St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-28
WHY SHOULDN'T SHE =?

We are hearing great deal about
woman these latter days; of what she
has said or done or dared. One who had
given little thought to the matter might
suppose that today, for the first time,
woman had been acknowledged as a
power in the world. The truth about
the matter is that she has always been
a power, and as great power as she is
today. 1t is feature of the time that
we hear more about what people, both
men and women, are doing. In these
latter days of the nineteenth century no
one lives behind closed doors. Every
act of almost everyday life is seen and
chronicled by the daily paper, that
great mirror in which we see the life
of the world reflected day after day.
And woman, being part of that
world, and a very attractive part
of it, is naturally more in evidence
than at any previous time. At least. we
like TO think so, although the GLOBE
is persuaded that if we chose to look
at some past ages with the same discern
ing eyes with which we sean our
own, we would be surprised to see how
large part of the social and political
life was filled by women. Do you sup
pose that the old Egyptians had any
doubt of the political power Of women,
as they watched the rise of CLEOPATRA?
And even before her time historians find
traces of a woman's hand along the
worlds pulses. How, do you think, the
Hebrew would have been received
who had dared to question the power of
MIRIAM'S music to the warriors heart?
And later all along through the history
of Europe and our own land, how many
names stand out of women who were
powerful for both evil and good-more
so perhaps, than a woman of today
could be, because the level of humanity
then was much lower than it is today.
TO be sure, women in those days were
debarred from educational advantages,
but so were men. In fact, education
in an intellectual way was decid-
eddy unpopular. Proud old DOUGLAS
thanked his patron saint that no son of
his save his boy bishop could pen a line.
Pretty ELLEN DOUGLAS would have
depended upon her intellectual attain
ments, but she could grid her warrior
for battle and send him riding forth
with steady hand and smiling LIP,
despite the shadows in her eyes; and she
could bind the wounds of her enemy
and soothe the cares of her father with
te nder Scottish songs as we'll as any
scientifically trained girl of today. The
fact is that it is the spirit of the times,
more than any newly developed
powers, that is bringing woman into
prom inence. The advance IN the
power and perfection of machinery
has taken so many homely tasks from
her hand that she is compelled to find
something to take their place. When
man learned TO make war and saw wood
and weave cloth and set type by ma
chinery, his powers were turned to
other things; and his sister, under the
same circumstances, did the same thing.
We say that women are new in litera-
ture and IN journalism, but centuries
ago they were writing, and only the
other day in jar found in a house in a
ruined city of Greece was found what
must have passed for the daily paper in
those days, for which a woman wrote.
All this talk of woman's emancipation
seems to US folly, for she has always
been at the front, and always will be.
1t would be better if there had been less
of this distinction made as between the
work of the women and men at the
worlds fair. Women have done many
wonderful things that show up beauti-
fully there, but so have men, and they
are not making such blare. of trumpets
about it. Women are working and
growing, and please tell us "why
shouldn't they?''