Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1885-06-27
WOman,s -.

wicked heroine of Ihackeray's earlier
novels to his superb young Ethel New
come, ''strOng of viii and proud as
they who would have domineered
over her. Scott, with his love of
chiValry, always finds some attribute
OF courage about the women he meant
to win our hearts-0r he failed if he
did not Even his graceful Ellen
Douglas is incapable Of actual cow
ardice.
/ tn nix with anguish or, if e'er
DOuglas knew the word, with fear.
So, in the Scotch ballads. it takes
something more than weakling to
spring up behind yOuDg LOchinvar in
the saddle, or TO be ''owre the border
and ava" with Jack o. Hazeldean.
Shakespeare does not paint character
less heroiues
grant j am woman; but Withal
A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife;
grant am woman; but Withal
AWUman well reputsd, CatO's daughter.
Even the child Juliet at IA is able to
resist her whole proud household, and
there IS more peril in her eyes than in
twenty of their swords
The very disprOpOrtiOn between bod
lily and mental strength makes per-
sOnaI character more conspicuous in
women, as it was often noticed in our
army that some boy officer, if a hero
IN heart, had q peculiar power over
rough men who could have felled him
with a blow. We ali enjoy records of
wOmanly herOism the countess of
Nithisdale's rescue of her husband
from prison, of the Baroness de Ia
ROcheiacquelein's in La Vandee, and
of Catherine Douglas, who barred the
door by thrusting her delicate arm
/ through the staples in defense of her
royal mistress. Our own civil war
furnished many similar instance of
courage, yet none surprising, or per
haps equaling, the narrative given by
the daughter OF Gen. Stone of the
manner in which her mother protected
her whole household of girls and
young children in Cairo (Egypt) in
time of Instruction. without money
and almost without friends, by mere
strength of will. No wonder one of
the Arab officers said elf all Amer
can women were like you. I should
not like to 90 to war against the men. "
Once she saId-ln voice which the
daughter elsewhere describes as soft
and lOw-''GIrls, if an Arab lays hands
upon you, L expect You to save your
selves by putting q bullet through your
hearts. Don't leave it for me to do"
There is many general who could
cOmpOsedly give an order that would
cost ten thousand lives, and vet who
would not have the nerve to say TO his
daughters those last seven words and
mean them.
We talk about women not needing
strength of viii because they will be
protected. " Who is protected, who
can be protected against more than
the ills of the passing day? Men heap
mn vEva11fh THAR. a
that very wealth may buv them hus-
bands who win break their hearts,
and who would never have sought
them had they been poor. Or the
money itself disappears. Nine. de-
Genlis, the only Intellectual woman in
France, who Tor Il time TiYaled Nine.
de Stael in fame, said that of all her
attachments the one she most priced
was that in case Of hardship she knew
twenty different ways Of making a.
living. Then, apart from poverty,
think of other risks of life! The most
petted girl may marry some frontier
army officers, and find herself some
day with her husband shot down by
Indian arrows at her side, she being
left alone with her children among
sayages far worse than the Arabs
whom Mrs. Stone dreaded. Who has
gone by night into the sutfocaung
Storage or on board the sitting emf
grant train without a thrill OF admira-
ton for the obscure and nameless WO-
men who pilot their crying children
through that prolonged ordeal Of
misery, while the easier lot of her hus-
band is to sit and smoke with his
mates? Look at the lives Of these WO-
men after they have reached their
western destination, their enormous,
unrelieved labors, their unknown and
often thankless tolls. Again, who
can protect the most favored women
against disease? We daily see that
the physicians can not. It seems to
me that if we recognized more dis
tInctly ia our training that girls as
well as boys need strength of viii,
we should be more sure of developing
that quality. and it would also be
more harmonious when it came.
Neither a tree nor character can
show much grace If 1t has to fight its
way by inches against cold and storm.
Yet it is not necessary TO choose be-
tween the gnarled oak and the cling
ing vine; there is something ntermedi-
are Grant all that may be claimed
of the gracefuIness of dependence, the
charm of submission. The truth re-
mains that actual life makes little
account of these soft adOrnmeuts. OF
all things on earth. after love, that
which a human being most needs IS
strength, and as the aDcients account
ed GOness with her young more dan
gerOUs than a lion, so the very fact
that a woman is the mother OF the
human race makes it essential that
she should have some vigor Of viii.
1t is desirable, doubtless, thar a man
should be strong, but we insight almost
say that woman mast be strong.
At Amcie, Ind, the other night Olney ScOtt
and William Haines went to The benhouse OF
Rf=hor, Scott =, nav a sos-a fv r,sl-f-,- -l,a