Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-04-24
INCONSISTENCY OF MAN.

ers Her to the Common Standing Of
Slave.
1t tickles our sense of the ridiculous
to hear person assert conflicting and
irreconcilable views; and especially is
this funny, when done with the obsti-
macy of one who is sure he knows, and
the fact that he is unconscious OF his
own absurdity adds to the amusement,
while at the same time it excites our inn
patience that he can not perceive what
is so clear.
Thus nothing can be more funnily ex-
asperating, says Abby Morton Diaz, in
the Nationalist, than mankind's author
itative and discordant utterances con-
cerning woman. Such profound jum-
BILE as they are: woman is angelic;
woman shows wisdom in matters requir-
ing judgment; woman is unfit for coun-
Gil; woman's moral perceptions are
keener than mans; while man is put
ting on the boots of reason, woman flies
to the goal with her wings of intui-
ton; woman is to be blamed for the
larger part of mans misdoings; woman's
nature is not susceptible of high culti-
vation; all that he was he owed to his
mother; woman excels in organizing and
conducting philanthropic work; woman
has no soul; very little information will
suffice for woman's vocation; woman has
solemn responsibilities, even the train
ing up of children for life in this world
and in the next; it is sufficient for wom-
an that she can be skillful with her nee-
die, good housekeeper and slayer at
home, but man needs every facility for
developing his powers of mind; the lit
tie that woman has accomplished in the
world compared with what man has ac-
complished shows how inferior is wom-
an to man; woman forms the citizen,
guides the republic-and so on ad nau-
seam.
The "Ten Qualifications for a Wife"
are thus stated: good temper 4, good
sense 2, wit /, beauty /, remainder to be
divided among fortune, connections,
education, accomplishments, family,
and so on; not one of which is entitled
to the value of an integer. The amount
of good temper required is unpleasantly
suggestive; still, credit is due the writer
for his honesty. His belief in woman's
small need of education is the same
which has always stood in the way Of
her advancement. Most of the oppor-
tunities now permitted her have been
gained by march Of conquest with a
skirmish at every port. But through it
all the enemy has ever sounded the cry
oh, woman's vast influence! Woman s
solemn responsibilities!-never perceiv.
ing that forming the citizen and guiding
the Republic demand the development
of her highest faculties. If we suppose
that her declared natural superiority
mot withstanding her declared natural
inferiority) has been thought sufficient
unto these high duties
For he was from the organized dirt unfolded,
But she came forth from clay which life before
had nodded
we> are driven from such supposition
by the following dictum Of one of the
early fathers: "What is woman but an
enemy of friendship, an unavoidable
punishment, a necessary evil, natural
temptation, desirable affliction, con
stantly flowing source of tears, wicked
work of nature covered over with a shin
ing coat of varnish?" Says another
ado you know that each of you Il
an Eve? You are the DEVILS gateway
You are she who persuaded him whom
the devil was not valiant enough 20 at
tack. You destroyed SC easily Cod
image, MANI
These ideas of the early fathers are
somewhat inconsistent with that exalta
tion of woman claimed for Christianity
Indeed, they seem to have regarded hel
chiefly as means of degradation Il
man, means which should be KEEP
from his path very much as temperate,
reformers would remove the saloon. l
was on this ground that women were or
dered to be stayers at home, not to ap
pear unveiled, to leave ornaments alone
and even to make themselves unattrac
tive. Natural grace must be obliter
ated by concealment, as being danger
GUS to the beholderS eyes.
And it is this poor, innocent, weaklin
man, on whose account one-half Of hu
manity has been remanded into obscul
ity, and for whom whole continent, s
to speak, labors to remove liquor temE
tations-it is he, even he, who assume
to be the guide and ruler of woman. Be
ing at one and the same time the inst
tutor of the Office, the selector Of tn
candidate, the candidate, the electol
and the incumbent, he proceeds accord
ing to his Mohammedan, or his But
dhistic, or his Christian, or his Hebrew
or his savage, or his civilized ideas
mark out woman's sphere-tell her whs
are her duties, her needs, her capabi
tiles; how to be womanly, how she ca
make him happy, what in her will met
his approval, in what ways she can sery
him, what he will and will not allow b,
to do. how much knowledge he will a
low her to acquire. He has co.
structed her creeds for her, and mappt
out her Heaven and hell. He has mad
her his toy and his slave. He has mad
himself her law-maker, judge, jury, Jail
and executioner. He has burnt her, p'
her to torture, given her to wild beast
and thrown her into the water by Il
hundred sackfuls. He has been her so
attendant in Imprisonment, has had 50
charge of every public institution
which woman has been placed.
But his permission TO learn to re,
opened the big outer door and let h
into the vast fields Of knowledge, whe
! she pressed eagerly forward. BY !
means content with browsing round s.