The morning call., 1893-06-11


hath builded better than he knew. and, by
this apparently iale question. has laid the
cornerstone of an edfce of verites.
Is woman the coming man?
Anyway you think of it the question is
startling one OF course, there can be out
ore answer to such q query. Its jest
upon the face Of il. Woman<-lovely
woman. frail woman, defenseless woman.
gentle woman-has always been subservi-
ent to man, the dominant, and. therefore,
always will be.
But suppose-just suppose. for the sake
of argument-that the conclusion is not
foregone. People who have grown weary
of the Ibid Bacon write Shakespeare ?"
controversy NAV find this question pleae-
ing change from the old. threadoare query.
Is woman the coming man?
First of all what do we mean Dy that
phrase, so familiar to US all. the coming
man 2"
Since ever the world began the forces OF
evolution have been steadily, mysterlousiy
at work to produce the ultimate OF achieve
ment-the perfect type of the highest Or
der. Beyond all contraventlon the hlghest
order in the scale of being to-day IS man:
By what rounds and stages he has climbed
the evolutionary ladder to the heights
where he now dwels we may read III tne
records of the rocks = on the widely
open page of nature. BY what further
steps the race may yet ascend 10 periee-
ton of type we may judge from those thae
it has already surmounted, but OF the Two
divisions of the race which to-day is doing
the climbing?
So far, in the history of human develop
ment man has been the race. we all want
to speak of woman as being nall the race.
She has not been even half the race. Sucn
life as she has lad, up to the beginning OF
the latter half of the last century, has been
wholly in relation to man. She has peen
absolutely and wholly his, and IN the lie
which really makes man hunan-the men
tai, political, creative, constructive lie,
whereby man and man have established
broad human relationships, she has had
no part.
In the life of the sexes-the domestic
life-the life of his personal emotions and
relations. man. granting hlm a hlgher
plane, is still only animal. The beasts OF
the field have in common with him sexual
love, selection. love and guardianship for
their young. and in many Instances. the
Instinct that provides and maintains
home for mate and little ones.
1t is not these that make man human.
Yet in this side of the racial life. and in
this only, has woman participated. She
has lived and loved and suffered and tolled
for-man. She has cared for, helped, COM
forted and sustained-man. She has
been dependent upon - man. His
work in life - his interests, his
endeavors have been for--the race.
Hers have been-for him. Half the race
she is numerically. half the race she has
been called sentimentally, but half OF
humanity she never has been. In all that
goes TO make up humanity she has been
less than human.
The sub-human woman, however, is be-
coming obsolete. She exists in large
numbers to-day-but the type is in pro-
cess of evolution. From Harriet Mart-
neau concealtng her Identity lest admirers
of her strong, vigorous English should
consider her unwomanly, and Mrs. Bar
bauld. timidly deprecating the thought
that she had "overStepped the bounds of
female reserve in becoming an author"
to such women as crown and honor this
last decade of the nineteenth century is
not such very long cry. Yet the few
years that span between that time and
this comprehend the early dawn OF the
day, the nOontide splendor of which we
can as yet but family guess at. when
human woman shall really take her place
IN the human world.
The coming man Will be the perfect
race type, the being who is most highly J
and completely human. Just what the |
coming man will be like we do not know.
We do know that he will be pre-eminent. |
He will represent the highest and greatest
development of the race-the sum total OF |
all that has gone before OF learning, of
attainment and endeavor. All that has |
been, all that will be, until he appears
has been-will be to the end that the !
coming man shall come.
Will woman be the coming manP
Let US see what are the indications.
Since the world began women as class
have been subordinate to men. | know |
there have been exceptions. | know that |
1t is un scientific to speak of women as
class, but the exceptions have been few
and far between in the long ages of femi- |
nine existence-and the circumstances of |
life have made of womankind a class as
distinctive as the upper, lower or middle |
class of English society.
But few short years have women been |
free to come aud go, to have and to hold, |
to bind and to loose. aud their freedom,
even thus far, has been but comparative, |
but in these few years they have come for |
ward with giant strides.
Woman has not yet the right of suffrage.
She has no power to say, by her vote, |
what she will or will not have done in the |
place where she pays taxes Yet in eyery |
city, town and hamlet in the land men. |
with the ballot In their hands, are calling |
out 10 the women to come and help them |
put down the wrongs with which they can
not combat alone. What the voters in the |
city of Oakland could not do to compel |
the public officials they had put in power
to respect their will, the women of that
city accomplished the other day by sheer
moral loTCe-anu Jne INFAMOUS po0lrOOm |
ordinance was repealed. In every re-
form, every charity. every educational |
movement in the country, the women are
coming to the front, and men are stepping |
back to see them succeed where they had |
failed.
Mentally women are coming into line |
with men, aud that, very rapidly. Ii used !
to be sweet feminine ignorance that looked |
on and listened in silence while masculine |
superiority discOursed. Now the weaker |
vessel is showing rather discerning abil- |
ity TO meet and cope with the masculine |
intellect on its own ground.
In great many of the industrial activi-
ties of life women. in the last twenty-five !
years, have superseded men. In nearly |
all she has come TO be a fell0w-worker |
with him. While the average man in that
same time has lost nearly four inches of
his physical stature, the average woman
has by taking thought added several
inches to hers. She Is now no longer dimnu- |
tive. The woman of the novelist, TWEEN ty- !
five years ago, whose head was ''iust a s
high as her lovers heart"-we all remem-
Der the precious phrase-has almost dIsap-
peared, her few survivors being as
ashamed of their lack of inches as she was
proud of her physical defecIs. Our young
women of to-day are for the most part
taller than the young men. This is not
so noticeable on this coast vet, but in the
East the fact is attracting considerable
and anxious attention. Lawn tennis, bi-
cycle-rding, rowing, eQuestriennism-all
sorts of athletics-are making them the
Nhuo inal 10 ~ hair h-a