The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-07-28
ARE WOMEN NATURAL LIARS F.?
From the Revolution,

From the Revolution,
Ever since the world began, it has beer
the fashion to accuse women Of falsehooC
and deceit. Is there any justice in thu
charge? So long ago as the day OF Chau
Ger that poet decla red
"That half so boldly can there no man
Swear and lie as women cam"
Charles Reade reiterates the same as
sertion when he AYERS "that woman IN
difficulty runs to lie as naturally as q
rat to holes" and John Stuart Mill, the
champion of womankind, makes this
statement, that men must have great
faculty of selfdelusion if they suppose
that leading questions put to the ladies
of their families, or other acquaintance
will elicit their real sentiments, or will
be answered with entire sincerity by one
woman in ten thousand" Not long SINCE
in our own country, and at Woman's
Rights Convention, the Rev. Rowland
Conner raised storm of indignant pro-
test, by declaring that the weapons OF
women were subterfuge, strategy and de-
ceit. Must we admit that there Is some
foundation for this accusation against
women? We fear we must but we must
also insist that women are not untruthful
by virtue of their sex, but in consequence
of their common humanity. Were abso-
Lutte, unmitigated, unvarnished truth to
be the order of but one day, in any COM
munity, who can imagine the hubbub and
confusion that would cnsue. What rup-
lures in business relations, what upheav-
ais in social circles, what sunderings of
friendships, what disturbances in the fam
lily would be the result? Carried to an
excess, the virtue of truth telling, like all
other virtues may become vice; for it
involves certain amount of selfshness
and disregard for the feelings of others
Women have larger appropriateness and
a finer sensitiyeness to what will wound
others, than men, and natural repug-
nance to the utterance Of painful truths.
It costs a woman more than it does man
to say disagreeable thing. 1t is instinc-
tive with her to try to soften fact which
she feels will be painful and this in
stinct, excellent in itself, has been by her
position and education cultivated into
undue proportions. Said woman past
middle age TO us not long since, woman
in whom the instinct of truthtelling was
strong, or she would not have made this
COu1CSSlOH. i udV6 11FCO VOL udPPJ
with my husband, have had exceptional
freedom of expressing my opinion allow
ed me by him, but ] haveshad to withhold
many truth and utter many falsehood
to secure peace and happiness in my
home And all women, If they would tell
the truth, would be forced to admit the
same ignominious fact" Thackerays sad
and true picture of the wife who studies
with keen observation the mood of her
husband and adapts herself to it at once;
who bushes the children if his counter
ance is rufied, and hastily changes the
conversation if she feels that it will not
suit the autocrat Of the household; who
always laughs at the old stale joke, who
cajoles and coaxes the lord and master in
to good humor-is revelation of the Sc
cret history of many a home circle. 1t is
the old story; the story of weakness
against strength; of the helpless against
the powerful the slave against the mas
ter; struggle demoralizing to both part
les, in which she who wins, loses, and he
who is conquered, conquers. Never will
the family become what it should be un-
til husbands and wives shall recognize
each other as equals; will the family rise
to the high ideal which God and nature
has set up before it.