The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-19

visions of domestic bliss about which,
Be &c said, some writers Of ths unre-
strained romantic school have UTTERED
5neffaable nonsense) grow We dim. and
that the lean, middle-et domestic
drudge soured by hourly IA Ston, finds
IN a sharp tongue some k Nof outlet,
Wh1ch SEEMS TO her the o. possipie,
for a shriveled heart. eai.en up with
petty cares and dreary dukes. II is q
sad business. but we can exercise char
ity. for We see how fatally easy 1t IS for
lack of prudence and for romantic silli-
ness to produce this sordid crop of do
nestle discomfort.
But all the nagging women of the low
er classes re not of this type. There
are sometimes excellent persons, exem-
plary in every relation of life capable,
honest, ustworthy, industrious, with no
household cares and no very serious
problems before them, who ssiam to have
been born with a kind of moral twist
which all their lives long make the
grasshopper seem a burden, which sets
them al variance with their kind, which
makes them see in every person an ac-
tual or potential enemy or at last
source of danger and anxiety Trey are
in a peculiar sense the product Of north
ern people. with their age-long conflict
with the forces of nature. You can
scarcely ina CINE such angular spee3mens
of vin.ue in petticoats being reared
among the careless, idle, sensuous child
rem of the sun. There is usually no
tanning of such shrews by MARI age for
they are the vesta's of the British house
keepers room, or of the respectable,
spOtless cottage in a quiet Eng ish prov
incial town. We think tlhey ara, on the
whole, a special British product which
We must accept along with our other ma
tioRal mercies and get along with as we
can.
TWO METHODS OF REFORM.
and environment how 1T IS thct women
take more naturally to nagging than
men, But we have limited at another
cause in the difference of pursuits. Men
have, in the nature of things, certain
large interests which give some
scope to their Imagination and Eft them
above the narrow round. the seeming
routine of trifies, which must make up so
much of women's existence. We say
seeming for the true work of women
-the love and care of men and the
pre- ssrva tion of family life-is not really
a trifle, though its moments may be
often trfiing. Blu. there is no denying
the fact (and 1T is this which gives to
iae woman movement fs momentum)
that there are more active and larger
daily interests in i.lle life of a man than
in that of a woman. The workman
meets his comrades in the open air and
engages them in conversation; he sees
something of the sltdr of life, while his
wife is shut up within the little pinfold
of her cottage. The stock broker, the
lawyer, the legislator, the merchant. are
each and all in close touch with large
realities, with responsive life. So THAT
not only are their nerves less broken,
but their imagination ard intellect are
sustained with greater power and it Is
not usually until old age That these ami
mating and enlarging motives cease to
affect their daily lives.
Extreme fanatics among the so-called
new women" viii, see IN this another
grievance to be met by women f1inging
themselves unrestrained into the mas
culine world of active life. We believe
that TO be a delusion, because nature is
against It, But we do think ta1st two
great changes might largely reduce the
naggirg dispos:t on. First, better d.
vision of work, not by the agency of a
idespo;il, communism, but by the growth
of moral insight in all classes of society.
Secondly, by a system of cooperation
housekeeping by the working classes,
who at present understand lit e Or Moth
ing of the possibilities of that division of
labor which they SEE in the factories and
workshops where they are employed
when carried out in their own homes.