The Indianapolis journal., 1895-09-20
RACE AFTER CULTURE
WOMEN PURSUE KNOWLEDGE WITH
OUT PROPER DISCRIMINATION.
They Mistake a Variety of Superficial
AcQuirements for Genuine Culture
>Lectures and schools.

The American woman's race after
culture would be ridiculous if it were not
so pathetic said a Henry James Amer
lean, an absentee sister. whom the
writer met recently in German pen
sion. Every letter 1 get from my
women correspondents at home is full
OF lessons. lectures. courses of reading
and the like. as if their schooldays were
never to end; mornings with the poets.
afternoons with the essayists, and even
ings with the scientists. Here is the
mother of one OF my friends whom I
went to school with. 1 should not like
to say how long ago. taking course on
psychology and hypnotism with this
And my sister-in-law. not content with
grinding away at French all winter,
writes me that she is going to sum-
mer school of languages along with her
children. 1t seems to me l should rather
be ignorant than put myself on a par
with my children in that way. How
typical these summer schools are, too,
of the scramble, attempting, as they do.
to cover in five or six weeks what il
the way our women flock over here. on
culture bent. as they announce. Old
and young, married and single, rich and
poor; but all alike intent on culture by
the shortest route. There must be a ter
rible sense Of deficiency and a terrible
unrest behind it all to keep them going
at the rate they co..
There was much truth as we'll as some
injustice in these structures, which Were
moreover, especially worthy of atten-
ton as coming from an American wom-
an who was not only far enough from
the fray herself to judge of il dispas-
sionately. but who was also possessed
to an unusual degree of the culture
thus contended for. Spending most of
her tirne abroad. acquainted with every
civilized people, and acquainted as a
polyglot to whom language is means.
not end. in itself, she had become
easily and unconsciously what her less
cosmopolitan countrywomen strive to be
consciously and with no little of the
clamor that is apt TO accompany con-
scious effort. From such a point of view
the struggle of the latter, for struggle
IT is as yet. must seem strained, and
even at times ridiculous.
In the first place, there is the mis-
taken idea of culture itself which this
struggle for 1t exposes; for Is not cult
ure rather growth from within cut, an
evolution of the individual. than a thing
external to him which may be acquired
off-hand like a French verb or an his
torical fact? 1t may, indeed, be an ac-
compartment, or even a direct result Of
such acquisitions, but 1t Is something
over and above them. nevertheless. Yet
that culture is precisely these things.
or that 1t is at least something concrete
extraneous and Immediately attainable,
will be found to be. confessedly or un-
consciously, at the bottom of AL these
fv,r ola or o lanf
and evening discussions that are null
tiplying in a way that shows how great
is the demand for what they are sup
posed to supply. Nor is this misconcep-
ton TO be ascribed to a lack of educa-
ton, which so often leads TO an over
estimation OF the value of mere school
learning. for the college girl is as eager
in the quest as her sister of no degree
Il want TO be woman OF culture.
writes a university graduate of '95- II
haven't any particular bent In any par.
ticular direction: I'm afraid / haven't
any particular talent; but / want TO go
abroad and study German, and become
a woman of culture"
AN ARMY OF THEM
There are hundreds, nay. thousands,
of her countrywomen abroad to-day on
similar quest-for Europe is the Mecca
of this pilgrimage-with similarly vague
ideas of what this culture that they seek
really is The consequence is many sit
uations which, as the critic above quoted
remarked, would be ludicrous If they
were not so pathetic. For instance, an
American student in Leipsic was reg
ularly accompanied to his university
lectures by his elderly mother and his
elderly aunt. sweet. gentle. ultra-femi-
nine little old ladies. both of them. who
nevertheless i'm their blind quest for
culture. showed pitable lack of good
taste and the fine sense for the fitness
of things that are part OF IL. Indeed.
one knew not which % marvel at most:
the generous COURAGE of the Young man
who feared not thus to face the ridicule
OF his classmates, or the zeal of the
women, which made them utterly obliv-
ious to the impropriety and absurdity OF
their position.
Again. the incongrui.y is of another
kind. as when young woman crosses
the broad ocean for the culture that