The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-02-20
WOMEN BEHIND DESKS.
Said Not to be Altogether Sue
cesses.



1t pains me to learn that woman IN
Office is somewhat of a failure; at least in
New York. It seems that she carries
into her official life certain traits that
are characteristic of her sex, but which
are not in harmony with business affairs.
In the first place, the woman official is
severely offensive to women, from whom
she exacts more than the legal pound of
flesh and for whom she shows a con-
tempt and lofty liberation that are out
side the limits of law. The cause of this
attitude of woman against woman has
as yet eluded the search of science and
COMPOUNDED the theories of philosophy;
and, to conclude, even / have no solu-
ton to offer. And yet, if we consider
the matter closely, we shall find rea-
son, If not cause. A man appears be-
fore woman in Office already crushed;
it has absorbed ALI his courage to face
official femininity, and if he does not
receive all the snubs and the contempt
that he is prepared for he is more disap-
pointed than surprised.
The woman behind the desk is an awe
inspiring object to the bravest man; she
is her sex plus authority, Charlotte Cor
day and Minerva combined. She is not
the more imposing by reason of her office,
but the Office is imposing because she fills
it, because the office is herself. Such a
woman may insist on anything unhinder-
ed of man. He is even content, at her
command, TO concede that the earth is
fat for the time being He appears be-
fore so much ma esty in a commanding
attitude; he waits her pleasure patiently
before receiving the postage stamp for
which he applies, cash in hand; he sti-
files his haste to obtain his letters until
she sees fit to give them to him. For
these reasons the official woman does not
go out of her way to annoy or to torture
man; she accepts him as a worm, and be-
cause he is weak she refrains from tread
ing on him, and goes no further than to
turn deaf ear to his application for let
tiers or stamps, and to gorgonize him
with her Tennysonian "stony stare"
A woman approaches the official wo-
man guarded window in different atti-
tude, in fact in belligerent attitude,
and the monarch of all she surveys re-
ceives her in an equally belligerent spirit.
Two hungry dogs approaching the same
bone will give fair idea of the situa-
ton. The passive indifference shown to
that humble creature, man, no longer
exists; the adversaries both have their
lances in rest, and each is looking for
the weakest spot in the armor of the
other. There is an ominous silence,
during which the fashion of garments
and fashion of features are criticised;
there is an ominous sniff, a swapping Of
eyes, an elaborate exhibition of a chip on
the shoulder for opponents to remove
violently, a lofty staring at tops of heads
instead of into eyes, an aggressiveness of
excessive overpoliteness, the fine malice
of preventing to the utmost the consum-
nation of the object that both have at
heart, the overzealous desire to make a
fault and find it, to imagine an insult
and resent it, to compel insolence that
breeds the insult. Naturally, the women
who are not officials complain of the
women who are officials, and the woman
behind the window complains Of the
woman in front of it.
This is the serious danger that con-
fronts the woman who aspires for public
office-the weight that drags her down
when in Office. The fault is hers indi-
vidually, but it is the failing of the sex
generally--the impossibility of a woman
treating a woman in any other way than
as rival or an antagonist. The woman
in Office cannot escape from herself. She
refuses to see, or cannot see, any differ
ence between a free, if tax paying, pub
lie and her own family circle. She car
ries her home characteristics into public
affairs, regarding men as the possessors
of obnoxious latch keys, and women as
the victims of them. Her clients are
punished for her toothaches and respon-
sible for her dyspepsia. That she is COM
PEELED to hold lowly Office is the fault of
the world, and the world must suffer
for it. She knows that she is better than
other women, and demonstrates her SUI
periority to anticipate their doubt, or the
doubt that she has invented for them.
This is not gallant, but, unfortunately,
it is true. There can be no question
that, with time, the faults indicated will
be remedied; but, until they are, woman
in Office will be constant evaporation
to woman out of office. 1t is true that
woman out of Office is equally exasper-
ating to woman in Office, and the pro-
verbal mans inhumanity to man is thus
furnished with a parallel in woman's
antaponism TO woman.