The herald., 1894-07-08
THE WOMAN OF THE FUTURE,
The Slowness of Her Elevation
to Her True Position.
A Continued Oppression Of One Sex
by the Other.
The injury Done by Assertions Of In
fsEtority--A Plea Made for Per-
fsot Equality in AL
Things.

It ls pleasant to think Of the present
and the past and thus speculate upon
the future; to regard what has bean as
the prelude to that which has to be.
When the sculptor, painter, or poet
desires to present US with the loveliest
object of contemplation, he gives his
ideal OF q fair woman. He presents her
in all her naked glory. How she breathes
from the marble, glows on the canvas,
and shines in the page! Her pose, her
contour, her symmetry, her bewitchiDg
curves. her divine beauty Of body and
soul, fill us with admiration and delight.
For the true artist discovers hidden
charme and gives ua eyes wherewith to
see. He shows us woman, not as she
lie, but as she will be. For he is nothing
ii he be not prophetic. He eliminates
all that is vulgar and debasing, and
unites the perfections OF many in one.
And whether we call her Venns or
| virgin, we forget the sorrows OF the one
and the frailties OF the other az we gaze
upon their lovelinens.
| How we sigh for the lost treasures of
art, for those earlier conceptions which
foreshadowed 30 much. How we exc
crate the barbarous hands that neg
lected, mutilated and destroyed the
priceless object lesson of humanity!
Statues, paintings and poems have per-
ished. Even Campaspe has not sur
vivad. Others, however. have supplied
their place, and although there ia much
that is meretricious, there ls also much
that ia genuine. Shakespeare alone has
| II It L.
lovable women-all creations of mis- own
brain. No such beings had ever existed
until be formed them, 80 sweet, 30 sym
pathetic and laug hter- loving, no nimble
and graceful in body and in mind. In-
tellectual gymnasts, bright eyed and
rosy Tipped were they, but, above all,
intensely womanly, and in nothing like
the oarss-mouthed, beef-eating damsels
and matrons who crowded on dry days
into the Blackfriars thester. Yet on
the retina of his mental eye these
humanity perfect maidens were dis
tinctly pictured, and his description OF
them has been for US a standard of true
womanlinees. by which our wives and
daughters have been raised immeasur-
ably higher.
Whom we turn from these ideals 10 the
raalitiA- tl~t surrop-d US, from What
woman might b. 60 what she IS, We are
profoundly shocked. We then realize
to some degree how enormous are the
ef1rts required to raise her to her true
position. We inquire why her elevation
is so slow, what are the obstacles that
hinder her development, and why she
continues to be the inferior and slave
rather than the equal OF man. thus in
volving society into calamity upon
calamity? The history OF woman is
the history of the continued and univer-
sal oppression OF one sex by the other.
The emancipation of woman is her re-
storation to equal rights and privileges
with man. For there must have
been time, however remote, when
the sexes were equal, and when the
male performed many of the functions
which now devolve upon the female.
But during her frequent periods of gesta-
tion she may have become physically un-
fitted to cope with che male. and this in
time when sexual intercourse was pro-
miscuous, muat have materially assisted
him in reducing her to slavery. Thus,
as soon as property was recognized,
woman became the booty and chattel OF
men, aud rude form of marriage was
instituted. AS in the song of Deborah
and Barak: Have they not sped
Have they not divided the spoil, to
every man damsel or two?"
Next, the theologisns stepped forth
and gave religious sanction to public
custom. Thus we read in Genesis:
"And the Lord said, 1t ia not. good that
man should be alone. 1 will make him
an help meet for him." This accords
with the Mohammedan idea that wom-
an exists solely for the comfort end
qualification of man on earth as the
houris do in heaven. After the fall we
road: Unto the woman He said, will
greatly multiply, thy sorrow and thy
conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring
forth children, and thy desire shall be to
thy husband, and he shall rule over
| thee"
Christianity. through St. Paul's teach.
ing, also gave its sanction to the existing
ideas. Speaking of public worship, be
eays: "For man indeed ought not to
cover his head, forasmuch as ne is the
image and glory of God but the woman
is the glory of the man. For the
mau is not OF the woman, but
the woman OF the man; neither was
the man created for the woman, but
the woman for the mau." Who can
calculate the injury done to woman by
this authoritative assertion of the inferi-
orlty, and that, TOO, among people like
the gay inhabitants OF Corinth, where
she enjoyed the highest freedom then
known? This unhappy position of hers
was universal. In some parts it still ex-
lists as at first. in others il has been more
or less modified. but nowhere, not even
with us, with all our boasted civilization
and Christianity, has she become free.
The shackles of her ancient slavery still
cling to her and retsrd her mental, NOR
al and physical development. Need
we wonder, then, at the sad spec
tacle which humanity offers us?
Its hidsous maesscres, its social
denominations, its foul creeds its treach-
cries, vicss, cant, diseases, lusts. tyran-
MES and crimes are all the natural out
come OF the subjugation OF one.half of
the human race by the other. And
what is the panacea proposed by our
sapient reformers? The right of paro-
chial voting, forsooth; woman suffrage,
the liberty 10 engage her abilities in
any sphere of employment for which che
may be capable. All these. OF courae,
are right in their way, but, when grant.
ed, would leave her almoet as much in
servitude as before. We claim for her
infinitely more. We demand for her