The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-07-05
SEX RELATIONSHIP.
"A CALM AND DlsPAsSIoNATE VIEW OF
1.-THE WOMAN QUESTION:"

of Ancient Greece and Rome.
The rights and wrongs of women are
now debated with vigor and virulence
which increase every day. Those who
demand for women not only all the priv
ileges which men possess. but also con-
tinued exemption from their response
bilities, would carry the principle of fe-
male emancipation to point which has
aroused opposition on the part of many
who in every great question OF the day
are admittedly leaders of the l,arty of
progress. While the contest RACES as to
whether women are to know, say and do
everything that the coarsest of men can,
or, on the other hand, be kept completely
in the background, people are apt to for
get what is really the crucial point of
the whole question.
They forget that the position of wom-
en-, and of men, too, for that matter,
is inseparably bound up with the rela-
tionships between the sexes known as
marriage; are apt to forget the impor-
lance of that relationship not only to in
dividuals, but to the state; are apt to
forget that too rigorous subsection OF
women may bring us near to barbarism.
that corruption which has 80 often in
the worlds history been the outcome OF
a civilization which has not placed due
restraint on the passions and impulses.
The prosperity of country depends
on the proper maintenance of the rela-
tions between husband and wife quite
as much as on its outer strength, and
however great and powerful country
30 no 6
lions are unhealthy, if the wife has not
her place in the social polity, that coun-
try is rotten to the core, and its complete
decay and Generalization are inevitable.
Speaking generally, there are four as
poets or ideals of the status of the wife
-four ways in which her position is re-
garded by men.
There is the method of the barbarian,
that of the oriental, that of western civ
iliZation, that of corrupt civilization,
which last is practically the degraded
form of the third. The barbarian re-
CARDS his wife as a mere slave-a squaw
to cook his food, carry his burdens, sub
NIT to his i'll usage. The oriental sees in
his wife plaything to crafty his pas
sions. to be kept in the strctest seclu-
sion, and to be treated altogether as a
brainless being: regarded by him, in
fact, so far as any respect is concerned,
much as the squaw is regarded by the
savage.
From the third point of view the wifes
position is very different True, she is
the mother of her husbands children;
true, she has duties to perform which
her husband would disdain; true, her
husband is the head of the family, and
she bears his name. But with all this
she is looked upon as her husbands
equal, is the sharer of his counsels. his
intelligent partner and has a right to ex-
pect from him the fidelity which in the
case of the savage or the oriental is SO
one sided.
The credit of placing this view of mar
ried life before mankind has been
claimed by Christian writers for their
religion. But although we must admit
that Christianity has done much to i'm
prove the position of woman. yet the
high ideal which we have termed that of
western civilization existed in IA very
strong degree in ancient Greece, still
more strongly among the Romans and
the nations of western Europe whom
they conquered and civilized long before
Christianity was preached and the noble
qualities which we admire III those races
may often be directly traced to the in
fiuencc of wives and mothers.
But high as is this ideal. history shows
that there are dangers which threaten
those societies where it prevails; dan
ger the outcome of that very civilization
which it has done SO much to perfect.
Luxury, prosperity, too great liberty,
want or mutual respect and continual
STRIVING after new sensations are too art
to destroy that wholesome state of things
which has been the palladium of every
great nation. and we too often have ex-
arnples of the fourth ideal, which. though
sprlnging from the third. is so distinct
from 1t that 1T deserves TO be classed by
Itself. Where Il wife is no longer con
tent with taking her share in the battle
OF life. no longer content to recognize
the fact that there are things which it
better becomes the woman 10 do than
the man, and vice versa; when she insists
on Gping and sharing the follies and
wees OF the man, on casting from her
that modesty and reserve which are
woman's greatest charms; when she
spnrns maternity and domestic duties as
trivial or monotonous, then indeed the
marriage state must fall into disrepute;
then the fatherland must surely suffer
1t was this which led to the unspeak-
able horrors of imperial Rome; it was
the unsexed women, their profigacy only
equaled by their audacity, who were re-
sponable as much as Nero and Domi-
tlan themselves for the downfall of Ro-