,1,‘ p

\

e as . _ wocnntt &G.’L.AFL_IN_’iS wsEKLr..

I April 19, 1373. ’

to do what they consider proper. There is not a tyrant or
bigot on earth but is in favor of just this kind of freedom. It
is the advocacy of woman’s right to be her own judge of what
she shall do, that constitutes the unpardenable sin. '

Womans’ Rights, as represented by its “respectable” ad-
vocates, are the most perfect humbug and nonsense. The
abolition of marriage leaves woman free, independent, self-
owned, equal. To abolish marriage is the great, important
and all-essential work to- do. . Everything of an’ incidental
character will naturally follow. To talk of her right to the
ballot while you do not recognise the right to herself, is to
insult the common sense of mankind.

__ FRANCIS BARRY.
Ravenna, Ohio, March 16, 1873.

CHRISTIAN UNION.

Dec. 25.--Under the head of occasional notes, it is worthy
of note considering the silence of Mr. Beecher underfy/our
ea:pose.1 ' , '

Yours truly, A. W. WILCOX.

“ Mr. Stokes, now on trial for the murder of Jim Fisk, is
reported to have made one remark to a friend, which coin-
cides with Co personal instinct of our own. VVe have always
felt that if we should be charged with a crime of which we
were consciously innocent, we should find the impulse irre-
sistible——a.ll the lawyers to the contrary notwithstanding-
to make a full statement of all we know in regard to the
matter, both to the examining magistratesand the public.

“ In the course of his conversation with his friend, Mr.
Stokes asserted that he"is convinced that his original counsel
made a great mistake in opposing his free access to newspaper
men. ‘ Could I have spoken freely to the people through
the press,’ said he, ‘ I am convinced that my case would
have been better understood. I wanted tospeak freely to
the reporters and tell them everything, but John Graham
would not have it; C and, at last,iwhen I did speak, why, he
wrote me a letter and resigned. But he was all wrong. Pub-
lic opinion through the newspapers must try every murder
sooner or later, and the best thing a man can do who is in a
scrape is to make a clean breast of it to the newspapers.

, That is what I intend to do in the future, lawyers or no

lawyers.’ ”

A CARD.

The great names of Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer, Darwin,
living, and Humboldt, dead, have for years inspired Mrs.
Mary Treat and myself, in our repudiation of Christianity,
and devotion to Science in its stead. Mrs. Tr_eat’s discoveries
and announcements in Botany and Entomology, receivingthe

recognition of Gray and Darwin, have been’ supplemented by-

her great experiment in Biology, by which she demonstrates
her power to control sex in the development of butterflies.
At this time she parts company from me, giving in her adhe-
sion to Christianity, by joining the Methodist Church, while

* I remain true to the great Masters. The only tie that could
ever have brought or held us together, being sundered,wc’

remain no longer conjugally one, but only loving brother
and sister, in that concord acting our‘-full individuality—she
upholding‘ Christianity, I opposing it. She will prosecute
Science, while I propose speedily to bring out a work, which
will humbly submit that the principles laid down by the
Masters themselves, carried out, give us a new Astronomy, a

new Correlation and Conservation of Forces, and reduce to an"

everlasting “finality” the question of Christianity. [Cor-
respondence with respect to bringing out the above work,
invited eitherfrcm publishers or friends of the enterprise]
As I hope soon, also, in obedience to the demand that Science
I work man’s highest benefit, to enunciate a system of curing
disease and checkmating death.
Josnrn TREAT, M. D.
VINELAND, N. J., February 25, 1873. »

THE PAGAN BIBLE, by George Francis Train, in press
andwill shortly be issued. The greatest and most exciting-
lyintercsting book of the ages. Agents wanted all over
the United States. Sent by mail. Twenty-five cents per
copy; or, Fifteen dollars a hundred, O. O D.

Send in your orders to .

' WOODHULL, CLAFLIN 85 Co.
48 Broad st.‘, New York.

