The record-union., 1896-08-23
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY MEMO.
(Copyrighted.)

1
| In one of my recent articles the one
on The New Woman, l asked for more
light, if my interpretations were at fault
concerning her purposes and her powers.
a number of letters have come to me,
but, strange to say, they do not at any
point dispute the accuracy of the con
clusions reached in that article. In some
cases, however, the writer's raise a pro-
| test against the new woman as a factor
| in our modern civilization. One letter
written by an editor of my acquaintance
will serve as a summary of this class.
After stating that he could not possibly
think of printing the article, he takes
| two positions.
| l. Woman was made for man, else
why the difference in formation?
| ,. The Bible teaches wives be sub
missive to your husbands"
| / naturally shrink from a controversy
that tends toward the theological, be-
cause, for a layman, the battlefield is un-
familiar; yet when an editor ventures on
characterization of his mothers sex
| as lower than his own. l needs must be
| foohardy enough to follow, if only to
| shout in his ear few things that seem
| to be truths. Let me say then to him
and to others who agree with him re-
| garding formation" that he is about
thirty years behind the times. From the
| time the books, DarWin's Origin of
! Species" and Descent of Man" We're
| issued, up till the present day of Drum
| mond'S ascent of Man." a whole flood
| Of light has been spread abroad in our
minds regarding the analogies of ma
| ture We see clearly that the all-wise
| life-giver and sustainer of over 800, 600
varieties of birds, animals insects, etc.
made them male and female" except
| in the very lowest forms of life, like the
| self dividing amoeba and others. 1t is
| not necessary to dwell at length on the
| advantages of this division of functions.
| One point alone in relation to quadru-
peds will be sufficient to hint at its util-
! ity By such an arrangement the well
| fare and opportunity for survival of
| any one species is practically doubled. l
| shall be clearly understood when | say
| that the sudden death OF the mature
| male does not necessarily annihilate his
| kind; nor does a similar catastrophe to
! one female prevent the perpetuation of
| the species. When we follow these an
alogies up to the limits of human life
the teachings of lower forms of life have
| led us to expect exactly what we find
a very clear differentiation of duties and
a complete reliance upon one another
| for the continued existence of the race.
| To assume then that the woman is Gre
ated for man and is of lower rank than
| he. is to assume that a lioneSS is created
| for a lion: an assumption which the an
alogies of nature point out as erroneous.
Each is equally important to the other;
without the one, the other cannot exist
Even as st. Paul, that favorite author
among dictatorial lords, says: Never
theless, neither is the man without the
woman, nor the woman without the
| man."
| Physiologically there is a point upon
which man can claim superiority to
woman; point of superiority which all
other male creatures share with him.
| He is aggressive in his duties, she re-
| centive: he stands in Gods stead as
| donor of the life which has come down
TO him through an uninterrupted chain
of beings over unmeasured years; she
as the treasurer and care-taker of the
precious trust of perpetuation. But his
right to pride on that score is slight
since he has proved in numberless in
stances unappreciative of the lofty
honor placed upon him and unworthy
TO be the guardian of the stream of life.
1t seems pitiful that we sons of
women should ever permit a thought of
inferiority on her part to cross our
minds. Space will not permit an eX
planation of her almost universal de-
basement in the past. 1t is, however.
a humiliating fact in the history of our
race that less than a hundred years,
since the efforts of Mary Wollstonecroft
for the betterment of her sex, meas
ures almost all the time during which
woman in general among civilized
nations has enjoyed any degree of free
dom from unworthy determinations.
Furthermore, her possession of opportu-
mites of the higher kind is practically
limited even yet to our own blessed
country and the various European ma
tions. Among untold millions outside
of these limits, she, the treasurer of life
and tender minister to childhood, is still
wofully abused and the voiceless suf-
ferer of measureless agonies and hu-
miliations. Even among us and other
progressive people she has hanging
about her various rags of the serfdom
and heartless subjugation she has en-