Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-11
Dtffercnt Types of women.


Different Types of Women.
Woman is by far the most complex
bit of human machinery; for although
man is made of sterner stuff, he is
lodged in the heart of creation like a
huge motive power, around which re-
wolves the lesser forces, out of which
the myriad types of the weaker sex
are revolved. When we visit a manu-
factory of any description. we are
awed into respectful silence by the
majestic proportions and bearing OF the
gigantic engine which propels all
the minor operations; yet we can un-
derstand how and why it moves, while
unless we are unusally learned
in such species OF mechanism,
we are completely puzzled
by the working of the small
yet Indispensable wheels distributed
all over the building. So it is with
man; his nature is large, but open;
his opportunities are vast and unques-
tionable, and his responsibilities are
SO simple that they cannot by any
possible calculation be misunderstood.
Every man knows that he ought to be
good citizen, husband, and father;
that he ought always to support the
right and discourage the wrong; and
that, if he wishes to make a success
of himself he ought to begin life with
a trade or profession to which he al
ways intends to hold with unshaken
devotion. On the other hand, the
nature, opportunities and res
possibilities OF woman are
so intricate and Inconsistent
that no given laws can be prescribed
by which, as a class, she can be gov
erned. Besides. SO much is expected
of her and SO little real generosity is
extended toward her that unless she
is as wise as serpent and as harm
less as a dove, she cannot give general
satisfaction. Women are, with very
few exceptions, severe in their judg-
ment and treatment of each other !;
while men who are extremely charit-
able to the sisters, mothers and wives
of other men, are uniformly exacting
with the women of their own families.
Again, if a woman is not domestic,
and yet has domestic duties to per-
form, how can she be as
she should, the angel Of the
household, while if she is do.
mesticated and does faithfully and
perfectly perform all that good house
keeping exacts Of her, how can she
keep pace with the men with whom
she is thrown in contact. Music,
painting, reading and the amusements
all take time and strength which few
busy housewives have to give, yet
which are as necessary to the preser-
vation of her conversational powers
and agreeable companionship as water
is to flowers, or light is to day. Shut
the most brilliant man up all day with
sewing machine, cooking stove
and two or more troublesome children,
and see how much he will be able to
learn of anything outside the four
walls of his cell. Deprive him for
a while of the association Of all
active minds, of books and
newspapers, too, and then put his in
tellectuality and his temper to the
test, and if he does not display both
dullness of debate and an irritability
of very savage order, he is more Of
philosopher than most of his cotem-
poraries. Then, too, how many,
many women have to play father and
mother both to the girls and boys
who have been given to them; and
how many, many more are driven by
extreme poverty and large families to
the most humiliating economy and
ceaseless labor, for which they are re-
warded by frowns and complaints,
and afterwards untimely graves and
successors who reap ali of the benefits
of their denial. In great many
cases of the above sort, the
wife does not die, but grows pre-.
maturely old and uninteresting. The
world extends the most copious SYM
pathy to the husband who has first
worked her mentally to death, and
then, forgetful of all she has done to
make his path easy and his fortune
sure, has set her aside as remorseless-
ly as though she were an old sofa or
a bureau descended from his maternal
grandmother. Certainly it is hard
for a clever man of the world to be
tied down to dull woman who has
outlived her youth, beauty and bright
ness; but perhaps if this self-same
clever man and this dull con-
sort of his had occupied differ
ent positions; perhaps if he had
stayed at home and mended and
darned and scrubbed, and she
had gone out and had been associated
with minds quicker than her own the
result would have been the opposi .e
of what it was. Beyond a doubt
woman cannot, unless she is marvel
ously gifted, fill all positions and per-
form all duties successfully. Indeed,
| never knew but one woman who
did, and she paid the penalty of her
heroic efforts by breaking down with
nervous prostration very often and
very painfully. She was the wife of
young barrister of ordinary ability
and fair income which h. had inherit
ed. She was also the mother of one
lovely boy who had monopolized
the intelligence allotted to him on
both sides Of the house. This
young wife kept house beauti-
fully, took the best Of care of
her child, entertained on pur-
pose to make her husband popular in
an unlimited circle of acquaintance,
and read not only the newspapers and
magazines, but all of the most recent
books. How she contrived do so
much and to make herself 80 compan-
ionable to everybody, was a mystery
to her family and her friends. Yet,
now she, with all her tact and ability,
could not have accomplished what she
did, if poverty like milestone had
weighed down her spirits and broken
her powers; or if her husband had
not admired and applauded her as he
did. Woman are like actors. They
can never perform their best roles,
except in the congenial atmos-
phere of appreciation. But the
| personality Of woman ia as