The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-01-15
THE EGOTISTIC SEX.
LET Us HOPE ALL MEN DO NOT DE-
SERVE THIS LECTURE.

OeVvs ss'O @eSs SVes
One Of tho Sisters Who Champions the
Woman Cause Brings Some Very Severe
Counts Against the Self sumeient Mas
ssline Man.
In considering man In his relation %
woman the woman Of advanced thought
ID accustomed to speak of his selflshness,
bis tyranny, his injustice, his brutality.
All these are but different manifestations
of one equality-egotism.
The Autocrat OF the Breakfast Table de-
lines egotism as salt for the preservation
OF society. A human being without ego
tism would Inevitably degenerate In the So
cial scale We recognize the necessity for
ogotisin, but we deplore and shun the
egotist, for She egotist Is one whose sense
OF his own greatness has grown to such
enormous proportions that he sees nothing
else In the universe. And this Is the case
with man In his dealings with woman.
His egotism has been to her q napkin In
which were wrapped her God given talents
and a grave deep and wide in which they
were buried-a burial that for centuries
has known no resurrection morn. This
egotism, impalpable as a shadow and I'M
passable as Chinese wall, erected itself
before her footsteps and prisoned her with
In the narrow limitsof four walls called
home. 10 settled down upon her life, de-
vouring every green and pleasant thing,
till the record Of her existence might be
summed up in these pathetic words, "The
years that the locusts have eaten" Like
the tabled Minotaur, this egotism has
placed itself on the heights Of life, calling,
not yearly, but daily, hourly, momently,
for It's tribute Of womaphood. And led by
the high priests of ignorance and supersti-
tion an innumerable throng Of sad eyed
victims have walked dumbly through the
ages, yielding themselves up to the mon
ster.
History is full of instances Of this ego
tism. In China 1t Is the egotism of man
that binds the feet Of women. In India 1t
IL the egotism Of man that builds the re-
mana In Turkey 1t Is the egotism Of man
that makes the harem. In Persia 1t Is the
egotism Of man that bridles the mouths of
women. In Russia 1t Is the egotism of
man that says, "Once woman always a
beast" In the Jewish notion it was the
egotism of man that said in the liturgy, ~
thank thee, o God, that thou hast not
made me a woman" In Mohammedan
clares woman to be creature without a
soul. In America 1t Is the egotism of
man that says, 1.-The home is woman's
sphere" "The higher education units
woman for wifehood and motherhood,
"Women have nothing to do with politics,
"Wifehood and motherhood are woman's
highest calling and election" and dozen
similar idiocies that until recently were
held as sacred, unquestionable truth.
When Mime. DE Stael in her day the
most brilliant woman in Europe, asked
Napoleon what woman rendered the great
est service to France, he answered her from
the depths of his fathomless egotism as
follows:
Madame, she who brings forth the
greatest number of male children
Here spoke the true Napoleonic brutal
ity. No Acknowledgements of womanly in
tellect, no recognition of womanly genius
and diplomacy, no homage even TO mother
nood. The greatest general In Europe
wanted soldiers to make flood for pow.
der,' and in his eyes a stupid, prolific
peasant woman was more useful than the
intellectual feminine diplomat whom he
feared, hated and exiled at last from
France.
The spirit that lay behind Napoleon's
words is the "indwelling spirit of 900 out
of 900 men. Everywhere men are meas
uring, weighing, judging, condemning or
approving women by the mean, narrow,
petty, miserable standards Of their indi-
vidual likes, dislikes and needs. The Ger
man Emperor William expresses his par
ticular egotism by the dictum that wom-
ans sphere is bounded by the three ks
-kirche, kueche, kinderstube (church,
kitchen and nursery.
When Laura Clay was lecturing In Ken
tucky, Kentucky colonel, who, by the
way, was not present at her lecture, re-
marked loftily that he chad no use for
such women" He was evidently of the
opinion that the Almighty Ruler of the
universe had made great mistake in not
consulting him when Miss Clay was made.
It was singular fact that, when the Al
mighty sees that the world stands in need
of a certain kind of womanhood, he does
not pause to consider the wishes and tastes
of any Kentucky colonel When he sees,
for instance, that the women of q great
commonwealth are classed with "idiots,
lunatics and minors" when he secs that
by the marriage ceremony women are be-
reft of their property rights; when he sees
that in this Gland of chivalry' married
mother has no ownership in her little chill
dren; when he sees that the law makes 1t
safe for any SEQ 4ndrel to rob girl child
of her purity, and seeing these things and
many more he probably concludes that,
while "such women" may be offensive to
the delicate tastes Of few Kentucky col
onels, created by Kentucky governors,
these same women are sadly needed by
thousands of other women whom he has
created. And SO be allows "such women"
to come into being and gives them name
and a place in his universe In sublime for
getfulness of all Kentucky colonels, PAST,
present and to come.
That redoubtable little dress reformer
Mrs. Frank Stuart Parker relates that she
was trying to have certain kind OF wrap
made, embodying an artistic idea Of her
own. The tailor failed 10 carry out her
conception, and when she took 1t back to
him for alteration he exclaimed in egotis-
tical disgust, "I wouldn't marry a woman
who would wear such cloak" (This,
you will observe, was tho very highest
censure he could pass on either the cloak