Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-02-28
TIE W0MAN'S KINGDOM
WHAT is EXPECTED OF THE WOMAN
OF THE PRESENT DAY.
Value of Woman's Personal Charms
Words thai try Mems Souls to sit
in the saddle-Many Things of In
tercst to Fair Readers.

No one will deny that tine education of wo-
men has increased and grown enormously
during the last few years. 4 different stand
ard of perfection has been raised, and above
all strange and new requirements have been
added TO the old code. Woman is still to re-
tain her charms; all that art can do i'll dress,
prace and refinement, and seduction of man
ner are as ieenlv appreciated as ever. But,
besides these light and airy graccs of the old
school. it is now felt that The more grave and
serious parts of education must not be found
wanting in woman.
She must do more, from literary point of
view than specifically glance down the
columns of a newspaper; while the suScept-
bilitieS Of her friends require greater artistic
excellence than was eyinced by her mother
Cwhen she took the captains heart by storm
some thirty years ago by singing few popu-
lar airs of the day.; and as TO her water
colors, they must be better than her aunts
roses entw med with auiiculaS, which were
considered such works of art at that time.
If she is to exercise artistic faculties, il is
only powers of the first order that her ac-
Quaintunce Will greet with favor. The old
world indulgence with which elderly people
of a former generation hailed the very medt-
OGRE attempts of their young friends to
partly in but often mostly out of tune that
kindly feeling of acceptance is as much an
emotion of the past as the pyramids or armor
of the middle ages are relics of past civiliza-
tions In old days people laid to heart the
old saying, You must not look gift horse
in the mouth and there was a general feel
ing prevalent that what you did not pay for
YOU had no right to critcise.
Beyond all this it is now found indispenSa-
bic that every woman should take part in
charitable and even In political organizations.
To obtain proficiency i'll these objects il is
requisite that she should acquire business like
habits, and he able 10 write, and even to
speak, in public, if not brilliantly, tt least
with fluency and to the point. Added to
these new tests Of education, a woman is still
expected to be a good lingu.st. l. is thought
absolutely necessary that She should he able
to read and to express herself with ease in
several languages
1t does not excite astoushment that a man
should have spent most of his early life at a
public school, and then at one of the univer-
sites, nominally learning Latin and Greek,
and at the end of what he is pleased to call
his education he guiltless Of being able to
translate stan2a Of Horace or line of
Homer intelligibly. On the other hand, it
would be considered extraordinary that a
woman i'll society who had travelled in France,
or who had had the advantage OF French
govcrness as a child. should not be able to ex-
press herself in French, with ease, talk if
necessary to a French attache at London
dinner party, or write correctly to her mo-
diste in Paris. Added to all this the athletic
developments Of a woman's education must
not be forgotten to be mentioned here. The
~ l.. 10 hoo
her ability as "a lawn tennis and a cricket
player; and if she docs not shoot, at least she
is expected to show the same endurance as
man, when she walks over miles of heather, or
through fields of turnips.
To all these graces, accomplishments and
physical exercises are added her old duties of
a wife, mother, housekeeper and hostess. 4
larger capacity and a broader understanding
arc demanded on all sides for women. Even
the type Of woman's woman is changing.
a fsurehead Of inane incapacity, Of very
mediocre mental attachments, veneered by
refinement of manner, and clothed in French
millinery, is no longer an ideal to women
while men are no more contented to find in
a woman merely recipient of their thoughts
and ideas, worshiper who places them on a
pedestal, ard who, by means of her own linn
itatious and ignorances, clothes them in the
giants robe.
Women are daily opening more and more
their souls and minds; they are beginning to
learn the secret of how to make the divine
fire delight and pleasure to themselves. As
the managers of households much more
now is demanded. Every woman who looks
at housekeeping from an artistic point of
view will be anxious to effect reforms; to
take valuable hints wherever she can find
them, and to add fresh graces to her table
and TO her rooms. The woman of the pres
ent day is to be little short Of an Admirable
Crichton in petticcats. Lady Gaskell in
Nineteenth Century.