Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1890-02-26
WOMEN WHO WRITE.
Changes That Have Taken Place
In Fifty Years.

In pas. gene rdtions Jane Austen and
Miss l. igewortn, Fanny Bunny and
Miss Martineau hal shown that in
several kinds of tict on women could do
It lest as well as Iuen. In the case OF
Alls' Au>ten's stories it is doub. full
wi ether they have ever been surpassed
as faithful reflections of English mi =
dle-class life. Anthony I. ollope, a few
years ago, essayed to draw English So
c'ety exactly as it is; but though he at
tlined a fair measure OF success. it is
very doubtful whether pride aud
Prejudice and the rest will not lie
after Dorchester Towers" and Its like
are forgotten
Then, while no analyst OF human ma
ture so keen as Thackeray, and no lit
erstry caTicaturist so full of genius as
| lhckens has ever emerged from the
/ ranks of women writers, il IS cert ain
that with the exception of those gre Il
nov-liSts George Eliot had a truer in
SIGHT into humanity and nobler touch
than any male writer OF the last half
| century. She would certainly stand
third TO Thlckeray and Dickens, while
sons would place her second among
the three In poetry the last fifty years
have shown women standing on the
very step of the throne where the lsu-
I ANeA'N oAIa- -NO btNNC1o VI ALc
! ing ages ever struck as deep and true a
note as Mrs Browning in her Aurora
Leigh" and her shorter pJems-works
OF which any male writer of our day
might be proud
The success Of the sex IN our time,
/ however, must not be measured by
/ great names alone The characteristic
OF this age Is the immense amouns OF
excellent and honest literary work done
not by scores or hundreds, but by thou
sands of ladies in England, France, and,
above all Amer ca In proceeding
centuries half the human race WAS in
I tentiOnIlly rep.e sed- Women Were
told that TO mind babies, cook dinners
or mend stockings was their natural
avoca.iOn, and exceptions like Anna
\ Seward OF Hannah More were hailed as
/ prodigies. Now nobody denies to q
daughter the tight to pen, pap and
ink, and If she can begin by earning a
few guineas for an essay or a story III a
magazine the fact Is treatel as 4 mat
ter OF course.
/ The women of England and America
have at present no novelist with the
| literdy power OF George Eliot, but they
have at least half dozen who MAJ be
clasSed IN the second rank. Nor IS this
blank in the first class peculiar TO wo-
men, there Is now no male novelist In
| England or the Unit-d States who en-
JOYS the uncoutested supremacy of
Scott, Dickens and ThackeTay in his
generation The fact is that in tn s,
as in other kinds of | terature, the gen.
era standard has risen, and there ems
no giants because there are 50 many
who are above the midd height.
1t is sometimes said by those who re-
l gard fiction as frivolous that it is all
very we'll for the ladies' OF literature To
write for stories which helJ to while
a passing hour, but that sterner work
must come from men This. however,
is plea that Will hardly hold water III
the lace of a fact like ~ Icle Toms
Cabin" Slavery had existed for gen.
eratIons in the United ) aieS. and many
men had grappled NTH it in speech and
essay, story and poem; but Mrs. llar-
ret Beecher-Stowe was the first writer
who brought the facts and feelings
home to every heart and hearth i'll the
I'm ted States. She TO ced every man
and woman to confess that, as n Christ
ian, Uncle Tom-himself a chattel
slave-took the highest rank, ard this
vindicdtiDn of humanity and nobleneSs
under back skin WAS the greatest
blow ever struck at slavery in America.
Ii male all the thoughtful Christians
! in the North Abolitiouists in principle,
and gave to the fight for tile Un,n,
when it came, u fervor which the meIe-
|. ly political issues could never rouse.
Here, then, 1t was woman who wrote
book that was not onlv a novel but a
: great political force. To-Day we see a
corresponding phenomenon y story
1 which i not merely a story, which pro-
I I Esaraz ffsslf .tIrE.2
, yund the Selsju, which rouses contrO-
versy and ex-ites contradiction Is
"Robert Els nere"- work from a
wJmau'S pen. When, with male rivals
p influence politics aud religion rs Mrs
, Beecher-Stowe and Mrs Humphrey
, ward have done by the sincerity an
| earnestuesS OF their toner
OF course there Is "A seamy side tC
this new development of our litera' ure,
\ few women take advantage of theil
sex to write tales That are not true, npi
. ! healthy and MT pIre- They draw
car e ri lures of mems smoking room
and clubs IS IL they knew all about
them. They revell III Latin and Frencl
quo-atiuns, 80 netimes misspsllei, an
{ alwIvs dragged in by the head aud
shoulders They delight in libertinism
! an call IL liberty. They Ieyel in allu
sions To eating, drinking and mIdnigh'
d;ssiyaI.on. They are, for the most part
u I-eN.I creatures, neither men nol
o WON n--queer things IN petticoats, VIII
\ a mort III taste for the society OF disSo
Il Int bIchelors We may happily Ignore
those bJOks. Other novels written d.
Young women are fashionable b.. aus
Their sins again delicary are due TO %
uprsnce.
n.y., m npm1rrieI curl who la,
a lacity and genius attempts to de
: s.ribe love she is sometimes bolder il
I h..r coloring than any man or woman
+. who has lad experience Of life. Sh'
4 writes things that shock, just as ;
; blb.lIng child N bring confu sion In 4
drawing room by its courage and sim
plicity. In one case of a novel OF thi
{ kind IL is said that the authOreSs wrot;
n ANONYMOUSLY when she WAS girl ol
Il Is and on confessing il years after
: ward to her middle-agei husband h'
left her 1t o-ce. asserting confidently
that IL came from no maiden mind 4
e keener critical sense would have de
/. tested in its audacity the very note o
!, absolute ignorance pretending 70 knowl
doe These faults OF feminine litera
ture- however, are inevitable incident
i of Immaturity. Young poets are Jusl
> as foolish, and so are young male novel
q iSts.
: The main point stands that as a stor,
!, IN ofesses TO represent life as II -, all th'
younr authoresses OF the day are at
. Disadvantages. Few women ever
, t,in To what NAV be Gale a full knowl
a edoe of life. While unmarried, or
q married early and happily, they leari
Al little of the grim and ugly realities o