New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-02-22
TILE KOMAN'S PAGE
a charter

7. &c q sourcp of sincere qualification TO The
nr;buno that it's woman's page is elcitng so
many tributes of hearty praise, III some Ill
stances from those who at first disapproved OF
such a feature. That prejudice should exist
against a womans department IN daly
paper is not at all strange. For, generai!
speaking, it has been vacuous, vapid ana
enhemeral The conductors assumed that all
women were silly and mindless creatures or
what amounted to the same thing, they ap-
pealed only to that class Of women. 1t was the
least offence of the womans departments so
conducted that they were taken up largely win
talk about dress and fashion. For while wo-
man Is what she is, dress and fashion have
proper place in her thoughts. Indeed man
would not esteem her so highly should she cease
to cultivate her love of the beautiful. The
vicious thing about the old idea of woman was
that she was regarded only as pretty toy, with
no aim in life except that of personal adorn-
ment. and no mental capacity except for child
ish gossip and scandal That was the woman
who was revealed in the womans column or
many daily papers few years ago.
Far different is the woman who is pictured in
The Tribune to-day. and. we are glad TO say, in
many other journals which are paying us the
commitment of following our ideas of what
woman's department should be. The women TO
whom The Tribune appeals are intelligent, ra-
| tonal beings neither absurd and pedantic blue
| stockings" on the one hand. nor brainless chat
terers on the other hand. They are profoundly
| interested in the great religious, social and phil
| anthropic movements of the day, and our
| columns testify, they are taking a prominent
part in all those movements. They are repre-
| sented in the professions and in the business
world. and are proving that they can do some
| kinds of work as well as men. though, unfor-
tunately. as yet they do not always receive Il
mans pav. AS artists. teachers and public
speakers they justly claim recognition and re-
spect In their clubs and other similar organ-
cations they show themselves TO be not essen
TALLY different from men in their grasp of public
questions and their understanding of the great
| tendencies of modern life. And still, with all
that, they remain womanly. The unsexed
creature, the mannish woman, is happily rare;
she is largely the creation Of the newspaper
| funny man and the dramatic farce-comedy
writer In fact, the woman Of to-day who
touches life at many points. who takes part in
the many-sided activities of the day. who bears
| her full share of responsibility human be-
| ing. thus becoming in a true and noble sense a
|
| more womanly than the pretty creature who
| was the ideal woman of the medieval trou-
| badours. And il is because The Tribune is try
| ing 10 give this type of woman worthy forum
| in which she may chronicle her achievements
| and hopes for the encouragement of her sisters.
and we may add, Of her fellowworker, man,
also, that our woman's page has received the
approval Of so many intelligent men and
| women.
| There are. however, few good things that
| cannot be made better and it will be our con-
| slant aim TO make the woman's page better and
better every day. 1t will continue to be clean,
wholesome and uplifting, without forgetting
| that women Just like men in that they are
human beings, and therefore not above feeling
| a healthy and human interest in the small
| things that go TO make up so much of every life.
| In word. our womans department will strive
| to give faithful chronicle day by day Of the
| activities, aims and hopes of the women Of
| America, nor Will 1t forget to bring a word Of
| hope and cheer 10 the great army Of 'shut-in"
| women. whose lives have been darkencd by ill.,
ness or some other physical misfortune, but
who, from beds Of suffering and pain, are reach