The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-31
The New Woman.

The picture of 'The New Woman" as
portrayed by E. Lynn Linton in the char
acter of Phoebe Darlington, is not an at
tractive one. Just why woman's intense
interest in the principles of "woman's
rights and her devotion to that cause
should rob her of every spark of womanly
feeling it is hard to conceive. 1t seems
that the picture must be very much over
drawn. Certain it is that in Phoebe Bar
rington there is not one redeeming
quality. OF daughterly, wifely or motherly
affection she shows not trace. Condensed
seltishness and egotism form her essential
characteristics. As a daughter her only
regret, while standing by the couch of her
dying mother, is that she has been called
out of bed on a cold disagreeable night to
witness a scene that is distasteful to her.
She "hated' to see painful things. and it
was bore to be reused from her luxurious
bed at this unearthly hour. AS wife,
she meets with disdain her husband re-
turning from Africa filled with ideal
visions of home. Her greetings, instead of
love and tenderness after long years of
separation, are insult and vituperation. AS
a mother, she neglects her child and even
thinks its existence personal cause of
grievance. These are few of the phases
OF that degraded character which fill the
soul of sensitive reader with dismay and
disgust. Her associates are creatures of
almost the same stamp. As she is the
leading spirit the disagreeable traits shine
forth more plainly in her than in her
satellites. Among the 'fair" excelsiorites
there is not one that is pleasant to contem-
plate, Notwithstanding the beauty of face
and form which some were said to possess.
The mind is filed only with thoughts of
their unwomanly attributes. Those two
ignoble, personaages, Guy. Delcroix and
Il A.
voted advocates of the burning ques-
ton of the day who leave their neglected
wives and children entirely out of
the question as things too insignificant
for them to bother their weighty brains
about. These two add some variety to the
scene, though it cannot be said to be very
satisfactory variety.
The contented and peaceful Armytages
afford a pleasing contrast to all this arti-
ficiality and sshallowness. The occasional
glimpses of them that we catch seem like
strains of sweetest melody interspersed
within a jargon of discordant sounds.
These glmpses are all too few for the
welfare of the book and the reader. Even
PhGbe's apparent conversion at the
eleventh hour fails to soothe, for one feels
that if her props had not given way be-
meath her and had she not felt in doubt
which way to turn, her half-hearted
turning to the right would never have
taken place.
However, in the last chapter are shown
the first futterings of an awkward con-
science in Phoebe, and even some faint
signs of a dawning wifely and maternal
love. So one closes the book with the hope
that Phoebe, having profted by her expert
ence and having seen the errors and unsat-
isfying hollowness of public life, may
find in the quiet, respectable life of coun-
try gentleman's wife a higher sphere of
usefulness than she ever had been able to
imagine or appreciate; that Sherrard may
in the end have at least a semblance of that
happy domestic life which he so much
craved and which he so richly deserves,
and that little Euphemia may enjoy some
of that motherly tenderness which she
seemed destined to never know. New
York: The Merriam Company. For sale
by Payot, Upham & Co..