Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-10-12
POWER OF MOMAN'S MIND.
A Question as to Whether or Not They Are
Capable of Serious Thought

Question as to Whether or Not They Are
Capable of Serious Thought.
The most striking paper in the Univer-
sal Review for July is entitled "On a Ger
tain Deficiency in WomeN," and is written
by Mss Fletcher, the author of "Kismet,'
"Vestigia," and one or two other delight
full stories, who wells her identity under
the nom de plume of George Fleming.
The problem proposed ia this paper is
"Have women capacity for serious
thinkings" question of which the
writer plainly espouses the negative side.
And the one great reason for their fail
ure, she alleges, is one so full of force, of
unerring insight and of actual truth that
it is impossible TO deny 1.-THE reason
that womer are practically never alone.
In the present writer's eyes," she says,
that disability consists almost entirely
in the feminine incapacity or radical
Discrimination (the word matters little)
for serious concentrated and continued
thought.
"And this gain derives in reat mea-
sure from the crowded life, the gregar-
ious habits, the ineep-lihe failing of edu-
Gated women. Whether 1t is im posed on
them, or accepted by them the result, as
far as art and morals is concerned, re
mains the same" There Is a depth OF
Significance in this. To a woman in what
Is conventionally known es good society,
the love of solitude is utterly unknown.
She is ohaperoned 7nd escorted and com
panioned till chs has not only no clear
idea of her OWE IDENTITY, but no very
clear identity of which 20 have an idea.
To achieve this result is, under circum-
stances that very frequently occur, tax
that becomes serious burden materially,
rs we'll as a constant clog mentally.
"a man may b9teke himself TO any
place or resort he pleases, be a psctator
of its life, aud yet -etain, if rs likes, the
personal solitude Of the primeval wilder
ness; but if q woman would go to the
mountains, to the sea, to the city-sny-
where she will-she must have at least a
woman com panion with her in the guise
of q chaperon, friend o. maid. 05her
wise she will gain a reputation as best,
for eccentricity, and al worst something
even less desirable. And thus ahe never
tastes the sweets of solitude. She never
knows the silence OF her ins pirations.
There is scarcely Que man in 2 thous-
and" said Miss Fletcher, "nhO, al some
time in his life, has not felt and INDUCED
the impulse to step out from the ra7k X
and file of his familiars aud his contem
porarles and envisags his own nature,
stripped of its forms and surroundings
not man worthy of the name but has
searched for and found himself, has hewn
out his own conviction and wrestled, like
Jacob, through the long nights of his
youth, with the rn-broWed angel of
some revelation. And all that implies
voluntary solitude; it implies an i'm pas
stoned interest in the impersonal, and a
continuous habit of the mind. And are
such things, then, finally denied to the
larger half of our adult popuIation9
"As society goes hey are; and it is hard
ly an extravaganza to say that this denial
of individual freedom is the most mimi
cal influence to women's intellectual
achievements. To a woman living with
oHt members of her own family this uL-
written law becomes a severe fiuancial
tax. In at least half the affairs of her
life she must duplicate her expenses.
Whenever she takes her walks abroad, so
to speak, she must invite a lady com pan
iO1, and as her com panion is her guest
she must be entertained, both in the surd-
id matter of bills paid, but in what Is
often more-in giving her time and en-
ergo to her guest. TEus she is severely
handicapped for intellectual work, She
is cabined, cribbed confined, She can
command no conditions for serious
thought. And "uithout serious thought
behind it-a serious habit of thought"
as George Fleming well says, ''talent of
which she is full, losers to the merest
money trick of the imagination; thing
pliabe to fashion, at once reigning over
and dependent upon the idlest whims of
the day."