Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-11-26
81 WISH L WAS A MAN"
Is Only the Desire of = Few women who
do Not Know How 10 VaIue
Their Sheltered Lives aud The Love and
Affection Layished ON Them.
10 the Edition Of the Appeal !:

| 40 the l<ultOis VI the appeal.
ak. y. Y" asks in a late issue Of the AP.
PEAL why you SO often hear from the lips Of
cultured women the expressed longing TO be
a man.
My dear tx. Y. X" you may hope for a
lucid and satisfactory reply to your inquiry
when it is decided "whe struck Billy Patter-
con-" "where all the pins go to-" "why do
summer roses fadeY and all the rest of those
moot questions that have vexed and puzzled
poor humanity for ages.
But did 1t ever occur TO you 10 observe the
conditions under which women are prone to
otter that plainiive aspiration, 81 wish / was
manw
bid a woman ever sit before a glowing
coal fire on 4 bitter winter morning, when
the sleet was dashing against the window
psnes, and the sidewalks were reduced to so
many man-traps, when the smoke from the
city's Thousand chimneys hung in low and
black festoons beneath a sky of sullen gray,
| warming her husbands overcoat for him be-
| fore he started for slippery tramp 10 his
downtown offica, and wish she was a man?
Or did the same woman ever sway gently
TO and fro in big cane rockipg-chair, slip
| pers on feet, palmetto fan in hand, clouds OF
diaphonous white drapery insuring a cool
ness Of appearance, when an August gun
was baking the earth to a crisp, and zee that
same husband enter, bearing about him a
| general suggestion of boiled lobster, hear
| him pointinsly ask show long before dinner, -
| plunge his broiled features in bowl of wa
ter, make one or two frantic luuges with a
| hair brush in the locality of his seethipg
brain, many with the clothes-b brush over
his exhausted shoulders, all with the Their
mometer standing at 990 in the shade and
wish she was a MANI,
eDid woman ever wake her husband up
in the middle of the night, when the might
was cold and dark aud dreary," and telling
him that the baby had the collie and that
he must get up and make fire, and 90 out
in the wing and wake up nurse, and 90 for
the doctor, all in the same breath, supple
me0t her instructions, while the poor m sscu.
line wretch is stumbling about in the inky
darkness, wondering where in thunder a
match can be found, by wishing she was a
man?
Did woman ever complscently complete
the packing OF half dozen trunks to go to |
some fashionable resort for the summer, turn |
her attentions impressively 10 the husband |
who has coined her luxuries and her enjoy |
mentB In the sweat of his brow most lite |
rally, inform him with wifely exactness |
where he will find his shirts add socks and |
handkerchiefs while she is gone bind him to |
solemn oblig7tio not to have any of his |
horrid male friends there, smoking up her |
rooms in her absence; tell him the really /
must try to run away from that hateful old I
office once every month If only for day."
tell him to be sure not 10 sleep away from |
the house for one night, for fear of burglars;
smooth back the moist hair from his tired
forehead; gaze into his care-worn ewes and |
joyously wish she was man?
Did any woman ever help her husband
buckle on his uniform and see him depart TO
all the positive horrors and privations and
disgusting details of army life, with the bare
possibility OF returning a crowned hero, but
the more immediate probability of returning
,IaoS l. g.. /
and wish she was a man?
Did woman ever watch a doctor go into
a smallpox hospital and wish she was a
man? Or do anything else that men are
called upon 10 do that has smack Of hard
ships or danger, and desire to change places
with him.
According to some folks obsery alton il is
only when men seem to be having a specially
jolly time that women wish 10 swap places
with them. We envy them their superior
their liberty to come and
go at their own masculine wills, their enjoy
able freedom from restraint-not their cares
and anxieties and responsibilities. 1t has
been remarked that while women BY tens of
hundreds may be convicted OF making that
ldlest OF all idle wishes, no one ever heard
man wish he was a woman. Which brings
pat and ready the reply feminine, "Of course
not, for they know themselves th at they have {
he best time OF it," After all the tit-for-tat :
arguments nave Deen exhausted, does 1t not
appear 10 the impartial observer (which is
IN impossible SORT of OBJ ,erver in a case where
he argument is SO exclusively with one sex i
As against the othsr) that there is no best
lime OF it, and that it would be hard for |
'estless womankind TO improve on The plan / I
II creation? L, is all very well when the t
wishes are confined TO the merry conversa-
ional badinage that goes for nothing and L
Ipon which no one laws any stress at the !
ime, but when it comes 10 a grave discussion
ls to the advantages ether sex has over the
'ther, we have reached poser, which says
into US, $50 far and no farther"
We have all OF US seen men-nice, dainty, |
Drinking, reserved authorization we have
decidedly thought had better have been born
woman for his own comforts sake, and
ave also occasionally had reason TO wish | 4
hat certain strident, aggressive aud progress
We females had not been doomed TO the
ondage of petticeats and hair-pin-; but
AXE 1t all in all, things are pretty evenly
alsnced, il we would only think SO, daars.
nd have done with that Eestless longing to
e what we are not and have what we can
of.
When women come to the conclusion that {
hey are willing to exchange all their priYi- :,
'ges of being sheltered, and petted, and | I
oaxed, and made much Of generally by the -
IRE enough manly men who delight 10 :
umor woman in all her WITNESSES for bis
rivllege OF toiling and besring the heat and !,
urden of the day, then it viii be time TO =
ccsrd more respectful hearing than we u
ow grant 10 that feminine wall, 81 wish / 81
as a MANI MOTHER GOOSE.