The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-02-24

JnOuSn ne Is not tlldC Spe-
cies of commercial agent
\vulgarly called drum
mer," came TO see me the other day. and
in speaking of his travels [ asked him
what seemed TO him the distinctive fea-
lures of some of our principal cities.
His answer was peculiar.
''The thing that has struck me most
forcibly of late" said ne, sis the differ
ent aspects after dark of the cities have
last visited. In New York under the
gaslight certain forms of vice and dam
ger stalk abroad almost as boldly as in
London or in San Francisco. In the up
per part of the town the streets are quiet
enough, but what few prowling figures
you see suggest garroters or highway
men of one sort or another, while down
town the pickpOckets, watch snatchers
and similar gentry jostle each other on
every curbstone. Not a month ago a
gentleman from the provinces inspect
ing our Yankee towns as he chose to
class New York, told me that, strolling
across Madison square one evening, he
was accosted by we'll dressed man.
with u very conspicuous watch chain,
who quietly said, Give me your pocket
book and watch, or I'll call that police
man over there and swear you were try
ing to snatch my watchr
''My friend was, to be sure, a little YER
dant, but he was brave, and drawing
back he gave the fellow blow in the
jaw that certainly silenced him for
awhile, and splitting out tooth or two
he made off just as the policeman strolled
that way, and, hearing the story, told my
friend such attempts at Matchmaking
were not uncommon and very generally
succeeded with a quiet or timid sort of
man.
'Now, that" pursued my friend, sis
New York. In st. Louis, where / was
last week, the streets after dark seem de-
serted. A few men loaf around the cor
ners, and some tipsy boatnen frolic and
sing around the riverside, but you never
see lady unattended. In fact, you sell
dom see lady ON foot, with or without
an escort. But in two other cities, some
distance apart-Detroit and Boston
quite different set of conditions obtain
In both these places the streets are
thronged quite as much after dark as
before and with much the same class OF
persons-quiet, respectable citizens 60
taking very little notice of each other.
''In Boston especially noticed ladies,
or at any rate very ladylike and quiet
women, both young and middle aged,
walking the streets quite unattended
and apparently quite unmolested-in
fact, L saw several both come in and go
out of the theaters, sometimes two or
three together, but sometimes quite
alone. Speaking of this to a Boston
woman, she said she should not be afraid
to traverse any part of the city where
she should be likely to go at any hour of
the evening""
(Which proves Boston to be very much
of country village, remarked L, with
little sneer, for / much prefer New York
to Boston myself, but my travelled friend
replied:
''Oh, not at all! Country villages are
apt to be very wicked little places, or at
least whatever wickedness there is comes
to the knowledge of every inhabitant,
and village ladies are always very par
ticular about having an escort if they go
beyond their next neighbours. They say
they're afraid somebody will speak to
them, a phrase which always moves one
to inquire, What are you afraid they
will sayT
''No. / think that the air of Boston
and Detroit and Philadelphia more than
any other cities ON this continent is
adapted to the coming woman, and that
the unprotected female is going out of
fashion in those places. The new idea
(and why isn't it good idea?) is that
woman is not necessarily the ward and
appendage of some man who must guard
her from the attacks of other men, and
also from the follies of her own feeble
brain, but that she is an individual of
equal dignity and responsibility with the
man and able to protect herself from
whatever dangers may assail her-not
with her fists, TO be sure, but by her own
dignity, and if need be by appeal to the
officers of the law"
Strong mindedv' suggested 1.
"Well, you don't think it's nice to be
weak minded" retorted my friend, with
laugh, and so we parted.
Now, Is his theory correct? Do the
women of few of our cities already feel
the wave of progress that is slowly roll
ing around the world to this extent? If
SO, is it not foreshadowing of what is
to come?
There has been a great deal of talk in
the last few years CT women's rights
and great deal of discussion as to what
those rights consist in. But there is no
solvent of knotty questions of a social
nature like time and also experiment.
Wonnan's right to work was pretty
easily conceded, for as Il general thing
whatever a woman undertakes to do she
does well and intelligently. especially if
she is spurred on by determination TO
show that she can do it as&ell as man