid coat! What a darling vest! What a love of a hat! These gentlemen had a swinging gate, something like that of a sailor which made their coattails move to and fro as they walked. I noticed too that they were very careful of their pants which were decidedly wide for on passing over a gutter or soiled part of the pavement they carefully and daintily raised the legs of the pants with the finger and thumb. This impressed me favorably as to their love of cleanliness for otherwise the laces, ribbons, embroidery or ruffles which graced the bottoms of their pants would have come in contact with the mud of the streets. As we stood looking at these strange gentlemen, my husband suggested the idea of a masquerade. Then suddenly I found myself alone and flitting from dwelling to dwelling from home to home and everywhere the gentlemen were dressed in flimsy materials and all more or less decked with trimmings. I found the majority of gentlemen busy with needlework some doing the sewing of the family but many, very many with their sons dressed in delicate morning suits doing fancy work. Some were working little cats and dogs on footstools others were busy with embroidery, fancy knitting and all the delicate nothings that interest only ladies in this waking world of ours. As I listened to their conversation which was generally composed of gossip fashion or love matters for the male sex took the fashion books and not ladies and these I found in the majority of homes headed gentlemen's magazine of fashions. As I listened to their conversation I repeat and observed all this my soul was filled with unutterable sadness. Alas, alas I said what means this degradation? Why have the lords of creation become mere puppets or dolls? Where is the loftiness and intellectuality of man? Noble man. Just then I was aroused from my reverie by an aspiring young gentleman who was sewing some ruffles on the legs of his pants saying to his father I don't see papa why men cannot earn money as well as women. I want to learn a business. That is all nonsense replied his father. Your business is to get married. There is no necessity for a boy to learn a business. What you have to do is to learn to be a good housekeeper for you will be married some day and will have to attend to your children and your wife and that is enough business for any man. But I may not marry, said the boy and I know I will not unless I can get a woman with money that can give me a good home. Then they talked about Mr. Someone I could not catch the name that had married well. His wife was worth over fifty thousand dollars and was very kind to him taking him to theaters and concerts and wherever he wanted to go. She let him to have all the dress he wanted. She had only one fault. She would not allow him to go anywhere unless she accompanied him. Oh my soul was sick with sympathy and pity for that race of poor degraded men. What does it mean? I asked myself why are they in this pitiable condition? Then for the first time I realized that this city was the capital of a great nation that women and only women were the lawmakers, judges, executive officers, etc. of the nation that every office of honor and emolument was filled by women that all colleges and literary institutions with very few exceptions were all built for women and only open to women and that men were all excluded. I went from school to school from college to college and oh, the beauty, the dignity of those women. Science and art had truly crowned them with their own best gifts. Their faces seemed to me almost divine and oh, what a contrast to the vain, silly, half-educated men who stayed at home or paraded the streets thinking principally of fashion and dress. For these women were everywhere dressed in plain and substantial clothing which lent them such a charm that I realized instinctively there was something about them far more beautiful than beauty. As I looked upon these women in the colleges as students and professors as lawyers, judges and jurors as I looked upon them in the lecture room in the pulpit the House of Representatives and the Senate Chamber yay, everywhere. I observed their quiet dignity clothed in their plain, flowing robes and I was almost tempted to believe that nature had intended in this part of the world at least that woman and only woman should legislate and govern and that here, if nowhere else woman should be superior to man. In the galleries of the legislative bodies were hundreds of gentlemen young and old, looking on and listening to the speeches made by the Lady Members how they fluttered and fanned and whispered and smiled. Alas for fallen man, I said. Then in an instant I had as by one glance looked into the pockets of every lady and gentleman present and also into the acquisitive pockets of the brain of each and the result proved to me that as man held the purse with us so woman held the purse in that wonderful dreamland. To obtain money from their wives those weak, silly men would often resort to cajolary and deceit. Only from their wives could they obtain money for dress or anything else and so as by common consent nearly all the husbands had seemingly decided that they had a right to get all they could out of their wives without any reference to the question whether the wife could afford it or not. Thus I found that the woman being the purse holder she the giver and he the receiver worked most disastrously for it made the interests of wife and husband separate. The interest of the wife was not the interest of the husband his greatest care being to get all he could and spend all he could get. I left those buildings and took the streetcars. Here those noble-looking, stately women escorted the gentleman to the cars stood while the gentleman walked in first then demurely stepped on board and paid the car fare for both. What impressed me as much as anything I saw was with what matter-of-course style the gentleman in their dainty, flimsy, flying garments occupied the seats of the cars while the ladies stood or if a lady had a seat with what noble demeanour she rose and gave it up if a gentleman stepped on board. I saw that those ladies took gentlemen to theatres and places of amusement ladies took those gentlemen to church and very kindly saw them safely home ladies told those gentlemen how beautiful they looked how prettily they were dressed, etc. and I saw that it gave these poor, weak-minded men much pleasure. In ice cream saloons and other places of refreshment these gentlemen were as kindly and as gallantly taken by the ladies who, in all cases, paid for the refreshments. I looked into the churches which were principally filled with elegantly dressed gentlemen. Ah, I said to myself in religion these downtrodden men find some consolation but in an instant I was shocked by realising that more than half went from custom or to show their dress and see the fashions. I looked into the prayer meetings and, being of course all the time invisible, was also present at the confessionals and in both the excess of men who attended was a remarkable fact. Men got up sowing societies and might societies and in these many sad, sorrowful men found a few moments, sometimes, of happy, useful existence. Occasionally in those public places I found a man who had risen above his fellows who had become famous in literature. I met with some male poets and several conversant with science in a degree equal to the best of women and I said to myself if these few men have proved themselves equal to the best of women then is it not strong presumptive evidence that all these men would be equal to women were they equally educated? Then I seemed in my dream to grasp the cause of all this difference between the sexes and that these beautiful, noble women might have been in the same deplorable condition had they been trained and educated as these degraded men without a motive in life, limited in education and culture, shut out of every path to honour or emolument and reduced to the condition of paupers on the bounty of the opposite sex. I saw that the disadvantages under which one sex thus laboured constituted a curse that extended to both and that though the drudgery of the kitchen had been removed it was not the millennium by any means as I had supposed in my last dream but only the beginning of the millennium. Man was not the only sufferer but the wrong