The record-union., 1893-10-13
WHY DO WOMEN FEAR MIoB2.
A Woman's Essay in Vain Attempt
to Answer the Question.

Woman's Essay in q Vain Attempt
to Answer the Question.
As a woman, and l trust brave one,
lover of animals and a student of natural
history, L ask the veXed question in all
seriousness. Why are women afraid OF
mice says writer in London lPOBldn.
Why should the sight Il had almost writ
ten the name) of tiny, harmless, grace
ful little creature strike terror into the
stoutest hearts that beat in feminine
breasts? Echo answers: "WhyW The
fear Of mice is 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 oe exager
ated by fit of Mysteries or succession
OF piercing screams, but the genuine
peur faire fremir is there all the same
and why? l remember once reading
story about coterie Of strong minded
women who gave a series of lectures upon
female virtues in an old country town
assent mbly-rOom. One of their number
was chosen to deliver lecture on valor,
and selected for subject the history Of
Joan OF Arc. But when the evening ar
rived and she was discoursing upon the
valor of her sex in general, mouse ran
across the platform and the lecturer and
their chairs, clutching their petticoats in
a manner not altogether picturesque.
But maintain that the fear of mice has
nothing whatever to do with the lack of
real bravery, and that Joan of Arc would
probably have clutched her petticoats in
precisely the same manner.
a mouse in the chamber of Marat
would, believe, have deferred Charlotte
Corday from her dread purpose; and the
fol nf On ifrr lxy too
carving of Tuilla's chariot would have
prevented her from driving over her
fathers corpse; and l could cite many
instances in which mice might have
changed the history of the world. Who
can doubt that Cleopatra and other
swarthy Egyptian beauties held the
sacred cat in veneration on account Of
the part he played i'll ridding them of
their pet aversion? Everyone knows
that if cat has weakness it is for
plump, well-matured mouse, and puss
has, perhaps. for this reason earned the
affections, because the gratitude, of our
sex. The story of a prisoner who was
cheered in captivity by a mouse is tamil-
lar to us all-but the prisoner was man.
Equally familiar is the fable of the CRATE
full mouse which gnawed the net, but
again-the prisoner is said to have been
lion, not lioness. l believe there in a
mutual antipathy between them.
Most women have experienced the
sensation. You are sitting alone, read
ing, playing, writing, painting or work.
ing. Suddenly you instinctively feel
sensation,of horror Of some evil influence
that is present but as yet unseen.
You lift your eyes. You behold, glid-
ing over the carpet toward you, without
noise, apparently without the trouble of
walking, a mouse. 1t stops, it fascinates
you. You drop your book, your music,
your brush, your needle, whatever it
may be, but you make no other sound.
You feel your blood freeze and your
limbs slowly paralyze, your heart stops
beating, your breath ceases, cold chill
creeps over you. In your imagination
you feel the soft touch of an army of mice
running races over your face and hands
and making nesls in your back hair.
You start to your feet . and then
well, women take these things
so differently. Are women afraid of
mice simply because it is born in them?
There is no reason why we should be
afraid of them, but the fact remains that
we are, and l have long since resigned
myself to the fact as an evil for which
there is no remedy.