The Van Buren press., 1893-10-14
IN W0MAN'S BEHALF.
THE INCAPABLE WOMAN.
She Is . Decided Anachronism and Never
Wears Well.

y
Wears Well.
Nowhere outside of an oldfashioned
romance is there spot in the world
where the incapable woman can to-day
maintain foothold. In the leisurely
three-volume novel, dear to our grand
parents, Arabella and Araminta, gen.
tie, pallid, timid submissive creatures,
fully in their chairs at the slightest ex-
cuse for such behavior. TO swoon with
ease was regarded as proof of ele-
gance and as distinctive line marking
the difference between the milkmaid
and the lady born and bred. Possibly
the tight lacing then in vogue aided
the lady in her ability to perform this
part of her role to the satisfaction of
the spectators, who were usually with
In the receding vision of the fainting
and fragile being, whose delicate nerves
were proof a"ainst neither terrors by
night nor shocks by day.
Frankly, we doubt whether the old
novelists were quite fair in their por
traiture of the current life of their
times. We find Jennie Deans able to
undertake a long, difficult, and every
way arduous journey, reaching its end
rs fresh and hearty and full of pur-
pose and courage as at the beginning,
her beauty not marred by hardship and
loss of rest Mary, Queen of Scots, was
able to sit for hours in the saddle, no
cavalier of her period riding harder or
faster or more bravely than the bold
and beautiful queen. The famous
woman who made the court of France
splendid during successive changes and
revolutions were not frail die-away
creatures of ghostlike hues and will
lowy outlines; they were substantial
f1esh-and- blood women, equal to all
the dangers and perilous adventures
which are often their portion.
Recalling the much harder conditions
of housekeeping of the times of our
grandmothers and of their mothers be-
fore them, we are impressed with the
fact that the women who surmounted
successfully so many obstacles must
have been made of really tough fiber.
The modern appliances which give us
everything for our ia bles in highly con-
densed and beautiful forms, ready for
use, with the minimum of preparation,
were then unknown. They pounded
the pepper and pulverized the sugar
and rolled the salt, So far from having
electric lights to command at the touch
of a mysterious knob, they had not
even lucifer matches The fire had to
be kept in by strenuous care, and some
times one went to her neighbors to bor-
row handful of fire with which to
light her own, Nothing was easy
Everything required hard, persevering,
and unremitting labor, so that we may
well believe that the women OF that
elder day were far from being incap-
able.
Once Upon time, too, there was in
the air general impression that the
women of our southern states were a
languid, indolent set of people, seldom
aroused to effort, accustomed to much
personal service, and never expecting
nor expected to fare on anything less
dainty than the roses and lilies Of
life. "1'hey lie still and are famed"
would have been the phrase used to
describe them by some of that outer
world beyond the magnolia and the
crepe-myrtle, the cotton bloom and the
tasselled corn, of the beautiful and
mysterious southern land.
This impression has been demon
strated over and over to have been en-
tirely and completely a mistake.
Southern women seldom had the oppor-
tunity to be specially idle or luxurious
Their large households developed in
them rare talent for administration.
They had to care for crowd of grown
up children in the persons Of their serv-
ants, people improvident and irrespon-
sible, who depended on the house-mis-
tress as on mother, and when the
war was over and times had changed
for them, our southern friends dis
played of what stuff they were made
Eminently capable, wherever tried they
have shown that they can take care of
themselves admirably.
Incapable women may, for the brief
season of youth, while the sea-shell
color tints the rounded cheek and the
beaute de didble beams in the bright eyes,
win passing tribute from thoughtless
men. But the women who wear well
must know how to meet emergencies,
how to order and see their orders obey
ed, how to hold themselves in calm
composure, whatever tempests are
abroad. The incapable woman was
| oavar so much an anachrOniSm aS to-