Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-18
RHYMES ABOUT WOMEN.
What the Poets and Philosophers Ha
Said of the Daughters of Eve.

what the Roets and PHILOSOPHERS Have
Said of the Daughters of Eve.
A condensation of an article in the Lon
don Standard follows
The proverbs of most countries are rich
in all subjects relating to woman.
< The strength of her influence
is indisputable, and has given rise to a
host of old proverbs Whatever a woman
will, she cam" saying which has its
equivalent in other countries. Hence.
too, we are warned how:
The mans fool who thinks by force or skill
To stem the torrent of women's will:
For If she Will, She Will, You may depend ont
And if she wont. She won't, and there is all end
ont.
Within the lines may be compared the
common maxim: "a woman convinced
against her will is of the same opinion
still" The notion that a woman cannot
keep a secret is embodied in many a
proyerb, and is alluded to by Shakespeare,
who makes Hotspur say to his wife, in
"Henry w"
Constant you are
But yet woman; and for secrecy
No LADY closer; for well believe
Thou wilt not utter what thou doJt not know,
And so far viii trust thee, gentle Kate.
Accordingly, there is a familiar proverb:
"A woman conceals what she does not
know" Similarly the Spanish are wont
to say: TO woman and magpie tell
what you would speak in the market
place" K The industry
of women has long been proverbial, as in
the couplet:
The woman that's honest, her chiefest delight
Is TO be doing from morning till night
With which we may compare the COM
mon maxim: a womans work is never
at an end" On the other hand. it was
formerly said of the woman who, after be-
ing a busy, industrious maid, became an
indolent wife: "She hath broken an ell
bow at the church door," the ceremony of
the church porch-where oftentimes part
of the marriage was performed-having
disabled her for domestic duties. Thus
another adage affirmed how:
The vile that expects to have good name
Is always at home, as if she We're lame.
According to our forefathers it did not
look well for woman to be always sight
seeing, as such was an indication that she
was not sufficiently domesticated and was
too fond of pleasure. Hence it was usu-
ally said:
woman oft seem, a gown oft worn,
Are disesteemed and held in scorn.
Even at the present day, according to a
well-known Yorkshire proverb, ga zonk-
town "a gossip is seldom a good house
wife at home" Among some of the MANY
other proverbs relating to women is the
familiar one:
There's no mischief in the world done
But woman is always one.
Tie l., ,I..--...
one which must be received with all eau
ton. According to another adage: "Wo-
men in mischief are wiser than men," and
it is said that Women's jars breed mems
wars"
There is the popular proverb which says
that Joan is as good as my lady in the
dark" for, as an ancient Latin saying re-
minds us, "Blemishes are unseen by night"
Whether we agree with this statement or
not, yet, as Mr.. Kelly remarks, quotin the
lines:
The night
Shows stars and women in a better light
Which may be compared with the French
hyperbole: BY candle light goat looks
lady" Once more, while dark com
plexion betokened pride and hight indi-
Gated laziness, small women, writes Jeffer-
on, were remarkable for their noisiness
and beauties for their lack of discretion.
Hence it is said:
Fair and foolish, black and proud
Long and lazy, little and loud.
The same author further adds that it is
something to the credit of the proverb-
making cynics who spoke thus bitterly of
handsome women that they refrained from
assailing the ugly ones. Striking the
women whom nature had provided with
armor and legions of defenders, they
spared the less fortunate of the fair SEX"
Lastly, there are many proverbs warning
men of the danger of bad women:
wicked woman and an evil,
At three-halfpence worse than the devil.
But Martin Luther had better opinion
of women when he said:
He who loves not women, wine and song,
He is fool his whole life long
A piece of proverbial lore with which most
men will agree, in spite of the many hard
sayings so ungallantly uttered against the
fair sex.