The morning call., 1891-01-18
THE MANNBRLESS SEX.
Man a Self-C0HFiCtGd Animal From the Be-
ginning.

To be told that the lily is not the flower of
vestals, but OF Venus could not be more
surprising than to be assured that the man
nerless sex is not that Of the troubadour
Rudel, but of the Lady of Tripoli to whom
he sang. Such suggestion is, of course,
but merry fancy. Could any critic, how
ever inclined to misogyny, seriously allege
i'll manners against the sex of Sydneys Sis
! ter Pembroke's mother? Yet this is pre-
cisely what has been recently done, says
! George William Curtis in Harper's Maya
zine.
But our Cato the elder does not permit
man truculently to exalt himself by contrast
| with discOurteOus woman. lie expressly
| di5claimS the declaration of the implication
that man is mannerly, while woman is not
! In many men he remarks indifference to
rudimentary courtesies, but in many women
| a gentle regard for others which deserves
even eulogy. The sum of the whole matter,
| nevertheless is that the average woman is
more negiectful of common courtesy than
| the average man.
land no wonder" exclaims Cato the
| younger, "fOr the foolish fondness Of man
! teacbes her discourtesy." If man, instead
! of giving her his seat in the raiway-car, and
| slayishly removing his hat in the elevator
| and acquie>cing in her tyrannical hat at the
! theater, insisted upOn his legal rights in
! bargain, and required the railroad company
| to furnish without evasion the commodity
Of seats for which it has been paid, and
| brought the manager TO task for allowing
! one OF his customers to steal what he has
| sold to another namely, a view of the play,
the world would trembe on the edge Of the
! millennium of good manners.
| This terrible arraignment is a compre-
| hensive accusation Of srlfishness against
the sex. But it seems to be a generaliza-
| ton founded on local and restricted Ob-
| serYatiun. 1t is true of the woman of many
| artists and critics. The women of Dn
J Maurier. for instance, belong to a set"
| but they are nor representatives Of a sex.
Becky Sharp Is no more typical woman
! than Amelia or SCOTS Rebecca. Major
| Dobbin Is as much type of men as Lord
| Steyne. Should our social censor seque>ter
| himself Tor time in any remote rural COM
munity, it would hardly occur to him TO
| SlgnalZe the sex Of the rural wives and
mothers as the selfish sex. And in town,
| although there are a lew iieeUing hours of
| iattered youth in which the beautiful and
| fortunate Helen may tread on air ana
| breathe aduiatiOn until she feels herself a
! goddess, yet newer and younger Helen IS
| always gently pushing her from the throne.
| OF all seasons that OF blossoms is the brief
est, and the maturer Helen, of whom the
| sex is composed, is not hayward aud selfish,
is no longer uncertain, coy aud hard to
! please" but patient SeH-Sacrhciug and
! true.
Man was self-cnnyicted from 5he begin
ming. Could there be more meifable selfish
! ness than Adams plea in the garden? The
| woman whom thou gavest 10 be with me-
she gave ME Of the tree and | did eat" Had
! Eve been OF no finer stuff than that. she
| would have left him there. But his craven
answer at once revealed the essential weak
ness that demanded the devoted stay Of I'M
| selfish consistency. We're woman the ever
| selfish, Eve would have abandoned Adam to
] NNl he fri cd IN
| lures new. But the same quality that Sus-
| tains the secluded farmer and his household
| in the hills supported the timid tiller OF the
! first garden as the sword flannel behind hlm
| over the closing gate of Eden. Ii Adam
complained that Eve had lost him paradise,
| does not every son of Adam own THAT she
/ has regained it for bin?
The watchful traveller in city cars. or
wherever his fate may guide is more struck
| by the general courtesy than the occasional
| discCurtesy Of the gentler sex. The observ-
| able phenomenon III city transit Is the reSO-
! lutte, aggressive, conscious seltshness of
| man hiding behind a newspaper, with an
| air OF unc1nSclouSneSS designed TO deceive
| that is, to lie-or braZening it out with an
| uneasy aspect OF defending his rights. TINS
| Is the spectacle, and not a supeTciliOuS as
| sumption on the part of the shOD-glTl. The
| courteous refusal to take a seat or courteous
acceptance OF 1t is muTe familiar than tie
| courteous protfer. Cato the younger sug-
| geSts that 1t IS wrong that seats should
| not be provided, and holds that the company
| should be compelled to furnish the accom-
mediation for which it is paid. 1t is a
| Daniel come to judgment, a wise young
| Judge; but how shall it be done? Shall men
| keep their seats until by sheer shame, and
| in Difference TO indignant protest, the COM
| pany does its duty? But would the shame
| and Indignation be due to the consciousness
| that the mm0dation paid tor was not
| provided? Would they not arise rather
! from the consciousness that il waS a pecu-
| liar wrong that the genler sex should be SO
| incommoded? And, il so, while the incom-
mediation lasts, what but the selfShness of
| men devOlyeS it upon women? But i Ii,n
| should agree to surrender their seats that
women should be first accommodated, is
| there any doubt that the wrong would be
| speedily righted? And to what would this
| be due but TO the fact that the selfiShneSS
| of men would insist upon the comfort If
! which. while the accommodation lasts they
! deprive wemen.
| Indeed, if all men in the crowded cars
| should res0utely keep all women standing
| the wrong would not be righted, because
J women would submit with uhSelish patience
and because corporations have no souls
The better plan, therefore, is that all men
shall refuse To see woman stand, because
II men are really discontinued by their own
courtesy they Will compsl redress.
In a world turned tOpsy-tuTyy, where
COrdelIa and Isabella and Juliet were man
nerless, the other sex might be eulogized by
distinction as mannerly. But in this world
is Philip Sidney as truly the type of the
average man as JEANNE Deans of the aver
age woman.