The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-10-15
some WOMEN sCR|BES.
A Caustic Criticism Of the Anath-
smas They Launch Against
Their Sex.
Editorial Work That Is Misapplied
and Unapprsciated in
This IRA.

Enlightenment and Rsading Arc Univel
ssl-Ths Conventional womsn's Page
In the Papers.
The estimate OF the editor OF the averag
@woman's page in the newspaper is, upol
the whole. not fiattering t the intelligence
OF the sex. They have, first of all, one i'm
portant fact to learn, and that is tina
women nowadays, with few exceptions
read the entire ~paper-news, specials, cdi
itorial page and all. The woman of ordi
nary brains may not wade through Ions
congressional debates, but in this respec,
she differs little from the generality Of
men. She does, however, read the Wash
ington dispatches and is generally found
to have a pretty good idea of the attitude
of the leading political parties upon all
leading questions. This is true not only OF
the city woman, the club woman and the
teacher, but it is equally or still more true
Of farmers wives and the women of the
country towns and villages
It has been my good fortune to know
women well in nearly every walk of life
women who work with their hands, who
OCV du0 sGIuU dilu WdSus WOuleu OH VuG
farms and in the schools and colleges, both
as teachers and students, with many 9TH
crs in the professions-artists, writers, sing
ers and actors. / have had the privilege of
hearing them talk and in talking with
them upon those topics in which they are
most Interested. An eminent English
writer once said that lie gagged the intelli-
igence of a people by the proportion of gen.
seralities to personalities in their conversa-
ton. 1t is a safe test. and, moreover, one
OF those rules that work both ways.
With q knowledge of women in the
course of a profession where there are few
distinctions made, I have also had unusual
opportunity to talk with men under some
what unusua circumstances, in their Of
fees, in the excitement of political cam
paigns, in their places of business, where
weighty matters of partisan interest or
craftsmanship were being discussed, and /
am ready to affirm that it was difficult to
decide in whose conversation, that of men
or women, personalities most abound.
Many years ago, while connected with a
country paper, l went one day in the week
to the courthouse to collect news relating
to the appointment Of guardians and adj
ministrators and similar informafion. Ire
call wildly that upon these rounds I fire.
quently gathered up more town gossip than
] ever heard at all the church socials and
tea drinkings l managed to attend between
times. "They say' was quite as mysterious
and authoritative within the stronghold Of
Justice as it was in the parlors of my wom-
en friends.
If a wife left her husband, if a husband
deserted his wife, if there were %irregulari-
ties in the conduct of any man or woman
in the town-particulariy of any woman
it was known to the clerks and lawyers in
that courthouse for some time before it be-
came a common topic for feminine gossip.
do not intend by this statement to re
fleet upon either men or women, but to
show what I have always believed, because
it has been so unvaryingly demonstrated
that is, that there is a vast deal Of human
nature in both men and women. Taking
into account the difference Of their train
ing "a vital matter always, men and wonl-
en- are interested in about the same things.
1t is also to be borne in mind that within
the past 20 years the public schools have
don an immense deal toward broadening
women's minds, enlightening them and
giving them q capacity for the intelligent
consideration of questions beyond dress and
personalities. / do not mean that they
have lost their interest in either of these
the woman who has no regard for personal
appearance is less han half a woman-but
they are interested quite as deeply in much
besides.
= For this reason the conventional page. in
nine cases out of ten, is an insult to both
head and heart. Conspicuous in it's columns |
are hideous caricatures of fashion, women
with wasp waists, ~attenuated arms and
faces as expressionless as a piece of paper.
With these edifying illustrations are ar
ticles dealing with the insincerity of wom-
ems character, with their Observation-Disclosures
and cruelty toward each other; their fea-
lures, their stupid and senseless blunders,
with dissertations upon their lack of hon
esty, intersperscd with others on some such
Afraid of Nicer"
Mrs. Lynn Lynton is a ~favorite critic
whose bitter and disloyal anathemas
against her own sex only prove a nature
warped and soured and therefore incapable
of making a just estimate of anything per
tanning to women. Marion Harland. who
has almost equaled Mrs. Lynton in her Sc
verify, is another contributor to the aver
age woman's page. Still other contribu-
tions, | regret to say, are from the pens of
younger women, who in abusing and be-
Hitting their sister women, whom they do
not know and whose friendship they have
never sought or valued, imagine that thew
are proving their own mental superiority
and hope thus to curry favor with the crit
ics of the other sex.
If these beginners had the confidence of
women which their own disloyalty and hos
tility forbids, they would learn that a good
deal Of the common sense of this world is
the heritage of women who possibly make
no great professions to culture or mental
superiority. The farmers wife NOWADAYS
discusses the silver question and the tariff
with her husband. Working women are
Interested in educational and philanthropic
questions. and it is upon these themes.
quite as much as upon personal topics and
matters pertaining to the toilet, that they
read and talk. 1t would be well for those
who undertake. to cater intellectually for
the women of the country to cultivate their
acquaintance individually and collectively.
Mary II. krout in Chicago Inter Ocean.
An Oppressive Butler.
Many funny stories have been told of the
maneuvers practiced by women of fashion
and position to capture a real English but
Ter, and if he happened to be the castoff
servant of anoble family their satisfaction
was supreme. This mania has been dcvel-
<pnn.l IN oct r, 70 1V.s rt1r ~