 

The Norfolk (Va.) Day—Bcok, after giving a resume of the
Beecher-Tilton case, savs: ,

“The whole money power of Plymouth Church was brought
to bear to clean her up. Friends were intimidated by threats
from" going upon her bond, and those more intimately
connected with her were also arrested on hatched-up
charges and likewise thrown into prison. But in spite of all
these trials, difficulties and persecutions, she is once more at
laige. Friends have bailed her out, and the WEEKLY once
more lies~temptingly fresh and brilliant and gloriously hot,
deadly and irrepressibly in earnest—on our table, and has
come through the mails at that.
who snaps her fingers in the face of Uncle Sam, and with
eight indictments hanging over’her, turns right around and
repeats the offense? A

“Sh_e is lifting the vail with a vengeance, and we, forgone,

I are willing for the - lifting business to go on. It can do no

harm, and may result in the accomplishment of good. The
revolution must inevitably force one of two things; it will
drive the guilty parties to an abandonment of their evil
practices, or it will compel an open, outspoken, defensive
recognition of them. _They must either reform their morals,
or publicly acknowledge and defend them. They must cease
to be hypocrites, or quit libertinism and prostitution;

‘ a change of base is absolutely necessary, and we await with

lively interest the future development of the Plymouth con-

. gregation.

“We are no advocate of the doctrines contended for by
these women, but we do love a fair‘ thing even at the risk of
letting a couple of females puplish a paper containing their
own peculiar notion of things, and scatter it broadcast over;
tits lse_cl. it they are that we-:7 inclined.

“We are not in thehabit of reading WOODHULL 82: CLA}3‘-
I.IN’s VVEEIKLY, having from the first conceived that a paper
emanating from such a source is demoralizing, and the ef-
forts’ of every one should rather be toward opposing such in-'
fluences. From such parties it must be evident that nothing
but bad can emanate, so far as their doctrines and teachings.
But if they are in possession of facts of so important a na-
ture - to the Church, their bad character or their bad teach-
ings should not vitiate those facts. Truth can stand alone,
though surrounded with crime, filth and ungodliness. If
Woodhull canprove what she says to be the truth, she cer-
tainly makes a revelation that will revolutionize the upper
circles of New York. , As for ourselves we do not believe
her; though the matter looks astounding when she makes a
specific charge and names highly respectable parties as wit-
nesses who will testify to the truth of her assertions.

“ It is evidently abad ‘mess ’ look at it as you may, though
the effort to crush the WEEKLY or its proprietors will not suc-
ceed through the process resorted to.
"Woodhull his written opinion that a conviction for obscenity
cannot be obtained, though a suit for libel might stand. 14..
“ Wehave read with much pleasure the able and exhaustive
defense of Mr. Jno. Parker Jordan in this case, and are grat-
ified at the masterly manner in which our former townsman
used his eminent abilities. His speech is resplendent» with
rich thought clothed with gems of classic lore. Mr. Jordan
has a master mind, and in so large a city as New York it_Wi11
not take long for it to find its way to the top of the ladder.
We*wish him every measure of success.” I

HENY WARD BEECLIER.

It may be t‘: at “the criticism of so brilliant a luminary as
Henry VVard""Beec‘:.er should hardly be undertaken by so
little a body as I; but I shall attempt it, nevertheless, if he is
a man and I am only a woman. , » i

Think of him standing in the pulpit, a minister, preaching
one thiiig and practicing another. A minister of what?
Perhaps he don’t believe in the bible, and perhaps he don’t
teach it, but it is to be presumed that he professes to be a
minister of the 7 Gospel of Truth. If he professes to be a
minister of the Gospel of Truth, yet is he clothed in the robes
of falsehood. Standing before high Heaven, before the
throne of that God who is the embodiment of truth, claim-
ing to be His minister, to feed his sheep, to feed his lambs-
-clothed in the robes of falsehood!

Perhaps he believes with Mrs. Woodhull in freedom in
conjugal relations, and thinks he has committed no sin, even
if what she says about him is true; but that his congregation
is too stupid and too mullet-headed to be taught such a doc-
trine, and that he will bring them out of the darkness into
the light, not so much by what he preaches as by his exam-
ple, and will eventually sa.y, as has been said of woman
suffrage, abolition, temperance, etc., that “free-love is the
last great out—growth of Christianity.” And if he does is

allowing one of his co-believers in his name tosuffer perse-
cution and “to be run into the earth,” while he looks blandly
and serenely on and says, “ I know not the man,” or woman,
in a way that mocks at the fidelity of Peter. If he is an
orthodox Christian, then he is false, for he should come for-
ward and prove his character pure according to their stand-
ard. It seems only right that a man should be unearthed
while a woman is being run into the ground.

