The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-03-17
IN W0MAN'S BEHALF.
woMAN's FAULTS AND VIRTUES.
What One Man Thinks of Some of the
Current Criticisms on the Fair Sex.

would do if woman should happen to
grow so perfect that there remained
nothing more to be said of her. Our
I magazines and newspapers fairly bristle
with articles about her at the present
time. Now it is woman's this and then
IL is woman's that First she is lauded
up TO the skies, and then she is pulled
down again in hurry AS a whole,
the sight is quite an interesting one,
but it would have more interest if the
owners of the pens who write these ar
ticles had little clearer conception of
their subject A witty French writer
has said that man always writes best
on n subject of which he knows the
least, but even this is untrue of some of
the articles on woman which l have
read within the past few weeks.
1t is possible that the large increase
in absolutely nonsensical articles writ
ten about women nowadays is due to
the growing desire among periodicals
of all classes to eater to woman and
the home" A periodical of the present
day is no longer complete without a
''woman's column" a ''woman's page"
a ''woman's department" or some
feature" which will have the feminine
| air about it, and bring that paper into
| the home and enable the business de-
partment to tell its advertisers that the
/ paper has "a home circulation" The
consequence is that more pens are
! writing about woman and her interests
! to-day than ever before. In one re-
{ spcct this is an excellent tendency, for
! the more woman is written about in
| diligently, the more will her worth be
! appreciated by the world at large. But
mark, say ''intelligently.' To discuss
i her life and interests in the manner
; done in scores of cases to-day, is simply
/ to bring upon the paper printing the
stuff the ridicule and condemnation of
/ the sex to which it is catering. Women
/ can bear criticism, and bear it bravely,
when they realize that the criticism is
4 fair one. They bear it far better than
do men. But they resent and justly
So, many of the imputations which are
allowed to be printed in some of the
; best periodicals of to-day. If these
| lapses of accuracy were simple errors,
women might forgive them. But will
ful misinterpretation vies with abso-
lutte ignorance. The most amateur girl
writers would not make the assertions
that are advanced by men supposed to
be logical and of good mental capacity.
will, with a few illustrations, point
out more clearly my meaning.
One of our most carefully edited re-
views, in recent issue, printed an arti-
Gle in which the writer chose to make !
the following statement: THE most |
careful search among authoritative sta |
tistics plainly points to one condition, |
and proves it: that the true source of |
more than three-quarters of all the |
great commercial defalcations and fail |
ures during the past twenty years was |
woman's extravaganza" Now, this |
statement is made by one of the most
careful writers of the day, man who
is accepted in the world of thought as
an erudite scholar and an authority on
the question he discusses. Yet no state
ment is more utterly false on its face.
i have taken the pains to gain access to
precisely the same authoritative sta
tistics" from which this writer forInu-
lated his opinion, and this is the phrase
used, which he has chosen to twist into
an accusation against woman: Our
conviction IS that when the great COM
mercial disasters of the past twenty
years in America are traced to their
true source, it will be found that they
are due principally and almost entirely,
to 4 false position sustained in the
home Whether such a deduction is
justified by the facts is not the present
aim of these comments, except that l
am quite ready and willing to question
its accuracy. But to put "a false posi-
ton sustained in the home entirely
upon the shoulders of woman and
parade her before the world as willful
breaker of business interests, is as silly
as it is unjust.
Another wise sage, in a prominent
magazine, discusses the question of
woman's dress, and concludes his deduc-
tions by telling his readers that Amer
lea is the most overdressed nation on
the globe, and that American women
were never more outrageously over
dressed than at the present day" In
deedi Strange how some writers have
a way of acquiring exclusive informa-
ton withheld from the rest of the craft
Now, the simple fact is, as every woman
knows, that not for the past twenty
years has there been a time when the
fashions were more simple, more arts
tic, more picturesque and more service
able than at this very day. 1t was only
a week since that one of the most prom
inent women's tailors in New York was
bewailing to me the fact that the sim
plicity of the immediate styles allowed
of SO few extras" and consequently
a decrease in his profits. 81 confess, he
said, that women have never, within
my experience, dressed more sensibly.
But our harvest is in the fancy modes
and what you term the far-fetched,'
and of this class of dressing there has
not for years been SO little as there is
this season." And yet the writer whom
/ have quoted bewails the very thing
which the best authorities concede does
not exist.
The timeliness of this writer's infor-
nation also appealed very strongly to
me. The article in question was writ
ten, as | ascertaincd, in December,
1892, and printed in January, 1898, and
yet this critic of the fashions was still
the bell skirt" and the box
coat" lie says: These filth-accumu-
lators and grotesquely-hideous gar
ments are to be seen on every prone
made" Are they? Where. pray2 Then
he say: There was a beauty about
the Empire styles when they were !
worn so largely a few years ago \
few years ago! Then the present En-
pire rage IS only delusion. Again this