New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-07-01
THE C0VIYG UOVIv

According to the latest scientific theories, all
changes in physical structure are the result of very
gradual modification, caused by the rise of
needs and variations ia the environment. Thus, an
animal brought into u marshy habitat might in the
course of many generations develop wcbbed feet,
while soft foot might in like manner change to u
horny hoof through adaptation to stony ground.
Civilized man has not yet accustomed himself to
search for such physical and organic changes as the
result of social conditions hut If the development
hypothesis in sound it must apply IA well to the
present time M 10 antiquity; to the effects Of civil
izaton as we'll ~ to tho influence Of tho purely
natural environment. Now. IL is we'll understood
that one Of the greatest porpcYcs OF modern civil
lied life Is the socnlled seryant-girl question As
culture aud material wel-bcing become moro
widely dinuscd. 10 Ia increasingly difficult to obtain
efficient domestic service. Household labor il
gardcd as degrading by the girl Of the period il is
relegated to the stupdcst and least industrious and
conscientious class and while the daughters of
the rich are less prepared than ever to superintend
their own domestic affairs those whom they
compelled 10 put confidence in are proportionately
less trustworthy and competent.
Philosophers, sooiologsts and able editors have
grappled with this problem manfully for many
years. but their failures have been monumental.
The world meanwhile has been spinning down tho
ringing grooves of change" the Laureate puts it.
hut the change has been for the worse. Lord
Lytton dipped into the future, and in his Coming
Race suggested solution IN the shape Of autom-
atl. moved by electricity or "yr," discharging
the household duties mechanically. But Nature
does not do things that way. She ever seeks to ac-
conpsh her tasks by subtle notifications of the
original matter with which she started, and out of
the simple cell, the protoplasmc sac, she evolves
now "A whale and anon an elephant, now human
being and then az in Democratic politician. And
having pondored the vexed servant-grl question:
the Universal Mother has prepared solution. The
workings of Nature not always quite cloaI ut
first She has "a habit Of preserving the type-sym-
bols throughout her metamorphos1s; of carrying
her highest developments steadily through al the
lower ranges of existence before they a.iowod
TO assume the final form. And it is not surprs-
ing that mankind have thus far failed to recognize
in the present profus on of Electric Girls, of
those cpochal changes which from time to time
revoluuonize the world
The Electric Girl has puzzled the philosophers
and scientists. They have been unable to perceive
the significance Of the new power. because its mani
festations are apparently caprcious. But the far
sighted biologist will instantly recognize the fadap
liability OF tho Electric Girl to the situation. What
il il that mankind nood Clearly "a Coming
Woman who shall combine high culture with sup
erior housowifery. And in the Electric Girl this
grand desidcratum is foreshadowod most plainly.