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 any one 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 this same mountain, converse with him on the progress of the excavation, improvements made, &c.
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. sammie smiley and mr. johnnie 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 any thing unpleasant, when mr. johnnie 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. johnnie 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 knees; a blue-velvet vest, with little flounces of green up to the pockets, and at a corresponding distance each side of the button-holes 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,” were 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. sammie smiley and mr. johnnie 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 porte-monnaie, with the little chains of which his tapering fingers toyed while he spoke. on coming forward to address the audience, the projection of his coat-tails, 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 and of the higher branches of mathematics, and that he found nothing very difficult in either; at which remark some savans 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,” &c.
then another gentleman came to the front of the platform. he was tall for a man, dressed in gold and black, – black satin; suit trimmed with gold-colored-satin folds, with a grecian bend of enormous size, so that his coat-tails 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. johnnie smith and some others are resolved to make man’s rights fashionable.”
then i thought in my dream that mr. sammie 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 men’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 since 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 school-house, 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 fifty 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, &c. 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 thereto, 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 moneyed class, who have all the time been either passive on-lookers or active opponents? do you talk now of making man’s rights fashionable; tricking out its advocates in the senseless gewgaws of fashionable society, and investing our reform with its weakness and folly?
“it can not be done. we have built our temple with divine corner-stones. 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 twenty years’ experience, to have been the most powerful engine of success; for to-day 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.
