The morning news., 1889-03-31
ARE WON len HAPP Y?
A NEW CONUNDRUM TO ADDLE
THE WITS OF SAGES.
Which Sex Enjoys the More, or
Do the DeligAts Of One Balance Those
of the Other in Poverty and Wealth,

OF Lu6 Obner IN EOVSrby anu w 0dlIuS
Work a. Day Life and Old Age7
Copyright secured.
| New YORK, March 30.-Are women
| happys
| Another walking Interrogation points
Why will the crooked little thing that asks
questions rsvage the land and lay waste the
| mental storehouses of its Inhabitants by
sweeping away their wits with such ques-
| tionsl
Who does not believe in evolution, under
standing how the liberties of women were
| hedged about, and especially the women OF
the poorer classes, whether under Caesar,
| Charlemagne or any other emperor, p gau or
christian, before the French revolutions Who
is it not ready to write down at least one con-
| siderable success on the credit side of civil
ization, remembering how the requisites of
happiness, security in property rights, per-
sonal independence growing out of a multi
! plication of money getting employments,
| education, a broader outlook on life have
| been showered on women in the last forty
yearsl
But this is looking at it from the outside.
How to get at the inside, the truth, the
whole truth of the feminine situations
on the outer wall nor employ heralds to
| trumpet forth their happiness or their mis-
| cry. Did one ever tell the truth about ones
| selfl Would it dol Women and men pre-
| varicate exaggerate and satIriZe themselves,
| and generalize about the rest of humanity.
| To generalizs is to mire ones self in a swamp
| or to run ones head against stone wall
The pessimist queries whether civilization
has ever spelled bliss for Anybody. He has
got past doubling to positive denial that for
women it has formed a single character OF
the word. The poor of the cities would
back him up in his orthography.
The fair lenten penitent, "timid and step
ping fast, with modest eyes downcast,n she
whom Mrs. Ballington Booth is carrying
away on all manner of religious slu mining
expeditions, must notice in her novel tene-
ment house wanderings a fairly constant
difference between the faces of the women
and the men. The hand-to-hand struggle
with the wolf has left most scars on the
feminine countenance. There is no exuber
ance of joyousness about the man, but when
one days work is over he does not lift the
next until next morning The women look
| depressed. Lines begin to show on their
| forsheads and crows feet to come about the
eyes bef re they have reached 25. Their
role in life is more intricate than that of the
sex masculine. They marry before they
are mature, their children come too fast,
tory harder in proportion to their strength
than their husbands and brothers, they are
more closely confined to the foul air and
cramped quarters of their lodgings, they
struggle monotonOusly with the minutiB Of
the task of making dimes answer for dollars,
at many periods Of their lives they suffer
more for want of nOurishing food. There
is bright spot in youth when the lover
comes sometimes bright sunset when the
children grow up and do well, but often
enough long gray stretch between, some
times windy like a March day. The faces
one sees in the tenement workshops speak
eloquently of sadness and strain. These
women are le happy than men.
| But the fair lenten penitent9 Sprinkling
ones clothes with white violet as one es-
capes from the east side, is it not safe to
sat down the well-to-do American woman,
the envied of women Of all other countries,
as the happiest creature that ever lived or
is now ivingl Has she not reason to be
distinctly happier than the manl Has not
civilization been her servant as it has been
that Of no other sort of persona
Look at her. Has not life used her welll
Secure in her drawing room she looks out
Smili lgly on the world. She is growing
taller in proportion, better developed, a
finer specimen of physical humanity than
the overworked, nervous business man, her
husband. she regulates her own hours
sue 9aGS Lu6 D6SI LuaL Jne
She pleases ner eye with dainty gowns. Sac
has a world Of delight in hunting bric-a-
brac for her parlors. In the winter the
varied life of the city pleasantly quickens
her pulse and her intellect and in the sum-
me sne is off to green fields, fresh air and
healthful exercise. She is not weighted by
heavy burdens of responsibility, aud yet
with her household her children, her So
ciety her churc l. her charities, her reforms
her interest il this fad and that ism, her
pleasant share-the share of receptvity and
enjoyment-of intellectual progress, she
never knows the sense of being a dro1e in
the hive. She and her compeers constitute
the leisure class in this country. not an
idls class, but class with time to choose
is own enjoyable duties, aud nowadays
leisure means opportunity.
LOOK at her on the street, at the theater.
She usually seems gayer than her escort,
She enjoys whole-heartedly, he has some
reserve of this afternoons anxiety or to-
morrow's proposed deal. She is full Of the
article on Tolstoi in the latest magazine or
the music at last evenings recital He is
seif-absorbed has no time for such fuoleries
She is mistress Of the pleasant art, almost
unknown TO American men or INDUCED in
only at the cost of conscience pangs which
kill pleasure, the delightful art of saunter-
ing. And yet there is u boredom ia her
leisure. She has time for friendships, she
can cnOOse ana en- Joy tue company OF men
and women whom she likes an understands
Men have no conception Of the wealth Of
meaning in that word OF four letters
chat Women can write letters, they
can pay calls, they eau shop. l could write
an idyl of the shopper.
Women fiEd the world interesting. They
read the newspaper and enjoy the gossip
side Of news much as IL they saw the story
put upon the stage. II is to them spscta-
Gle, something to look on at and be amused
by. They are taken care Of. Come veal,
come woe, they pat their hands or hiss,
knowing that short OF financial panic, all
these things are one TO them.
This is one side. II is gold. The other
side is not silver 1t is lead or something
equally heavy and dull.
Women are lonely. They miss their hus-
bands. What amount Of companionship
exists between the American W jman aud
the man9 He starts for his office as soon as
his breakfast is hurriedlv swallowed. He
does not come home at the lunch hour. He
is barely in season for a late dinner. Very
possibly he belongs to a club and has an en-
gagement as soon as dinner is done. II not
that, his head is in bank or counting house,
and he studies the stock quotations in the
nights paper and counts as against poSsi-
bic rise Of wheat, the days gossip with
which his wife il overflowing very small
potatoes They have callers or they 70 TO
the opera or theater. IL may easily happen
that they do not spend ten minnie in con-
variation with aach ut her during tho dav