The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-06-13
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
Written for the Democratic Advocate,
BY MEMO.
1coPYRIGHTED.l

These HInOuSnts Represent INC u.ih
cation of the spare moments in the life OF
busy layman. The aim is to lead In an
optimistic way to better understanding OF
life, its grandeur, and responsibilities.
Why not let our Thoughts wander
for awhile around that creation-old subject,
Woman? The difficulty is to be moder-
ate in our language, since we men are apt
to express ourselves regarding the whole
sex Just according to whether we have
had fateful or helpful experience with one
member of it. We are so commercial in
our training that we make the grand mis-
take in this instance of judging the whole
by sample, the fabric by thread, the
house bya splinter Wesum her up indi-
vidually Just as we feel, for from the full
ness of the heart the mouth speaketh. To
one she is like Arctic ice, distant and abom-
inably cold; to another she is steel, mold
able into weapon of fate, an anchor OF
hone or the narrowness of a razor-edge; or
again she is a ruby, warm and lustrous;
or mayhap (to bring sudden end to SINH
Ies) she is jelly fish, so simple you think
you can see through her, so fabby you
can mould her, and yet capable of bring
ing smarting and hopeless ache into your
heart that neither concentration on other
subjects nor years will alleviate. But
another smile must come for.h-tO an oc-
casional one she is the very tonic of life;
her intuition detects the unworthy ambi-
ton. her frown condemns it, her smile
urges on to noble effort, her nod of approval
energises the tagging spirits, her gentle
hand leads to the goal Of victory over self
and over wrong.
But what thinks memo while he
scrawls this out almost illegibly and glances
ever and anon at the scenery flying by the
car in which he is travelling? The wheels
seem to acquire certain cadence in their
sound as they pass over the fish plates.
The clatter begins to form itself into sylla-
bles in the ear. There it is now: prod
gal, prod-i-gal, prod-i-gal, " and
every moment of diverted attention strikes
into the ear again ''Prod-i-gal, prod
gal, prOd-i-gal. Even the soulless
train is thinking in concert with me, and
coinciding with my thoughts of woman as
sex and as power in the world.
A misanthropic father one time brought
mp son in entire seclusion from all woman
kind. When manhood approached he led
the boy out through the world on a tour
of observation and described to him the
various creatures they met. As they went
there came tripping along the path sweet
young girl, swinging her hat and smiling
from the very glee of existence Father, "
said the startled youth, ''what animal is
that?'' "My son, said the father,
''that is very silly creature called goose.
1t is also dangerous. y When this myth
ical tour was completed the father was
curious to know which creature the boy
would like to have for pet. He instantly
blurted out, "Father, buy me goose. y
As surely as the planets revolve, as
surely as the tides ebb and flow, as sure
as the influence of gravitation the man
will seek the woman as his complemental
portion During his boyhood she is to
him ''only girl, with decided tinge
of superiority in the tone he uses, But
gradually his eyes are opened and she be-
comes to him the ''summum bonum, the
highest good in life. Everything that has
been dear to him before fades into trivial
ity except as it recommends him in her
eyes. He intereepts her path to catch a
smile. If he wins it he is raised into the
seventh heaven of delight; if it is denied
him, he is plunged into despair wherein
even mother and home and life, all have
no value to him. Woman becomes there
fore the motive force of the world, with
its multifarious industries and its arts.
The glories of palace are as naught to a
man unless he find woman to rule there
in; his triumphs in accomplishments are
Dead Sea Apples unless he can lay the
trophies at her feet, the ringing plaudits Of
the crowd are hollow mockery to him I'M
less those thrilling sounds can reach the
ear and flush the cheek of the woman
whom he regards above all others He
becomes as clay in her hand; she can
mould his very character and transform it
in these moments of supreme desire; she
can draw aside the curtain and show him
broader, nobler thought of love than his,
for beneath his chivalry and his poetry toe
often animalism is strongly lurking; she
can, if she will, let into his eager soul the
higher thought that the law of supreme
love is not wild possession but self-subjuga-
ton. Yet with those opportunities at hel
command, with the yearning man, awake
to his incompleteness, quivering at hel
side, with the power within her to uplift
his thoughts his motives, his ambitions,
how numberless are the women who are
mere coquettes or shallow retailers of small
talk, or who meet the man on his owl
lower plane of thought
There are the wheels again, Prod
gal, prod-i-gal, prod-i-gal' .
Instead of woman being the weaker she
is the stronger in that which constitutes
real strength. Morals are greater than
muscles. To her is committed the moral
conservation of the race in curbing her
lover, in gently influencing her husband,
in setting right standards before her chill
dren; or if it be that she have neither
lover nor husband nor child; yet is her
power not lessened to guide her less adj
vanced sister, to be the trusted confdant
of those who are perplexed and tending
towards moral destruction, to come into
the lives of children whose mothers have
not the insight sufficient to guide their
own. Feeble though woman's apprehen-
sion Of her power has been, yet were this
world bereft Of the constant leaven Of her
tendency upward and her carrying Of
man with her, it would be nothing but a
moral eharnel house She IS the block