The record-union., 1896-07-19

1t is almost impossible in the nresor+
day TO pick up paper that does NOT
contain references TO the strange crea-
ture called THE New Woman" She is
made the butt of nuplberless jokes. and
dressmaker's model for all sorts of
outlandish garbs. She is described as
an inveterate consumer of cigarettes.
and free user of tltin-ice expIetives
Ike gosh and by jirSo." She is even
spoken of as threatening to so as far as
men in vice with an equal freedom from
subsequent blame. The penny-a-Hners
and paragraphists of nearly every stripe
find her as fruitful a topic as the hardy
perennial, the motherin-law.
Does Memo believe in the existence
of the new woman? Most decidedly: but
not the new woman Of the plane of
| thought occupied by the joker. That
short-sighted creature is dmly con-
scious of change among women, ten
dency to assert themselves and to MAIN
tain their rights, which he can neither
understand fully nor satisfactorily ex-
plain, and therefore he feels that the
movement in all it's phases is a mon
s1ous joke. 1t is difficult, of course,
for man to enter fully into the feel
writer that possibly he may with diff
dence interpret to men some phases of
the widespread unrest among women.
~ few suggestive outlines will suffice.
Should the Interpretation be at fault,
the writer is anxious for more light
and will be rejoiced to get it.
The new woman is with us because she
iS l,fe
one, and it's great need is progressive
women to keep i'll step with its forward
motion. Without such women the men
and the children of the day would have
neither helpmeet nor guide. The new
woman comes forward to prevent that
sad marriage catastrophe, where the
husband and wife drift apart upon men
tai grounds and thus grow into perma-
nent dissonance of interests; and that
other lamentable phase of domestic life
where the children tolerate poor dear
mamma but neither respect nor heed
her.
The new woman is here to make a
new declaration of independence. 1t
shall not read, Women are entitled to
vote, and therefore to serve in the Gov
ernnent." That is relegated to the
background if she can but gain recog-
milton for the infinitely higher demands
she is making. 1t will, whether en-
crossed on parchment or not matters
little, read somewhat as follows:
| Whereas, All men are not born free
and equal;
| Whereas, Untold thousands of them
are morally imperfect from birth be-
| cause they are the offspring of careless
and Indifferent mothers and grossly
selfish fathers;
| Therefore do we declare:
L. That every child has the right to
be born we'll.
| :. That science stops short of its
| range of influence if it only suffices %
guide stock-raisers and does not reach
to the prenatal and subsequent stages
/ of childhood.
| 3. That woman has the indisputable
right to the control of her own body to
say when she shall be called to the bur
dens and anguish of maternity.
| 4. That marriage, fraught as it is
with so much influence upon the future
of our race, shall no longer be looked
upon as a mere matter of buying and
selling.
/ III SOHle SucH way is the power OF the
new woman to be felt. Many of her
! sisters in their hearts neither under
stand nor yearn for all of these
changes, but the pioneers of progress
among woman are loudly calling for
these rights and more, and sad will be
the day that sees a flat refusal given
to demands that are SO essential to the
well-being of our race
| The new woman feels that there is no
| shame attached to perpetual maiden
| hood; that marriage must not demand
| her acquiescence to it as a social ne
| cessity, upon merely monetary grounds;
that the bargaining of a woman with
man for his name, his fortune. his social
prestige, is an infamous descent from
her pedestal of power; that the pur-
chased wife is an infinitely more shame
full state than the lifelong maid. The
new woman recognizes that the further
| growth of man depends upon the further
| growth of woman; that her physical
| well-being has an inaliena ble right to lay
up strength against the day of her su-
| preme anguish and she moves forward
in a direct and determined line to share
with man his cleanly sports. She sees
| the differences in children and she will
| give and demand for them careful and
individual child-study. The new woman
| has no patience with the prurient pru-
derry that will permit girls and boys to
grow up in ignorance of themselves,
| save as information is impaired by the
| dangerous guessings of their playmates.
| She understands herself and recognizes
| the wrong of birth where affection does
| not exist between the parents. She
knows the benign power over the little
| life flutterng beneath her heart, of the
gentle courtesies and fine restraints and
| mental stimulus of those who truly anu
nobly love- The new woman knows of
the sins of men but has no desire to imi-
| tate them. She rather sets herself to
| teach the man the higher truth of his
| practical opposition to the law of evo-
| luton in the race, so long as he seeks
mere physical qualification without re-
spect to the end thereof. The new
woman knows and appreciates the
power of woman in stimulating men and
| she is determined that that power snail
be exerted on a high plane only.
Shall we fear that all this progress of
thought and emancipation from the
lackadai iscaI standards of the past will
! lead to the gradual vanishing of her at
| tractiveness? The first to feel the dis
appearance of mere shallow prettiness
will ha tha hirt To the deep thinking