The morning call., 1893-09-17
WHY WOMEN FEAR MICE.
A Brief Essay in Which the Question
Is Not Answered.
London Woman


As woman, and l trust brave one, a
lover of animals, and student of natural
history, L ask the vexed question in all
seriousness, Why are women afraid of
mice? Why should the sight q had almost
written the name) of a tiny. harmless,
graceful little creature strike terror into
the stoutest hearts that beat in feminine
breasts? Echo answers. "Why2" The
fear of mice.is an hereditary curse, an in
herited weakness, fatal foe, which it is
useless TO combat, a foolish dread Of which
we ought to feel heartily ashamed, and yet
it is a real and formidable terror 1t is
never assumed. 1t may be exaggerated by
nj OF Mysteries, or succession of pierre
Ing screams, but the genuine Deur faire
fremir is there all the same, and why?
l remember once reading a story about
coterIe OF strong minded women who gave
series OF lectures upon female virtues in
an old country town assem- bly-rO0m. One
of their number was chosen 10 deliver the
lecture On valOI and selected for her sub
ject the history of Joan of Arc. But when
the evening arrived and she was dlscOurS-
ing upon the valOr of her sex IN general a
mouse ran across the platform and the
lecturer ana her strong-minded sisters
jumped on TO their chairs. ciutchlng their
petticoats in a hammer not altogether
picturesque. But / maintain that the fear
the lack of real bravery, and that Joan of
Arc would probably have clutched her
petticoats in precisely the same manner.
mouse in the chamber of Marat would,
/ believe, have deferred Charlotte Corday
from her dread purpose; aud the tail of
one popping opportuneIy from the carving
uf Tuillia's chariot would have prevented
her from driving over her fathers corpse;
and / could cite many instances In which
mice might have changed the history of
the world. Who can doubt that Cleopatra
and the other swarthy Egyptian beauties
held the sacred cat In special yeneration
on account of the part he played of ridding
them of their pet aversion Every one
knows that IL a cat has a weakness it is
for plump, well-matured mouse, and puss
has, perhaps. for this reason earned the
affections, because of tue gratitude, of cur
sex.
The story of prisoner who was cheered
in captivity by a mouse is familiar 10 us
ail-but the prisoner was man. Equally
familiar Is the fable of the grateful mouse
which gnawed the net, out agaln-the
prisoner is said to have been lion. not IL
lioness. l believe there is mutual anti
patny between them.
Most women have experienced the sem
Satlon. You are sitting alone reading,
playing. writing, painting or working.
Suddenly you instnctivey feel sensa-
tion OF horror of some evil influence that
is present, but as yet unseen.
You lift your eyes. You behold, gliding
over the carpet toward you, without noise,
apparently without the trouble of walking,
a mouse. 1t stops, it fasclnates you. You
drop your book, your music, your brush,
your needle. whatever 1t may be, but YOU
make no other sound. You feel your
blood freeze, and your limbs slowly para
lyZe; your heart stops beating, your
breath ceases. a cold chill crpeps over you.
In your Imagination you feel the soft
touch of an army of mice running races
over your face and hands and making
nests in your back hair. You start to your
feet anG then we'll,
women take these things so differently.
Are women afraid of mice simply be-
cause 1t is born in them? There is no rea-
SON why we should be afraid OF them, but
the TACT remains that we are, and have
long since resigned myself 20 the fact, as
an evil for which there is III remedy.