Omaha daily bee., 1894-02-25
TRUE IDEA OF WOMANHOOD
Lady Cook, nee Tennie 9, 0lafin, Disoourses
on the Subject Of Sexual Purity.
YOUNG WOMEN SHOULD KNOW THE TRUTH
Only Prudishness and False Modesty Re-
strains Mothers from Doing Their Duty
Until often Too Late to Prevent I'm
happy Reconsideration Notes.

Wherever we look on the works of
mcdiacvel art, we see numberless concep-
tions Of the Madonna and the child. No
two OF them may be alike. yet they all por-
tray the painters ideal OF pure maternity
and joyous innocence. Mary may be a
Dutch blonde, or an Italian brunette, or
even a hard German housewife Of the old
school; but, plain or beautiful, she is always
honest. clear-eyed, placid content. And the
child, the infant Hercules Of the Christian
faith, he who must cleanse the Augaean
stables OF the world, the wrestler, the SER
pent stranger, the heir of infinite poten-
t%ialities, lies toying with the breast of his
mother. How utterly human 1t
all is! The bride Of God is
a Syrian peasant girl; the
son of God. a helpless, naked infant. How
supremely happy, too, she appears, as she
gazes calmly down nito the eyes of her boy!
What joy is there like that of a mother?
Joseph Is not always present, and, when ne
is, II is only as a decent accessory. He
looks awkward. His office apears to lave
ceased. Usually, II not Always, there is a
look in his face expressive OF deep thought,
as one would say, ''This is the man-Christ
who was born to redeem the race and set
a perfect example for all men AID women
TO follow" Yet there seems TO be n Gcubt in
his mind as TO the conception, the beginning
of the great mystery. The artist never
knows exactly how or where to pose him.
The child, however, is an obvious necessity,
but holds a secondary place. Mary IL the
center. All eyes turn to her. On a tnou-
sand canvases she stands out the sanity
type of the glOrified human mother.
AS the ages proceed our ideals must
either advance or retrograde. There is no
middle position. The Roman church re-
moved the gods for her saints and substi-
tuted the Virgin for Bona Dea' But, as
paganism gave way to Christianity, 80
the mythical theology of nineteen centuries
is rapidly vanishing under the firm light of
modern scientific research. What Is false
will be abandoned. The time has come
when the Virgin must be respected and
revered for the great good which she accom-
plished by bringing the grand man, Christ,
into the world, and henceforth all mothers
must look to her as Offering the noblest
possible example for them to follow and
initiate, in order that they, too, may bring
into the world pure and lovable children,
worthy of being called the images of God.
There are in our country 1900, 600 wives at
least, and unless poverty has compelled thou
sands of their children have never known
their mothers breasts. Three million
women, all vowed to the duties of maternity,
and the greater number of them deficient in
nourishment and its elementary require
ments. And why? Because they have I'M
dergone no kind of preparatory training; be-
cause they are ignorant Of themselves and of
their duties. because, too frequently, they
were welded from sordid motives and to
unsuitable men: because when love should
have entered as a God, he came as a beast.
Hence, the untold Indebtedness or their
loveless lives. the daily miseries that de-
stroy their homes; to say nothing of shame
less adulteries. widespread prostitution,
Ioathsome diseases and early deaths. Our
law courts reveal but a very small fraction of
the existing social corruption. Could we see
tho whole at once we should repOll with nor
ror at the sight. Throughout all nature re-
production is the highest function OF every
living thing, and to it all other functions
are more or less subsidiary. Maternity is
thus the supreme effort of the supreme or
ganism, neither to be undertaken lightly or
without forethought. Yet the mothers OF our
manageable girls have rarely given thef
daughters any information as to sexual re-
lations. Prudishness or false modesty re-
strains. Consequently, their knowledge, ac-
Quired by experience, often comes too late 10
prevent unhappy results. The same girls
may not study physiology. They must not
learn how they were produced, ana no" they
are formed. They are thus a ready prey OF
nil who can take advantage of their ignor-
SACRIFICED AT II ALTAR.
The period arrives when the girl-yonng,
fair. innocent but intensely ignorant OF all
she ought to know, is thrown by conven-
tional marriage into the arms or a man
whose habits and thoughts have nothing i'll
common with hers. Even a roue-and roues
nowadays are both young and numerous
is not refused II he happen to have a
satisfactory income. In the latter case,
even If she do not become physically tainted
she must become morally so-frequehtly
both; and her offspring must inherit ana re-
produce at maturity the virus derived from
its father. Lovely and innocent as she may
be, she is not the typical mother, nor Is
her boy the Christ. Syria never produced
our deal. In that ignorant and despotic
region she could not have existed. only
noets and painters have had occasional
glimpses at her. The typical mother can
neither be a slave not a genitriX OF slaves.
She is the free, the perfect woman, who has
been embraced by the Divine man.
All that substracts from the freedom of
woman binders her development and there
fore lessons her value as a wife and n
mother. For this reason we do not cease to
advocate the necessity of equal rights and
equal laws for the sexes before society can
possibly improve in purity and In happiness,
and before woman can rise to her true
dignity. Although the duties OF men and
women differ the statue of both, In the eye
Of the law and of society, should be the
same, and nothing should be required of
the one which is not also demanded OF the
other. Fer instance. let man continue to
regard chastity as Indispensable in women,
but let woman also require the same from
man. And let her, IL modest. regard as a
profound insult a proposal from any one
whose delicacy and power OF approaching
her purity have been destroyed by contact
with lust and infamy. Too long has woman
been enslaved, the toy and victim of man.
But the dawn of her emancipation has come.
A few have already seen the light. The
bonds which enswathed woman's faculties
= are being loosened; may they soon drop of!
Then we shall see her lovelier than any
thing sculptured by Grecian chisel, calm
proved as Athene, majestic as Hebe, light,
limbed and strong of mind, joyous, serene,
loyal. true of heart and purpose. irradiated
with a wise intelligence, despising shams
and frivoiitIes, tender with a woman's sweet
est tenderness. loving simple truth-a noble
mother raised to a higher pedestal.
This is the true ideal woman, capable, too,
OF realization. This is the true mate of
the true man, and worthy of bearing the
worlds heroes. LADY COOK,
a Nee Tennie G, Clafin,
SIN reference 10 Melba,' a correspondent
from Paris writes, II met a great friend of
hers the other day and asked her II she did
not think II queer that the Americans
thought her SO cold and SO void of acting tai
ent. Well, she told me she wasn't surprised
at II, because Melba had a fault quite com
mon with artists, that is that of singing to
soma onn she knows I'm the hall. and that she