The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-08-11
WOMEN WITH WHEELS
DIR. HAWTHORNE HAS SOME
THING FURTHER TO SAY
ABOUT THEM.
An Interesting Card Written by the
Eminent Divine--He Defends the
Lofty Station of Woman.


be on in earnest
Some time ago DR. Hawthorne made
vigorous assault on bicycles and boomers
from the pulpit Since that time he has
been assaulted by some and loudly ap
plauded by others
The doctor has received letters of com
mendation full of enthusiasm from al
most every State in the Union, uphold |
ing him in his attack on the bicycle and
the 'ulwomanly costumes" of the
women who ride tho bike.
1t isn't known what other kind of let
tiers Dr. Hawthorne has received.
But, the doctor takes the ground that
he has been trying to uphold the lofty
station of Southern Womanhood, and
surely this is a most commendable task.
There are men and men; some men
have no more lofty feeling to womenkind
than they have of some masculine friend
ship born of convivial good fellowship
among men and of men. But there are
other men who make deity out of wo-
man. They have no loftier aspiration to
earthly fulfllment of religious instinct
than to pay richest tribute to the name
OF woman, and live on and on with that
name the highest power betwiXt hem
selves and heaven itself.
Here is the card the doctor sends to
The Constitution:
Editor CONSTITUTIONAL Ferrero, a
young Italian, is due the credit of the
clearest exposition and defense of the lat
ter-day philosophy which supports all
that is obscene in literature and art, and
all that is unwomanly in the new wo-
man. In speaking of books which de
pict vice and crime, and invest them
with bewitching halo, Ferrero says
These books in creating a literary salts
faction, prevent individuals from seek
ing a further fIuition in real life. They
suffice to quiet latent tendencies which
demand satisfaction. Whatever fatal
effect a book of this sort may produce on
an impressionable brain, it will always
be less than if the reader had come into
personal contact with the warped mental
condition from which the book sprang.
Hence the book is the best defense against
dangerous psychical epidemics. Like
the antitoxine injected to protect the
sick from bacillus which produces the
antitoxine, it is transformed into a
remedy against the contagion that pro-
ceeds from it. The book is read and put
aside, certain personal tendencies have
found satisfaction in its perusal, and
society continues its usual existence IN
disturbed.
81 commend to the disciples of Fer
zero, DIR. Nordau's book on 'Degenera-
ton If they are hopelessly degenerate,
a perusal of this work will make them
profoundly ashamed of their master and
of themselves.
1.-The philosophy of Ferrero, trans
lated into ordinary speech is this {: If a
man has murder in his heart, he may
find satisfaction and avoid the actual
commission of crime, either by writing
book, whose hero is murderer, or by
reading a book in which some red handed
assassin is the central figure. If his de
generacy is lurking tendency to theft,
let him make himself the hero of liter
ary romance in which all the details of a
successful bank robbery are described,
faulting cashier who has escaped the
clutches of the law and unmolested en-
joys his stolen treasure. If his criminal
desires and conceptions are in the dlrec
ton of sensuality, he may prevent frui-
ton in real transgressiOn by reading
The Police Gazette, The Chicago Stand
ard, or any one of great number of
papers which publish indecent pictures
of women. Or he may accomplish the
same purpose by going into the studio Of
some painter, of the realistic school, or
to some barroom or fashionable club
house, where the walls are adorned with
enlarged photographs of feminine mud
ity. If that does not satisfy him, let
him go to the theater, and feast his lust
full eye and soul Oh Living pictures.
This is the infamous philosophy which |
has inspired all that Is obscene in mod |
ern literature and art, and all that is re
voting to virtuous sensibility in the con.
duct of the new woman. Mrs. Cady |
Stanton, the chosen leader and law
giver of the American division OF the
'progre ssive woman is in favor of the
bloomer costume, and even of tights, |
and thinks that as women have more
beautiful legs than men, they ought to
show them. Like Ferrero, she would
have US believe that such unfemmine
EOuuuCt Will dCL DIS oil dubltOAluC w bsAC
degenerate of both sexes.
''This is the abominable teaching which
| have ventured to antagonize, End for
which | have been traduced by bicycle
agents and a few of the immortal 400
Ia attempting to open the eyes OF South
ern women to the debauching tendencies
of the practices born of this Italian phil
osophy | have been berated, not only by
the new woman,' but by men who would
part with their birth right for the new
woman's smile.
81 have scarcely time to read the vast
number of enthusiastic letters OF com
mendation that come to me in every
mail. 1t is more than a compensation
for the bitterness which | have incurred
by the faithful discharge of my duty as
Waterman on the wan, to know that
the women who constitute the real
of our social fabric are With
me. am sure, also, that when the mad
fever generated by the false philosophy
of Ferrero, and his Boston ally, has sub
sided even the 400 will cannonize me
for my fealIy to the cause of true Wo
manhood. | will not bother with the4
diminutive ecclesiastical apologists of
this social fad. Having set my net for
larger fish, / will allow them to pass
through with the minnows
"If the newspapers will allow me an
equal chance with the bicycle agents,
the strong minded women and the fee
BILE minded men, not many moons will
wax and wane before somebody will CRY,
."Hold Enough p