Could it be possible that he only wants his twenty thousand
a year salary, and thinks that, the world being stupid, he
will pick what he wants out of it anyhow, and let his hair
grow long, and turn his shirt—collar down, and look pious and
do as he pleases. Could it be possible? If this is his posi-
-tion, the most staunch and unrelenting bigot, who, in 3.11
sincerity and consistency, works single—handed, according

A to the dictates of his conscience (and how many are they

who work and toil in bye-places" for little remuneration, of
whom some might sayithey had but little light!) deserves re-
spect where he deserves none. They may say he is talented,
but according to the talents is not interest expected by our
heavenly Father? Is he not afraid there will be written of
him on the scroll in Heaven, “Weighed in the balance and
found wanting ?” .

He is neither fish nor flesh, orthodox nor spiritualist, but
sups a little out of every dish, and, so long as his appetite
is satisfied, smiles mildly and says f‘ all is love,” when 311 is
not love, by any manner of means. How unlike the beauti-
ful Jesus,.when satan took him on to a high place, and, show-
ing him all the kingdoms of the world, said, “ All these
things I will give to you if you will fall down and worship
me,” who replied, “Get thee behind me,-satan.” Might it
not have been that, being talented as well as good, some
temptation of worldly riches and honor was presented to
him if he would cease “ testifying unto the truth,” cease

What sort of woman is this

teaching and sacrificing himself for the world’s betterance;
to raise -it from the low spiritual -plane on which it was, to
the higher one of which he taught; and how quickly he re-
fused it. It will cover the figure at any rate, and if it means
anything in principles it means that; but it seems to be a
dangerous experiment’ in the nineteenth century to follow
his example, “testifying unto the truth.”

Was it not that Mrs. Woodhull, being kind at heart, wish-
ing to do him a service and from her point of view thinking
he needed a little cleansing, poured, not a bucket of slops,
but one of clean water upon his head, and, as it poured down
over his unclean garments and he looked at it “ as through a
glass darkly,” it rolled ofi so dirty looking, that he naturally
enough supposed it to be a bucket of slops.

I will I revert again to the terrible audacity of a little

woman in daring, yes, daring, to pass any remarks on the

my feelings by a little story, as our revered Lincoln used to
say, that I happened to be an eye witness to: An old wo-
man called up to her a little boy she had in charge and said:
2" Samuel, always tell the truth; always be man enough to
tell the truth, Samuel, never tell. a liegra liar is never re-
spected by God nor man. and mind me and you’ll always get
along: in the t's;z%ld.*’ Preseatir she vareut  and resist

Gen. Butler has given -

he not then in a false position, by hisgsanction and inaction,“

magnificent oracle of Plymouth Church, and will illustrate.

three or four of a neighbor’s geese in the road, she caught
one, wrung its head off and carried it into the’ house. The
little boy "seeing what she had done went in and said:
“VVhy that’s Mr. B~————’s goose, what did you do that for?”
The old woman turned upon him in fury. “ How dare you
say that’s Mr. B———’s goose; how dare you say I wrung its
head off; do you call me a thief? if you dare to, .I’ll take
your coat off and flog you till the blood trickles down to
your heels. Is it Mr. B——-—’s goose? Did Iwring its h.ead
off?” The little boy replied mildly, “No ma’am,” and slip-
ped out to cogitate on the moral lessons of the world.

How much» did that man say he would give to run Mrs.
‘Woodhull into the earth? One hundred thousand dollars
was it not? And they are all rich and have front pews in
Plymouth Church, too, have they not? Nevertheless, “ it is
written that offenses must come, but woe unto those by
whom they come.” I

Lay on the lash, ’tis a woman’s back,

Give a hundred thousand to hunt her down.
Let the slight form feel the dungeon and rack,
Wreath her head with a thorny crown.

