St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-25

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God Tor myself lie hears that name of thine,
And sees within my eyes the tears or TWO.
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
THE FEMININE WOMAN.
What volumes it speaks of the tend
ency of femininity that we already
need some qualifying term to designate
clearly what order of woman is meant
when we refer to the sex. Gradually
such an essential change has come
about that whereas once the word
woman suggested a yielding, sweet,
submissive. patient, passive bOdy-the
complement of mans eXistenee-it now
calls to mind rather a Self-SufficlenT be-
ing, neither sweet nor sour, Self-assert-
i've rather than submissive, patient
SO far as it is polite, no more
passive, but full OF unrest and
activity. Even the masculine woman
has so far given place to different
creature as to almost persuade us the
coming woman has arrived and gone
into business without having sent up
her card in advance. Representative
women-those who compose clubs, make
motions, present memorials, bully the
government. instigate reforms, stir
up the conservative old world gener-
ally-ne longer feel the necessity of
matchmaking superficial differences
from others of their sex with OutlandiSh
dress and manners. The difference has
become so deep-seated as to need no
surface label. Everybody recognizes
it. and never as to-day were women
with ideas so little and so much like WO-
men and SO little and so much like men-
in a word. so entirely a class by them
selves, Are we hybridizinge is bound
soon to be the question about which the
minds of thinking women will most
actively revolve. The outward SEM
blanceS of their sex were never as care
fully observed by strong-minded women
as at present. The brainy woman who
comes short of being an actual genius
Ieaud cannot, on the score of eecentricity,
Indulge in old clothes and freaks. gives
such close attention to her wardrobe
that the lady of fashion in a crowd
might claim her as Il sister. Anything
that savors of mannishness in dress or
manner she shuns as the devil does
his own while masquerading as a
saint. Yet daily she grows more
manlike in thought and expression
Her ideas and sentiments are fast losing
! sex. as are also her needs. A woman
physician in this city said not long ago.
questioned as to whether she would ever
marry: Marry? good gracious. what
Il I rio
| undertook to have my brother live
| with me last year, and it was mutual
misery. He came home at night tired,
so did |; he rather expected me to make
| his tea. get his slippers and dressing
gown and / rather expected him to per-
| form these tasks for ME; he wanted
| to be amused, so did |, he wanted
! to talk his shop and | wanted to talk
mine: the consequence of our conjunc-
! ton was. as | said, mutual misery He
| would sit one side the crate, glare
| into the IRE and feel neglected; | would
! sit the other side, glaring and neglect
ed, too, until finally he would go down
/ town and would find happiness in q
case of hydrophobia or ASiatic cholera.
Instead of adding man to my bur
dens, | need more to secure the care
and sympathy of a woman myself"
| The !mpanionship of a husband, the
delights of home and a family are daily
| decreasing attractions 10 the hybrid
creation that lis the outcome of intel
| lectual development among women. A
Chicago ''glorified spinster' says on the
subject, LAS to home, | can make one
| for myself. | love children, and whellI
am able to care for them shall adopt
several. There are too many homeless
| little ones now. Asst q husband S love-
it is too great risk to take; the records
| of the divorce courts and the private
| lives of many of my friends are sad
warning to me-" This ''glolified
spinster'' omits from her dream of the
future one feature that the majority Of
others add. i. e.. a feminine woman.
! The Independent woman who laborS
ten or twelve hours of the day among
| men. finds enjoyment in the dainty
/ charms. the soft ways, the very
weakness and frivolity of a
woman unspoiled by brain. that
nothing else can compensate. The in
| finite graces at the command of a
refined woman spared the cOarsening in
huences attendant upon ''hastIing for a
| living" are as great source of delight
| to the masculine woman as to the mas
| culine man, and the masculine woman
! has just as great a horror as man
| of the old-fashioned stroug-minded
] woman-thc literary female, bristling
with opinions like a disturbed porcu-
| pine. who talks always III nothing less
dignifed than blank verse and never
OPENS her mouth without prefacing her
| remarks with some reference to the de-
| cline of the Roman empire or
| the fall of Nineveh, or some quotation
from the classics, rendered in very
! faulty original. or equally murderOuS
original translation. The masculine
| woman would hundred times rather
! talk dolls with child, or the latest
| scandal or newest fashion with pretty,
| unintellectual woman, than discuss
! metaphysics with Chautauqua gradu-
| ate, or the tariff question with man.
The distinctly feminine woman is at a
! big premium even now, and in accord
| ance with the law of supply and de-
! mand, her value is bound to increase as
| feminine progression reduces her num-
bers. Heaven hinder the day of her
| total disappearance, if advancing civil
| zation must suffer commissions and
double on its track to preserve her in
our midst.
| At the last club dinner given by the
| Chicago Congregational club, Mrs.
| Emily Huntington Miller read paper
on THE Financial Question in the
| Home From Woman's Standpoint -
She held that the man who earns and
brings in the money has done no more