St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-17
SEX IN TITLES.
A Newspapers Womanss View az to
the AppeIIatiOn of Woman Of
fCinIa

A Newspapers Woman,s View as to
the AppeIIation of Woman Of
ficinls.
Margaret arg Airline Hamm In the New York
The possibility that Miss EsteIIe
Keel the charming state superinten-
dent of education and public school
lands OF Wyoming, may be elected gov
ernor OF that state Is worrying the
souls OF several would-be critical per-
sons as to whether, In the event OF
her election, she should be styled gov
ernor or governess, and also whether
she should be addressed as Miss Gov
ernor, Mrs. or Madam. This seems to
be very important problem, as 1t has
already caused the publication Of over
2O0 columns of historical logical, legal,
biological and genealogical nonsense.
There Is class In the community who
see sex in everything, and who refer to
the female mind, to fersale culture, to
female hopes and aspirations as If they
We're altogether different from what
they possess themselves. They employ
Invariably such words as poetess, doc
tress, editress, sculptress, songstress,
and, If they had their own way, they
would burden our mother tongue with
such words as dentistess, secretaryess,
geologess, preacheress, pastress and
ministries.
1t apparently takes a long time for
some people to realize that, in every
thing which pertains to the exercise OF
the intellect, there Is no such thing as
sex. Mrs. Browning's verse would
have been as great an honor to her
husband as II was to herself. In it's
ma tchless beauty, music, words and
thought reached their highest develop
ment In that case at least not even
the most antiquated conservative
speaks OF female verse.
When It comes to the mathematical
work Of Caroline Herschel, Miss Somer-
vile. Maria Mitchell and Philippa Faw-
cett. there Is no mention Of mathe-
maticianess there, nor Of female cal-
culus, nor of feminine astronomy. In
the clear light OF the upper skies sex
Is invisible. Rachel. Ristori and Bern
hardt are names which bring UP
mighty actors, and not mere women.
III this new development OF modern
civilization 1t Is more than probable
that women Will be mayors and gov
ernors. senators and judges. congress-
men and cabinet officers, diplomats
and baSSadors; but when they at
tain these positions, It will not be by
reason Of sex, but by intellectual SUI
periority. When such a point Is at
tained the same title will be unani-
mously applied to the woman exactly
the same as the man.
II Is very funny that so many people
OF apparent intelligence should be will
ing TO measure the leagues of the flIt-
ure by the inch rules of the present
1t would be just as logical to measure
the civilization of today by the stand
ards Of the middle ages In those good
old times the business man, the street
laborer the peasant and the peddler
were classed together as being unwor-
thy OF gentle notice. The physician
was barber. and the only teacher of
repute was the fencing master and the
broadswordsman. Gentility consisted
in combination Of idleness, dissipa-
ton. iuebriety, and feudal practices
which today we term highway rob-
berry. The nineteenth century is a dIF-
ferent world from the fifteenth. and
the twenty-third will be Just as much
different and better than the nine,
teepth In It's turn