Even the most degraded woman can walk our streets unmolested, her sex and her weakness being her sufficient protection.
 Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad (1880). copy citation

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Author Mark Twain
Source A Tramp Abroad
Topic weakness protection
Date 1880
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/119/119-h/119-h.htm

Context

“Arkansaw—it seems a little indelicate to be trumpeting forth our own superiorities, and comparisons are always odious, but still—Arkansaw would certainly have hanged Baker. I do not say she would have tried him first, but she would have hanged him, anyway. Even the most degraded woman can walk our streets unmolested, her sex and her weakness being her sufficient protection. She will encounter less polish than she would in the old world, but she will run across enough humanity to make up for it. The music of a donkey awoke us early in the morning, and we rose up and made ready for a pretty formidable walk—to Italy;” source