Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1897-07-22
IMPROVED POSITION.
OUCH is THAT HELD BY THE WOMEN
OF TO-DAY.
I'm the Old Days Even Royalty Was Not
Exempt From Household Cares -The
Kings W,r~ Only a seamstress How
Ladies' Reached the Dinner Table.

Exempt From Household Cares-The
Kings W,n~ Only a seamstress How
Ladies' Reached the Dinner Table.
Although the woman of today has not
yet obtained all she requires, and Is ever,
like Oliver. asking for more" she may
congratulate herself that her position in
society, In home life. and. indeed her con
dition generally, is infinitely superior to
that of her sisters In bygone days, when
women had to share-if they did not alto
gether bear-the cares and burdens of life
far more than they do at present, and no
rank seems to have been exempt from this
rule.
History shows that in early times even
royalty passed their lives In a very hard
working and different manner from the
women of today and were housewives in
more than name And, indeed, this contin-
ued to the comparatively recent period Of
the Anglo -Saxons, for IL is on record that
King Frotho, having the misfortune to he
come widower, his ragged thames, who
In reality only followed their lord for what
they could get, being fed, clothed, housed,
armed and horsed In return for their serv-
Ices, mutinied, and insisted upon the king
taking To himself second wife-not that
he might derive pleasure or benefit from
her companionship, but because, forsooth,
there was 'no one to make or mend their
garments for theml'' A pretty state of
affairs when the highest lady in the land
was only to be esteemed for her skill as
u seanstress
And, this being SO, what must have been
the condition of women in lower ranks of
life? These same Anglo -Saxons, 1t may be
mentioned, We're reputed by other nations
to treat their women well and with con
sideration but as wife beating, instead
of being held up to reprobation, was
thought not only right, but duty, 10 Is
hard to believe that statement and leads
one to wonder what could be the condition
of those unfortunates who belonged to
races where the female sex was held in
lower esteem than King Frotho's second
wife, low as we now should think her po-
sition to be.
OF course the inf renee Is that In early
times women really were only regarded as
servants, whose duty was TO minister to
the comfort and pleasure of their lords
and masters, not as helpmeets and COM
panions.
With the introduction Of Christianity
came some amelioration, and women were
treated with more respect and considera-
ton, though still regarded as interiors,
and this lasted for many generations, al
though once, in IA way, as we learn from
history, woman, breaking through all
barriers, rose To fame and distinction and
left name behind her which is still re-
membered.
We pity the Turkish women immured
in the harem, but life in an old English
castle must have been nearly as bad, with
little to enliyen its monotony. 1t is not
altogether complimentary TO the fair sex
to find that their first appearance at an
English dinner table dates from the time
when, joints having come into fashion in
lieu of the spoon meat of former genera
ton, the ladies, who until then had dined
alone, were given seats of honor not from
any particular sense of gallantry on the
part of the gentlemen, but because they
could undertake. the carving Of the viands
no slight task in days when dinner IA la
Russo was unknown.
But, having once at any price got "a foot
ing, the ladies kept it, and in the seven
teenth century asserted their rights by en-
tering the banqueting hall before the men,
who thus had To play second fiddle and
take their places at the board above or be-
low the Salb ms best tley cOulu. lt Is prODa-
bly, n survival of these olden times when
women were excluded from dining with
the sterner sex which holds good with the
many civic dinners devoted to men only
But even in that we are improving. and
could Mr. Pepys now attend "a lord mayors
banquet he would not be obliged, as he was
then, To go into the ladies dining room
after his own repast To STE how they had
Jared. His gallantry would have had suffi-
cient occupation in attending to bis fair
partner at table
Little by little at first and in our own
century by leaps and bounds woman has
been asserting herself until she has almost
reached the apex. Whether in future gen
erations she may attain her highest re-
quirements and prove herself superior in
all things TO feebler man remains To be
seen. Today as "a sharer in all the studies,
professions and pastimes of that same fee
bier man she has, we repeat reason TO con
graduate herself on her improved position
in life as compared with her ancestresses
Of a bygone age.-London Lady.