The new woman is not to be judged by exceptions, nor is she to be measured by the standard of public sentiment.  Public sentiment has often condemned the right.  It ridiculed Columbus; put Roger Bacon in jail because he discovered the principle of concave and convex glass; condemned Socrates, and jeered Fulton and Morse.  It pronounced the making of table forks a mockery of the Creator who gave us fingers to eat with, and broke up a church in Illinois because a woman prayed in prayer meeting.

Hume said:  “There is nothing in itself, beautiful or deformed.  These attributes arise from the peculiar construction of human sentiment and affection; the attractiveness or repulsiveness of a thing depends very much upon our schooling.”

Prof.  John Stuart Blackie wore his hair so long that it almost reached his waist.  Seated one day in front of a hotel in London, a bootblack halted before him and said:  “Mister, will you have a shine?”

Professor Blackie replied:  “No, but if you will go wash that dirty face of yours I will give you the price of a shine.”

The boy went but soon returned with his rosy cheeks cleansed, saying:  “Sir, how do you like the job?”

“That’s all right; you have earned your sixpence,” said Prof.  Blackie as he held out the coin.

The bootblack turning away said:  “I dinna want your sixpence; keep it, old chap, and have yer hair cut.”

The long hair of Professor Blackie was as offensive to the boy as the dirty face of the boy to Professor Blackie.  One had been schooled to short-haired men, the other to cleanly children.

I have in my presence now scores of persons, who believe the sale of a negro on the auction block in the South to the domination of a white man was wrong.  I did not think so in my youth.  My schooling was that Japheth was a white man, Shem a red man and Ham was black; that it was a divine decree that the descendants of Japheth should dwell in the tents of Shem and send for the children of Ham to be their servants, thereby supporting the white man in his dealings with the black and red races.  As the Bible was used to justify slavery, so it is quoted today in favor of the liquor traffic, and against the new woman movement.  Yet it’s the Bible that has given woman her broader liberty.  It was the Bible that broke the chains that harnessed woman to a plow by the side of an ox.  In the vision of John, a woman is crowned with stars, the burnt-out moon is her footstool and the wings of a great eagle given to bear her above the floods that would engulf her.

The viewpoint of schooling has much to do with our convictions and prejudices.  When the bicycle craze first came upon us, women bicycle clubs were formed throughout the country.  Wheels were made specially for woman, and to facilitate the pleasure and comfort, bloomers were worn by women in all our cities.  The fat and lean, tall and short, old and young wore bloomers.  At that time if a man