Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-03-07
A Man and a Woman.

There is no reason TO suppose TnaC In
the economy of nature the Almighty
has given to woman place of inferior
Importance to that occupied by man.
She was not made to be his slave, but
his equal; not merely to soothe him in
his sorrows, but to share them; not to
be the recipient of his bounty, but the
divinely ordained partner of his ambi-
tions.
In the history of the world 1T is as
easy to discover the degree of civiliza-
ton which has been reached in given
epoch by noting the position of woman
as it is to tell the temperature of the
air by looking at thermometer.
In every age in which women are
more or less subordinate men are more
or less brutal; and it is safe to predict
that the highest type of manhood will
never be attained except by association
with the highest type of womanhood.
The legislation and public opinion
which can break down all barriers of
prejudice and give women an opportu-
nifty to develop whatever talents or
faculties or genius they possess will also
have an ennobling influence on men,
for the moral nature of man is always
even with the moral nature of the wo
men with whom he keeps company. If
you would make men. better you must
begin by making women better,
From the beginning of time until the
close of this nineteenth century the
world has been almost exclusively a
mans world. Circumstances have
thrown him to the front, and he has
maintained his dictatorship. He has
decreed in his own interest that he NAV
do as he pleases, and that woman shall
do as she is told to. That has been the
IL L. /. i
before the twentieth century sinks in
the west. Men have declared that
there shall be discrimination in the
matter of vice, and that the discrimina-
ton shall be in their favor. If they
fall under temptation it is a merely
venial offence, not by any means to be
counted against them. but rather to be
taken as matter of course. If wo-
man yields under a provocation thou
sandfOld greater the good Christ must
come to earth again, for He alone will
give her pity. The law which men
have made for purposes of self-posses-
sion is so elastic that it will stretch in
definitely, but they have made an en-
tirely different law for women, and
hammered it from unbending STEEL
That is the anomaly of all time. 1t
is right for a man to be vicious. More
i v.
But viciousness in a woman is a. crime
which the worst man in the community
will not condone. For myself" he
says, "all things are justifiable, but for
you there is only contempt when you
overstep the limit which have chosen
to draw
The reason for this is perfectly plain,
and in stating the reason we show its
inherent injustice. The world has been
a warning world. History is simply the
story of successive battletields. Drawn,
not brain, has been the chief factor of
progress. For ages, therefore, the
world was what men made it. The
bow and arrow at first and later on the
flash of gunpowder have settled all con-
troversies. Women had small part in
the conflict, because they were not
fitted for the task. The man was thor
oughly dominant, and being dominant
he was despotic. He fashioned every
thing to suit himself, even public opin-
ion. He was master of the situation,
and solely because woman could not
stand by his side in war she was not al
lowed to stand by his side in peace.
But the complexion of affairs has
changed after this long lapse of time.
This is not at all the world in which
our ancestors lived. 1t is as different
in many essential respects as though
we had been transported to Mars. AS
to the matters in which we are now in
terested women and men are equals,
and they stand side by side. The mo-
ment when warriors ceased to be heroes
woman began to take her rightful
place. The instant brains began to be
the motive power of society woman
proved her right to engage in the com
petition.
But even now, under the new regime.
the old ideas prevail. They are giving
way by degrees, but they are still per-
sistent. Man claims rights which he
denies to his wife, but he stammers an
apology. 1t is no longer a mans world,
but a mans and woman's world, at
least in part. When it becomes wholly
so it will better than it is now.
We have about settled the question
whether there is any sex in vice, and
once settled 1t will never vex us again
The preposterous statement that a wo-
man is more guilty than a man for the
same act is slowly sinking away from
the criticisms of the age 1t is a con
temptible statement, which can be
maintained by brute force, but not by
fair argument.
Now the conclusion to be drawn from
all is that women are not to sink to the
level of men, but that men must rise to
the level of women. We seek for the
ideal life, and men do not furnish it.,
but women do. Humiliating as the
confession is, it is true that the average
woman is purer than the average
man. The change that is needed,
therefore, is a change of standard. We
must abolish the standard which men
have set for themselves and substitute
the standard which men have set for
women. Not less purity for women
should be the rule, but more purity for
men.
If we understand the spirit of the
New Testament, thu It's the requisition.
There is nothing in his world as ad-
mirable as woman whose heart and
life are white, and there is no reason
why she should not demand of the man
who leads her to the altar heart and
life that are Just as white as her own
". Y. Herald.