Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-07

Not long since there was issued book
with the peculiar title CANCEL or Devil,
which," The volume is q collection OF
quotations from different poets setting
forth their views OF woman. Long be-
fore poets wrote, as creation high au-
fhority pronounced woman good, and
that ii was better for man to dwell in
her company than alone. Neither angel
nor devil, she is simply woman with
woman's fr8Ilties aud woman's viz
tues. She is mans best companion or
his most successful tempter, & CONTRA
dicton and mystery, but still n wo-
man and chosen by infinite wisdom TO be
his companion. This much by way of
preface.
That she occupies, and has occupied
since the beginning, q prominent place
in history of the race no student will
deny, and that her influence Is waning
no observer will admit. An article by
Mrs Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, published
in the North American Review, August,
has excited widespread interest and
occaslonei much debate. In the New
York Herald of Sunday Marion Harland
tbluGs 10 luo OtlGH5O Va NiO lhONSIh
society woman In well directed logic.
Each of these writers stands on
too high pedestal for shafts OF
low censure to touch them, and 1t
must be that the story OF the shield and
its two sides is repeated. The first strong
point made by Marion Harland is that
granted, rs Mrs. Phelps does, the prog
ress of the race and the existence mani
fold of evidences of superior civilization,
also a conceding that the people of the
Ninteenth century on the whole lead bet
ter lives, fail TO warrant the conclusion
by Mrs. Phelps that sense OF personal
modesty has not kept pace with this ad-
vance. 1t is pertnently asked, do men
gather figs of thistles or grapes of thorn
bushes?
The charge Marion Harland makes,
and is sustained throughout the entire
article, as she takes up one by one the
indictments, is that Mrs. Phelps has
brought trailing accusatIon' through
hearsRy testimony and has assumed
premises that have no real existence.
One point in Mrs. Phelps article de-
serves to bring down the righteous wrath
of every wife. II Is that there is dis
tinguishinE expression in the eyes OF
maid and matron. Is marriage school
that robs woman OF chasteness in thought
and look, is 10 be 4 wife to lose woman g
chefest ornament, are the glances Of
matron to be rend as those of courte-
san? Fie; let not woman say it!
Further, because n young girl, fear
less of soul, clean of heart and pure in
life looks into the eyes of man frankly,
trustfully, does she put on an embold-
ened front and does native modesty no
longer abide with her? Let no woman
say it!
When the race was created male and
female, II was that a wise purpose might
be observed To this effect this woman
was endowed with graces of body, heart
and mind, (these are put in the natural
order, whether men admit II or mott and
IN obedience 10 instinct woman exhibits
these graces.
Think you the Tyrolese peasant girl
with her bodice decollette, her tunio
short and her shapely legs lRtticed with
CAV ribbons, Us che winds her sinuous
body In the dance, advancing and elud-
ing until finally her partner catches her
and in his arms they join mad whirl TO
rapid music, has thought of evil! To her
the dress is picturesque, the dance In
spring, and when love comes his temple
Is as ppre as that of her more precise
sisters.
CublOu1 TeEulhlSb COsluluo anu liLEGlJ
creates what Is called taste, hence the
woman accustomed from childhood to
seeing full dress any idea of its immod-
esty is an awakening, and she has barred
neck and arm because of custom, and
has danced thoughtless of harm, and
whether she is to be q better woman be-
cause OF knowledge of evil is n question.
II was not SO at the beginning.
The whole resolves itself into this, was
woman rs the Hebrew scriptures teach
created for manor has she an indlyidu-
ality separate from him. II for woman,
II is true in q sense more binding than
upon man, that she is her brothers.
keeper, then she should be early taught
his vulnerable points, and trained to
self Rbnegation and constant watchful-
ness, that she in no wise tempt him above
what he is able.
II may be safer for him. If not for her
self, that when she steps into young
womanhood she recognize the pit into
which she has fallen and the mire by
which she is encompsssed. But do
mothers Of daughters admit this? Are
they willing TO train their dauR hters for
an arena similar to that into which
Christian maidens were flung to crafty
their Roman prosecutors? To be wise as
serpents aud harmless as doves is no
easier for girlhood than for maturity,
warrants commendation.
Says one, 1--WE must take the world as