due to man acted and reacted on woman for men being defrauded in their education and nearly all avenues to pecuniary independence closed to them marriage with those half educated dependent creatures called men was necessarily their highest ambition. There was no other way for them to obtain wealth or a home hence they devoted all their powers to the one grand object of catching a woman with money. Hence woman became also the sufferer being often trapped into marriage by one of these silly worthless men who had learned well the arts and schemes of wife catching. I looked into the thought cells of these ladies brains and found stored therein in almost every instance a decided belief that men constituted the inferior and women the superior sex. There is a bright side however to every picture and even my dream had its bright side. For instance I had dreamt that I looked in on the gentleman with pale face and haggard countenance of whom I spoke in my first dream as a man that did his own work and now instead of toil and anxiety about meals washing ironing etc. he was in the garden with his children planting vegetable seeds and flower seeds and as I with pleasure noted his returning health and strength I listened to his talk with the children whom he was interesting with a story. How I lingered with that gentleman I accompanied him to the house and saw him reading. I looked over his book and was delighted to find that he was studying physiology. By and by he began to talk with the children about the nerves which he called electric wires carrying messages to the brain which delighted the children and I said in deep reverence Thank God that man has been emancipated from the kitchen. He will work out his own salvation. The golden key of the universe has he grasped in his own right hand and it will open to him every door in the arcana of nature. Not forever will man be considered woman's inferior. Then like a flash came to me the mental and moral status of every man in that great country and I realized that with emancipation from the kitchen had come a hungering and thirsting for education for mental element. Then I turned and lo I stood in the street where great posters caught my eye. Man's rights, a lecture on man's rights I read. Fain would I have attended a lecture on man's rights but in my eagerness to do so I awoke. P.S. It is morning and to my great joy I have had another dream as I retired to my bed after writing the above instantly dreamland was present and the thread taken up where it was dropped. I have attended lectures on man's rights and man's rights conventions all of which I must write down at once even if my husband has to go without his breakfast for dreams so often take to themselves wings and fly away. End of Dream Number Two Recording by Louise J. Bell Sebastopol, California Chapter Three of Man's Rights or How Would You Like It? Comprising Dreams This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Anita Sloma Martinez Man's Rights or How Would You Like It? Comprising Dreams by Annie Denton Kridge Dream Number Three Who can divine the philosophy of dreams? Who can account for the fact that persons visit again and again places they have never be held by physical eyes and talk with people they have only known in dreamland? How real become to us the places and the people we have repeatedly visited in our dreams? Who have not experienced something of this reality in their own dreaming? But it does seem especially remarkable to me that after having penned down at midnight one dream I should on returning to my pillow have found myself in the very spot where my late dream ended. Again in that strange city again looking at the large posters headed Man's Rights Mr. Sammy Smiley Mr. Johnny Smith and others will address the meeting on the rights of man. I was pleased on coming to these words discussion is invited. I will go I said and turn to follow the crowd but as by magic was transferred to one of the large cooking establishments which I saw in my first dream and soon recognized it to be the same. There were the huge machines at work cooking dinner while in a comfortable rocking chair set the same gentleman who had in that same dream showed me over the establishment. He was reading a newspaper. Ah! he said as he looked up from his paper. Glad to see you madam. You see I have time to read while the dinner is cooking. All goes on well. We supply one eighth of the city with meals and everybody is satisfied. Nay! more than satisfied. They are delighted with the arrangement for every poor man is relieved of washing ironing and cooking and yet all this is done at less cost than when every house had its little selfish dirty kitchen. And what is this about man's rights? I asked. I see posters all over your city headed man's rights. He smiled as he replied. Well madam emancipating man from the drudgery of the kitchen has given him leisure for thought and in his thinking he had discovered that he labors under many wrongs and is deprived of quite as many rights. The idea of men lecturing, men voting, men holding office, et cetera excites a considerable ridicule but ridicule proves nothing. Are you going to the lecture? I asked. I will go if I have company he replied but it would not look well for me to go alone. Besides I would be afraid to go home solely. I made no answer but I thought musingly. Afraid? Afraid of what? Of what can these men be afraid? I wonder if there are any wild beasts prowling around this strange city at night. Perhaps there are wolves or mad dogs but then he is a man and could carry a revolver and protect himself. But as by a flash the truth came to me and I wondered I had not thought of it before. In this land woman is the natural protector and so of course he was afraid to go without a lady to take care of him. I had scarcely arrived at this conclusion when I found myself on rapport with every husband in that city. I would like to go to the lecture on men's rights. I heard one man say to his wife very timidly. I shall go to no such place, replied his wife loftily. Neither will you, man's rights indeed. Let us go to the lecture, said another husband to his wife with a pleasant smile on his face. No, no, my dear, replied the lady. I like you just as you are and I don't admire womanish men. Nothing is more disgusting than feminine men. We don't want men running to the polls and electioneering. What would become of the babies at such times? Then I looked in on a bevy of young boys ranging in age from sixteen to twenty. How they did laugh at the very mention of man's rights as they put on their pretty coats and hats, looking in the mirror and turning half-round to see how their coattails looked. Man's rights, said one. I have all the rights I want. So have I, said the young boy of nineteen. I don't want any more rights. We'll have rights enough, I presume, when we get married, said a tall boy of seventeen as he touched up the flowers in his pretty hat and perched it carefully on his head. Are you all ready, said a lady, looking into the room? Come, I want you all to learn your rights tonight. I warn't that after tonight you will want to carry the purse, don the long robes, and send us ladies into the nursery to take care of the babies. Hundreds of ladies and gentlemen were on their way to the meeting, and it rejoiced me greatly to find, in the hearts of many of the ladies, a profound respect for the rights of man and a sincere desire that man should enjoy every right equally with themselves. Then I found myself in the lecture room, which was well filled with ladies and gentlemen, many of whom seemed greatly amused as they whispered and smiled to each other. Very soon three little gentlemen and one rather tall, thin, pale-faced gentleman walked to the platform and were received with great demonstrations of applause and suppressed laughter. The audience was evidently not accustomed to hear gentlemen lecture. How ridiculous those men look, I heard one elderly lady say. What does it look like to see a parcel of men pretending to make speeches in their tawdry pants and fly-away coattails covered with finery and furblows? They sadly lack the dignity, said another female, that belongs to ladies in long robes. They are decidedly out of their sphere, I heard another remark. The meeting was opened by the tall gentleman being nominated as