The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-20

ment, OF CTea6lOn-Llllsh ana her laugh
ters-Woman as Man Regards Her and
Woman as She Means to BE.
tCopyrght, 1891
The fly on the coach wheel said, How
fast we do travel! And Just about as
much as the fly regulated the speed of
the coach, so much do we control and
regulate the speed of the world.
Of course ever so many of US imagine
ourselves the deus &c n1aclj7la, andfancy
that if we were eliminated from the af-
fair, the coach must either stop or be
shunted off the crown of the highway
where we keep it. But then, others,
looking at the matter more philo8ophic-
ally, perceive that through the few thou
sands Of years Of which alone we know
anything at all the world has gone me-
thodically on, carrying out some system
of which we know very little indeed, the
earth producing her treasures, such as
gold, iron, coal, water, oil, just at the
time the previous supply Of material is
spent, and not at all in answer to mans
demand or greed.
We see, too. how the race Of man has
gradually developed from perhaps the
baboon, perhaps only the clay devouring
savage, to its present condition, which,
let us most devoutly hope, IS not its final
perfection; and we see, which is Just
now what we want to consider, the curl
Gus development of woTnan's place IN The
scale of existence, and Of her relation
toward man. Taking for moment the
biblical account of the creation, we per-
ceive that it proceeded, perhaps by evo-
luton, perhaps otherwise, from the low
est forms to the highest, man coming
after the beasts, and woman after man,
thus placing her at the crown and sum-
nit of creation.
Perhaps it sounds a little arrogant for
woman to say that this eminence is act
ually womans proper position, but [
think few men will deny that ga perfect
woman nobly planned" is the highest
work Of creative power from more than
one point of view, if not from all; and
when enc considers the development of
woman in these latter years, and per-
Oeives that the progress of that devel-
minishing, one clings closer to the coach
wheel, and wonders where in life it is
taking us tol
Of course we all know that woman has
not always stood at the head of creation.
That proud eminence has hitherto been
claimed by man, who assumed to be lord
not only of creation, but of woman also,
more or less consistently allowed the
claim.
There is pretty legend in the TalmUd
that when Adam was created a woman
was also made, and named Lilith; she
was of such beauty, grace and charm as
has never since been seen upon the earth,
and being independently created, had as
much power and regnant authority IS
her mate. The consequence, so the Tai
mud says, was more than a little IN
pleasantness in the paradisiacaI house
hold. Adam laid down the law, and
Liith serenely capped it with another,
which she claimed was Just rs valid as
bis; and we can well imagine that Lii
this tongue and wit were just as much
more nimble than Adams asyours, dear,
are than your husbands today.
The consequence was that Adam, find
ing his life not worth the living, appealed
10 Allah for relief, and with better result
than many husbands obtain nowadays,
for it was then that the deep sleep came
npon him, and the rib extracted from
his side was fashioned into a woman,
who, being derived from man, was sub
ject and obedient unto him, and, as
Adam declared, was the helpmeet he had
failed to find in Lilith.
That young woman, Disguised with
the introduction OF a rival, went away
and set up a paradise of her own, and
from her miraculously sprung a race of
glorious but rebellious beings, a sort of
Afrits or Jim, who ever since have
PLANNED the earth for their own and con-
Etantly amused themselves with tempt
ing and dOmineering over the sous of
Eve and thwarting and annoying her
daughters.
And the reason have told this long
story Just here is because 1 am dead sure
that the daughters of Lilith, like the
wandering tribes of Israel, have strayed
across the sea. and are claiming the New
World as their especial domain.
This accounts for great deal besides
the milk in the cocoauut; it accounts for
the aggressive and independent stand
assumed by woman during the last half
of this century; 1t accounts for the min
gled admiration and indignation with
which men regard her new demands; it
accounts, above all, for the disagreeable
things the women who don't want
to vote say about those who do;
it is the Old warfare of the daugh-
tiers of Eve against the daughters of
Lilith, and with n little consideration
ere may divide all the women Of ones
acquaintance into three ClaSses-Liliths,
Ewes, and a third estate so mixed in their
heredity that they side with first one,
and then the other, and then with both,
and then with neither of the more positive
schools of though5 and purpose. l am
afraid l am 4 LiliJh, for l never have
been able TO train myself into that meek
and mild admiration of man as master
that Eve and her daughters so sweetly
exhibit, and the future of woman seems
TO me TO largely embrace the future Of
the world and of mankind.
So long as Lilith and her daughters re-
NAMED in their eastern soEUudes no
Stanley has vet explored, the daughters
Of Eve occupied the stage of the worlds
drama, and both history and tradition
show the part they played.
The slaves sometimes Of mans passion.
sometimes of his Incidence, they tOiled