The record-union., 1897-08-20
FUTURE WOMAN.
A SUBJECT THAT IS AGTTAT-
ING PARIS WRITERS.
The Consensus Seems to be That,
No Matter What She May be,
We Like Her Now.

An investigation, so to speak, has
oeen agltating Paris for the last week
or two, which has arisen out of three
questions propounded by a new ar
rival IN the journalistic field, called La
Revue Naturiste,' says the New York
Herald. The questions have excited
considerable commotion NM. Armand
Silvestre, CatuDle Mendes and Zola are
among those who have expressed their
opinions ON the subject The questions
and some of the replies are as follows:
i. Do you not think that the woman
of the future, she who Will fulfill the
dream of the ''feministes, will con-
stitute one of the gravest perils which
have so far menaced humanity, deter
mining great crises in moral, senti-
mental and social order?
:. In giving your opinion determine
the different characters of this threat
ened woman danger.
). Is it urgent to put a spoke in the
wheel of this movement?
So far this investigation has been pro-
life of good results. Thirty men of let
ters have expressed their opinions upon
it. Among this number there are to
be found but two or three who do not
| enter heart and soul into the move
ment
Henry Bauer writes thus: Living
! among men, coming to know their
egotism, their cowardice, their abuse of
brute force, 1 have become a 'fenin-
iste.' Every human creature, every
male or female Individual, can lay pre-
tensions to the pIenitude of his or her
liberty, outside of the laws, social in
| stitutions, the artificial arrangements
which are but the mouthpiece of the
venom of the strongest, of barbarous
conquest and propriety."
NJ. SILVESTRE'S REPLY.
M. Armand Silvestre is of the same
opinion. He says in q. jocular vein at
first: II am still awaiting my first trial.
! When that comes, should 1 have a
pretty young lawyer pleading my cause
before elegantly robed lady Judges Il
cannot give them their proper title, as
so far none has been settled upon for
feminine Judges), and my counsel
should wear a gown emitting the per-
furne of hlacs, and then I should lose
my case, what would l care if I were
roughly led away to- prison by two ro-
bust female gendaImes? I only desire
to breathe my last under the care Of
an aniable doctreSS, who would usher
me out of this dreadful world with a
most heavenly smile. Well, to be frank,
if I still love the Republic-and God
knows I adored her under the Empire!
it is, / think, because she appears to
me with the features of a woman.
Louis XVIII. and Napoleon III. were
so ugly!"
He concludes in a graver strain:
Whether men are willing to admit it
or not, woman has found a foothold
in the dominion of science, of art and
their long hidden horizons are becom-
ing clearer to her What right have
we to close the portieres which have
been drawn aside for her and to place
stones in her pathway toward light?"
On the other side of the question IS
NJ ROdenbach. He does NOT even ad-
init that the woman question has been
reached yet st do not believe" he says,
that the danger of the accomplishment
of the dreams or programme of the
'feministeS is near at hand or even
possible This movement has been in
agitation since the time of AriSto-
phanes. What was the outcome of the
wonlan's Government in the time of
Lysistratus? Besides, do the majority
of women themselves desire it? And,
again, they are not in the majority
To-day women do more than govern
they reign
The majority of the men interviewed
are less skeptical. They admit that
this woman question is a very promi-
nent and menacing one, and they de-
plore its existence. Among these are
NJ. Gabrille Seailles, M. Maurice LIE
Bloud, M. Ledrain. NJ. Catulle Mendes
admits that he is afraid of this 'femi-
niste" movement. He contends that
woman has but one mission in life
love. He writes: '"The sick ones in
'feministe' humanity are those who la
Dor instead of nursing, who talk in
stead of listening, who think instead of
believing; the invalids are the water
carriers, the writers and all those who
in exchange for the soup (under all it's
forrns), those who prepare it and those
who should prepare it, are not content
with the courage of soldiers, the earn
ings of their patron, the glory Of their
poet Ghey want to do all these things
themselves), and the reward which will
be theirs in the end for their faith
and their waiting. The true women are
those who listen for the cry of their
newly GGTIl, dIiu III lLOSG lSEDiS CIISo
reap greater triumphs than their
emancipated sisters"
ZOLA SEES DEFIANCE.
NJ Emile Zola also sees a defiance
against nature in this "feministe"
movement. The woman, as well as
the man." he says, will never be any
thing but what nature designed she
should be- Anything else all the
dreams which may be dreamt, win be
but abnormal, dangerous, and, happily,
impossible. In the order of justice, in
the ordel of happiness, [ will gladly
admit that the woman should be the
equal of the man. Nobody argues to
the contrary any longer. But if she is
different physiologically it is because
her function is different, and she will
only waste away and disappear in try
ing to be other than nature made her"
Then some are resigned to the condi-
ton of things. There are two kinds in
this class-those who are sadly re-
signed and those who take the matter
joyously, those who think, ''All this is
ridiculous enough. but we cannot help
tho