The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-11-11
WOMAN,S GENIUS.
A New York Press Writer Expects 20 ses
= Wonderful Developments the Coming

New York Press Writer Expects 20 see
= Wonderful Developments the Coming
Century
The New York Press some time ago
had an editorial on the subject of Gre
alive genius in women" inspired by the
controversy a few months ago in the
Critic. The Press editor thinks that the
lack of creative genius in women is
owing TO her faulty education He
says that none of the great geniuses
created until education and experience
had developed the latent powers within
them THE fact that Jane Austen,
Felicia Hemans. Elizabeth Browning,
NJ o. ". Oliphant, Charlotte Bronte,
George sand. Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Marion Harland, Mary L Wilkins, En-
ma Lazarus. Julien Gordon. Mrs Bur
ton Harrison, Charles Egbert CraddOck
and Frances Hodgson Burnett, with
dozens Of others vino might be named,
have written what appealed to and in
terested their appropriate constituent
cies must be considered, not in COM
pariSon with what men have done, but
in a comparison Of comparisons. as IL
were. Woman's literary work must. IN
fairness. he measured by the nature OF
women's education as compared to the
education Of man"
He says further: at need not bs
proved al length TO any intelligent per
son tina: wOnan's education has, till
within a few years ieven If its average
Is not still soi. been what George Eliot
compares 10 the nibblinys Of a discur-
sive mouse" What chance has an in
tcllect Of more than mouse cadber TO
attain the full measure Of its active ca
pabiiities on such an intellectual diet?
II i almost surprising, not hat women
have done so little literary creation, but
that there Is even a George Eliot 10
point 70. Indeed she Is. in her relations
% her sex and its opportunities, alnOs.
rs unique and irresistible an ebulGtiou
Of creative genius as Shakespeare waB
among masculine heirs OF the ages, after
men had been tasting the sweets OF
higher education for thousands Of years
This writer thinks that women viii
develop creative genius in the coming
century ! a fair expectation, when we
observe that women are quick TO appre-
ciate and 70 use the equipment that ex-
perieuce gives them Instead Of being
an argument against feminine creative
genius. the prevalence Of the impress
Of personal experience in and upon the
literary work of women Is an earnest OF
coming susceptibility TO the splendid
vistas of creative thought that the
world of higher and deeper education
Is destined 70 open 70 them We find
this characteristic especially marked in
recent literature from woman's pen,
such as the southern mountain life nc
ton Of Charles Egbert CraddOck, the
New England life fiction Of Mary L
Wilkins. and the society fiction of Mrs
Burton Harrison and Mrs Cruger. Il
i Just as definitely marked in that
which approaches the creative as in that
which does not.and thus it Is not neces-
sary 10 infer that in proportion as ere
alive power Is present. viii the impress
Of experience be absent Somebody
has said that the greatest genius Is the
greatest debtor-in other words, that
genius i not so much Independence Of
environment as the spark of FIRE that
fuses into a new product the borrowed
elements. a. electricity produces n
chemical combination of hitherto disas-
ISOLATED substances. And higher edu-
cation IS giving 70 women the key Of
the laboratory instead OF handing her
now and then beggarly dole Of the
contents out Of the window