St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-14


ri Simon makes it
III very clear that
~ Fren II III IL
hold that reli-
gion is matter
Tor women. says Bessie Bramble in the
PittSburg Dispatch. France, he main
tains, remained a Christian country
after the revolution. and since the es-
adjustment of the republic. only
through the women, who are in that
country the defenders and supporters
of the faith.
A constant effort is being made by
those i'll authority-the socialists, the
politicians. the phiIOscphers-to abolish
all laws based upon the union of church
and state. or, as he pats it, combining
divine with human legislation, or unit
ing earth with God TO the further
ance of this end they are taking the
schools out of the hands OF the clergy,
they are driving the cliaplains out OF the
army, they are forcing the Sisters of
Charity out of the hospitals. They are
determined to have no God-in-the-con-
stitution, and to thoroughly break up
the union of church and state.
Checked Only by tho Women.
They. in short. 60 as far in this mat
ter as the women vii allow them. If
the good sisters would let the men
alone, we are told, not man would be
married in church. not accept the bonds
of marriage at the hands of a clergy
man. If the women did not insist upon
1t there would be no religious rites at
funerals. In Difference 10 the women,
men yield so far as the forms of Ie!ig-
ion go. To preserve peace in the family
they dare not, says Simon. go too far in
opposition to the church. Louis Phi
lippe, as the story is told, in endeavor
ing to settle one Of the fights with the
JeSuits, told his cabinet that he cared
very little what was done as long as
they did not get lin into hot water
with his good queen
From this picture of France. presented
by an able writer. it looks very much as
If the French heaven-beyond the skies
will be given over mainly to the
women. while the fathers, husbands and
sons will spend the countless agents of
eternity amid the QuenchIess fires of
hades. This scheme of future happi-
lness-with the men mostly left out
will hardly commend itself to the good
sisters who are fond of the beloved
brethren and desire their company, but
If the conditions OF things in France is
such as represented, it would seem as if
there could be no other orthodox or logi-
cal outcome.
spanish en- VIII Be BroiIed, Too.
Another able writer OH the subject of
the Women of SPAIN says that relig-
ion in that country is largely confined
TO the women. Men there, it is said,
claim freedom of choice. They are
free-thinkers, materialStS, Skeptics,
what they will, but they insist upon it
that their wives. sisters and daughters
must be piouS and attend to all of their
religious duties regularly and faithfully.
The brethren there feel themselves
privileged by virtue of their superiority
to break down the barriers of belief, to
throw off the restraints of religious
duty, to arrange their lives to suit them
selves by an ''elastic moral system" of
their own devising, but the ideal woman
of Spain TO her cOuntrymen is ''pious,
docile and Ignorant
During the last century it was cOnsid-
cred dangerous to permit girl TO learn
TO read and write, Oh the score that if
able to do so she might peradventure
correspond with sweetheart. A
salutary ignorance, absolute submission
10 father or husband, devotion to the
practices of religion, self sacrifice, self
effacement were considered the highest
virtues of women. Ii they could read,
they were confined to the prayer book
and the catcchiSm. This was the
''classic type"of the Eighteenth century,
and the men of today, says the writer,
have hot become resigned or recon-
Ciled to any change or evolution in
women. 1.-The model wife of today is
the same as she was 100 years ago, -
Notwithstanding the changes OF laws,
manners and customs. However radi-
cal Spaniard may be himself. how
ever much lie may have changed with
the temper of the times, however revo-
lutionary III Sentiment-he hangs on de-
termendiy to the old ideal woman who
must be ignorant, obedient aud pious
Men-and not few there are-Who
have not been to confession themselves
for thirty years would be greatly
shocked if their wives did not faithfully
attend 10 this bounden church duty.
HEen are TricAed Into Church.
Only women, says our writer, assist at
the religious exercises, such as mo
venas" and celebrations. While the
women are inside taking part in the
services OF the church the men loaf
around the outside To such an extent
have they abandoned the neld of re-
ligion to women only-says this writer
upon the women OF Spain-that the
clergy have invented trick when they
wish to secure male congregation.
This is done by announcing lecture
for men only, because the subject, as to
science, OF morals. or philosophy, is too
profound for the women to comprehend.
Thus delicately f1attered, and tickled by
their vanity of superior intelligence,
the men are inveigled into church oc-
casionally and thus get taste of re-
iigiouS instruction.
INT NH 10 4,
being pious, they do not want them too
much so, for many of them are Jealous
of the influence of the clergy, and to
this cause is owing much to the domeS-
tic irfeIicity of Spain.
Only two professions are open to
women i'll Spain-that of tobacconist
and queen" To these have recently
been added those of telegraph and tele-
phone clerks. The miidie-class wom-
en-, like those of France. have an indy
ing desire to be ladies, and an ambition
TO do nothing at all in the way of MAX
Ing living. Labor for money is by
them considered degrading and dis
graceful. However poor they may be,
the daughters would lose caste if they
should go behind a counter or engage
I'm any employment outside of the home
Marriage the Pursuit in France.
Nothing rs open TO the girls or this
class but marriage. and if the looming
man" does not appear their hopes lie
dead and dire misfortune marks them
for her own. Marriage being the only
pursuit open to Them and with no aspir-
alton beyond. the whole family engage
In the work of getting the girls off their
hands. Meals are stinted, and all man-
ner of pinching economies are prac-
ticed in order that they may dress hand
somely and appear at the opera, aud go
into society in such style as will best