The Brookhaven leader., 1883-07-12
Women and Mice.

From time immemorial, or for sew
| eral hundI ed years at least, the gentler
sex has been afraid Of bugs and snakes
and worms. So universal has been
this dread of creeping and buZZing
| things that men have come TO regard
| the question as one of the highest
| privilege, and when it is discussed at
all the women have the floor. If
woman has an inalienable, undisputed,
| freely-conceded right, it is the right
to squeal or to throw any given num-
| Ter of the sex into panic over the ap-
| pearance or the threatened appearance
| of a bug or a worm or a mouse.
There was time, probably, when
men reasoned with women on this sub
ject and endeavored to convince them
that bug or a mouse was not vOra-
| cious or rapacious or revengeful. In
modern times. even, men have made
on effort to monstrate to women that
a mouse would not bite any one, and
could not carry off, or crush at blow,
or devour at one meal a girl, to say
nothing of full-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 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 in look
ing after wounded soldiers, or who
would fight to the last in defense of
child, or who, with quiet nerves, would
shoot a man, or who without a tremor
would face the greatest trials and dam
gers, could not really be afraid of bug
or mouse. But the facts are against
this assumption. Neither argument nor
ridicule has had any percept BILE infiu-
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 unrcasoning ha-
tired or horror of ugly creep ng things.
1t has not been easy for investigators
| like Darwin and others of kindred
schools to account tor this hallucina-
| ton 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 a table or chair
when she sees mouse, or to scream
when she discovers IA bug or worm
on her clothing, had its origin possibly
| in circumstance or incident that justi-
| fies the jumping and screaming of the
sex through all time, but the traditions
of the world 90 not back to that date.
The existence Of the impulse is a mat
ter of no greater interest than the
ethical endeavor that has been directed
against it. Every possible plan of
| overcoming the impulse through educa-
ton and discipline has failed. Women
have yielded point or two in the way
of 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 qu'etness and with
snail-like slowness. The enemy is driv-
ing forward. with the wriggling irrele-
vancy of caterpillar out on summer
| jaunt, or with the sinuous noiselessness
of water-snake afoat with no business
| in mind. Snakey, mOusev, as this adj
vance is, it is none the less forward
movement. The Outposts have already
been driven in, and unless timely
warning receives prompt attention, tie
| time is not far distant when women will
not squeal at the sight of an unpremed-
itatedly obtrusive bug, or jump on a
chair at the sight of a mouse.
This new danger to woman strikes
her where her armor, so to speak, is
weakest. 1t comes in whimsy OF fash
ion, and under the disguise of a start
ling novelty. Women having been for
so many centuries afraid of bugs and
creeping 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 cru stacean and
OrthOpterous monsters appear on stock
ings willingly worn by the most timid
women.
There is 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
teachers and scientists have not been
able to accomplish through earnest,
conscientious and persistent endeavor?
Are women willing to forego the privi-
lege of screaming at scamperrg mice
and bugs? If not, let them beware of
this latest movement against their pre-
rogative. Chicago Inter Ocean.