Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-14
SOUTHERN GHIVALRY.
Bessie Bramble DiScOurses on the
South Carolina Idea of the
WHOLE DUTY OF MAN TO WOMAN.
SOuthrOns Give Up Their Seats in the Cars
to Ladies, but
NOTAN EVEN CHANCEIN LlFESBATTLES
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D1srArcH.i j


vast deal in the North about Southern
chivalry." General report made the infer
ence plain that Southern gentlemen were
made up of about equal parts of Sir Philip
Sidney and Chevalier Bayard and Thomas
Jefferson and Lord Chesterfield. 1t was
boastingly claimed before the war that they
were assuredly more valorous and courage
Gus as well as knights of chivalry, but while
the first idea was efectually dispelled by
the showing of the war that Yankee grit
was more than match for cultivated valor,
the second claim has still been held as
peculiar characteristic of the men of the
South.
In discussion few nights ago South
ern lady maintained that the men away
down here in Dixey were more high-toned
than those of northern latitudes; that they
had loftier ideals of what constituted the
whole duty Of man; that they were not lost
in devotion to the almighty dollar, and
were less given to digging and delving for
vulgar wealth; that they were more atten-
tive to the sweet amenities of life, more
deferential and courteous in their treatment
of women, and, in short, more like the
nous in song and story. 1t was pretty
soon made plain, however, that her idea
of chiYalry was simply that men in the
South were more deferential to women;
more prone to pick up their handkerchiefs
with courtly grace; more punctilious about
giving them the inside of the sidewalk and
the corner of the church pew; more given
to compliments and poetic praise; more gal
liant in their demeanor, and more elegant in
their society manners. No gentlemen of
Southern birth and breeding would sit in
the cars and let woman stand, no man
would fail to resent an insult to his wife or
sister even to the extreme of laying down.
his life.
SOUNDS WELL BUT
Now all this sounds very fine as proudly
related by the Southern sister, but its truth
has not been forcibly impressed upon our
mind by personal observation. But even if
it were all true, it would not put stamp of
superiority upon the noble Southrons as
compared with their Northern brethren in
the line of true nobility or real goodness.
Manners, after alas some one says-are
only the shadows of virtues. A better
measure is that proposed by Mrs. Prim-
rose that Handsome is as handsome
does." Comparisons, as Shakespeare puts
it, "are odious,' and by glorifying
the chivalry of the South at the expense Of
the North, amity and good feeling are not
enhanced. But if the truth were made
plain, it would show that what is ordinari-
ly called "chivalry" is as common North as
it is South, if by that is meant good man
ners, kindness, politeness. and the general
desire to be agreeable.
The chivalry of the South, as shown in
the regard for and the treatment of women.
are as deficient in justice and the
practical working of the Golden
Rule Rule of as ,r..Snoag among the ,y!. yeriest
solicitous of the comfort of ladies, and as
sweetly complimentary in his conduct to
them as the Bayard or Chesterfield of any
country, but he is no more to be trusted to
make wise and just laws for their interest
and protection as class than the veriest
mudslll of the North. Nowhere in the
Union do the highest ideas as to sweeter
manners, purer laws and common Justice
prevail less than in the State of South
Carolina, which so highly prides itself
upon its chivalry and devotion to women.
NO JUSTICE FOR WOMAN.
y One of the States that may claim some of
highest honors in Revolutionary days, and
perhaps we may say the direst dishonor of
the Rebellion, it is of all the States of the
union the hardest upon those described BY
Milton as
1.-THE last, the best of all Gods works,
Holy, divine, good, amiable and sweet"
1t maintains and exults in the worst
features of the old common law with regard
to them, and yet boasts of its chivalrous de-
votion to them. South Carolina gentlemen
will pick up the handkerchief of the South
Carolina sisters with the grace of Raleigh,
tickle their ears with the compliments of a
Chesterfield, but they will not make law
by which married woman can hold her
own property or escape legally from the
prosecutions and abuse of brutal coward.
They will give the woman they love the in
side of the curb, and the corner of the pew,
and the seat in the cars, but they will not
grant them justice, or fair play, or an equal
chance in the battle of life. They will
glorify them in poetry, exalt them among
the angels in sentiment, and do lots of nice
little things to show their appreciation of
the dearly beloved sisters, but they will not
accord to them the privileges of independ-
ence, the right to joint ownership of the
family estate, or equal guardianship of
their children.
They will, as they claim, stand second to
none in praise and appreciation of their
virtues, or In paying them nigh deVOlrS as
saints and angels, but they will allow no
legal escape for even the most holy and
pure from marriage with the most cruel,
brutal, depraved and profigate of men,
With black slavery abolished-white
slavery in marriage is ardently upheld by
laws made ostensibly by the wisest. Could
Northern Doors and mudsills do worse or
farther go?
WHITE SLAVES.
1t is qualification to know that Pennsyl-
vania men, while not all up to the standard
of their high calling, are yet more ad-
vanced more just, more fair, than all the
Southern chivalry" we have come across
put together. Pennsylvania does not take
first rank asa State that provides for equal
rights, but it is ahead of most of the States
in the South in giving its citizens fair play
and an open field. Not boasting of chiv-
airy or of extreme devotion, or defer
ence to women, it yet does more to
make their lives tolerable, their rights
secure, their chance of happiness more ten
able than perhaps any State in the South,
let alone South Carolina, whose boast it is
that woman making mistake in marriage
can never have it rectifed, or escape from
its horrors, or cease from its slavery, save by
death.
With this in view, it seems to US that
even if the dear sisters view of chivalry
were correct, that we would rather take our
chances on the outside of the pavement, or