Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1893-10-18
WAY ARE Wo@EN AFRAID OF MlcEg
A Brief Discussion of Subject Wherein
 No Solution Is Offered.

WHY ARE WOMEN AFRAID OF MiCEg A Brief Discussion of a Subject Wherein
 No solution Is Offered.
 AS a woman, and l trust brave one, a lover of animals and a student of natural history, l ask the vexed question in all seriousness, Why arc women afraid of mioel Why should the sight Il had almost written the namel of a tiny, harmless, graceful little creature strike terror into the StouteSt hearts that beat in feminine breastsl Echo answers, Why" The fear of mice is a hereditary curse, an inherited weakness, a fatal foe which 1t Is useless to combat, a foolish dread of winch We ought to feel heartily ashamed, and yet 1t is 8 real and formidable terror. lt k never assumed. It may be exagger ated by fit of mysteries or a sue oeSsion of piercing screams, but the genuine peur a faire fremir is there all the Same-and whyi
 remember once reading a story about a coterie of strong minded v,o- men who gave a series of lectures upon female virtues in an old coUn- try town assembly room. One of their number was chosen to deliver the lecture on valor and selected for her 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 a mouse run across the platform, and the lecturer and her strong minded sisters jumped on to their chairs, clutching their petticoats in a man her 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 olutched her pettcoats in precisely the same manner.
 A mouse in the chamber of Marat would, l believe, have deterred Char lotte Corday from her dread purpose, and the tail of one popping oppor- tunely from the carving of Tuilla's chariot would have prevented her from driving over her fathers corpse, and 1 could cite many in stances in which mice might have changed the history of the world. Who can doubt that Cleopatra and the other swarthy Egyptian beauties held the sacred cat in special venera- ton on account of the part he played in ridding them of their pet aver sioni Every one knows that if cat has a weakness it is for 8 plump, we'll matured mouse, and puss has perhaps for this reason earned the affections because the gratitude of our sex.
 The story of 6 prisoner who was cheered in captivity by a mouse is familiar to us all-but the prisoner was a man. Equally familiar is the fable of the grateful mouse which gnawed the net, but again-the pris- oner is said to have been lion, not a honess. 1 believe there is a mutual antipathy between them.
 Most women have experienced the sensation. You are sitting alone reading, playing. writing, painting or working. Suddenly you instinct lively feel a sensation of horror of some evil influence that is present, but as yet unseen.
 You lift your eyes. You behold, gliding over the carpet toward you, without noise, apparently without the trouble of walking, mouse. It 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; a cold chill creeps over you In your i'm agination you feel the soft touch of an army of mice running races over your face and hands and making nests in your back hair You start to your feet-and then-well, women take these things 30 differently.
 Are women afraid of mice simply because it IS born in themi There is no reason why we should be afraid of them, but the fact remains that we are, and I have long since resign ed myself to the fact as an evil for which there is no remedy.-London Woman.