A Joan of Arc is led to the stake,
And the bright stars sicken and pale at the sight,
And humanity bleeds at every vein.
In battling thus for the right.
Her shifting brother sits high in state,
With wealth and honorand world renown.
Ohl lay on the lash, ’tis’a woman’s back,
Give a hundred thousand to hunt her down,
ANNIE E. Hrcnr.

SOCIAL EXPERIENCES.

Under the above general heading we propose to publish
such experiences as the people may find it meet to contribute.
We trust a large variety may be called out, involving not
only the ills which accompany the present system of enforced
marriage, but also of those flowing from the prostitution and
repression of the demands of the sexual nature, and of its
excessive use and unnatural abuse, and including alike
youth, manhood and old age. We also trust to receive state-
ments of the conditions under which whole families of
healthy children have been grown, with the view ‘to be able
to determine, positively, the truth of our theory, by an array
of facts which cannot be questioned. VVe).G know that mere’
physical health in parents does not determine the health of
offspring; but that the primary condition is, a true and per-
fect union, to which, if perfect physical health be added, so
much the better. Names of persons and their residences
may be suppressed in, these experiences if so desired; but
must be furnished us as a guarantee of good faith.

DOVVAGIAC, April 1, 1873.
VICTORIA WOODHULL AND TENNIE CLAFLIN:

My Beloved St‘stea's—-—I have ever admired your courage in
so bravely presenting a noble though unpopular (because not
understood) cause to the people. But I feel that never have
you expressed all in any one effort as in the essay in the
WEEKLY bearing date March 29, entitled “ Causes of Physi-
cal _3Degencracy.” Realizing, as you do, that hundreds of
women, who are by custom and popular prejudice denied the
God—given right of perfecting their womanhood by the exer-
cise of the sexual functions, are from this cause withering

pressed sexual appetite upon the brain, and that not only
does this terrible condition exist among unmarried women
but among those who are wedded; that other one, more hor-
rible still, a starving of the hungry, passional nature pro-
duced by a constant reception of an unsatisfying magnetism.
You being the only woman who dare speak your honest con-
victions in defiance of the world, and almost the only ones

deserve the heartfelt gratitude of that class of women, and,
indeed, of all women, as you are doing more toward armis-
ing them to struggle for their own freedom than you dream
in your most sanguine moments; but I desire to thank you
‘in the name of humanity, for your noble words, while I re-

. main, as I have always been, your sympathizing sister,

BELL U. S. Fosrnn.

MARION, Iowa, March 22, 1873.

E * >:< '=l<  >'.= >3  

Have I said enough? Perhaps, if you think so, you need
not read the balance. I have passed tl‘ e_romance of life and
am struggling with its realities. I am sixty years of age and
have sacrificed one woman iipon the altar of ignorance. Few
men of my age can say less, andsome have sacrificed more.
The occurrence is so common that it excites no surprise and
little comment. In reality, it is not much of a feat. I mar-
ried a beautiful young girl of 15, just blooming into woman-
hood. In my ignorance, I laid upon her the burthen of ma-
ternity repeatedly, which she was not able to bear, and with
her fourth child both mother and babe sank into the grave.
She had but three sisters. All sank in the same way, and
their husbands all married again. And so the work goes
bravely on. Some of the second wives are dead. Mine, how-
ever is not. She has notions of her own in that direction, to"
which I submit. We both appreciate your statement in the
last WEEKLY, that the race will run out in another hundred
years unless the female condition is bettered, and I, for one,

benefited. HARRISON Bnooxs.

Extract from a private letter, written by a married lady,
residing in Carroll, Carroll County, Iowa, to her friend in
Illinois: ' A I

“‘ That’s very true. We have to learn how to do, ourselves.

Advice is of little account. I have learned by experience
how to do a great many things, and one is to care as little as
possible what William says, and, I was going to say how he
does. In that particular there is very little fault to find, and
no disposition to find any on my part. All men have got to
lealm that any show of authority over one thegy chgose ‘J0 live

and decaying by the action of the consuming ‘element of re- A

who could express concisely and lucidly such opinions, you_

feel that in bettering their condition we (men,)’are equally‘

Wither}  her wife 01‘ anything you please»:-briiige ip retsm ,

‘ea