Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-01-12
WOMEN NO LONGER FAINT.

=
! That ~, LOT /" ne Extent to which They
/ Nd ft -" -" Ei"hte~uth Century.
A writer in the New York Critic calls
attention to the way in which Fielding's
| Amelia" surpasses all other heroines
Of fiction in her power Of swOOning at
the smallest-as well as the largest
I prOvOcatiOn. She is always swooning
and fainting. To be sure, her trials are
many and great. She faintS or sWOOns
/ when her lover proposes; she faints
when her mother refuses her consent;
she faints when the captain goes to the
! wars; she faintS when she visits him in
: the SpOnging-hOuSe. Now, in all the
novels of the last century, and in a
great many novels OF this, the women
go off in faint at every moment of
! emotion and surprise. We see Mrs.
| Bardell fainting in Mrs. Pickwick' s
at one time supposed TO be the correct
thing to show signs of faintness at every
! surprise, and this long after the time of
Amelia. Mrs. Veneering faintS on hear
| ing that her husband has become an
NJ. P. But was it always a sham? Did
| the sweet and tender Amelia counter
! felt these swoOns? Did other ladies be-
! lieve like the tender Amelia?
| My theory, says Walter Besant in the
! st. Louis POSt-DiSpatch, based upon a
| large study of eighteenth century nov
els and letters and biographies, is that,
down to quite recent times, men and
women alike were much more ungOv-
erned than they are now. We find GER
| tain evidence that all the emotions
/ love, rage, jealousy, despair, hatred, re-
venge-were manifested 100 years ago
| far more violently than we can at pres
ent understand. / do not believe that
Amelia slammed, and | do believe that
! all ladies behaved in her time i'll much
! the same way. Why then, if [ am
! right are we so much more Sef-re-
! strained than we We're. Why do we
bear the blows and accept the favors
of fortune with so much more stoicism?
There are many reasons. First of all,
we feel things less; Fortunes frOwns
do not in a general way mean such
dreadful things as they did; there is a
much thicker shield between us and the
| depths; there is no debtors prison, for
| instance; there is q vast amount Of
| accumulated wealth; a family in its
third generation of success is guarded
| by these accommodations and by ties OF
blood against all kinds of surprises; a
very great number of families never
dread poverty at all. This makes a
great difference. The annals Of the last
century are full of the most frightful
and the most sudden reverses.
Again, people have far less power
than they had. Men used to kick their
Wallets, ladies used to beat their maids.
When you could do that, there was
some sense in falling into a rage royal.
| But now one can not enjoy that luxury.
| Again, we now drink much less wine
and beer and strong waters than we did.
| Ladies when they took these things, as
they used to take them, regularly and
! freely, were much more emotional than
in these days when they take nothing.
| And we take more exercise, and we
have made the exhibition of emotion
ridiculous-men used to weep cOpiOuSly
and loudly on occasions when they
| would now be ashamed so much as to
shuttle; we no longer fight-less than
100 years ago men were always quar-
reling in public places, and fighting with
fists and chairs and whatever else came
handy.
To all these things add the extended
use of that salutary herb, tobacco-with
perhaps-I do not know-some soften
ing of manners, some Improvement In
the minor morals, and we may under
stand a little how and why we have
learned to control our tempers and to
refrain-the men from RACES and the
women from fainting.