The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-07-14
Something to Talk About.

Something to Talk About.
Did it ever occur to you, my sisters.
what a Godseni to the masculine portion
OF humanity, in the single matter of some
thing to talk about, we weaker vessels'
appear to be- And from the earliest
days they have been zcalously improving
their privilege. Most subjects get out of
fashion as time goes on, and gradually
give place to others; but not so the
'woman question" Men continue to ad-
wise US and criticise US, to blame us and
extol US, and to hold up for our emulation
an ideal but totally impossible female from
generation to generation with equal gusto
and earnestness. A celebrated French
writer has lately relieved his mind on this
well-worn theme, in one of the leading
journals of Paris, in terms rather more
idiotic than the general run. Just listen to
what he says of US;
Woman was created coquettish, fiighty,
tickle and frivolous. Poets have said that
.he only thing lighter than air is a feather:
hS only thing lighter than a feather is a
Sman; and that nothing is lighter than a
oman. She is sent into the world to
arm and fascinate us, to console us for the
.Ggues of hard work and to fill US with
dreams of the ideal that may render the
real in some degree tOlerabe This little
creature draws her strength from her very
weakness
But some of US are not ''little,'' this
Hlrisiau idiot to the contrary notwith-
alGing-and many of US are not distin-
: 1ished for weakness. And how about
Stlpse who were not born to charm either
( form or feature, and the many whose
CHEST idea of consoling man is to remark
Z him, 4 told you so" or 1T serves you
ght!'' Rather a selfish view it seems to
g, as well as short sighted one, to take
,y the proper place of the whole sex the |
ide world over.
This same gallant gentleman insists that |
. omen are losing all their poetry and |
S--arm by jostling with men in various |
Venues Of study and labor, and complains |
with disgust that some French girls actu- |
ally went to SOrboune to go through a COM
petitiye examination with young men; and, |
N the authors words, ITO exchange beau
1iful and radiant brow for very ridiculous
diploma But he evidently forgot that
even a beautiful and radiant brow will not
always supply honest bread and butter. |
some of the girls who went to Sorboune
mean to be lawyers anG doctors. The |
writer generously condescends to partially |
forgive the lady doctcrs if they will CON |
inc their practice to each other and to |
each others babes-but rails with angry
yehemence against the idea of female |
lawyers. He says he can understand |
woman playing tragic parts like Rachel, or |
writing like George Sand or Madame de |
Stael, or singing like Maibran, or riding |
like ThalesJris or driving a pair of horses, |
or shooting pheasants in thick CATERS and |
sCanty skirts, but cannot comprehend how |
any woman can play on a violin, even had |
she the skill of Paganini. because in hold
ing the instrument she makes herself look |
hump backed and destroys the harmonious !
lines of her shoulders, which lin the |
wretched Erenchman Opinion) are far |
preferable 10 the harmony of her VIOLIN |
Fancy anyone thinking il more Womanly to |
drire q pair of horses or to go out killing |
r05 than to make sweet music on any |
;trumcnt!
Among those more reasonable people who |
" nix about the essential philosophy of |
dogs, the women question: is develop |
inapeyond the plane of glittering general |
itiFs and beginning TO be consdered-not |
q gether from the male standpoint, as it !
js.d TO be, nor from the wOman's side only. |
g.. a great many have insisted upOn-but |
+ m the combined view of the two sexes
oheir relation to one another. The old |
take OF assuming that women are so |
'riy unlike men, and so far inferior to |
ii u that they are not to be clasSed on the |
same plane at all, was second only TO the |
other popular error of assuming them to be
III men. According to the author of an
in resting book called ''French Traits" !
the latter is the mistake that most Ameri-
CO are making. He says that at the very
Z rent when we are insisting upon the |
e. ntial unlikeness of women to men.
I nericau society is exacting from women
2 continual exhibition of masculine uuali- |
IS We require Of her, not strong mind
{ Hess," but a cOmpanionableness that is
entlaliy masculine, and that we Guilt
yao5 this quality in our young girls to the
oosSof their feminine characteristics.
IN reply TO this, the French oracle above
quoted says that French women are far
IS masculine in their taste than we of
1erica; that, as rule, they strictly
{ .0id all competition with men, conserving
@ tir distinct individuality of sex and fol
o. wing strictly their own bent. He says
4 .nat nothing is more common than to hear
American women lament their lack of OPP
lI'tunity, and envy those of men; while
n, France nothing is rarer, it never occur
1t ig to French women to regret their sex.
Il adds: at is probable that every Amer
al IN woman with any pretension to fine
4 entality. feels that her sex is a limitation
pF wishes, with that varying ardor and
- Jermittent energy which characterizes
r, that she were a man and had a mans
opportunity, since, IN a thousand WAYS, she
IS his rival"
Well, there may be a grain of truth in
the criticisms of our cousins across the
water, but fancy that it will require some
thing more than the choicest rhetoric of all
the literary lights over there to nut the
dahghters of Eve who hail from this coun
try one iota below the status of those born
IN sunny France, if, indeed-comparing ma
ton with nation-they quite come down to
8 par with French women, either in public
or private life, in qualities of head or heart
This may be egOtism, but we firmly believe
it; don't we. girls?
;rne fact Is, our strong minded sisters
attempt to prove rather more than is truth,
aud are prone to fall into the fatal error of
neglecting the graces altogether for
sterner things. And what guys and scare
crows some of them do make of themselves,
y illfully and with ''malice aforethought'
sand then go about the world advocating
b