The Portland daily press., 1893-09-16
why are women Afraid Of Nicer

AS woman, and / trust brave one, a
lover of animals and student of natural
history. ask the vexed question in all
seriousness: Why are women afraid of
mice? Why should the sight Il had al
most written name) of tiny, harmless,
graceful little creature strike terror into
the stoutest hearts that beat in femi-
nine breasts9 Echo answers @Why?"
The fear of mice is hereditary curse, an
inherited weakness, a fatal foe, which
it is useless to combat, abolish dread of
which wrought to feel heartily ashamed,
and yet it is real and formidable
terror. 1t is sneverss 1t may be
exaggerated by fit of Mysteries, or sue
cession of piercing screams, butssthe genu-
inc peur faire fremir is there all the
same-and why?
I remember once reading story about
coterie of strong minded women who
gave seriesyo lectures upon female vir-
tues in old country town assembly
room. One of their mum Der was chosen
to deliver the lecture on valor and select
ed for her subject the history of Joan of
Arc. But when the evening arrived and
SHe was uiScoufslHS upon oHe FdlOf u
her sex in general, mouse ran across
the platform, and the lecturer and her
strong minded sisters jumped on to 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 petit
coats in precisely the same manner
A mouse in the chamber of Marat
would, believe, have deferred Charlotte
Corday from her dread purpose, and the
tail of one popping OPPORTUNITY from the
carving of TuiIlia's chariot would have
prevented her from driving over her
fathers corpse, and I could cite many
instances in which mice might have
changed the history of the world Who
can doubt that Cleopatra and the other
swarthy Egyptian beauties held the sa-
cred cat in special veneration on account
of the part he played in Kidding them of
their pet aversion? Every one knows
that if a cat has weakness it is for a
plump, well-matured mouse, and puss
has, perhaps, for this reason earned the
affections, because the gratitude, of our
sex.
The,story of prisonersswho was cheered
in captivity by a mouse is familiar to us
all-but the prisoner was man. Equally
familiar is the fable of the grateful
mouse which gnawed the net, but again
the prisoner is said to have been lion,
not lioness I believe there is mutual
antipathy between them.
Most women have experienced the sem
sation. You are sitting alone reading,
playing, writing painting or working.
Suddenly you instinctively feel SEN
sation of horror of some evil influence
that sTpresent, but as vet unseen.
You lift your eyes. You behold, glid-
ing over the carpet toward you, without
noise, apparently without the trouble of
walking, mouse. Itstops, it fascinates
you. You drop your book, your music,
your brush, your needles, 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 imagination
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 SO differently.
Are women afraid of mice simply be-
cause it is born in them? There is no
reason why we should be afraid of them,
but the fact remains that we are, and
have long since resigned myself to the
fact as an evil for which there is no reme-
dy.-London Woman