St. Landry democrat., 1883-07-14
Gonen and Mice.

eral hundred years at least. the gentlel
sex has been afraid of bugs and snakes
and worms. So universal has beer
this dread of creeping and buzzine
things that men have come to regard
the question as one of the highest
privilege, and when if is discussed al
all the women have che floor Il
woman has an inalienable, undisputed,
freely-conceded right, it is the right
to squeal or to throw any given mum
Der of the sex into panic over the ap-
tpearance or the threatened appearance
of bug or a worm Or mouse.
There was a time, probably, when
men reasoned with women on this sub
ject and endeavored to convince them
that bug or mouse was not Vora.
tcious or rapacious or revengeful. In
modern times, even, men have made
on effort to demonstrate to women that
"a mouse would not bite any one, and
could not carry off, or crush at a blow,
or devour at one meal a girl, to say
nothing of full ll-grown woman. Men
of well-known courage have spent
hours in attempting to convince women
that caterpillar could have no ami
mostly toward the sex, and that garter
snakes, as a rule, were as much afraid
of a woman as of a man.
1t has been assumed, too, that a
woman who would risk her life nlook-
ing after wounded soldiers, or who
would fight to the last in defense of a
child, or who, with quiet nerves, would
shoot a man, or who without tremor
would face the greatest trials and dan
gers, could not really be afraid of a bug
or mouse. But the facts are against
this assumption. Neither argument nor
ridicule has had any perceptible intiu-
ence in making women bolder in the
presence of snakes or worms or bugs
They will not be reasoned out of nor
laughed out of their unreasoning ha-
tired or horror of ugly creeping things.
It has not been easy for Investigators
like Darwin and others of kindred
schools to account for this hallucina-
'tion on the part Of the strongest minded
and most brilliant women. 1t is realm
of inquiry which takes in the mysticism.
the religions, the birth mysteries and
the education problems of all the races.
The uncomfortable impulse Of any
woman to jump on {. table or chair
when she sees a mouse, or to scream
when she discovers bug or worm.
on her clothing, had its origin possibly
in circumstance or incident that justi-
ies the jumping and screaming of the
sex through all time, but the traditions
OF the world 60 not back to that date.
The existence of the impulse is mat
ter of no greater interest than the
ethical endeayor that has been directed
against it. Every possible plan of
overcoming the impulse through educa-
tion and discipline has failed. Women
have yielded point or two in the way
tof tight lacing, thin shoes and uncom-
Portable garments, but on this one point
of mice and bugs they have been
through all the ages firm as rock.
But, unless the signs of the times are
out of joint. women in this nineteenth
century are to be driven into the last
ditch on this question. They have, as
yet, lost no ground, but they do not
seem to understand the significance Of
the last strategic move of the enemy.
The advance movement is being made
with mouse-like quietness and with
.snail-like slowness. The enemy is driv-
ing forward, with the wriggling irrele-
vancy of a caterpillar out on summer
Jaunt, or with the sinuous noiselessness
OF a water-snake afioat with no business
in mind. Snakey, mousey, as this adj
vance is, it is none the less forward
movement. The outposts have already
been driven in, and unless a timely
warning receives prompt attention, the
time is not far distant when women will
not squeal at the sight of an unpremed-
itatedly obtrusive bug, or jump on q
chair at the sight Of a mouse.
This new danger to woman strikes
her where her armor, so to speak, is
weakest. It comes in whimsy of fash
ion, and under the disguise of start
ling novelty. Women having been for
SO many centuries afraid of bugs and |
things, it has come to pass
that counterfeit presentments of beetles
and lizards have found places as orna-
ments just where women have shivered
and screamed to find the living things.
Reptiles coil about barred arms, spiders
and bugs spread their legs to catch the
ends of lace collars at fair throats, liz
ards lurk In the clusters of beautiful
hair, and all manner of crustacean and
monsters appear on stock
ings worn by the most timid women.
There is a sneaking philosophical pur-
pose in all this. Can not women see
that if familiarity breeds contempt they
are in danger through this schooling Of
fashion of losing their fear of things
which it has been the privilege and
pleasure and mission Of the sex to hate
and shrek at through the ages? Are
they willing to allow fashion in freakish
mood to accomplish what doctors and
5eachers and scientists have not been
able to accomplish through earnest,
and persistent endeayorp
Are women willing to forego the privi-