The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-04-18
Are women happy =?


Another walking Interrogation
point. Why will the crooked little
thing that asks questions ravage the
land and lay waste the mental store
houses of its inhabitants by sweeping
away their wits by such questions ?
Who does not believe in evolution,
understanding how the liberties of
women were hedged about, and es-
pecially the women of the poor classes,
whether under Caesar, Charlemagne
or any other emperor, pagan or Chris
tian, before the French revolution ?
Who is not ready to write down at
least one considerable success ON the
credit side of civilization, resembling
how the requisites of happiness, Sc
curity and property rights, personal
independence growing out OF mui-
tiplication Of money getting employ.
ments, education, broader outlook
on life have been showered on women
in the last forty years?
But this is looking at it from the
outside How to get at the inside,
the whole truth, Of the feminine sit
uation? Women en- masse do not
hang their banners ON the outer walls,
nor employ heralds to trumpet forth
their happiness or their misery. Did
one ever tell the truth about one 5
self? Would it do? Women and
men prevaricate, exaggerate and sat
irize themselves, and generalize about
the rest Of humanity. To generalize
is to mire ones self in a swamp, or to
run ones head against stone wall.
The pessimist queries whether civil
lization has ever spelled bliss for any
body. He has got past doubling the
positive denial that for women it has
formed single character of the word.
The poor of the cities would back him
up in his photography.
The fair LenteD penitent, "timid
and stepping fast, with modest eyes
downcast," she whom Mrs. Ballington
Booth is carrying away on all manner
of religious Summing expeditions,
must notice in her novel tenement
house wanderings a fairly constant
difference between the faces of the
women and men. The hand-to- hand
struggle with the wolf has left the
most scars on the feminine counten-
ance. There is no eXuberance of joy
business about the man, but when
one days work is over he does not
lift the next until the next morning.
The women look depressed. Lines
begin to show on their foreheads and
| crows feet to come about the eyes be-
for a they have reached %. Their
role in life is more intricate than that
of the sex masculine. They marry
before they are mature, their children
como to fast, they work at household
labor or in the factory harder in pro
portion to their strength than Their
husbands and brothers, they are more
closely confined to the foul air ano
cramped quarters Of their lodgings
they struggle monotonously with the
minutlae Of the task of making dime:
answer for dollars, at many periods
of their lives they suffer more for wan
of nourishing food. There is brigh
spot in youth when the lover comes
something's bright sunset when the
children grow up and do well, bu
often enough long gray stretch be
tween, sometimes windy like Marcf
day. The faces one sees in the ten
ement workshops speak eloquently o
sadness and strain. These women are
less happy than men.
But the fair Lenten peni:ent
Sprinkling ones clothes with white
violet as one escapes from the eas
side, it is not safe to set down the we'll
to-do American woman, the enviet
women Of all other countries, as thu
happiest creature that ever lived OF
is now living Has she not reason
to be distinctly happier than the man
Has not civilization been her ser
want as it has been that of no othel
sort of person?
Look at her. Has not life usec
her we'll? Secure in her drawing
room, she looks out smiling on tht
world. She is growing taller in pro
portion, better developed, finer spec
men of physical humanity thai
the overworked, nervous cuisines
man, her husband. She regulates he
own hours. She eats the lest tn,
market affords. She pleases her ey.
with dainty gowns. She has IA swUIit
o. delight hunting brie "a brac fo
her parlurs. In the winter the varlet
life of The city pleasantly quicken
her pulse and her intel.ect,s and. il
summer she is off 10 green fields, tresl
air and healthful exercise. She j
not weighed by heavy burdens OF le
lsponsibility, and yet with her house
hold, her children. her society, he
church, her charities, her reforms
er interest in this fad and that ism
her peasant share-the share of re
captivity and enjoy yment-of iutellec
tual progress she never knows tn
sense of being a drone in the hive
She and her compeers constitute th
leisure class of this country, not al
idle class, but class with time t
choose its own enjoyable duties, an,
nowadays leisure means opportunity
Look at her on the street. at tn
theatre. She usually seems gaye
than her escort. She enjoys whole
heartedly, she has s,ne reserve OF thi
afternoons anxiety or to morrow
proposed deal She is full of the nj
ticle ON Tolstoi in the latest magazin
or the music at last evenings recital