The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1895-05-25
Mans Opinion of Woman.

Patterson Optic.
The following article was handed in by
one of Patterson's gifted scribes, and was
published some years ago. 1t is worthy OF
the space given it, and time is not wasted by
having read it:
I am neither mssogguist, misogamist,
admircr of the female sex. I look upon Swo-
man as the salt of the earth, the light of the
world, the glory of the home circle and the
ture, and have attested my high apprecia-
ton of the sex by marrying as early and as
often as I have had the opportunity, and
the dear creatures have-with some few ex-
acknowledgements by marrying me as
often as I have given them the opportunity.
But am no admirer of that class called
strongminded women. Whenever see or
hear of a woman travelling round the conn-
try lecturing to public assemblies upon their
duties and responsibilities, feel sure that
that woman's stockings need darning, her
children's faces need washing, and that her
husband ties his suspenders with string.
Many of them are brilliant, but they are
like the meteors that flash across the sky,
they attract attention in their cratic course
and dazzle the eye with the brilliant trail OF
light they leave behind them, but they serve
no useful purpose.
AS the stars that spove quietly in their ap.
pointed spheres preserve the balance of the
universe and prevent ssthe wreck of matter
and the crush Of worlds, - 50 the wife and
mother, adorning the home circle, IS the
truth and purity, and is the great factor in
the enlightment and civilization of the
world.
We admire some women for their beauty,
Others for their virtue, and others for their
Intellectual endowments-but there are two
women to whom all men render the tribute
of reverential love and esteem: One OF
these is the mother, upon whose sympathetic
bosom we wept away all our infanuie woes;
at whose knee we learned to lisp our pray
ers, and across whose motherly lap we were
sometimes drawn while she emphasized her
teachings with a slipper.
The other is our wife, who is performing
the same kind Offices for our little ones our
mother did for US; who attends to our COM
forts, keeps our buttons in order, and keeps
us in the straight and narrow way 'tby coun-
sells sweet and heightened sage advice
These women are not found crowding
round the polls on election day, nor riding
straddle through the streets; nor lecturing
from the platform. But they are to be
found looking around the garden to see
what prospects there are for vegetables for
dinner, or in the henhouse quarreling with
some hen that wants to set at an inoppor-
tune time, or in the house, scolding the SER
wants, spanking the children, or chasing the
cat out of the dining-roonl with the broom:
They are not always beautiful or accom-
plished, or intellectual, but they have a
fixed faith, and instructive sense of right.
the women who make their mark on the age
in which they live, and whose influence is
felt for generations after they are gone.
The influence of mothers teachings and
the memory of mothers love and devotion
plead more strongly with 4 man in the hour
Of temptation than all the She lecturers
that ever stood on a platform.