The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-14

A MODERN IDOL BREAKER.
Since women began to write for the news
papers those valuable organs for the dis
semination of thought and fact have been
much enlivened and diversified. The
'woman's page" a feature much affected
by a class of metropolitan journals. is. in
particular. a repository for much curious
lore. This page is invariably edited by
woman and conducted for the benefit Of the
sisterhood. There is nothing, of course.
TO prevent the male reader from giving IL
his attention. and he often does so, for
there Is a singular fascination about Ii,
The editor of the woman's page becomes
at once upon the assumption of editorship
the confidential adviser of her sex. Innum-
cradle women write to her to tell her their
Utmost secrets and their souls longings,
and to ask her advice and guidance. They
are not as beautiful as they would like,
and they beg the secret of perennial lowell
ness The woman editor gives 1t to them
in fullest detail. If roseleaf complexion
Is desired she offers an infallible recipe;
are gray hair and wrinkles to be warded
off. she tells how II is to be done; If the
fat matron of fifty wants to look thin and
youthful, the process is described to her.
This counselor at large tells how to manage
a baby during the period of teetking and
settles promptly little problems presented
by her correspondents concerning the rear
ing and moral training of children 1t is
when she enters this latter field that her
influence and responsibility become matters
of consequence. People who write to the
newspapers for advice are naturally and
properly inclined to accept 1t as oracular
and to be governed by it. If the female
editor understood only the physical i'm
provement Of her sex, all would be we'll
wisdom, or even entered into a discussion
of nursery topics and there draw the line,
no objection could be raised; but, alas, she
does not stop there. She goes into social
and matrimonial ethics in all their phases,
and in so doing becomes an iconoclast OF
high degree. If an ingenious maiden asks
whether she had better trust her Algernon
Edward once more in his oft-repeated but
broken promise never to fiirt with another
girl, she is firmly advised to trust no man
under such conditions. If a wife wants to
lxV1f,vx Cbn II
drunken husbands brutality she is
urged to abandon him to his fate.
And here is one who, after
advising with maid who complains of her
lovers GOODNESS, adds this incendiary COM
ment: you will find as you grow older
and know more OF the world that the man
does not exist who is worth a single sacri-
flee" Think Of the recklessness of this
image-breaker! For thousands of years man
has been engaged in modelling an ideal wom-
an whose chief attribute and browning
charm was her unquestioning faith and
trust in him. She was gentle and unresist-
ing; she accepted his Establishments and his
he told her, and, above everything, she was
self-sacrificing and ready to give up all for
his sake. To instill doubts into the mind
OF the coming woman as to the infallibility
of man, to counsel her to beware of rnascu-
line imposition and humbug, and to refuse
to sacrifice herself under any conditions is
to upset this carefully constructed image
and to leave it in ruins. Social scientists
profess to have discovered a tendency on
the part of modern woman to reject this
time honored ideal, but it has remained for
the editors of the numerous wornan's pages
to deal it the most direct and deadly blows.
If this sweetly trustful and hurnbly self
sacrificing creature is no longer to be en-
couraged to exist, the unhappy man who,
through tradition and habit, has worshiped
her as the only suitable companion for
himself will presently grow bewildered in
his search and desire to know where he is
at" If he will ask the editor of a woman's
page she VIII undoubtedly be able to tell
him.