Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-09-04
Change of C0nsnarders.
WOMAN'S INFLUENCE.
Feminine Loves and Hates as Forces in History
[London Truth |

London Truth
In the world of unseen influences
women play by far the most i'm
portant part. Their loves and
mates, their fanaticism and jeal-
ousy have been, from time imme.
mortal, forces in human history
which act but are not registered;
and when we think of the thin, Is
women do we seldom add that hid
den wire-pulling by which we poor
mannikius are made to dance, that
secret tanning by which the fire is
kept alive. In the pretty little
boudoir, with its silken hapgings
and Satsuma china, sits the lady
whose favors one man has sighted
and one desires 10 win, or perhaps
has already gained, so that a claim
IS established and source of secret
influence opened when she wishes
to spite a foe or befriend a lover.
To the uninitiated, who only see
tete-a- tetes they betoken a marvel
Gus fund of pleasant conversation;
to the suspicious they mean find
ing more than the whites of each
others eyes pretty to look at; but
il ever the true history of any event
could he written, with Asmodeus
as the editor, we should find that
the wheel of fortune had been final
ly turned in that blue
lined boudoir, and that
between compliments and caresses
the war which made thousands of
homes desolate had been poten.
TALLY decided on-the cause, per-
haps, of no more public gravity
than the pique of an angry woman
or the greed of an ambitious one,
acting on the mentary fancy of
the then master Of the situation.
Nowhere, indeed, have women
more of this secret kind of ihfiu-
ence than in that very domain
whence they seem to be most rigid
y excluded. Shut out from open
participation in politics, they re-
venge themselves by practically
moulding what they are forbidde II
To design; and in all save technical
details aud the hard work of ar.
rang cement their Influence does as
much, and even more, than the di
rect action Of man. This is emf
nently true of foreign politics, aud
the influence there of women who,
like so many rats with their tails,
edo and do and do" things in the
dark which never come out into
the light.
The man who is appointed am
bassadOr to -, with d policy in
his pocket, and the man who is su
perseded, with his cut short, owe
more to these dainty little boudol RS
than either they or the world ever
knows; and what passes
to aud fro in the dispatch
boxes - the secret instructions by
which Parliament is stultified aud
the three estates reduced to one
will never come out during our life
time, and would astonish the world
if it did. This secret influence
works as actively in domestic as in
foreign affairs; gives the tone to be
taken on such and such legislative
propositions, aud wins or wards off
votes; gets this man a place which
dC uOCo hot hCSCA w anu uChiCo VIA
man one which is his due; takes
care of Mac here, and snubs Fitz
there-all the same as it dictates
the spirit of this memorandum and
modifies the terms of that protocol.
How much those dainty little bou-
doirs, with their peacocks and jap
anese screens, their painted stOrks
and their gold embroidered cush-
ions. could tell of the feminine
hands which started the team and
let slip the dogs without so much
az showing the tips of their own
little fingers! The world knows
nothing of its real wire-pullers, in
truth; and no one suspects the
power that lies in those unseen in
fiuences which are ever at work be.
meath the surface, and manifest
themselves only in the results.