The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-07-21
The wish That SHE We're i Man.

The saddest expression that comes
from the lips of woman is the wish that
she were a man.
This expression of infinite sadness
comes only from women Man never
wishes that he had been a woman. MOI
is this wish made only by women whose
fate IS harder than the general; it is
heard from those whose circumstances
seem fortunate, and who can crafty their
feminine tastes by rich and elegant ap-
parel. But even when decked with
glories whose texture and colors make
the lily homely, they still wish they
were men, and they esteem mems plair
: bifurcated clothes better than all their
gorgeous raiment.
Man has that which to him is a su-
preme reason for not wishing that he
were a woman. The idea shocks him
with b thought that if he we're a woman
he could not have the happiness of low
ing woman and of being loved. 1t is not
necessary for him to think further to
decide that to be changed to a woman
would take away the chief JOY of his life,
ands indeed all that makes mans life
worth living. But no consideration cor
relative to this keeps woman from wish
ing that she were a man.
LIS there not in this difference m
thing sadly suggestive that love does
not take SO deep q hold in women's ma
ture as in mans? When the thought of
being a woman is suggested to mans
mind, it instantly takes In his relations
to women, which become the great part
of his life, all of which would never had
existed had he been female. He can not
conceive of compensation in relations the
counterpart of these, which might be if
he were n woman, for he can not con-
ceive that they can equal his present
experience.
But it is dreadful to hear women wish
they were men, thus in effect, wishing
that their husbands, lovers, and children
had never existed; wishing that which is
humiliation to their present love, and to
all the objects of it. 1t is dreadful to
the fresh lover, to whom she is all the
world, and who has been told from her
lips that he is all the world to her. to
hear the expression drop out, as if it
were a constant thought, that she wishes
she were a man. To what nothingness
does this sink the lover?
The man who hears woman speak this.
finds that he is not the first object to her.
but that her dearest wish is another man.
And that man would be no compensation
to him. He realizes that he is but the
secondary object, and that she would
gladly cut him off to be a man herself,
with all which that implies. As nothing
raises mans conceit SO much as woman's
love, SC nothing so cuts it down as the
loving. woman's declaration that she
would be a man. ALI this leads him to
think that after all there must be a radi-
cal difference in mans and woman's ma
ture; a difference more radical than
clothes or external formation.
Yet women's belief that to be made f.
male is a cruel fate maynot be we'll
founded. Having never been man she
a not judge whether his life is the
happier or nobler. Being discontented,
and being woman, and seeing the other
half of the race man, she fancies that
mans state is better. But man is dis
contented. She would be no more con-
tented if she were man. And still she
would find her life as man bound up and
tied down and inseparably tangled with
woman, so that she would have to bear
many of woman's burdens. Cincinnati
Gazette.