The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-10-31
Men and Women.

Men and Women.
Junius Henri Browne has AN article
in the July GALAXY on the women as
idealists, wherein he attributes to the
sex the faculties of Imagination and
idealization to a greater extent than in
men, and in late number of q promi-
nent weekly periodical there appears a
brilliant article from the pen of a wom-
an, which Is disparaging to the female
sex and the efforts which, the writer as
serts, are being made to raise women TO
the sphere Of men. The two articles
afford happy contrast to the antipodal
views held of woman and her true DO
sition. The one makes her a creature of
fancy and imagination, ever soaring into
the realms of the ideal and casting a
halo Of poetry around the most COM
mon-place objects; something higher
and finer than man; the ether parades
her weakness and points out her defects;
the one makes her too rich and the
other makes her too poor; the one raises
her above her true level and the other
depresses her below it. There is some
truth in both and good deal of error.
The true character and mission of
woman has been greatly misappre-
hended. She is not the weak, vacillat-
ngcreature that il has been the constant
habit Of some writer's TO represent her.
Nor is she entirely the exalted being,
perfect in every moral and spiritual de-
vel0pment, that figures in the pages of
another and opposite class of writers.
She iyas some sense, some discretion,
some faculty Of comprehending practi-
cal affairs. Although she has a finer
organization than man has; but, being
a portion Of the human family, she has
a good deal of human nature about her,
and is competent TO understand that five
dollars is more than three, and to dis
tinguish between ordinary profit and
loss.
There is a good deal of humbug be-
tween these comparisons of the sexes.
The fact is men and women are not the
distinct and opposite beings so often
/ represented, but only different manifes-
tations OF the same being. Whatever
is in man is in q certain degree in wo-
man; whatever is in women is in GER
tain degree in man. 1t is not the mis-
/ sion Of woman to be above or below
man, but by his side. She is not his
I superior nor his inferior, but his equal
aud peer. She is not just like him, to be
sure. There is 4 wide difference between
men and women. But while the one
sex is superior to the other in some par
/ ticular qualities, the other is superior in
some other qualities, aud on the whole
the two are probably pretty equally
| balanced.
The idea that the movement now on
/ foot for the eufrauchisement OF woman
and general extension of her sphere OF
| labor, aims iu the least degree to assim-
| ilate her character To that OF man, or
place her in positions to which she
/ is not designated by nature to I'LL,
/ is total misapprehension OF the
nature of the woman movement.
IL has no such object whatever what
/ il does propose TO do is to make woman
not more man-like, but more woman
! like; to develop the better qualities ol
her nature; TO give her that strength
and culture that will enable her more
| fully 10 become the helpmeet oil man.
/ Partly this, and partly to throw open
/ the field of honest, independent laoor
to her. There are many women who
never marry; there are some VINO marry
unhapDily. These may be counted the
exceptions it is true, but they are humal
beings and have rights as well as others
/ There is no good reason why they snoulc
be excluded from working in fields o
honorable toll for which they are suited
and earning an honest livelihood. FOL
/ instance: type setting, 10 whlch tnous
ands of men earn their livellhOOd, is q
suitable for women rs for men, III tlos'
women whom circumstances compel u
work for their own support ana that o
others depending upon them, woul'
prefer type-setting 10 dress-naAlng
there should be nothing interposed u
hinder them from doing so. ANA 81
with many other departments OF lao0
now filed exclusively by men, OutwhlcL
are equally suited to the other sex.
is not the object 70 make women llK
men or To urge her into unwomanly
fields of labor; but TO give them lal
and equal chance TO earn their living n
such labor as their own tastes anu III
clinations may lead them to choose.
But the question may well De aske
whether the type Of women we hav
been accustomed to behold is the trues
tvpc of women; whether, while we hav
been at special pains to develop Tn
manly in man and have devoted a.
our attention to the task, we have no
neglected TO develop the wOmanly i
steadily urging one branch of the rae
forward and as constantly held the othe
i'm check: What if our system oil edu
cation and life has been to stimulate til
male, and weaken and depress the fe
\ male mind? What, i'm short, II our cul
! ture and training have made better mel
than woman? These views of the won
an question are not usually taken int
account by those who look superficial,
at the movement. What we want is al
equality of the seXes-One as good in il
( particular way as the other. 4 cuIture
man needs cultured woman for a wife
1 he cannot be happy with a woman VIII,
IS, not utterly different from or unlik
/ him, but utterly inferior TO him. Blu
suppose our method has been TO max
cultured men and uucultured women
/ able men and weak women; well devel
/ oped men and thoroughly undevelope
7 women? Then our method has certainl
been wrong and needs to be corrected
This, no more and no less, is what tn
more Intelligent leaders of the Woma
movement Intend to accomplish. An
no undertaking could he fraught wit
Y greater Importance. There are thos
who look at the specific rather than til
| general tendency; but it is the genera
/ scope and object which ought to be cor
I sidered and this will be found TO be tru
/ and rlght.-Teyrc Hdme Express.
Many persons destroy their window
sash endeavoring TO remove old putty