president, who at once introduced Mr. Sammy Smiley to the audience, remarking that Mr. Sammy Smiley, with whom they were probably all acquainted by reputation, would address the audience on the all-important subject of man's rights. Sammy Smiley, said a young lady contemptuously, suppose we should call ourselves Lizzie instead of Elizabeth or Maggie instead of Margaret. Their very names lack dignity. Mr. Sammy Smiley stepped to the front of the platform with remarkable self-possession for one of the gentlemen of that dreamland. He wore a suit of black silk, coat, vest, and pants all alike, bordered with broad black lace. He wore no ornaments except ear-rings, a plain breast-pin, and one or two rings on the fingers. Very good taste, I thought. Ladies and gentlemen, he said, our subject this evening is the rights of man. But to properly understand this question, it would be well before considering man's rights to define his wrongs. Here, here, applauded the audience. Education, he continued, commences with childhood, and men's wrongs also commence with childhood, inasmuch as they are restricted from healthful physical exercise. The merry active boy that would romp and play like his sister is told that it would be improper for a boy. How often your little son has to be reminded that a boy must not do so and so. He must be a dear little gentleman and not rough and boisterous like a girl. He is kept in overheated rooms, seldom breathes the pure air of heaven, and when he is taken out, how different his dress from that of the girl. Look at his flimsy pants of white muslin. Look at his flimsy jacket and paper shoes, and contrast them with the warm cloth dress, the substantial overgarments, and thick shoes of the girl. Think how seldom the boy is permitted to inhale the life-giving open atmosphere. The girl may romp and play in the snow, climb fences and trees, and thus strengthen every muscle, while the little pale-faced boy presses his nose against the windowpane and wishes to last vainly that he too had been a girl. The course of training for our boys causes weakness and disease in afterlife and more than a natural degree of muscular inferiority. The pale faces of boys are a sad contrast to the rosy-cheeked girls in the same family. In our boys is laid, not by nature, but by ignorance and custom, the foundation for bodily weakness, consequently dependence and mental imbecility. In our girls, muscular strength and their accompaniments, independence and vivacity, both of body and mind. Were boys subject to the same physical training as girls, and no valid reason can be given why they should not be, the result would prove that no natural inferiority exists. True education I conceive to be the harmonious development of the whole being, both physical and mental. The natural or physical is before the intellectual. First the stock, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear. Through ignorance of these primary truths, many well-intentioned fathers hurry their children to premature graves. Why is it that of all the children born one-fifth die annually? Can not this large mortality be traced to the present ignorance of males? Can it not be traced to their flimsy and imperfect educational training? If men had their rights, were all literary institutions as free to one sex as to the other, our young men would be taught what is of the utmost importance for them to know, but what has kept such a list sleep from them, namely, a knowledge of mental and physical science. Let man be educated as liberally as woman. Let him be made to feel the value of a sound mind, and that the brightest ornament to man, as well as woman, is intellect. Then and not until then will he stand forth in all his beauty. We frequently hear that woman's mind is superior to man's, and therefore he ought not to have equal educational facilities. If, as is stated by the opponents of man's rights, men are naturally and necessarily inferior to women, he must follow that they should have superior opportunities for mental culture. If, on the other hand, men are, by nature, mentally equal to women, no reason can be given why they should not have equal educational facilities. In the midst of the audience, a beautiful, stately woman rose and said that if it was not out of order, she would like to ask a question. Did not the literature written expressly for men, gentlemen's magazines, gentlemen's fashion books, et cetera, prove their inferiority? This question caused a laugh and round after round of applause, but the little gentlemen's speakers smilingly replied that many gentlemen never read the trash prepared for them, just as simple reading is prepared for children. But the works written for women to read, they study and digest, feeling that they were as much for them as for women. The lecturer then continued by stating the appreciative estimates of the truth of science and philosophy evinced by men as well as women, which would be the case to a still greater extent as the opportunities for culture were increased when gentlemen's books and their plimsy trash would disappear. That even were man weaker in judgment than woman. It did not follow that he should never use it. And if women did all the reasoning for man, it would not be surprising if he had lost the power to reason. Pretty good, Mr. Sammy Smiley, said a lady near me. Smiley can reason pretty well. That is pretty good logic, remarked another. Then applause after applause rose, accompanied by stamping and clapping of hands while some young folks in the back of the hall crowed like roosters. It was really very funny. But Mr. Sammy Smiley took no notice of the proceeding. He referred to the exclusion of men from nearly all occupations, from governing states to measuring tape. Also, that men were paid only one third of the wages of women, even for the same work, their occupations being mainly restricted to sewing and teaching, while women could do both these and whatever else they chose. He urged the gentlemen to push their way into the employment and professions of women and be equal sharers in the rights of humanity. Mr. Johnny Smith then made an excellent speech on man's civil and political rights. But the discussion that followed so interested me that I cannot at this moment recall it. When he sat down, a lady arose and said that as discussions were allowed, she desired to make a few remarks. Take the platform, take the platform, said several voices, which she accordingly did. What ease, what dignity, said I mentally, as she stood there in her long flowing robes. Ah, woman, thou art verily transfigured. Then I looked around on that audience and am compelled to say that the comparison between the sexes was anything but flattery to the gentlemen. Woman as I am, I love above all things to behold the beautiful face of a woman. But here was womanly beauty exceeding our highest conceptions, and in profound reverence I said, Our Father in heaven, I thank thee for human beauty. Teach us the laws of beauty that we thy children may people this earth with beautiful beings. Homeliness is akin to ignorance and sin, while beauty of form and beauty of intellect constitute God's best gifts to mortals. Those two gentlemen, said the lady, have given us many good things tonight. There are very few persons who do not know that our sons and husbands ought to be better educated and better paid for their labor. But shall we for this reason make them presidents and senators? How would they look in the Senate chamber in their style of dress so lacking in dignity? Why, we should have them quarreling and pulling hair very soon. Ha, ha, laughed the audience. No, no, gentlemen, you can discuss fashion and money spending far better than national affairs. Besides, what would become of the babies? Do you propose that we, the women, shall take these, your duties, upon us? Depend upon it, you are wrong, gentlemen. The sphere of man is home and I am decidedly opposed to taking man out of his sphere. Let us for a moment see what nature teaches us on this subject. Let us look at man divested of his embroidery and trimming. Look at his angular long form. Look at his hairy face. Is he not in his outward structure and appearance more allied to the lower animals? Look at him. And do you not at once think of the monkey? Here, here. Now turn to woman. Look at her. Does not