The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-09-07
Tenny Clafin Wants
to Know Who Rules.
Says the Weaker Vessel
Is Superior.
The Day of Mans Supremacy
and Slavery for Woman Is
Already at End.

pefS1SCency tHdH d pOptldI
Born of error and bred by ignorance,
it sneaks into life unnoticed and takes
centuries in the killing. One rarely
knows it's parentage or date of birth,
yet the fouEdling refuses to die. 1t
resembles those animals of which 20
ologists tell us that, if chopped into
mincemeat, each particle starts afresh
and becomes a new creature. When
we think we slay we make very much
alive; as we try to destroy we re-cre-
ate. Truth is fragile, short lived. un-
obtrusive, easily obscured, cold, naked,
unpalatabl but a lie is tough, peren-
nial, bold, inextinguishable, fervent
we'll vestured, and sweet to the taste.
Suppress it here, it will rise there. It's
elasticity preserves it under all cir
cumstances. Its vitality SCOTS at time
and death.
But OF all forms of falsehood COM
mend us to popular delusionS. Harry
Furnies and his friends may dine
thirteen together twice a day, may
renearse and practice any number of
farcical efforts to exercise these, and
will only be laughed at for their pains.
Or they may perchance scotch 4 weak
delusion now and then but they will
never annihilate it.
Nevertheless, though we fail in the
endeavor, there is one We would at
tack. 1t has come down to us through
the ages from the mists of antiquity,
venerated and universally believed.
With savage and civilized, orthodox
and heterodox, wise and simple, it is
worldwide creed in regard to the
sexes that it is the man who rules.
Woman is the inferior, the subordinate,
I&l, se- ,r6 md
| master to whose behests she must sub
nit We should be sorry to produce
rebellion in any well regulated home,
| or to stir the meekest of wives to
revolt but from a habit of looking
popular frauds in the face and chal-
| longing them to a searching inspection,
we ask, who rules? Who sways the
| rod of empire, in the court, the camp,
| the home, and society? Man or woman?
Now we cheerfully admit that man
| is a very noble animal. He is saga
| ciOuS, muscular, generous, ambitious,
courageous, and, when spurred, is ca
pable of great effort. But he is def
cient in sensibility, in tact, penetra-
| tion, and patience, and is idle by ma
ture. He dissembles badly. He does
not know how to wait. He regards the
surface of things chiefly. He is guided
by appetite, passion, self-interest, al
| though an excellent reasoner. But
long ages of more or less disguised
slavery have sharpened womans wits.
She is subtle, quick, observant, a
good dissembler, patient, profoundly
penetrative. She scents a motive as
readily as a dog scents hare. She
is sensitive to every mood and tense
of thought and feeling in others. She
is a born diplomatist. Her feelings
are those of subordinate classical
| ousy and vindictiveness. But she has
abundantly learnt the two great les
sons which qualify for heroism and
| command: to endure and to obey.
| There is no self-sacrif1ce of which she
| is not capable when urged by love,
no torture too powerful, no patience
too great for her passive and indom-
liable resistance. And when beauty is
added to ability. and determine ton,
she is perfectly irresistible.
| Thus men by their own selfshness
in the past, have unwittingly fash
ioned creature to rule ever
them. In subjecting woman they
| taught her how to subject
themselves, but by subtler and
more delicate methods. BY long
processes of selection for their own
qualification they have rendered her
soft, graceful, and of winning charms
| of form and manner. The greater
their per option and power of appre.
citation. the great ter is her dominion
! over them. The noblest and most he.
roic amongst them are those who have
been most notably subdued. Who is
there in the records of history and
mythology who ever achieved distinc-
tion and was not conquered by her:
Samson. David and Solomon, Hercu-
les and Archilles, Caesar and Antony
Alexander and PericIes. Napoleon and
Nelson, and numberless other heroes
and statesmen, with all the host OF
painters and poets and men of mind
Even the gods humbled themselves
before her. If these things were done
in the green days of womanhood, what
| shall be done when she shall have
attained her fullness of power, in the
flush and summer glory of her intellec-
tual development? We are but at the
beginning of new era in her history
the era of mental and social emanci-
patton. 1t is not long since she was
| denied a liberal education, when learn
ing was opprobrious and science
| withheld. The ignorance of thousands
of women of good position almost
| equalled that of their sisters of the
Eastern hare ms, where they are still
| studiously debarred from all sources OF
mental Improvement. Women made
puddings while their men made poll.
| tics, and were not expected to lift their
| eyes beyond household cares and du-
ties. When they read and wrote by
stealth, uhey feared to display their
greater knowledge, for few men could
tolerate this sort of superiority in a
wife. But now our girls walk jubi-
lantly through the whole curriculum
of studies. The strongest fortresses OF
knowledge, deemed almost impreg-
nable to men, fall before them. They
have become graduates Of universi-
ties, doctors of music and medicine,
professors Of natural science, and even
| first wranglers. In art and litera ture
| they have achieved noteworthy dis
tinction, and every day witnesses an
increasing number IN the ranks of the
| intellectual. Peeresses rush into print
and society leaders sigh for the laurel
wreath. Within another decade the
educational supremacy of men will be
Il - IL