The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-01-01
OF THE NEW WOMAN
CARDINAL GIBBONS CONTINUOUSLY
SHOWS HOW BAD SHE Is.
She Has the Layvlessnexs of Eve,
Moral Standard of Lacedaemonia,
and Domestic FaiIings of Greece.

Baltimore Letter in ST. Louis Post Dispatch.
The New Woman visited Cardinal Glib
bons at his residence. She went to confess
sion to him, so to speak. and the Cardinal
has given her permission to print what
passed between them.
Cardinal Gibbons is an object of particular
interest to the New Woman. He has fire.
quently written against her cause. He has
recently preached against it, and the New
Woman is too much s-rfeited with approval
not to be curious about any man who as
sails her. Furthermore, the New Woman is
not happy. She has come to the philosopher
in the still watches of the night, her war
paint streaked with tears, her three-eyed
peacock feather trailing in the dust, and
said:
Behold. l clothed with the sun; the
Tammany tiger is under my feet; the stars
of Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas are in
my crown, and the ever-advancing cause of
woman's rights is booming fireworks on
every side Yet, powerful as am am I'M
happy. Something ails me, and l don't
know what
II can tell you what" has been the Phi
losophers reply you need somebody or
something to command you. You wanted
your way, and now that you've got 1t
there's nothing left but to sit, like Alexan-
der. and howl over the vanity of your vast
possessions. You have developed your mus
Gle and successfully met all corners. You
have developed your mind till everybody in
nature and good government propounds one
problem only Here's the law; where's the
lord? Men afraid of you, municipalities
consider you States make place for you,
the devil consults with you and the Lord
have mercy on you!
Thus it was the New Woman was moved
to go to confession.
Directly the Cardinal entered the room
N-orx- nod RI
turn wrong side out. 1t was not the bril-
liancy of his dress, with its CLEAN about
the edge of the habit. the broad cardinal
sash. the cardinal cap and heavy gold chain
with pendant cross about his neck, that dis
tfnguished him in way to embarrass the
woman. 1t his impersonality that Of
fered her nothing to combat. 1t was the SIM
plicity of his manner that, without dimn-
ishing the dignity of his rank, greeted her
famiiarily-rather as if she were familiar
object, woman-just woman no a,l more 70 re- or
possible for the New Woman-to be stripped
of her discriminating adjectiyes
to say bluntly: IF it please your Eninence,
am the New Woman come to &c Gon tbs on.
d:naI ne w oeG m4s who. What is she?
did not know there is a New Woman.
"Not know there is a New Woman! our
Eminence cannot be in ignorance of the
| New Woman. Why, she is the great achieve
ment of the nineteenth century. She con-
| trolls the age. She is in all the colleges, all
the pro- essions and pretty nearly all puoEc
| offices. She's the woman who is written
| about and who writes about herself; me
| woman who is talked about and talks about
| herself; the woman who Is seen and sees
| nothing but herself She. is the I am of
modern civilization. Surely you must know
| that she carried the last election in ever
| SO many Western States and overthreW
| Tammany in New York
A HINDRANCE TO PROGRESS.
..Oh, 1 understand, said the Cardinal.
.She is the woman suffragist and her
| daughter Personally i know nothing of
that woman, except that recently she
! strove to prove my knowledge of ancient
| history incorrect. However, l bear her
| no i'll will for that. But as Catholic
| I am bound to dlsapprove any so-calied
| woman movement The Church of Rome
| axa.ts womannood in the venerauon 1t
| dccordS the niolner of Jesus CHRIST Dut
| IN exaIting woman it Stlll mas regard Tor
F.! the Speclaa nature OF ner MISSION III the
worlu xnacn Is equal mans, though
not identical with It, Advocates of Won't
| ems rights, though 1 would De very sorry
| 10 impueil sneir motives, are very Tar from
/! conlrlou.ing TO the real progress ana nap
plness OF woman.
| but, your rsmlnence, is not woman suf
| rage the lUsIcdi outcome OF the hfgner euu-
| cation of women! "
..Douorless replied the Cardinal. THAT,
however, ls not to- establish the right or
woman suffrage. FOR the higher euucatlon
| of woman that takes her from genie ln-
nuences-Ironi the influence OF maternal
solicituda and rellgion-to place her among
men IN the universities THAI prescribe the
educataon without reference TO the heart
| and soul, deoases womannood, though de-
veloping woman's intellect. There is
saying of a German writer very. apropos
| of tms-that the modern educated woman
| whose head has been enlarged at the ex-
| pense of her heart is like the Strasburg
| geese whose livers have been fattened-very
me livers, but very sick geese
"God has gwen use a heart to be formed
1 to virtue as we'll as a head to be eniignt-
| ened. Taking no more sentimental or re-
| lgious authority than Webster his defini-
| ton of TO educate is to instil into the mind
| principles of art science, religion and be-
| havior.'
| writer, declares that education to be truly
| good must be fundamentally religious. Now,
| resulting among men from reJection OF
| this principle, if the women the mothers
Of our country, are TO divorce religion from
| their reason, and gauge their excellence
| by the standard of secular education. what
can we expect of their children ~,
| here, saying: Your Eminence there jumps
to a startling conclusion from an unwar-
Woman Sas chden s amaer
| fact, she does not. She puts off the evil
hour of matrimony to the latest possible
| mans social license as bachelor girl She
| is devoted to her cub. She excsls in all manly
| unconcern as she dons boomers and rides
[ a bicycle. If she happens not to like cigar
! cites or bicycles, of course she lets them
| alone Still there swells within her gentle
| bosom a glorious consciousness that what
! she does like she may attain. She may
| like social reforms. Then she goes into
that sort of thing. She may like profess
| sion. She follows it. She may like politics.
| She purifies them with her presence. In
| Washington just at present women are
| seeking to elevate morals with the intro
| duction of women the police force in
the District. But whatever her bent accord
| ing to her temperament she is everywhere
| animated by the scientific spirit that lives
on experience. Finally. sociologist. she
| gets married She is the disciple of Nautilus
| and she converts or intimidates her hus-
| band with the same gospel OF course very
| occasionally, she proves that the ways of
| Providence mysterious and past finding
| out, and. despite the perfection of her mod
| ern civilization, child is born to her. Then
| the previous question of your Emnence is
| in order-'What can be expected of the
| child?' .
| SIN AGAINST CHILDREN.
Wrong. wrong all wrong, and the great
est menace to our American liberty is the
| growing disregard of this country for the
little child" answered the Cardinal. RE
| Hgion reveres and glorifies that little child.
1t is little child that the second per-
SON of the Blessed Trinity is born into the
| world 1T was the little children that without
| reserve Christ babe come unto him, and it