nature delight in curves as in lines of beauty? See how the planets, as they revolve in their orbits, delight in curves? It is nature's perfect method of form in motion. Now look at woman's beautifully curved face and bust and compare her form in its curved outlines with the angular outlines of man's form and tell me if nature herself has not put the stamp of inferiority on man. Ah, woman's face is enough. No mask of hair does she wear, but clear as the sun and fair as the moon shines clearly every feature, thus conclusively attesting her superiority. Again, how well nature knows the superiority of woman and the inferiority of man in as much as she has chosen woman for maternity. Ah, nature knew where to find the perfect mold for her handiwork. Nature knew which is the superior sex. Very near to the infinite nature, very near to the hand of God, more rich than the hills of Bula where the white feet of angels trod, is the sacred heart of woman, the nature by which alone the divine can become embodied and the spirit reach its home. Let us look at this matter from another standpoint. Nature is harmonious in all her parts. If, as I have proved, woman is physically superior, then she is mentally superior, and as man is physically inferior, so as he must be harmonious in all his parts, he is necessarily and unmistakably inferior in all other respects. I thought in my dream that I was greatly dissatisfied with the lady's speech, and I did pity the little gentlemen on the platform who were forced to hear so much about their inferiority. One more argument said the lady and I am done, and this argument is also drawn from nature. Woman has phrenologically a larger organ of language than man. Now, what does this teach us? It teaches us this, and it ought to teach every man the same truth, that woman is the natural orator, that it is she who should be the lecturer, the speech-maker, the orator, and not man. It teaches us that women, as senators and representatives, as lecturers and orators, are where they belong, where nature intended they should be. It teaches us more than this, that as man has smaller language than woman, his sphere is the domestic, is the quiet, the unobtrusive, is one of silent influences, not public and demonstrative like that of woman. She sat down, and I was really glad. Woman superior to man, I exclaimed to myself, while some people can prove anything. I do hope that little gentlemen will demolish their sophistry. But just as Mr. Sammy Smiley arose to reply, I awoke, and behold, it was all a dream. And I gladly realized that in this waking world of ours, man is not considered the inferior of woman, neither is he deprived of his just rights. And I wish sincerely that I could transfer our men to their dreamland, and that there, at least, in God's universe, there might be one spot where men and women could stand side by side as equals. End of DREAM No. 3 Chapter 4 of Man's Rights or How Would You Like It? Comprising Dreams This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jeff Burke. Man's Rights or How Would You Like It? Comprising Dreams by Annie Denton-Cridge. DREAM No. 4 It is said that much dreaming is the result of much eating late at night. However, this may accord with the experience of others, very confident am I that my dreaming is not thus caused. When quite a child, I used to visit in my dreams a mountain region in which some excavations were going on. But, being there only at night, I never saw anyone at work. An old man leaning on a staff, however, invariably met me and would show me the progress made since a previous visit. Sometimes he would walk with me up a mountain, then down into a valley where he had a rough log cabin. This region of Dreamland has been visited by me hundreds of times in my sleep, all those years from childhood to the present time. I meet the same old gentleman, take walks with him in various parts of the same mountain, converse with him on the progress of the excavation, improvements made, etc. But now to my fourth dream of that strange land where women are considered superior to men. I dreamed, and lo, I stood in the same hall where I had attended the meeting on Man's Rights, but every seat was vacant. Then I heard the murmur of voices and very soon people began to pour into the hall. Into the minds of those people I had the power to look, and in nearly all was a profound belief in the rights of men. Then I turned me about and looked and lo, the capacious hall was filled to overflowing. Several ladies and gentlemen were on the platform, but what did it mean? There were the veritable Mr. Sammy Smiley and Mr. Johnny Smith, but they looked fifteen or sixteen years older than when I saw them before, their hair being liberally sprinkled with gray. To an old lady near me, I remarked how strange it was that their hair should have thus turned gray in a few days. She looked at me wonderingly, and then smilingly replied, You are probably a stranger. Those two gentlemen have been gray for some years. But I rejoined. The last time I saw them, they were young and had not a gray hair. Ah! said the lady pleasantly, but time will make us all gray. When those gentlemen commenced the agitation of man's rights, they were young, but twenty years has made a difference. Twenty years, what did it mean? I had just begun to rub my eyes to see if I was asleep, as I have a habit of doing when dreaming anything unpleasant. When Mr. Johnny Smith came forward to speak, he demanded the franchise for men forthwith. He was clad in black velvet, but without trappings of any kind. While he was speaking, it seemed to me that I had the power of passing, unseen by the audience, from one speaker to the other, and looking into their thoughts. Some of them were so beautifully true and earnest that I was delighted. Others were full of parade, and I saw written in their souls the word, fashionable, in large letters. In vain, I asked myself, what does this mean? I could see no connection between this word and man's rights. But just then, Mr. Johnny Smith finished his speech by saying, we are going to make man's rights fashionable. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, I seemed to see those gentlemen speakers stand up and lo how the majority were tricked off in finery. One I remember was dressed in pants of green silk velvet, with little flounces of the same material from the foot to above the knee, a blue velvet vest with little flounces of green up to the pockets, and at a corresponding distance, each side of the buttonholes and buttons, a blue velvet swallow-tailed coat trimmed with green flounces and fringe down the front, round the sleeves and round the coat tails, which, under the influence of a Grecian bend, was duly projected in the most fashionable style. The whole attitude, I am almost ashamed to say, suggesting that of a monkey standing on two feet that had been accustomed to use four for that purpose. I must have laughed aloud in my sleep at this, so greatly did I feel amused. One glance around the platform showed that every gentleman on the platform attitudinized in a similar manner, except Mr. Sammy Smiley and Mr. Johnny Smith. But I must finish the description of this exquisitely fashionable young gentleman whose name was Master Willie Sandy. Well, Master Willie's little head was graced with a little green velvet cap in which were four blue feathers pointing east, west, north, and south. In Master Willie's hands, which were covered by red gloves, was a tiny portmonnais with the little chains of which his tapering fingers toyed while he spoke. On coming forward to address the audience, the projection of his coattails, in connection with his fashionable stoop, imparted the appearance of his being about to fly. But he talked very prettily on man's rights generally and particularly, even saying something in derogation of that fashionable life, which, as the poor boy had been taught, was the alpha and omega of existence. He concluded by stating that he was engaged in the study of engineering of the higher branches of mathematics and that he found nothing very difficult in either, at which remark some savants in the audience were vastly amused. He retired amidst loud applause, much of which was decidedly ironical. I was pained to hear such remarks as Willie better take off his Grecian bend, he had better take