The record-union., 1893-11-03
MELANCHOLY CONCLUSION.
Work of Women With a Capital wv"
at the Fair.
An Object Lesson TO the Sex for the
Increase of Its Modesty
in the Future.
From the San Francisco Argonaut.l

From the San Francisco Argonaut.
More and more clearly the melancholy
conclusion is obtruding itself that the
labors Of those who are toiling tor the
right of woman to stand alone, with
nothing to lean on save her own capital
'W," will not end with the closing of the
Worlds Fair. To the shining eye of the
emancipated, it is evident that a gigantic,
worldwide conspiracy has been entered
into by Man-and by women with small
"w's''-to depreciate Woman's work at
the exposition, and to uphold the ex-
ploded and insulting docrine that female
has female characteristics and cannot
transform elself into male. The press
of the East seems to have enlisted for the
war, since its pages are disfgured by
many columns OF cold facts presented
with q cruel and most ungentlemanly
plainness. Here is the New York Sun.
for example, whose accomplished editor
has long enjoyed a high reputation for
good sense (manifestly undeservedl, as
serting that woman's opportunity at the
fair has resulted in failure. and that the
failure ought TO be an object lesson to the
sex for the increase OF its mOdesty. Says
the Sun, with malignant enjoyment that
it strives III vain to conceal:
For the first time in the history of the
commonw woman was recognized
by Congress in exposition matters as a
separate institution. She had exactly
what she has wanted for centuries-her
own pOcketbook and the freedom to
spend it's contents without the fear or
favor of man. The result is the most
convincing proof that she should have
been allowed to have this privilege years
ago, so that she might know better how
TO live up to it. Her committees argued
themselves into such q hopeless tangle
that the authorities were obliged TO dis
band them. Her building is nartistic in
architecture, poorly lighted, badly ar
ranged, unattractive in its interior, while
the best exhibits OF WOman'S work in
fine and liberal arts and in mechanical
invention are everywhere at the fair ex-
cept in the Woman's building"
IN the building, according to the un-
gallant Sun, confusion reigns. No fewer
than three catalogues have been prepared
and the final one is a feminine triumph.
lit is orderly, beautifully arranged, pret-
tily bound; there is only one thing wrong
with 1.-THE numbers on the articles do
not correspond with the numbers in the
catalogue" It's also deliberately affirmed
that in the distinctively feminine arts
women have not advanced step.
1.-The most exquisite laces are the price
less heirlooms sent over by the Queen of
Italy and made centuries ago by women
| who never heard Of evolution or Ibsen.
The most rare and wonderful embroid-
cries are the work of Mexican women
who never dream of the higher educa-
tion."
AS for the department which exhibits
woman's achievements as an inventor in
competition with the opposite sex, these
! ntolerable calumnies are uttered:
"If some good angel guardian of wom
ans fame could have nailed up the
door of that wretched little room, it
would have been better for wonan's
standing in the eyes of men. There is
! little to be seen save shoddy inventions of
| how 10 make bed, and wardrobe, and
washstand out of the same packing case
with a curtain of gorgeous hue hung
across the front to give the whole thing a
decorative air. The poor inventors have
patented these things, just as if their
uselessnesS were not the best kind OF pro-
lection against their being duplicated"
The Woman's Building, moreover, is
alleged to be the most unclean and the
worst in point of sanitation to be found
on the fair grounds.
OF course man wrote all these things.
No woman would have done it who is
abreast of the best thought of the time
and in warm sympathy with every move
ment for uplifting women to the joys of a
deeper, higher, rounder and squarer
existence. Nevertheless there are some
women who do not disdain to forget what
! is due the interests of the sex, and Join
| Mr.. Dana and others in the congenial toll
of rolling powders of truth into the
! pathway of progress. There is Mrs.
French-Sheldon, now, that creature who
went meandring through Africa in pal
anquin in search of adventure, without
/ 1hnr hn nnlo
mistake" she says; "there should never
have been a Woman's Building nor d
Woman Board-the Board of Lady
Damagers. Men and women should
not be partitioned off in that fashion.
They should stand together" This
slanderous critic, we may depend upon
it, will be shown up in her true colors, as
one of those traitresses who seek to make
themselves charming to tatuous man by
ridiculing the really able, ii less beauti-
! ful, of her own sex, Hear her:
1.-The sessions of the Board of Lady
Managers would disgrace bear-garden.
Imagine women yowling, kissing, maui
| ing and poking each other with their UNI
| brellas. Women must learn to amplity
their natures so that matters of parlia-
mentary rulings are not to be considered
as personalities. In this respect women
are totally different from men. .
! One thing the fair has demonstrated is
| that this is very unrepublican nation.
! The women were wild to get invitations
to the famous reception of Princess Eu-
lalie. 1 am quite proud of the fact that l
was the only woman in Chicago who de-
clined an invitation. [ have been in
! Spain and know all about the Princess. !"
The blindness of these seoffers to the
/ true cause of the defects which Woman
has exhibited at Chicago is shameful if
willful, pitiable if real. But the scales
will be removed from their eyes whether
! they wish it or not. There are few women
that have had share in the Worlds Fair
who do not write, and already they recog-
nize that the closing of the gates Of Jack
son Park will but mark the beginning of
their work for Woman. Thousands of
gifted pens will employ themselves in
| blazoning the truth that but for Man,
! Woman would have won a splendid, an
unclouded triumph at the exposition. 1t
is his tyranny, lasting through unnum-
bered centuries, which has pressed upon
Woman's intellect and robbed her of her
courage TO do and dare and be man. Ii
these critics fatter themselves that
Woman will consent to be held blamabIe
for her faults or TO be denied entire credit
for her merits, they are imperfectly ac-
quaInted with the seX-densely unappre-
ciative of that delicate nodesty which en-
ables her always to drape the nakedness
of her incapacity with the mantle OF
mans culpability.