The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1879-12-11
LADIES COLUMN.
HARoLINE HAROLD, EDITOR.
WOMEN.
Their Chances in the Future. Sug-
gestions by an American
Historian.

One of the most brilliant criti-
cisms of the woman question which
perhaps has yet appeared must be
accredited to Mr.. Franc Parkman,
the eminent American historian, in
the October number of the North
American Review. 1t is at once
tdispassionate and eloquent, and, re
Iiecting much of the current flip
pancy uttered against women and
their demands for their "rights," it
yet recognizes a philosophic basis
for the objections to endowing them
with the attributes and functions of
men.
In the first place, seeing the vast
changes for the better which have
already taken place in the position
of women, it is impossible not to
! hope that the future has still others
in store. The question is, In what
direction are we looking for them,
and through what influences? In
discussing it, the airs of benign
4 mastery which naturally alloy wo-
men ought to be avoided, as well as
disagreea0le antagOnism on the part
of both. The two sexes are one,
and their interests are one.
Nature is consistent, and her ir
regulates and contradictions are
exceptional. AS a whole, men and
women are harmonious to their
types. The man is made for con.
fict, either in actual war or the no
| less bitter and cruel competitions
! of business and ambition. His
greater stature and firmer muscles
are matched with a firmer spirit,
less tender senslbilities, a ruder
hardihood, and generally a certain
remnant of primitive ferocity. This
fighting animal is well appointed
for his work IN confronting his
enemy in deadly strife, or battling
for a purpose or an idea against
cold, hunger, misery, fatigue, want,
obloquy, or hope deferred. Joined
with these he has mind governed
rather by reason than by emotion.
There is no less harmony in wo
man. Her whole nature CORES
ponds to her rounder outlines and
softer muscles. But the susceptible
ties which unfit the typical woman
for rude conflict are joined to high
and priceless qualities, without which
life would be Il curse. 1t is a fallacy
TO claim that women's mental quail
ties are inherited from ages of OPP
preston. For the male infant
would be as apt to inherit these
qualities as the female; in respect
to qualities not distinctively femi
nine, it is well known that boys |
often "take after" their mothers,
girls ''aftGr" their fathers; but a
boy cannot, in the nature of the |
case, inherit femme, or a girl mas
culine, qualities of body. The SUI
preme law of sex has decreed that
boys shall be boys and girls shall !
be girls. They are the elecLriclties
of the magnet. Each needs the 9th
er and Is drawn to the other.
But women can never dispense
with the protection society throws
around them. A man ca defend |
his life and prOperty-which is all
he has to lose-with nerve and mus
Gle He is free to 90 where he
pleases ana run what risks he
pleases. Without a radical change |
in human nature-of which there is
not the slightest sign-women can
not be equally emancipated. Her
greatest limitations are not of hui
man origin. Men did not make |
them and cannot unmake them.
EveIyOn has his place in the |
world and the wise and fortunate
find il. As it is with men so it is |
with women.
Nor does it follow that women
are intellectually inferior to men.
The rush and whirl OF business |
catches men as in a maelstrom and |
ii it snarpens and invigOrates some
of their powers it dwarfs others. |
Many women have abundant leis |
ure for culture far superior to that
of most men. They can if they |
will create higher standards OF
thought. raise the whole tone of ma
tional life. "But they will not do
it by frothy declamations on plat
forms, or flooding the bookstalls |
with sensation stories, any more
than by those other triviahties
which professional female retormers
denounce.
The coarse and contentious of
women would be drawn into poll
tics. Those of finer senslbilIties |
and more definite scruples would .
stay out. The great complaint
now is that the best men of both
parties shun politics. 1t would but
aggravate the evils suggested by |
this complaint. All that Is repul-
sive to men would be far more so
to women. "If politics are to be
purified by artfulness, etfrontery,
insensibility, gushing self asser
ton and a glib tongue, then we may
look for regeneration; for the typ
zeal female politician will be richly
endowed with these arts. During
some angry party debate the future
House of Representative will pre-
sent an animated appearance when,
in or out of order, the female mem
bpra take the nnor