The Portland daily press., 1895-11-02
NEW WOMAN In CANADA.
Lady Aberdeen's Advanced Ideas Not
Received With Favor.
Some Amusing Fictions to Which They
Have Given Rise,

Some Amusing Fictions to Which They
Have Given Rise.
(Argnos Warwick in Chicago News.)
What quaint, charming, old fashioned
pejudiced dominion it is, to be sure And
how under the sun does it manage to Keep
intact its quaintness and it's charm, it's
conservatism and, above all, its preju-
dices. when nothing more than few
rivers and an imaginary line or two
divided it from the land of stars and
stripes and ultraliberalism?
For six weeks I've been exploring,
Canada. I have canoed in Muskoka
yachted on the ST. Lawrence, golfed at
Niagara on-the-Lake and had good
time generally, thanks to Canadian
friends in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton
and London-all this chiefly with view
to recreation. But Though on pleasure
l was bent I had frugal mind" and
safely slowed away in that receptacle are
all the impressions I could gather anent
that ever-new and absorbing personality
the new woman, when she happens to be
born in Canada.
To begin with I have discovered that
there is almost as great a difference be-
tween the Canadian social atmosphere
and our own as that which exists be-
tween the physical atmosphere OF Green
land IS icy mountains and India's coral
strand This difference is easily recog-
nizable, easily felt, yet-how to explain
it? Well, in her attitude toward things
intellectual Canada is provincial, yet
.'400'' and, dear me, how closely they
dlev their lines lis, from superficial
and four hundredish point of view very
highly civilized indeed. The social
sstone'', from the same standpoint, is
irreproachable. even in the smaller cities,
and smarter functions are nowhere given.
Canadian society folk are delightful
as society folk. They are we'll bred, we'll
hammered, well-dressed. They dine, dance
and make love after the most approved
fashion. But there is probably at this
moment No country under heaven-if one
excerpts Spain, Patagonia and other out
lying regions as to which ones knowl-
edge is limited-where society has set it's
face more rigidly against the smallest
epcroachment of the modern idea.
Ideas, indeed, of any, kind are thought
none too highly of in upper circledom
and of the few who interest the mselves
in matters literary and artistic and in
questions of the day only those Of seourest
social position do SO with impunity.
Now, with US, as we all know, this is
not the case. Neither is it in England.
l-here, as here, one may belong to society
I vet be interested to any extent in
any sort of intellectual or social move
nent. True, the members of the smart
esto sets do not as a rule devote much
time to such matters but should they
choose to do no less of caste would be
involved nor would any apologies be
necessary. OF course not Indeed l al
most feel it incumbent on me to apollo
gize for evcn mentioning so self-evident
fact. But you see I've been long
enough in Canada to almost forget that
it is fact and it is quite comfort to see
it put down in black and white Why for
six weeks I've been plushing for the few
scraps of ideas which persisted despite
nv best efforts in ccncealing themselves
about my person and hopping out at in
opportune moments And / still SILVER
at the recollection of the chill which fell
upon certain Toronto dinner table when
1 unguariedly remarked that my best
friend was social dem ocrat
After all that it is unnecessary to say
that Canada, for the women of modern
views is far from being happy hunting
ground. She finds it, indeed bloody
battle-ground ''where mingles wars rattle
with groans of the dying" The rative
specimen of new womanhood is, socially
speaking, snubbed out of existence and
the imported variety severely let alone.
This Notwithstanding the fact that Ish-
bel, countess of Aberdeen, wife of
Canada's present governor-general, is a
new woman of the most advanced and
best type.
LADY ABERDEEN UNPOPULAR.
Lady Aberdeen, gracious lady as she
sand great parsonage in the British
islands-is undoubtedly very unpopular
in Canadian society. She is too "new, +"
her views are too advanced. Her heart
is set upon the lettering of social condi-
tions, especially the condition of the
working woman and that of mothers of
families in the poorer classes; and, in
tent upon these Objects she sometimes
though no one can accuse her of want
of tact, fails to pay due respect to that
traditional difference" SO marked in all
conservative societies, "between that
which people know and that which they
agree to admit that they know" This
in itself is crime none the less keenly
resented because it is politely ignored.
But the mead and front of Lady Aber-
deems offending is her attitude on the
domestic service question or rather the
attitude on that subject which is Fat
tributed to her. 1t was with the Aber-
deems that the idea of the Household
cluh'' ORIGINATED and at their home