off his fashionable gear before he pretends to talk about the dignity of men, men's rights, et cetera. Then another gentleman came to the front of the platform. He was tall for a man, dressed in gold and black satin, suit trimmed with gold-colored satin folds with a Grecian bend of enormous size, so that his coattails projected yet more than those of Mr. Willie Sandy. He read a speech or essay on man's rights, which was very dry and uninteresting. Then followed a little gentleman dressed in black without trimming of any kind. I saw he had a gold watch hung round his neck by a gold chain. A plain linen collar and cuffs completed his toilet. He remarked that many colleges were now open to men, and that thousands and tens of thousands of young men educated therein had proved themselves equal to women, that governments should not be upheld merely to honor or create big bugs, but more for the benefit of the governed, all of whom had a right to participate in making the laws. This was not a question as to whether men or women should be the governing class, but it was a question of human rights, universal rights, the rights of humanity. That is good, said several, as I moved again among the audience. That was a sensible dress and a sensible speech. What, asked another, brings these fantastically dressed men on the platform? Don't you know, replied another, why Mr. Johnny Smith and some others are resolved to make man's rights fashionable? Then I thought in my dream that Mr. Sammy Smiley commenced to address the meeting, and I was so pleased that I can remember most of what he said. He began, Friends, twenty years have passed away since we inaugurated this movement. Many of us have grown gray in the cause. Allow me to give you an outline of its history, almost simultaneously with its inauguration, a few of us came together, and, being desirous to begin at the beginning of man's wrongs, and save the generation of young children that were growing up around us, we commenced a children's rights society. We held meetings everywhere on this subject. Gentlemen and ladies joined us, giving their time and money to the cause. Small were the beginnings, but thousands joined our ranks who were not, they said, believers in man's rights. Man's rights brought its thousands, but children's rights its tens of thousands. Children's rights are the foundation of both man's and woman's rights, for we are laboring for the rights of humanity as a whole. In the first place, lectures were given to fathers and mothers on physiology. Halls were rented. We moved slowly, but surely. On every Saturday afternoon, lectures on scientific subjects were given to children. Science was simplified and illustrated by appropriate apparatus, and the children instructed in nature's own method, not by pouring in, but by bringing out their own inherent powers. By degrees, halls were built in every large city and devoted to the rights of children. And so successful were the methods of instruction adopted that in many places they almost superseded our common schools. Allow me to specify a few examples. You all know the miserable methods of teaching that not long ago were nearly universal. How science was fenced in by big words and obscure phraseology. You know how our children were confined six or seven hours daily in a dreary, miserable schoolhouse, and how, as a general thing, the children hated the very idea of school. Now, look into one of our large halls devoted to the rights of children. Observe the chemical room. A number of pneumatic troughs meet your eye, at each of which is a child making chemical experiments with the aid and under the supervision of skillful professors. The geological room is furnished with large assortments of specimens. To every 50 children, a tutor is assigned. They ramble through the country to collect specimens and observe the various formations, excursion trains being frequently engaged in taking them to distant localities to see for themselves hot springs, mountains, canyons, stalactites, stalagmites, etc. Ask those children if they like to study. In an instant they exclaim, Why, yes, it is delightful. Physiology has been taught on the same principles. Nothing has been held back. The uses of every organ of the body have been so explained that, in relation there too, the idea of vulgarity has disappeared, and secret vices have departed, for knowledge is power, power to do right. Instead of the leaden eyes and feeble brain, our young men are vigorous, both in mind and body. Along with all this have been given lectures and lessons to adults, and from morning to night there are thousands in every city being educated in all that pertains to the laws of life. Twenty years have passed. Those who were little children when we began have now grown to manhood and womanhood, and the majority of our young boys are now ready advantageously to exercise the franchise whenever they obtain it. Do you talk to me of the fashionable class, the monied class, who have all the time been either passive onlookers or active opponents? Do you talk now of making man's rights fashionable, tricking out its advocates in the senseless gugaws of fashionable society, and investing our reform with its weakness and folly? It cannot be done. We have built our temple with divine cornerstones. While physiology has broken the physical bonds and bands with which fashion has bound us, enabling our boys and girls to be dressed in loose and comfortable clothing, our thoughts have been unbound and purified by corresponding mental training. Children of both sexes can be safely trusted to study together, play together, and when they grow to men and women, mingle together in all business relations to the advantage of each and all. Though despised at first by some of the friends of man's rights and regarded as a side issue, having little or nothing to do with the main question, it having been held that we should confine ourselves to the advocacy of the franchise for men, which obtained it was claimed that all the rest must follow, yet the movement for children's rights has been proved by 20 years' experience to have been the most powerful engine of success. For today, there are millions of young men fully prepared judiciously to exercise the franchise, and millions of young women who have studied side by side with these young men and are thus able, from personal knowledge, to realize the capacity of men to acknowledge their rights and to desire that in business, in politics, and in the household they should continue to walk side by side. Children's rights, a branch, if you so please, of the man's rights movement, are in fact its foundation, while the right of franchise is the crown, the summit, the top stone. Round after round of applause followed the conclusion of his speech, so loud and so continued were the cheers that I awoke, and lo, it was a dream. End of Dream Number Four Dream Number Five of Man's Rights or How Would You Like It? Comprising Dreams. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Man's Rights or How Would You Like It? Comprising Dreams by Annie Denton Gridge Dream Number Five I have just awakened from another visit to the land of dreams. So vivid is my recollection of everything I saw and heard that I am greatly inclined to the belief that I have visited one of the planets and have been asking myself a number of questions, such as these. If time and space are almost nothing to the spirit, if spirit can travel more quickly than light, yea, almost as quickly as thought, may I not have visited one of the planets and as the physical condition of the world so greatly resembled that of our own as to seem to me identical and as the people were in physical and mental structure so like ourselves, except that the women were superior to the men, I am more inclined to that idea than ever. On this, my last visit, I observed one of two very important facts. First, there was frost and snow, and second, the days and nights did not perceptively differ in length from those of this Earth. Hence, though I may subject myself to ridicule, though I may be laughed at as a visionary, I must own that I am inclined to believe that I have visited in my dream, the planet Mars. Another facts tends to substantiate this idea. I distinctly remember standing by my bedside as the dream terminated, and then awaking to the