The herald., 1896-07-05
Tr.e Womsnhood

500 words. written legibly on one side OF
paper only.)
True Womsnhood
As free 20 woman in her yearning for the
lofty and the true,
From her native inspiration TO PROJECT ana
1ife-WorK W * Shaped by intuition. which, If
A,,vows finds The mental fibre out Of which
success is made.
Be omnipotenu oandiv IL sh,a"oou' be- """' 'o
For to make of life a fiction, is an irksome
travesty. ., a.,
becomes the brave
Life unreal shall evanish in tn alembic
of the grave.
Manhood wins by stern commanding, po-
tent through the power OF Will .
Womanhood commands by winning, with
a way more regal still.
Man upon his stalwart shoulder b1nds MS
load with matchless art,
Woman hides her life experience IN ner Sc
cret, secret heart
So that culture must be noblest which IN
harmony divine,
Edenic time. ,,.s
Linked the sexes in communion-dual lie
in unity ,,,
Just us branches, though diverging, still
SARAH b. COOPER.
Science has planted her instruments or
knOWleQRe ana power liC iibh pos7
Elements of progress, and man can take
no retrospective step. BY the impulse
and force of this age of inventive gen.
ius he is carried forward in spite of the
old-time prejudice and bigotry of the
past to the grander, truer civilization of
the incoming cycle. And-woman, Will
sne prove clog on the wheel of time?
Wherein does woman rise equal and
capable with man? Is it in the strength
and character of womanhood, or solely
in the duties and functions of mother
hood?
Man does not rise in power, genius
and knowledge by the functions of
fatherhood; his sphere in the mental,
legal and industrial is not limited by the
realm of termination; his world is not
narrowed to the cloistered walls of home;
broad avenues that reach out in every
walk of life are his to tread; he may,
unbidden, climb the hills of science and
of fame; dig deep into the bosom of
earth to give to him her mysteries, chain
the lightning to his chariot wheels of
progress, the great storehouse of knowl-
edge bids him enter and seek farther
into it's vast researches; the well-springs
of intellectual life burst forth that he
may drink deeply from it's illimitable
sources-not as a father but as man,
God-endowed and divine.
And woman! will she forego all these
boundleSs gifts of nature to hold to the
narrowed sphere of maternity? The
more exalted woman rises in her woman
hood. the more sublime and heroic the
motherhood, the purer and nobler her
ideals of life, the grander and filter for
LIES work are the offspring of her be-
ing.
When that pure and wondrous star of
individualityis eclipsed and hidden by a
false idea of motherhood its holiest con-
ception marred, that the aim and ulti-
matum of woman's life and sphere is
maternity, she thwarts the purpose of
her creation to stand co-equal in the
advancement of mankind. Those who
still cling to the old tradition in the crea-
tion of Adam and Eve can find no word
there to justify the false conception of
the sublime purpose of a creator, male
and female created he them;" the acme
of his creative power was man and wO-
man, the aftermath, they knowing not
their power of reproduction, was "mul-
tiply and replenish the earth" To him,
the source of their being was the image
of his expressed thought, exemplified in
Its formation as man and woman, as
the crowning ideal of his creative force,
each distinctive in provocative in q
race that should have been God-like In
its wisdom and aspiration.
sense of degradation sweeps over the
true woman that the grandest and
noblest attributes of woman, her wo-
manhood, must be lost in sex. that it
forms a barrier broad and high to the
unfoldment of the divine within, the up
liftment of all mankind, the endless pro-
gression of man. In intellect there Is
no sex, and intellect is as far superior to
sex as man is superior to the beast. The
true woman recognizes the sacredness
of motherhood she alone feels the pres
ence of the divine, she alone enters with
deeper awe and responsibility in the
molding of young life; to her it is the
holy of the holies. Her womanhood, that
for which millions of years have passed
to evolve its height and depth, its grand
eur of purpose and resultant power, to
be sacrificed and lost in a single attribute
of her creation!
May woman learn that motherhood is
secondary to the possibilities of an en-
nobled womanhood, raised to her exalted
sphere. taking her place as true help
meet at the side of man, rising with him
to the highest intellectual plane, enter
ing the arena of public life with con-
scious pride and fitness, faithful in the
discharge of duties in the home, state
and nation, that her voice must blend in
harmony with man to herald the worlds
emancipation, that her nature atuned to
mercy and justice must WELD it's be-
nign influence in courts and legislatures
maternity is an awful power. 1t
strikes back at injustice with force
that Is fearful menace to mankind.
And the race which is born of mothers
VINO are narraSSed, SubOrdinated and
made the victims of blind passion or
power, or of mothers who are too petty
and self-debased to feel their subject
status, cannot fail to continue to give the
horrible spectacles we have already had
of war, of crime, of vice, of trickery, of
double dealing, Of pretense, of lying, Of
arrogance, Of subserviency, of brutality,
and alas! of insanity, idiocy and disease
added to fearful and unnecessary NOR
tality."
When woman, mothers, arise to the
full consciousness of the dignity and
power of the ballot, that without it the
home, that she would keep sacred and
inviolate Is open to the Minotaur that
walks unchecked through the land,
when womanhood stands pre- eminent,
beside the ever conscious power of man
hood, then will come the millennium of
the race.
MAY ELMORE BENSEN.
HOvv Will he