Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-01-09
WOMEN AND MEN.

l VINO S1oAA garry tue huhuAe<
From Harper's Bazar
Tho American community has been lately
rather amused by the complaint Of an English
poetess that while she was travelling in this
country nobody took her bundles for her. In
looking back TO journeys on English railways,
! where there Is always q mob of under-paid
porters In fustian jackets to pounce upon
everything that looks portable-or preferable
the criticism is not strange; yet, our parior cars
were intended partly TO supply the demand for
just that description Of hunky, and one may
sometimes see, even here, two men struggling
for the transportation of an umbrella. But it
it unquestionably true that more responsibility
Is thrown upon the traveller in this country, as
respects bundles, than in England; and Ii Is
curious enough tina. have lately heard in pri,
another English woman, who has been very
cordially received In America. She also said
that she found American gen lemen less polite
| than she had expected, and she instanced this
same test Of the bundle.
The characteristic thing is that both these la
dies were travelling with their husbands. and it
did not seem to occur to them that this had
anything to do with the case. One wonders
her own spouse to the general stockNiike Arte
mus Wards sending his wife's relations to the
war-and let him carry bundles for other ladies'
Is a general pOlyandry to be established for
purposes OF porterage, md il each able-boded
male traveller, foreign or native" to grasp the
it to be arranged? Surely, in view OF the mn.
merical majorities OF women in most OF our
older states, IL would seem as If the woman who
than the possible pOssessor of ten bundles and
no husband at all. We may fancy the amaze
gaunt single female OF resolute aspect should
turn upon her respective spouse and say, II
have more parcels than your wife has; drop
what these excellent English ladies apparently
expect American cavaliers to do for them.
-, 1T is refreshing to think that, on the whole,
ZOOS yC. mutt fur
II appears that 1t draws the line at the bundle.
We have never heard any complaint among our
brothers do not perform any reasonable amount
OF small transportation for them; and if Jonas
does not leave Almira unattended in order that
ne may compete with the proper connubial Gus
todian of some foreign-looking ladys property,
we really think the better OF him. He can
justly say of Almiras prior claims, in the
phrase Of the Big,ov Papers,
''She wants me for home consumption"
Howells, In his Wedding Journey, describes
party OF English travellers in Canada rs being
very indignant that the steamboat should put
back for a single belated passenger, but as be-
coming perfectly content when he turns ont to
be an Engiishman. Yet when it comes to the
bundles, the line may we'll be found. One must
Seriously, while it is the effect OF American
ing, it Is also its effect to make women more
seli-relying This is as 1t should be. Neither of
these excellent ladies denies the willingness of
ing. in order that ladies may have their seats;
but the subject of complaint is that where a
lady has already an escort, other men do not
volunteer TO help him to help her carry her
property. That they should ever be expected to
do IL is q proof Of the high and perhaps exag-
ton has already won. On an English railway,
the man who should offer to carry parcel for a
lady to whom he had not been introduced
bly, would be one. In third-ciass carriage it
might be tolerated, but in q first-class one it
would expose to just suspicion. With us there
n opn inf ,rno fhoy, fr, Emo
sometimes too much ease-among total strang-
ers; but men are certainly more oblging, and
It is not desirable that they should be dolls Or
toys. Ii Is not we'll, On the other hand, that
they should-as one may sometimes see in Ger
many-carry bundles for their natural protec-
tors" but it is desirable that they should be
able to transport such matters for themselves
or at LEAST take fair share Of them; and SO
with all the physical burdens Of life.
There exists foolish impression that in the
increasing tendency to equality between the
sexes, women are going to insist On all rights
and all privileges at the same time. Undoubt-
eddy some merely conventional privileges are
to be modified as social independence increases,
but there are certain real ones that are based on
actual inequality of strength in certain direc-
tions. I'm certain directions only; tor while
we still call woman the weaker sex, physiolo-
as great as mans, but appears in different
way, taking the form Of elasticity, pliability
and the endurance OF strain, and even of pain,
such as would wear man out. Setting aside
the tremendous ordeal Of collaborating, it is
certain that many a mother in caring for her
sick little ones undergoes a prolonged sleepless-
ness and nervous tension that would break
down her burly husband. she can, in fact,
nurse him, if necessary, when he is Ill, with
far more power of physical endurance than he
can apply to her THIS, too; is strength-the
strength to carry, not bundles alone, but the
heavier burdens of life. 1t is this kind Of
strength which our mode of society fosters, or
at least ought to foster. 1t is good sign to see
a young woman on her way from the tennis
field insist ON carrying part OF the Implements
instead of piling them all upon the shoulders OF
the accompanying young gentleman. 1t is a
good thing, when she returns with him from
boating, to see her carrying an oar on her shout
der, after she has done handling it in the boat,
When one looks at the superb peasant women
OF Dupre, with every muscle in tension as they
TOSS the hay upon the cart or hold the young
steer from running, 1t is a comfort to think that
athletic exercises do something to supply, for
women as for men, what they lose in the pro
gress of civilization. Considered as a bit Of
daily gymnastics, nothing quite equals the
bundle, and we may be sorry when advancing
gaiiantry deprives our young women of its
priceless opportunities. T. w. H.