The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-03-20
FOLLIEs AND FOIBLEs OF WOMEN.
As Related by one of Then, but She Says
the Men are Responsible.

At the annual meeting of the National
Woman Suffrage Association of Massa-
cbusetts in Boston recently, Miss Nancy
Willard Covell speaking on "The Rea.
son Why" said that she had been called
upon to fill the unwelcome part of telling
some of the follies and foibles of women.
After making some sharp and facetious
comments on the selfassumed greatness
of man and his oppression of woman,
Miss Covellspoke of the marked differ.
ence in compensation paid women for
rendering the same service as men, and
contended that the fact that woman was
paid less was due to her lack of the pow
er of the ballot, which was claimed to be
worth fifty cents day to any laboring
man. Speaking of the different voca-
tions of life, she contended that, because
woman had never opposed man in enter
ing her sphere, in becoming cooks, MILL
ners and dressmakers, she had outdone
him in fairness In speaking of the
condition of women of to-day, she said
all that girls are taught is to be pretty
and hide their faults and read love stories
and crochet and make sponge cake, until
some one asks them to marry. So the
poor creature through fear they will miss
their chances and fail to marry, begin
very early to pinch themselves in some
places and pad themselves in others.
Sometimes they wear clothing enough to
founder ship, and again it is pronounced
''lovely" to appear without any to speak
Of With the injunction ringing in their
ears, whatever you do, be pretty" girls
paint their lips and crock their eyebrows,
and take opium to make their eyes soft
and arsenic to make their compilations
clear. 1t was an unfortunate day when
Paul or somebody else said that the Joy
of woman was her hair. What nameless
and untold fortunes has this appendage
of the human body not been subjected
to? It has been filled with 'rats" and
"mice" heroically pulled out by the
roots to make the forehead high, glued
to the forehead with extract of ounce
seec, aud again brought over the eyes in
tangled snares. It has been curled with
over.hot irons, and then allowed to float
free far down the back; it has been
pufed and frizzed and powdered and
curled and creased and banged, done up
high or low, made longer or shorter, or
dyed black or blonde, in strict accordance
with the caprice of the tickle goddess of
fashion. Does the Grecian bend require
them to look like detected monkey,
straightway they become limp in body,
and chatter that they do not do it be.
cause it is fashion-it is perfectly natural
for them. To-day they drag innumerable
yards of dry goods through the streets,
and tomorrow they appear in tie backs
so close that it 10 at the risk of their lives
that they attempt to board railroad
train. Now the head is surmounted by
bonnet the size of postage stamp, and
then by one larger than an umbrella.
Sometimes women are supposed to have
hips, and then everybody, no matter how
slender, grows broader that donkey
with papiers. Then hips are abolished
and no trace of them can be discovered.
If snakes and bugs become fashionable
as ornaments, the snakes and bugs be.
come perfectly lovely" and the very
girl who sbrieked at the sight of spi.
der, simpers, "they are just too lovely
for anything" When iridescent beads
become fashionable, one has only to wait
little, and every woman becomes q
walking rainbow. Now cardinal is the
rage, and then old gold; now mitts, and
then twelve.button gloves now pleat-
ings, and then rufles: now hems and
then facings; now waists are long and
the ribs are laced down until they adhere
to the liver, and then waists get shorter,
and an opportunity is given to breathe.
In short, woman's enslavement by fash
ion has resolved life for her into an
eternal game of "wigwag," and until she
escapes this bondage there is no mental
life for her. All this, the speaker con.
tended, is the outgrowth of the oppres.
sion Of man in not Civ -ng woman an op.
portunity to develop herself mentally
and in not giving her a social position
eniIa1 TO his own