The Advocate and news., 1898-11-16

DOCKS, UudBdAlu6S5 lu6 udlly papers
listen to current talk, and see the proof
Of what have said Girls are advised
to improve their minds. Why? To in
crease their attTaCtiveness. They are
implored not to neglect the domestic
arts-because man likes creature COM
forts. They are even told to keep their
bodies sweet and Clean-because men do
not like a doWdy woman. Yes, girls,
with no consciousness of the indignity
put upon you by such advice, you listen
submissively while newspaper men and
women tell you to brush your hair and
keep your hands neat and your tempers
under control, to cultivate your minds
and adOrn yourselves with all the Chris
tian graces-the reward Of all such doing
and leaving undOne being that you will
find favor in the eyes of some man and
gain entrance into the paradise Of matri
mony.
What boy has such reward held be-
fore his eyes? Do we tell our sons to
keep their souls and lives untainted and
their bodies pure and spotless, and for
reward hold before them the vision OF
the wife? If such teaching exists 1t Is
secret doctrine, no trace OF which ever
by chance has crept into print or current
speech. They are not, like girls, aspi-
rants for matrimony. Rather are they
regarded as it's victims or the dispensers
of it's honors! "a young man married is
man that's married." is the poetical
expression Of one view, current literature
voices the other and the fruit Of such
teaching is imperfectly developed men
and women and incomplete marriages.
One of the greatest modern prophets
has said many wise things on this sub
ject, but his words are much neglected
by those for whom they were written,
the maids and wives Of this latter part
of the nineteenth century, who prefer to
gain their inspiration from the penny-a-
liners Of the Woman's column In the Sun
day papers and the highly-spiced litera-
ture of the circulating libraries. To
writer's Of this class, not marriage but
catching a husband is the object to be
attained, and my dear girls, assure
you there is a very deep and wide dis
tinction between the two things. The
girl who seeks to fit herself for marriage
has placed before her eyes very high
ideal, and by that very altitude Of mind
is saved from the vulgarity Of seeking to
catch a husband. Listen to what has
been said on this subject by the great
thinker just referred to. See how he de-
fines womans sphere, and you will see
that the qualities of soul needed to fit
women for that sphere are not gained
in hunting the bargain counters of de-
partment stores, nor in studying Beauty
Hints" Of Sunday newspapers, nor are
they wasted II, perchance, the woman
who believes them should, by some acci-
dent Of fate, remain unmarried. This is
what he says:
"The woman's power is for rule and
not for battle And her intellect is not
for invention nor creation, but for sweet
ordering, arrangement and decision. Her
function is for praise. She enters into
no contest, but infallibly judges the
crown Of contest. But do you not see
that, to fulfill this, she must-as far as
one use such terms Of human creature
be incapable of error? So far as she
rules, all must be right, or nothing is.
She must be enduringly incOrruptibly
good; instinctively, infallibly wise-wise
not for self-development, but for self
renunciation; wise, not that she may set
herself above her husband, but that she
may never fail from his side"
Now, while all this is perfectly COM
patible with the most exquisite prettiness
and daintiness, and all the sweet and
gracious forms with which woman de-
lights to adorn her environment, it gives
another meaning to them, because it pro-
vides another, and how different, a cause
for them.
Be beautiful girls--as beautiful as God
meant you to be-but be so as the rose
is beautiful, because beauty is the nat
ural expression Of its life-not that 1t