The herald., 1895-03-31
Interesting Informal Addresses
by Mr.. and Mrs. Barnes
DAVIDSTARR JORDAN SPEAKS
The Latest Trend of Thought and Action
Among Great Minds
What Woman Has Been, Is, and May Be
According to Some Late Books
on the Subject

west Ientn street, were HiIou seo'S"J
morning with an intelligent and inter
ested audience for the open meeting OF
the Collegiate Alumna, at which address
es were made by Prof, and Mrs. Barnes
and Prof. David Starr Jordan,
Miss Carr of the High School first intro
duced Mrs. Mary Sheldon Barnes, who in
q few graceful words expressed her appre-
citation of the meeting of the Los Angeles
branch OF College Alumn@, and then sald
it was her purpose to review briefly three
remarkable books that have lately been
published, which bore distinctly upon the
present trend of thought and action IN re-
lation to woman as she is, as she has
been and as she may be.
The first of these was Man and Woman
by Havelock Ellis, practicing physical II
of note in Cornwall, and who is physl-
ologist and sociologist as well.
In the com parson of man and woman,
Havelock Ellis holds that women repre-
sent the sedentary forces, men the strate-
cic forces. The former have qualities OF
a child and are infantile in the broader
sense. The latter have the qualities OF
the adult and are senile. Women are DO
cile, adaptable Men are active and set.
AS race shows development In Its
children so therefore race looks to Its
women for development In the men Whlcn
women choose or raise.
A contrast was drawn between the
physical, intellectual and emotional ma
lures of men and women ana eNpell,,
ments made in various colleges were used
as illustration; then the difference IN
physical construction was shown as the
senses, motion and strength, susceptible
ity and affectiblity.
In the senses men have the most acute
ness in smell, women in taste, while the
Others are more evenly developed. Mo-
tion in both depends on education; men
are twice as strong; in susceptibility men
show more sensitiveness to pain and DIS
ease, are more violently i'll but are not i'll
30 often.
Affectibility predominates in women.
who show reflex action more quickly,
have less control and will power Men are
more sensitive but have more self-control.
All those assertions were backed up by
statistics and reliable experiments, but
Mr.. Ellis saws frankly in his book that
there is not enough data to make COM
parison yet as to the intellectual powers
of men and women.
There is more proneness to morbid
psychic phenomena in men than women;
they lead in crimes and in suicides, but
they have also more high grade genius.
Woman is less variable than man. lie
goes afied and brings back experience
and knowledge which conservative woman
accepts or rejects as it will work best for
the conservation of the race.
Woman has always represented the in
dustrial side OF lite; man is becoming
more industrial and in the progress OF
life and the process OF evolution men
and women are growing constantly more
alike. Mrs. Barnes feels that Ellis is
broadminded, that his theories are prac-
tical, and that his philosophy will stand.
The second book MIS-. Barnes quoted is
Bebel's Woman, which treats OF the
economic relations of man and woman,
the economic dependence of the latter on
the former, which delay marriage until
too late before the man can accumulate
enough to support his wife; which, in
turn, is a check on the production OF
legitimate children, and, therefore, pro-
motion of the social evil. This book also
treats of the effect of marriage on the
health of women, and of the question of
divorce as related to economic depend
enCe.
Mr.. Bebel holds that while women may
be intellectually inferior, their present
ideals are to make happy marriages and
homes. They are pushing into all indus
tries, they will become self-supporting
and that will dissolve the objection to
marriage. When freed from the economic
dependence on man they will marry, not
for home or support, but only when and
legitimate basis for marriage.
Lester +. Wards Psychic Elements of
Civilization was the third book touched
upon. in which function is held to be the
AIM OF nature in the process OF evolution,
Just as pleasure of feeling is the aim of
the creature. Soul is the sum Of desires
and urges all beings on different lines
each in his or her own environment.
OF the development of sex, Mr.. Ward
holds that while the female performs the
function of reproduction in all orders,
the male of the lower orders is important
on a little higher plane. Where the female
needs the care, defense and attention OF
the male, she has developed better males
for that purpose, and so on; yet she re-
mains the eternal heart; in fact the
female heart has called forth the male
head.
Mrs. Barnes stated that these three
books have close relationship to one an
other, and represent the latest thought
and action on woman; all teach that the
resent woman should work for two
things, i. e., a sound body, and an indi-
vdua Independence. She may not be
able to be brilliant genius herself, but if
not she should be satisfied to be a con-
server of genius.
Mr.. Jordan was here introduced and
said that the best effect of a lecture was
to set up Independent currents of thought,
and that he would give a few ideas that
had come to him during the address by
Mrs. Barnes. Woman is not a finished
product, but the result of the forces that
have gone before; at present in the un-
equal division of labor, as in military and
other general work, men are ahead but
in many individual cases it is quite other
wise.
Biology, said Mr.. Jordan, is a most in
teresting study. The mother is not
only the parent but the environment; the
a.. /,
the present is the development from the
past Men and women must be not only
equal from a standpoint of evolution, but
each must be best before the best in the
way of children can be produced-and
children would better be unborn than un-
taught.
1t is not by legislation that the millen-
ium will be reached, but by gradual de
yelopment of both sexes and thence the
race, for when the best women and the
best men make the best homes, there will
the best children be born which will be
brought up in the best environment with
the best results.
Professor Barnes closed the exercises
with the presentation of some very power
full problems, which he feels should be
known and studied by every parent and
teacher in the land.
The investigation of these vital subjects
is being pursued by the greatest minds in
all countries. and Mr.. Barnes thought
they should be placed before the trained
minds of the Collegiate Alumnae, many
OF whom are teachers, and many more
l..