The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-10-20
POWER OF wOMAN'S MIND.


A Question as to whether or Not They Are
Capable Of Serious Thought.
Ihe most striEinR paper in the Univer.
sal Review for July ia entitled "On Ger
tain Deficiency in WomeR," and is written
5v Miss Fletcher, the author of "Kismet,' y
"Vestigia," and one or two other delight
tul stories, who wells her identity under
the nom de plume of George Fleming.
The problem proposed il this paper i-
Have women capacity for serious
thinking!" 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 womsn are practically never alone.
In the present writer's eyes," she says,
that disability consists almost entirely
in the feminine incapaci.y or radicai
disinclination (the word matters little)
for serious concentrated and continued
thought.
And this gain derives in q reat mea-
sure from the crowded life, the gregar-
ious habits, the ineep-iihe failing of edu-
cateG women. Whether il is i'm poaed on
them, or accepted by them the result, a.
far as art and morals is concerned, re
mains the same" There IS depth OF
sign ticence in this. To woman in what
is conventionaliy known es good society,
the love of solitude is utterly unknown.
She il chaperoned 7pd escorted and com
panioned till she has not only no clear
idea of her own identity, but no very
clear identity OF which 20 have an idea.
To achieve this result ia, under circum-
stances that very frequently occur, tax
that becomes a serious burden materially, y,
rs we'll as constant clog mentally.
"a man may betake himself to any
place or resort he pleases, be a "pectator
of its life, and yet -etain, if he likes, the
personal solitude OF the primeyal wilder
ness; but if a woman would go to the
mountains, TO the sea, to the city-any-
where she will-she must have at least a
woman companion with her in the guise
of chaperon, friend o. maid. Other
wise she will gain reputation as best,
for eccentricity, and at worst something
even less desirable. And thus she never
tastes the sweets of solitude. She never
knows the silence of her inspirations.
There Is scarcely one man in thous-
and" said Miss Fletcher, "Nho, at some
time in his life, has not felt and INDUCED
the impulse to step out from the rar k
an 4 file of his familiars aud his contem
poraries and envisage his own nature,
stripped of its forms and surroundings;
not a man worthy of the name but has
searched for and found himself, has hewn
ont his own conviction and wrestled, like
Jacob, through the long nights of his
youth, with the stern browed angel OF
some revelation. Aud all that i'm plies
voluntary solitude; it implies an impas.
stoned interest in the i'm personal, aud a
continuous habit OF the mind. And are
such things, then, finally denied TO the
larger half of our adult population?
AS society goes they 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
out members of her own family this ur-
written law becomes a severe financial
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 lady compan-
ion, and as her com panion is her guest
she must be entertained, both in the sord.
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
ia cabined, cribbed, confined. She can
com nand no conditions for serious
| thought. And without serious thought
behind it-a serious habit of thought
As George Fleming we'll says, "talent OF
which she is full, lowers to the meresl
money trick of the imagination; a thing
pliabie to fashion, at once reigning over
and dependent upou the jdlest yhims q,
the day"