The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-12-03
A Critic of Women.
From the New Orleans r,mes-nemocra+

|
yisibly falling into ruin.
A Critic of Women.
From the New Orleans Times Democrat
An anonymous sage recently remarl
ed; "There is an old belief of the ma
culine Anglo-Saxon mind that woma
to be lovable should have no marked il
dlvldualitv.n And though he too
pains not to commit himself on ths
point, he quoted, with an evident air {
appreciation, one of Coleridge's sayings
Shakespeare saw that it was the pei
lection of woman to be characterles.
Every one wishes Desdemona or Ophe
liza for a wife-creatures who, thoug
they may not always understand you,
always feel you and feel with you.''
Even if it is admitted that Desdemc
ma and Ophelia are characterless, Shake
speare has given us also Cordelia,
| Portia, a Hermione. Being poet O
wide sympathies, he understood an(
portrayed the gentle, clinging creatur,
whose chief strength is in loving, al
we'll as the woman of more heroic mould
and striking qualities Scott also ha.
been accused-but falsely-of cherish
ing milk-and- water ideal of woman
hood. As for the idea that it is s'tht
perfection of woman to be character
less" when Dora has effloresced into
Flora-when the pretty fool has devel-
oped into an old fool-the husband of
such nonentity does not usually find
his domestic life shining success. There
was once gentlemen of the old school
who never missed an opportunity of in
Weighing against intellectual women
He even went SO far as to say that he
would rather see dagger than book
in a woman's hand. As might have
been expected, he married harmless,
vapid young person but instead of be>
ing happy ever after, as he should have
been in common consistency, he con
tracted bad habit of throwing table
knives and forks at his wife. When
asked the reason of this conduct, he
made the explanation that Amanda new
er understood anything he said to her.
A woman with brains but no heart
is only an unpleasant, if capable, ma
chine; but the combination of brains
and heart makes that perfect woman
nobly planned who is so hackneyed in
and such rarity in real life.
Without congeniality of mind as well
as heart there could scarcely exist that
true marriage which George Eliot thus
describes: what greater thing is there
for two human souls than to feel that
they are joined for life-to strengthen
each other in all labor, to rest on each
other in all sorrow, to minister to each
other in all pain, and to be one with
each other in silent, unspeakable mems
cries at the moment of the last parting?"
There is another side of the question to
be considered If husband desires that
his wife's existence shall be spent ''in
looking up to him." as Mr.. Sapsea hath
it, his stature must be greater than
here. Were the man always the strong
stay and prop of the household that ira
dition presumes him to be, the entire
mass of womankind might safely ven
ture upon the luxury of being charac-
terless and fulfilling Coleridge's dream.
The clinging vine must have a good
stout oak to Irvine about, or it will
sprawl feebly upon the ground, trodden
and losing itself among the
brambles and under-brush. Every wo-
mans lot does not permit her to indulge
in sweet he1plessness. Not unfrequent-
ly her wit and pluck and good judg-
ment constitute the whole stock pos
sessed by the matrimonial firm Some>
times the death or disablement of her
husband forces a woman into the anx-
ious position of bread winner, and upon
her power to support that responsibility
depends the fate of the family Or it
may chance that after marriage she
realizes that she is mated with vision
airy whose schemes, SO bright and beau
tiful at their conception, have a cloudy
way of dissolving.. Her practical sense
Ill uoU COluO w UilC IOoCuO CIO hCCD Luc
home together. Placid amiability will
not answer in this crisis, as it. might in
days of prosperity. A woman who be-
longs to the mush-poultice class may be
soothing, but she has no tonic or stimu-
lating qualities.
What is needed is worker possessing
courage, ability, and readiness of re-
source if way is not open before her
she must find one and if no opportuni-
ty offers itself she must make one. In
the domestic articles the maid, wife,
or widow who is thrown upon the would
without either talents or accomplish
ments which might be utilized as q
means of livelihood, usually possesses a
special gift for the making of marsh
mallows or doughnuts. The public
clamor for these dainties orders pour in
upon her; and after six months exer-
ton she is able to retire with an indie
pendent fortune. But the really char
acterless woman would not be able to
achieve even these culinary triumphs.
AS she would have no fixed method of
doing anything, her doughnuts would
be buoyant successes one day, and fiat
failures the next. Indeed, it seems as if
Coleridge could scarcely have realized
the fiabby incapacity and invertebrate
supineness implied by the word charac-
terless.
The writer previously alluded to
paints most disagreeable picture of
the woman of the Victorian age. She
has become. he says, ''more than evei
perplexing to the male atom who poises
himself, for a moment to make a study
of her. She no longer needs mans APP.
parel to practice profession, or to
Journey forth on foot under the greer
leaves of Arden, She has grown self-re
liant and cosmopolitan, equally at home,
in the White House or on the banks Of
the Neva. She never plucks daisies OF
buttercups, nowadays, to test her lovers
affection by pulling apart their petals
You find her, instead, arranging orchids
in glass, and making cynical refec
lions upon the worthlessness of the en-
tire race. Individual love or hate in the
opposite sex is apparently all one tt