Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-05-26

We would trust ourselves to go SO far as to
say that woman who walks distances
thought considerable even by men, is not
necessarily on the broad road to perdition.
Indeed, if the GLOBES memory be not at
fault, English writer's have for many years
reproached American women as inferior to
their English sisters in these very matters of
hunting, walking, and wearing sensible
clothes as men do. Thus far the Worlds
explanation of the moral decay in English
society misses the mark. And in the imita-
ton, oo,of mems ssspeech and other:habits,'
there is wide latitude for discrimination
before you arrive at cause for the increased
business of the divorce courts. It all de-
ponds upon the kind of men whose ''speech
and other habits are initiated. If women
choose to take their example from men who
bet, race, and make business of whist,
they are certainly putting themselves in the
way of temptation to follow the courses of
suci men in other directions.
It might not be necessary to point out the
inconsequence of the Wortd's argument did
not that journal go still further back to seek
its primary cause of the lamentable I'M
soundness of English society. What that
primary cause is may be cleaned from the
following quotation from the World:
Those whose pleasure it is to talk of the enor-
nous influence of women were full of predlc-
tions that when woman took her place as the
constant companion of man she would soften
avid voT0 ,1x, Init foof
and pursuits. How far this has been the case, any
one with the slightest knowledge of modern So
ciety can answer; it is not the men who have
been refined but the women who have been
coarsened.
The meaning of this is simply that the
people who have advocated the offering of a
wider scope for women's thought and ener-
gies are held blamable for the excuses
of fast women in the supper ten of Eng
land. Such an assumption is wholly unwar-
rantable. No one in England (or America,
for that matter) ever suggested that woman
should be mans Constant companion .
The most extreme theorists concerning
''woman's rights never claimed more than
that women should not be debarred
from engaging in the lawful occupations of
man if they saw fit to do so. The people
who maintain the wisdom of admitting wo-
men to a liberal education in the practical
affairs of life as we'll as in the learning that
can be obtained from books, and to fair
chance to seek happiness after her own in
cl1nation, never believed that the influence of
one sex was sufficiently powerful to change
the nature Of the other. They have held
that the influence of women's companion
ship tends to the refinement of men, and
despite the instance of betting, hunting, and
slangy Englishwomen the experience of the
worlds History proves that men, even in IN
civilized life, have their manners at least
temporarily softened when in social contaet
with women. You might take an Argona at
of 40 and place him in the society Of q
gentlewoman without making Chesterfield
of him, but the well authenticated stories
that are told of the enormous influence .
as the World says, of single woman's pres.
ence upon the rough miners of new colo
field are striking evidences of the enormous
error of the World.
The Worlds writer must seek elsewhere
for the starting point of the corruption il
the higher ranks of England's society. L
is not for the GLOBE to attempt to find tn.
true cause. Some few facts, however, ar.
indisputable. Given woman of the aver
age characteristics of women and her com
partnership has beneficial influence on mar
in proportion to the frequency of thei
social meetings. Given man of ordinar,
responsibility and his companionship doe
not tend to coarsen woman, although it ma,
have tendency to make her think and &C
more directly to the purpose than is usual
But given men who are bred to lead the live
of young men of family position in Eng
land, and given women brought up in tn
narrow field of thought that is open to younl
Englishwomen, and you prepare the condi
tions best adapted to have an undesirable
result whenever the two sexes are situate,
SO as to exert an influence over each other
habits.
WHAT KIND OF A COUNTRY rs THIS