Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-12
OUR SOCIAL WORLD

(All items of social interest will be glaaly
noted in these columns If sent 70 MIS-,
George c. Ball. Nineteenth street pei tT,shl
Tenth and Eleventh avenues. South aish-
lands. Telephone $751;
The progressive women of today are
compelled to wonder sometimes how
much the men of our time are response
BILE for the many and varied arguments
made against the education of women
and the preparing of them for those du-
ties of life which appertain to certain
conditions. Nearly every form of debate
has been brought to bear upon the mat
ter and an amount of ridicule difficult
to comprehend in this age of self-respect-
ing men and women. 1t has been proven
beyond the peradventure of doubt that
the womanliness and devotion of our sex
has not been lessened by any amount OF
mental training and advancement. Wom-
en- have been just as loyal and loving
wives mothers, sisters and sweethearts
with the advantages of advanced and ad-
vancing education as they were in the
olden times, when maidens sighed in the
moated grange or told their~fove from
balconies to Romeos, who retold the aold,
old story, which grew sweeter with each
telling. With the increasing activity OF
our century has come another type OF
woman, none the less tender and true,
but more fully alive to the exigencies of
the times and with larger capacity for
fulfilling all the duties and claims which
belong to a wider and broader place of
existence. Education and cultivation
are essential to the women of this latter
part of the most wonderful century OF
the worlds history; without them no
woman is fitted to cope with the progress
of thought (Which pertains to both sexes
only as they can grasp it, and become
part of the tremendous mental awaken
ing. The timorous men may deplore the
reaching out of intellectual women; the
skeptic may attempt to limit the capaci-
ty of femininity and bring to bear all
possible reasoning to prove the strength
of their position, but the advance goes on
with steady, unfaltering tread, and each
day brings woman nearer to that goal of
every intelligent woman's ambition,
which is her fitness for congenial COM
partnership with the men of her family
and for whatever duties that may await
her. The time Is rapidly disappearing
when any woman will be content to be
counted as an inferior order of humanity,
a mere housekeeper and nurse, so to
speak Women to fill these positions
satisfactorily can be hired at very
moderate sum per month. 1t is our own
fault If we permit our husbands and sons
to outgrow us mentally, and it is also our
own fault If the time ever comes when
they treat us as comfortable appendages
to well regulated, well APP
pointed home. There can be no
happier, truer life than that which
springs from the union of men and wom-
en- with congenial mental tastes and with
similar aspirations and desires. 1t has
been proven too often to need further
substantiation that there are no more
devoted, self-sacrificing mothers and
wives than the women who are now
abreast with these stirring times. SO,
after stirring variously to stem the tide
which is now rising higher and higher,
and which resistlessly sweeps away all
the little distractions built upon the
sand of doubt, the men of small minds
are making an effort to arrest the prog
ress of women by appealing to our per-
3 sonal vanity We are told that women
are growing uglier: that our faces are
becoming hard and even repulsive, be-
cause of the lines wrought upon them
by thought and study. In consequence
of this last shot from the retreating en-
envy men of talent as well as capable
women are coming to the defense OF the
brainy, educated women of the present
time AS has been said before, thought
is but the chisel which makes the out
lines of our faces worthy of their like
ness to our Creator. AS we think we
grow, not only in life and living, but in
the expression of our faces. Beauty,
genuine beauty, is far more than Skin
ings of youth passes away with the wear
and tear of years, and in its place there
should come a purer, diviner beauty,
which has been wrought by the daily
strokes of the chsel which comes from
the mind and heart. AS a proof of the
effect of living upon the human face,
take, as examples. the sweet, patient
faces of those women who devote them
selves to the sick and suffering of our
race, or whose years pass in self-denial
and constant struggle for ultimate
good. Among these noble women,swheth-
er formed in convent OF hospital, there
are few faces which are expressionless
or which indicate peevishness or discon-
tent The elevated purpose of their lives
has made their features noble and pure;
their expression tender and sweet. This
is not a period of inanity and few women
will pause and hesitate to go forward
because some men prefer blank faces to
those which indicate soul and brains.
The communication from Rutledge
Ala, published in my columns on
Wednesday morning calls attention to
the fact that in some localities, at any
rate, the arm clutch" is passing away
and some Alabama girls are insisting up
on a return of the fashion of women TAX
ing mems arms in walking with them
This Is a hopeful indication of returning
sanity, and should be so received by all
toms and manners of a period when
southerners were considered the best
bred people in the world We have of late
years almost unconsciously drifted into.
the universal arm CLUTCH notwith-
standing the ridicule brought to bear up
on the custom 1t is in itself an ugly
ungraceful habit, almost barbarism:
and should never have been tolerated by
any one of us 1t is said by my CORE
spondent that the young men object to
the old-fashoned way of a woman TAX
ing a mans arm, instead of vice versa
and claim that they cannot offer the same
protection as when the arm clutch pre-
vailed. But it seems somewhat peculiar
to argue that a man can be of more ser
vice as a protector with his right arm
clasping with vice-like grip the arm of
his sweetheart than If she held his left
arm and his right one remained unen-
numbered 1t is not singular that many
men have preferred the present mode
but it is passing strange that we women
have tolerated 1t for so long a time. II
Is to be hoped that the young ladies of
Rutledge will stand firm in their resolve
to do away with the disgusting arm
clutch, and that the other well bred Ala
bama girls will follow their admirable
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