consciousness that my spirit stood there looking at my body asleep. It was but a moment certainly, but this devil consciousness, in connection with the circumstances above mentioned, and others even more decisive, will be hereafter specified, are such as to give a strong probability to the hypothesis that, in this instance, the impossible, or what is currently deemed such, has been achieved. And even spectrum analysis, which embodies the latest developments in astronomical science, is outdone. In this, my last dream, I found myself in a large public library. And who should enter but Mr. Sammy Smiley and Mr. Johnny Smith, accompanied by two beautiful women, then followed several ladies and gentlemen, whom I had once recognized as those I had seen at the meeting on man's rights. There, too, was the lady who had so amused and delighted the audience by her speech on man's inferiority. Then followed several introductions, from which I learned that the said lady's name was Christiana Thisowate. She took from her pocket a newspaper, in which was a report, which she read, of a lecture delivered by an old woman, who was on the editorial staff of a leading metropolitan paper. The lecturer considered that the recent extensive employment of men in stores in a neighboring city had proved detrimental to the morals of the sex, and as much as by opening up to them a prospect of support by their own labor, instead of being entirely dependent for a maintenance of their ability to secure a well-to-do wife, they became careless of their reputations, their independence, thus leading to licentiousness. Mrs. Thisowate remarked that, although she, Mrs. T, was decidedly opposed to men transcending their legitimate sphere, she considered the lecturer's position highly absurd. Poor old woman, she added, she has done good service in her day, always until within a year or two, working for the poor and downtrodden, against the rich and powerful. She was especially useful in introducing cooperative households, but she is now evidently in her dotage. The paper cannot afford to carry her many years longer if it means to continue first class. While they talked together and looked at the books, some of them reclining in easy chairs or on lounges with books in their hands, I opened a very large, hands-on book, which I found to be a Bible. Well, I said, this is just what I want, so I opened it and began to look over the passages of scripture which referred to woman. I was astonished, nay, shocked, to find at the very commencement that the whole history of the fall of man was reversed as to the sexes. Adam was tempted by the serpent and gave the forbidden fruit to his wife, for which reason it was said to the man that she, the woman, shall rule over thee, and in sorrow thou, the man, shall attend to the children, that a virtuous man was crowned to his wife and his price above rubies. He layeth his hands to the spindle and his hands hold the distaff, his wife being known in the gates, when she, set among the elders of the land, etc. Farther on it was stated that husbands should obey their wives, as the head of the man was the woman, even as Christ was the head of the church, that it was not becoming that a man should speak in the church, but if they would know anything let them ask their wives at home. Anyway, I said to myself, this Bible has certainly been translated and probably compiled by women, for no man in this land would have so interpreted the scriptures against his sex. Thus the women have strengthened themselves behind the Bible, and so the poor downtrodden men are held in slavery by means of this book, thus interpreted. While turning over the leaves, Mrs. Christiana, this await, came to my side. To whom I said, are all your Bibles like this, madam? At the same time pointing to some of the preceding passages, she smiled as she replied, certainly they are all alike. Our Bible is translated from the languages in which it was originally written. Wives, good women, were the translators. And I would like Mr. Sammy Smiley and Mr. Johnny Smith to see those passages of scripture, those passages, rejoined the former gentlemen, were never intended to be used to keep men in an inferior position, or to deprive them of their just rights. Those who wrote the books in the Bible, like you, did not believe in man's rights, and they wrote as they believed. God never said those men were inferior to women, for in Christ there was neither bond nor free, male nor female. Galatians Chapter 3, verse 28 But all were one. God, in his works, never utters the word inferior. The sun shines and the flowers grow for all. The earth brings forth enough of its fruits for all. The varied diversities of manifestation beautifully blending into one unity of design. And as the varied contrasts and diversities and blending of color in a painting producing unity of expression no color being inferior or superior to any other. So nature and art alike belie any written word implying inferiority of one sex to another whatever may be the diversities. Who says that God has made one sex inferior to another utters a blasphemy? Here several ladies gathered around Mr. Sammy Smiley and Mrs. Christiana this await. We continue the gentle man have only to ask our own common sense what is right or wrong with respect to man or woman even as was asked by an ancient reformer once abhorred, now adored nominally. Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? Luke chapter 12 verse 57 You, ladies, have made the laws and you have made them to suit yourselves. Thank you, that if men as well as women had the making of the laws in marriage the man would have no control over property previously belonging to him unless secured to him by a special deed. Realize, ladies, if you can, what would be your condition where the legal status of the sex is reversed? If a man owns property or has a store he is wronged by having no voice in the laws or regulations of the town or city in which he resides. If the wife die the husband has the use only during life of one third of their joint property if the husband dies. However, the wife takes absolute possession of the whole. Man is thus wronged by being denied the right of franchise even the children of the widower being in many cases subjected to the control of strange women appointed by a court instead of that of the remaining parent. Mrs. Susan this await, then said to Mr. Johnny Smith allow me, sir, to ask a question. Why do gentlemen when they meet each other occupy the time entirely in frivolous conversation about love, marriage, etc.? Admitting, replied Mr. Smith, the generality and absurdity of the practice it must be considered as an unavoidable result of the conditions inaugurated and upheld by those who would circumscribe man's sphere and limit his faculties to affairs that when exclusively followed tend to dwarf the faculties and make people narrow and gossiping. You ladies would do the same were you in our position close to you ladies as you have closed to us all avenues to honor and emolument deprive you of education and pecuniary independence making you dependent on the bounty of man and would not the most important subject to you be marriage Mr. Johnny Smith is right I replied as I stepped into the very midst of them in the land where I reside men have all the rights which you ladies have in this country men make the laws and oppress women just as in this land of yours women make the laws and oppress men oh oh astonishing exclaim several do tell us something about things there well I continued ladies are the housekeepers ridiculous interjected two or three ladies ladies do all the sewing and knitting how they laughed the men hold the colleges and are educated therein only a few being open to women the majority of ladies are educated at common schools and a few at boarding schools ha ha boarding schools for ladies fine education that must be for women go on go on called out several I never heard of anything so ridiculous ha ha ha men hold the purse pay car fares pay for refreshments and stand when the cars are crowded while the ladies sit men dress in plain clothes while women are walking advertisements of dry goods men wear their hair generally short and clean while women not only wear their own hair but add to it quantities of horsehair, grease and other materials making of the