St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-21
STORIES of IBsEN.
Mrs. Colby's Interesting and Poet
zeal Effusion.

Mrs. Colby's Interesting and Poet
zeal Effusion.
Mrs. Clara Berwick Colby, of Ne
braska, editor of the Woman's Tribune.
was the last speaker of the morning
session. Her paper was heartily ap-
plauded, and the excellence of her de-
livery added much to its form. To re-
peat all she said would re-
cure too much space. but among
other things she did say this:
The story. of Nora, as told in Ibsens DRAMA Z
Dolls House, is so familiar to the read {
without going into detail 1t is n simply
drawn sketch of family life Helmereis a .
thoroughly good, upright man in all his bus
1neSs'and social relations. From the daily
work OF his law office he returns to ibis we'll
furnished home, his romping children, and
his merry hearted beautiful life He is hon.
ored by his fellows trusted by his friends :
auored by his wife, favored by fortune.
Nora ntS admirably into this charming do
mestic scene. She is the type of women that
men delight in. She is bright accomplished =
piquant, confidng; child with her chil-e
dren, romplnS. dancing, yet with it all hav-4
ing such pretty matronly dignity that her :
household Is well managed, her servants re-
spectful, her children obedient. and her hus- 6
band gives her an allowance for the .
family expenditures. Heimer calls Nora.
says: 1T is indeed wonderfully delicious
TO live and be happy" Is not this the typi-s
cal home where we havo so often heard az
woman's place is? This is marriage that thes.
world would call thoroughly respectable. Z
Yet lbsen sets TO work to show that 1t is not
marriage at ail-nothing but a social sham,T
and no more nearly related to true marriage
than are the scenes Of brutality and degreda-s
uon that terminate in the divorce courts
The incident which developes the story is the :
TACT that Nora had borrowed money from
Krogstad 10 enable her husband TO travel in
the south That he might regain lis health.s
She signed her fathers name to tine ac-e
knowledgment although her father had
been dead three days. and innocently CONF
mitted forgery. The fact of 1.-The borrowing
of the money she keeps from her husband
deceiring in thousand petty ways. Finally
through KrogStad's resentment at losing his.
position in the bank of which Helmer is
manager the story becomes known to
Helmer., When Nora knew that her.
was about to rush from tlie! house.
Helmer restrained her and upbraided her
yehemently. She tried tocheck him by say
ing That she loved him better than anything;
else in the world. His Happiness is de-
stroyed he continues. He Inust.sInk to ruin
for the sake of all unprincipled woman :,
She can no longer be trusted with the care off,
the children. "a note arrived from. Kroga
stad promising not TO betray Nora's for-s
gerry. "lielmer is at once relieved, but Nora.
retains her strange calm. She shows how
she has been wronged by belh husband and
father first being mated as a doll child their
as doll wife" THE awful difference be-.
tween a mans love and doll woman's love
Is shown when Helmer says, NO man sicri-s
hces his honor to person he loves and,
Nora replies: That is what hundreds. of
thousands of women have done ~ The
CLEAN of hope which relieves the despair Of
Nora's departure from her husbands houses
is hint that The greatest miracle may-hapa
pen which would be that .dlley1lnsy4b5th So
cha that fhai- livipO y 81
true marriage" After tist6ryof The Ibe
son drama. Mrs Colby continued
'Helmers faults are those that
come from inherited sex dominance; Nora's
those that grow out of inherited sex stbserv-
iency. Ibsen has dared TO show the logical
outcome of such union. Since seems. to
us that Nora does we'll to go forth. losing
home and husband and children what shall
the hundreds of thousands of Noras about
us do?
suppose that from every dolls house in.
the land the doll wife should go out Then
suppose from every fireside where the wIfes
freedom of mind and BODY is curtsiled, what
desolate hearthstones there would be to-
day" Mrs. Colby briefly reviewed George
N, Miller's book, THE Strike of the Sex
Let us answer our question fairly, and
deal with husband and wife as indiyid uas,
Of the human family Then if the home
does not admit of the personal freedom, in
tellectual growth and moral responsibility
OF women should say, Open the doors and
Il
more important for the good OF our genera
ton aud the welfare of coming icons that
the relation between the sexes be fairly aC-
JuSted than that the women of any particular
age or nation should be at ease. | could not
say this so cheerfully did l not believe that
the home with its life union of two will,
when its monogamy shall have been per-
fected, afford the most perfect conditions for
both its units. | do not see danger to the
home and destruction. to the interdepend-
ence OF the sexes in the battering rams with
which woman suffragists are wont to beat
down the walls of prejudice Mrs Colby
stated, as proof of the advantage of
woman suffrage in Wyoming, that
the rate of divorce in Wyoming
had steadily decreased to one-sixth that of
the whole United States. I'm the evolution
to lose the primeval freedom of the matri-
archaic and TO pass through the stages of
degradation and experiment If woman
surrenders herself for the sake of selfish
comfort TO the dominance of man. civiliZa-
ton is arrested and true manhood becomes
impossible" The changing ideals of these
later years of the nineteenth century with
pressed by the late gifted English poet Emily
Pfeitfer, i'll her poem, Peace to the Oda-
lisQue," which may be taken as prophecy
of the fiGal disappearance of the doll woman
from our national life: az -
so woman. Sacrifice may still be thine,
More fruitful than the souls We did resign
To stated masters; from your lives, so real.
Will shape itself apure and high ideal
That ye will seek with sad. wide open eyes,,
Till. finding nowhere, baffled love shall rise
To higher planes where passion may look
pale,
But Charity's white light shall never fail"
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