The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-11-09
FooLlsHNEss OF WOMEN
A Distinction Between Foolishness and .
Lack Of Proper Training.

"A Distinction Between FoOlishnesS and .
Lack Of Proper Training.
How far is it actually true that women
do sensible things in foolish manner?
We must remember, to begin with, that
the way in which things are done, even
more than the capacity Of doing things,
depends on habit and training. The
farmers daughter will go into the barn.
bring out old Dobbin. and have him all
harnessed. while the inexperienced city
boarder, man though he be. is speculate
ing how to get the narrow collar over
the bullying eyes, ending, perhaps, in
attempting to prove automatically.
like Coleridge on his pedestrian tour
with Wordsworth, that the thing is ut
terly impracticable. The fisherman's
daughter will pull or sail her fathers
dory out to the reef while the fresh
water fisherman. whom she carries as
passenger. can only balance himself I'M
easily in his seat or cling desperately
to the gunwale. Nay, the sailor who
has been round the world in man-of-
war may gladly resign himself to being
padded by young French girl down
the rapids of the Saguenay. finding
himself rated only as so many pounds
of helpless freight on board. What We
call doing thing sensibly or foolishly
is not. three times out of four, a matter
OF instinct or natural fitness in any
way, it is question of training.
Il would, of course, be foolish to
assert that sex creates no inherent diff
ferences in the way enterprises are I'M
dertaken or tasks done; but it is GER
tain that the domain of these differ
ences is being steadily narrowed as
education becomes equalized and oppor-
tunities thrown open. 1t was once
accepted as a sort of axiom, not merely
that women could not with prOpriety
learn to swim, but that they could not
learn it at any rate, or only very clum-
silly, at least this side of the South Sea
Islands. whereas now they are taught
swimming as naturally and readily as
boys. Fifty years ago well-known
teacher of bookkeeping in Boston,
complained that it was Gin the face of
ridicule and sneers" that he took
women as pupils, whereas now one can
hardly enter a shop without seeing a
young woman shut up in a glass case for
this very occupation. She is doing a
sensible thing, and nobody claims that
she does it foolishly.
There are undoubtedly many such
things, however, which woman often
does in manner tending to exasperate
the merely masculine mind; such as,
for instance, asking many times Of
many different railway officials at what
hour a certain train will start, although
it is distinctly announced upon the
timetable; or standing in front of the
paying-tellers pigeOn-hole mt a bank,
counting out fourteen dollars and
and a half cents, which
she has just drawn, while ten hurried
business men are waiting for her to
stand little on one side, where she
could do her counting much more con-
veniently: or tying up parcel with |
three different kinds of strings, all so
curiOusly interlaced that the bundle
comes open in her hands when she final
ly turns it over to address it. Yet |
neither of these exasperating actions |
is properly to be called foolish, or
even Inconsistencies; they are merely |
because she has not had, as yet, |
equal experience in affairs with the |
men around her. She asks unneces-
sary questions at the railway station |
because she reads upon the printed |
that the railway company
reserves the right to alter hours with
out previous notice: and she asks
good many people because the company
does not, as it should. keep a special |
Inquiry office" conspicuously placard-
ed, where all answers would be final.
She holds closly to her post at the
bank because she has seen notices,
there or elsewhere, that mistakes must |
be rectified before leaving the desk, or
not at all. she ties UP the parcel i'm
perfectly because she was not taught |
in five minutes, as she might have been
when child, to put a slip-nOose
round the poor bundle, and then so
secure it with three consecutive knots
that it would travel round the world in
safety. All these are simply matters of
training or experience or habit; If
women fail in them, it is for want of
these common things. - Harper's
Bdzdr.