Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-09-19

| and both are common and woe to the luck
less man, most probably of jovial, weak
| backed nature, who has fallen into the pow
er of either. He has to expiate by a life OF
self-suppression for the one part, and of per-
petual stumbling into offence for the other.
the terrible mistake he made in early youth,
when girls cold self-possession was called
by finer word, and no account taken Of
the time when Just endurable characters
tic would have become exaggerated.
There is, again, another kind of dignity
OF the aesthetic range; kind of thing that
says, " No common person am |, ;" and that
demands exceptional homage. as well as re-
pels rudeness with sc0rn. This Is a very ia
vorite kind with the women who hold the
theory that women are of a divine order Of
nature, and that men are-not to put it too
strongly-brutes. They exact a different
ordering of circumstances altogether for
themselves, and especially that they should
be protected from the lower conditions Of
HE Ask these women to do unpleasant
work, and see how their dignity takes arms
at once, and how offended and indignant
they are at your suggestion. They are Of
the Brahminical order, according to their
own estimation, and they are to be spared
what others have to endure Have they not
their dignity to support, and Is not their ma
ture aesthetic and their right to immunity
from the common lot undoubted? These
aesthetic women are eminently impractical.
and their dignity is in general tremendous
nuisance They are 50 very fine, 50 very
pure, they hold nature to be 50 gross, hui
manity in its reality 50 dreadful, and all
things, save their own wOmanly dignity. 50
common, that there is no dealing with them
on anything like practical basis. and if
you speak to them of life as it is. not as it Is
made to appear-in a cloud of pink muslin
and with an atmosphere of after of rosos-
they are reyolted and think You are wanting
IN respect. Unreal as well As aesthetic, they
are both useless and unsatisfactory. To be
sure, they cultivate art, and know the right
color OF a ribbon. and how to arrange a
drawing-room pictureSquely but as all the
chambers inhabited by the human family are
not drawing-rOomS. a. there are sick-roOms
and lazarettoS, the womanly dignity which
must not be invaded bv themention of either
Is but poor kind of thing for working life,
and its artistic specalitieS are but meagrc
compensation for its aesthetic absurdities.
The fact is, useful aS womanlv dignity Is
As womanly possession, it can be carried to
excess. and from virtue become vice. So
long as it Is an honest lcfcnce-work against
the rough assaults of superior strength. it Is
both good and fair but when it assumes to
be more than this. it becomes an exaggerl-
ion, and as such ridiculous. There is no
law by which women can be exempt from a
share in the troubles and sorrows Of human
!
protect them from things that override all
but nature. Still it is a valuable possession,
and women had better have too much of it
than too little for, though too much rem
derS them absurd, too little makes them con
temptiblc, and between the two there is no
doubt as to which Is worst