Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1892-05-20
TRIED TO DEFINE WoMANt.I NEss,
They Were All Women, But They Couldn't
Explain Their Own Attributes.

Auey were All women, BuJ Ihey COuldnv
Explain Their Own Attributes.
1t was that blessed hour just before
bedtime when women take down their
back hair, don their peignoirs, and
gather around the fire to exchange con-
lidences. There was some delicious tea
going on this particular occasion, and
under its inspiring influence each wom-
an present laid aside herusual reserve
and said exactly what she thought
For this reason it was memorable
night. They broke up in dispute,
however, and it happened this way:
Everything had gone on beautifully
until one demure woman on the hearth
rug said:
81 say, what do you mean when you
call woman womanly?"
There was long pause-a notable
fact, and one which entirely upsets the
ridiculous male theory that there are
no women in heaven just because it
says somewhere in Revelation that
there was silence in heaven about
the space of half an hour, and then
some one said: "Um-er-well, it
means to be feminine"
Nonsense said the demure woman,
briskly. THAT is all very well to say,
and indicates an intimate acquaintance
with Webster, but look at Mrs. X. If
anybody could be more daintily fem
mime than she, I'd like to see her. And
yet she's as hard as nails. You can't
call her womanly."
o." said another, sit means to do
things in womans way.
"Ah! To be womanish, ELI? Wrong
again!" said the demure little fiend on
the hearth-rug.
"Well, l." said third, SHOULD say
that womanliness is sort of mystic
quality which makes woman like to
feel the pressure of baby's head or a
mans face close against her heart"
"Still wrong That is the maternal
instinct, pure and simple"
Womanliness, remarked another
woman mcditatively, sis an indefinable,
intangible, vague, mysterious something
which is woman's greatest charm.
Without it she can never hope to please
either the men or her own SEX"
Rubbish! There is Miss z. You
couldn't call her womanly She's too
mannish, too masculine in her tastes
and amusements, and yet defy you to
| find girl who has more friends among
both men and women than She"
1t was plumb, pretty brunette,
curled up on the bed, who made the
next remark.
"Womanliness," she said, "means
gentleness, helpfulness, tact, love for
little children, a soothing, restful man.
ner, "a voice that is low and touch
that is SOFT"
''No, | think womanliness means to
keep ones body and ones soul clean, y
said the woman who believes in Turk
ish baths and the efficacy of prayer
Let Inc quote Owen Meredith" put
in aIother.
| TO sweetly infuse
Through the sorrow and sin of earth's regis
tered curse,
The blessing which mitigates all; born to nurse
And to soothe, and to solace, to help, and tC
heal
The sick world that leans on her.
That is woman's mission, and
think her doing that or not doing il
makes her womanly or unwomanly, as
the case may be"
"Wcll, what made you think Of il
anyway" demanded one of the women
IN answer you with question,
said the woman on the hearthrug
Would you call me womanly?"
Mo- shouted all the women.
Exactly! agree with you. Posi-
bly, that is why have been all my life
studying other women in order to dis
cover just what quality or qualities
they possessed which entitled them tc
the adjective 'womanly.' | have never
been able, with all my study, to satisfy
myself, and therefore never able to cul
tivate that grace in myself, Imagine
my establishment, then, the other day
when someone called me womanly."
"Tll wager that somebody was mar
WHO is in love with you," said the pref
ty brunette.
"Why? o, because men in love have
no discrimination and no sense, any
how"
And then everybody entered pro
test, and the party broke up in the
widest eonfusion.-Chicago Tribune,