Morning journal and courier., 1880-12-20
HerOfnism,

| [From the New York Times.l
 I Man is pretty certain to consider all women
 signally and absurdly timid, and the consider ation is grateful, because it affords him an opportunity to look upon himself as very courageous, at least by contrast. If he thought them fearless, he would like them much less than he does, for they would seem to be usurping his prerogative and one of ! the most fertile causes of his fondness for them IS the fact that they are almost never his rivals. What appears to be their cow l ardice is charm in his eyes, since, disallow- 1 ing it, he would have small occasion or pre- text for playing hero, without any need of heroism. A woman thoroughly brave, brave 1 in physical and masculine sense, would, l it must be owned, put so many men to shame
 that they would, to produce diversion, pro- nounce her a human monster.
 l But are women, as sex, timid Are they, l as rule, the pusillanimous creatures DOT | trayed by sentimentalists and exhibited by l themselves? Most of them, when civilized, | are very easily scared at trihes-at insects,
 snakes, COWS, possible burglars, remote per
 ills. The one thing they are afraid of with | reason is man, drunk or sober, sane or in- i sane for, undeniably, he is at once their worst friend and dearest foe. They are very likely, however, to fear him most at the wrong time He is less formidable drunk | than sober insane than sane, when they dis
 like him than when they like him. Their in 1 stincts are often sadly a fault about him. They will fly in terror from man who would fnot and could not harm them, and seek pro- tection with another man incapable of giving | it. They are prone to believe that the rude, | outwardly coarse man is always to be shun- 1 ned but he is frequently far safer than the pol | ished man with winning manners. How many | women run from where danger is not into an ! asylum beset with danger on every hand? While they distressed by fears born of | their fancy, they confront immeasurable risks | yvikh hnT1k Q
 1 Women generally are timorous through 1 their imagination, their sensibility, their sympathy rather than from dread of conse- | quenees Man, on the contrary, is mainly
 afraid if afraid at all, of realities, of results. | He can not see or picture one hundreth part of the danger which women do If he could l he might be infinitely more scared than they, and show his scaredness ignominiously, too. The truth is, mans fear is not womans fear. 1 His is commonly material; hers is mental and so it is with their courage He appre- hends what is near she what is distant; he 1 what is; she what might be; he what has been; she what never will be; and thus they keep one another in a sort of moral counte- nance by entertaining diversity of hazards. Physical bravery he possesses altogether beyond her-it is his specialty-moral cour- age is apt to be hers in far greater proportion than it is his. This is continually exemplifed l in public and private, particularly by her in | circumstances which belong to her destiny and hourly duties There is much more need | of and demand for moral courage than of or l for physical bravery, and the former is un- occasionally of the superior kind. When man displays this-it is usually 8 display-it is chronicled he is lauded and honored for it. When woman exercises that it is rarely known, and, if known, is unthought of and passes unheeded.
 The highest quality of courage is fortitude, of which woman has twenty-fold as much as aaH,o T .zk unremitting, as he never does or can. She bears mental anguish, spiritual woe, without & murmur or sign, and so habitually that he, unconscious of her self restraint, never sus- poets it's existence. Her sufferings are borne
 so silently, stoically, that he is amazed if he
 happen to learn of them, and thinks, with the
 dullness of his sex, that they are exceptional He is aware that, if he should endure them, they would be loudly advertised, and he can
 not be persuaded that they are endured with reticence, even cheerfulness, by those he has been taught to regard as so much weaker than
 himself. The fortitude the patience, the self-denial, the sef-suppression, the long un-
 rewarded sacrifice woman is forever practic-
 ing-and these are the best and noblest part
 of courage-are seldom observed by man,
 and what he fails to observe is, to his mind,
 unreal, if not inconceivable. He fights bat ties occasionally ; her whole life is 8 battle. Nevertheless. he pretends to envy her tran
 quil walks, her perpetual peace. While he is
 always in the hot and dusty arena, agonizing
 for achievement, as he thinks she is in the cool shade enjoying the sweet repose his end less efforts have secured her. Strange delu- sion, happy ignorance What man is always confident that he knows perfectly, yet very seldom knows at all, is woman and her unfail- ing inexhaustible courage.
 Every day life proves how much more spiritual strength woman manifests than man how much better she behaves in affic- ton and adversity; how much more philosophy she can command in trial, stress, or bereave- ment of any kind. When he becomes an in-
 valid even when he is i'll for a time when his business goes wrong through a single season;
 when he meets with financial disaster, does he bear it generally with calmness and equan- imity, with the noble indifference and lofty stoicism supposed particularly to distinguish
 the so-ealled stronger sex? He seldom does really; he is apt to complain and whine, to rail against fortune, to try to put of the re- sponsibility upon others to sulk, swear,
 maunder, play the boy.
 As his partner, under the same circum- stances, how does she deport herself As diff ferently as possible. If she is ill, she usual ly sustains her illness serenely, often with a steadiness that is touching. If he has lost his
 health. she is devotion itself, and quiet firm ness marks her every movement Although her heart is breaking, she is more cheerful than common, and, in the midst of endless toil and anxiety and watching, she scarcely flags her endurance seems superhuman. As respects monetary reyerses, which man likes to say grieves him most for the hardship it brings to her, they appear to trouble her very little, notwithstanding she is so delicate, so finely sensuous, so natural a lover of beauty and of luxury. While they overcome him completely, often drive him to suicide, they are supported by her with sweet and inspir- ing tranquility.
 In nearly every misfortune or calamity, through all the trials of life, and the dreari-
 ness of death, woman's conduct outlustres mans. With many exceptions for both, his
 bravery compares so unfavorably with her
 courage that the word denoting intrepidity
 under most trying conditions might, in the
 moral lexicon, be justly changed from heroism
 to heroinism.