whole a putrid uncomfortable disgusting mass are women decorate themselves too with ribbons as do your men have their fashion books their dresses far-selling and absurd ugliness and unhealthfulness anything worn by your men is it possible how outrageously absurd and repulsive they exclaimed while the ringing laugh filled the library and more ladies entered go on go on said several men and only men make the laws as senators representatives judges etc no women vote or legislate in short the whole matter is reversed how are the women intellectually asked the lady as a rule I replied they are just in the condition that men are here by a singular coincidence an old man who edits a leading metropolitan journal in my country recently delivered a lecture at a place called Bethlehem I think in which he took the same position as regards the employment of women in stores and their morals that your old woman editor is reported to have taken in regard to the employment of men in stores here the objection is probably equally well founded in both cases and the parallelism is so far complete that our editor is getting to be termed an old woman or old granny those terms with us being used to designate weakness in intellectual or executive operations then Mr. Sammy Smiley stepped on a chair and began friends you have heard what the stranger has told us what do you think of it does it not prove my position that those ladies would be no wiser or better than we are were they in our position and does it not prove conclusively that not sex but condition is the root of the matter I do not believe the story told us by the stranger said Mrs. this await man superior to woman men legislate oh it won't bear the light of day for an instant where is that stranger said several voices I had entered a large room opening from the library and was looking at several portraits of distinguished states women for no man's face was among them when I heard the inquiry I returned to the library then the crowd gathered around me in great curiosity so you live in a land said one lady where men have their rights do you yes I said and do you mean to say that you were never permitted to vote I never was permitted but I have protested against the exclusion what is the name of your land as several the United States of North America where is that do you ask where it is I reply why look at your maps here is a map of the world say Christiana this await I went up to the map and looked it over and low it was not like our maps at all there were the frigid zones the equator and the ecliptic the parallels of longitude and latitude the tropics and the poles to which were even added many isothermal lines but the distribution of the land and water was very different in many parts though in others maintaining something of a general resemblance this map is not correct I said then arose a general diverse of laugh I am very sorry said Mrs. Christiana this await it would have given me great satisfaction to see that land of man's rights my friend but it has vanished it is not to be found on the map ah she continued in bitter sarcasm it is too bad that the beautiful land where men are the lords of creation where men are the superior race and women the inferior cannot be found confused and astonished by the map confused and astonished by these puzzling remarks I awoke the map however had made such an impression on my mind that I drew an outline of it at once then I consulted a friend of mine first in astronomy to whom I viewed the diagram he took down strange work containing some excellent engravings of the planets as viewed through telescopes of the highest magnifying powers and one of them corresponded in the distribution of land and water exactly to my diagram yes there was my dream land there my planet the planet Mars end of dream number five number six of man's rights or how would you like it comprising dreams this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org man's rights or how would you like it comprising dreams by Annie Denton and Cridge dream number six I have just awoke what a bad night how it rains why it is pouring down once again I have been to my dream land where the respective conditions of men and women are reversed my watch lies on the table and its pointers tell me it is five minutes past two o'clock my husband is sound asleep sleep on my dear good fellow don't open your eyes until my dream is written down but I must write down the two headings at once before they are forgotten the delirium protest and the sheepman yellow green protest there I am glad they are down before my memory has any chance to prove treacherous dear me my husband awakes why Annie what are you doing at midnight with that gas burning you know I cannot sleep with a light in the room writing what in the world are you doing writing at midnight I have had another dream I replied so please don't say another word turn on the other side then the gas will not shine in your face there he has done so good obliging fellow so now to my dream in which it seemed to me I have the power of hovering in the atmosphere below me was the city which I had so often visited and there as here to four were the gentlemen parading the streets their elaborately trimmed coats pants and vests emulating the colors of the rainbow with astonishment I beheld that beneath every coattail was a grecian bend which caused said caudalities to project at an angle of 45 degrees many of these well-dressed gentlemen were accompanied by dignified ladies whose beauty dress and carriage all denoted that women were there decidedly the superior sex oh sad sight I said to myself oh terrible condition for man then as my heart went out to them in pity and commissuration I found myself walking in the broad beautiful avenue of that city and it seemed to me as it had often seen before that I had the power to look into the minds of these poor men and also into the minds of those grand beautiful women I found that many of those degraded men were planning cajolary and deceit by means of which they expected to extract money from their wives for the purchase of costly suits of clothing as they occasionally lingered to observe the beautifully embroidered vests the elegantly trimmed coats and other extravagant paraphernalia peculiar to man's wardrobe there I saw that in many instances their mental structure was essentially inferior to that of women and that this was a necessary result of inherited degradation I then thought of Darwin's observations and experiments proving that in certain species of ants and other animals peculiarities of sexes are transmitted so that what one sex inherits the other does not and I said to myself here is a terrible exemplification of this principle in the genus Homo for this inferiority has even permeated cerebral tissues but at that moment I remembered the man's rights meeting which I had attended the noble men I had seen there and the great speech of Mr. Sammy Smiley which proved that many men were and many men might be equal to the best of women and I inwardly exclaimed thank God for man's rights then my attention was called to large posters on the walls around which troops of little fantastically dressed gentlemen had gathered Sheepman yellow-green protest met my eye in one place while on the opposite corner in yet larger head letters I saw delirium protest the little darling gentlemen tittered and laughed as they read that is good that is excellent for those men's rights folks exclaimed one of them I will certainly sign that just then a young girl came along with an arm full of papers which she began to distribute to these gentlemen and also to the passersby one found its way into my hands and lo it was the Sheepman yellow-green protest I put on my spectacles and read about as follows the petition of the undersigned gentlemen to the congress of the united republics protesting against the extension of the suffrage to men we the undersigned gentlemen do most respectfully appeal to your honorable body against the extension of the suffrage to men we shrink from notoriety and would feign hide ourselves from woman's eye well knowing that it is man's place to be modest and shame faced but we are deeply and powerfully impressed by the grave facts which threaten our happiness in view of the proposed granting of the franchise to men because the Bible says that woman was made first then man proving conclusively that woman was superior to man this reminded me of the idea enunciated by Burns that nature quote tried her prentice hand on man and then she made the lasses oh end quote but I read on because as men we find enough care and responsibility in taking care of our homes our children our sewing and knitting and other et cetera's of man's life and we don't feel strong enough mentally or physically to assume other and heavier burdens such as an extension of suffrage to man would bring because the possession of the franchise would be detrimental to the working men of our country especially sewing men creating among them a discontent and a satisfaction which would never be assuaged until they should find their way to offices of honor and emolument which we all know belong exclusively to women because the extension of the franchise to man would be terribly detrimental to the marriage relation resulting in two heads to a family and causing married persons who by reason of mutual unfitness should never have formed that relation to each other to seek for its dissolution though bound to each other by the holy ties of matrimony because no general law affecting the condition of all men should be enacted to meet the exceptional discontent of working men who are needed to perform the labor and drudgery of the world nor of bachelors who ought like ourselves to have married honorable and respectable women well able to provide for them comfortable homes and all the luxuries of life for these and many other equally important reasons the beg of your wisdom that no law extending the franchise to the men of our country may be passed signed Mr. Jemima D. Haikulorum Mr. Josephine Rooster Schmidt Mr. Reverend Dr. Martha Manton Mr. Reverend Dr. Jerusa Butler Mr. Reverend Dr. Patience Ranskin Mr. Betsy B. English Mr. Johnny Carrot Mr. Catherine V. Morcold Mr. Sarah McCallick Mr. Senator Mary Sherman Mr. Senator Jane Toxson Mr. Senator Caroline Telrock Mr. Lucretia T. Tropic Mr. Charlie E. Birching Mr. Charlie E. Birching as I finished the names I looked up and there was Christiana Thyseltwaite before me Good morning my friend she said I am glad to see you perusing that document as you have probably perceived the Sheepman Yellow Green protest is signed by the husbands of the most respectable women in our country husbands of senators and clergymen come walk with me to the Senate she added and in an instant I found myself in the reception room of that body with the delirium protest in my hand I took a chair readjusted my spectacles and began to look it over I found it was signed by 141 men old these poor deluded men of a Dorene or Norene County I have forgotten the exact name the following paragraphs caught my eye we men acknowledge no inferiority to women pretty good I said to myself pretty good you 141 men are in a very hopeful condition but I will give as nearly as I can render it the delirium protest we believe that God has wisely made men to be husbands to stay at home to take care of the children to look after and keep in repair the wardrobes of the family and attend to all the little et cetera's the sum of which makes home comfortable and attractive these duties being even implied in the very construction and derivation of the word house bend we believe that God has made woman to legislate to govern and to fill every department of lucrative labor and that each sex is well adapted to the duties of each we believe that God has ordained that every man who has not a wife to provide for him is an outcast and unworthy of our consideration well done pod snap we feel that our domestic cares our homes our children making and receiving calls studying the fashions so arranging our household and clothing that the apparent effect is that of having twice or thrice the income really received fill up the whole measure of our time, abilities and needs we believe that our duties as above defined are as sacred as any upon earth we feel that those duties as no woman could perform constituting prima facto evidence that God has wisely adapted each sex to its special duties the importance of our duties as above defined to protest against being compelled to accept the franchise or any of its resultant duties which could not be performed without sacrificing some duties exclusively appertaining to our sex and which we therefore feel under obligations to perform our mothers sisters, wives and daughters represent us at the ballot box our mothers and sisters love us our wives are our choice happy souls and are with us our daughters are what we made them and we are content we are content that they represent us at the ballot box in scientific pursuits in the lecture room and in the world of business and legislation in short in everything that would divert us from our home and domestic duties as above defined we are content to represent them in our primary schools at our firesides telling stories and amusing the children warming our wives slippers and preparing the dressing robes for their return home and we well know that in this way by the influence we thus gain over our wives we are better represented even at the ballot box than we possibly could be were all men allowed to vote happy 141 I said to myself as I took off my spectacles peace be to your ashes then I looked about the large reception room of the senate there were young men and old men in all their primary and frivolity ribbons and ruffles trills and flounces whispering and tittering swinging and prancing on their little toes every motion giving perspicuity to grecian bands and long coat tails their hands were squeezed into small gloves which gave them a cat's paw appearance as they walked to and fro or stood in groups their little gossamer fans fluttered like the wings of as many butterflies the pages of the senate were young girls whose countenances bloomed with health and intelligence and I observed that they were busily engaged carrying two senators in the senate chamber dainty perfumed cards of these delicate little gentlemen never had I witnessed so sad a sight never for an instant did I see sorrowing for those poor downtrodden men whom I well knew were capable of filling every department here monopolized by women as I sat there watching the visitors at the reception room a senator in her brightly robes of plain black without any ornaments entered from the senate chamber then three or four of those frivolous creatures I have described minced and bowed fluttered and chattered while she, like a superior being graciously listened occasionally making a remark two rows of parchment tied with blue ribbon were handed her by one of those little gents as she unfolded first one and then the other her eyes rapidly scanning their contents I saw in large letters on one sheepman yellow green protest and on the other delirium protest but I believe in man's rights I heard the senator say oh blessed moment I said to myself as a tear rolled down my face there is one noble beautiful soul brave enough to say she believes in the rights of these poor degraded men who in my world are considered the lords of creation then I reflected as I sat there on my chair on the similarity names in sentiments and logic parenthetical question mark between those protests and some that while them appeared in the papers here signed by the wives of divers high mightinesses in Washington, Illyria and elsewhere denouncing woman's rights and I concluded that this remarkable rebellion must be and the manifestation of that general law of correspondences under which certain changes in the sun are said by savans to be concurrent with magnetic and meteoric terrestrial disturbances and might also have a bearing on the theory of a Parisian bachelor who devoted his life to the investigation of these protests and who from numerous facts which he had ascertained in all quarters of the globe concluded that the forms of such protuberances corresponded with the more or less hilly character of the countries in which they respectively originated while intensely occupied in these philosophical comparisons and endeavoring to apply them to reformatory operations in both worlds I became so bewildered that I awoke why it has taken me over an hour to write this dream the rain is still pouring I am sleepy and must retire end of dream number 6