The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1898-02-05
THE GEORGIA HUMORIST
PHIL osoPHeR SAYS WE ARE"PRoGRess-
ING" BACKWARD.
He TIA ks of the Old South---Changed Con.
ditions Find Women Fast Taxing the
Place of Men---Other Interesting Topics
Discussed.

We were taking about the old south
and the new south, and some sai
there was no new south; that we were
the same people and have the same
principles, the same religion and the
same politics that our fathers had, but
like the rest of the civilized world, we
have advanced in education and gen.
eral intelligence and in the enjoyment
OF the comforts of life.
Well, am no pessimist, but I am
grieved to say that in many things we
have advanced backward. We have
more books and more newspapers and
more schools, but that crime is on the
increase is known and admitted by all
who study the records of the courts.
There are more idle young men than
there need to be-yes, five times as
many, according to population, and
Ben Franklin said that idleness is the
parent of vice. I can pick out score
OF young men in every town who are
doing nothing-young men of good
families-and they are living on the
old man or the old woman and seem
to be content. They haven't been
reared to work and they won't hunt for
it now. Fifty years ago we had no
vagabonds; every young man worked
at something, and it was considered
disreputable to lie around in idleness.
In fact, we had a vagrant law that
compelled the lazy, trifing fellows to
earn living. I reckon that law is
still in the code, but it is dead let
ter. When young man married a
girl it was expected by both sides that
he could and would support her, but
nowadays about half of them are
supported by their wives or by the
old folks.
Then we got to talking about the
new woman-the female doctors and
lawyers and editors and preachers and
teachers and bookkeepers and sales
women, and how woman was forging
ahead and taking the places and occu-
pations of the men, and my friend,
Mr.. Williams, of California, surprised
us by saying that there was o tribe of
Indians in the northwest who were
already far in advance on this line;
that he had known of them ever since
ne moved to California, in 1849. In
this tribe the women dominate the
men in the family and the field and
forest. They rule them absolutely,
make them cook and wash and nurse,
and actually hire them out and collect
the pay. Their principal business is
trapping for furs. The women do this
and sell the furs and pocket the money,
and many of them have a good bank
account in San Francisco. The men
are not known in any business trans
actions. So it seems that our new wo,
man has savage precedent. Have
we got to come to this? Will I live to
see the day when my wife will hire me
out as nurse or a cook and pocket
the money? She knows that I can do
both, and I never lodged it at home
on an emergency, but I reckon she
will let me stay at home and work in
the garden and cultivate her flowers
the remainder of my terrestrial days.
She knows that I never hid my
money from her; when I got any
kept it for her, that's all. It was
hers just as much as mine, but ]
kept it-sorter like the old fellow who
had thousand dollars in goldsand
when the confederate government
passed law taxing gold 20 per cent
he swore he wouldn't pay it, and SO he
got out the bag one night and put il
on the middle of the table and called
up his wife and four children and
divided it into five piles and gave them
5000 each and said, ''Now, the gold is
all yours and I can swear I haven't
got dollar in the world; but I reckon
L had better keep it for you," and he
raked it all into the bag again and
locked it up in his trunk.
There is no greater contrast between
the old south snd the new south than
is shown IN the Advancement and the
humiliation of woman. They are now
on the two extremes. Before the wal
there were no female doctors or law.
yers or lecturers r-editors-not one
and there were no beokkepers or type.
writer's or shop girls or clerks. The
average woman otficiated as a wife and
mother, or a daughter cherished by
her parents and her brother. The
wife was the lady of the house, be it
ever SO humble, and she was content
with her lot. It was even considered
beneath her pride and dignity to teach
school, and hence there was an annual
importation of New England spinsters
to teach the children. I and my sis.
tiers went to four of them in quick sue
cession, for our widowers married them
about as fast as they came, and they
made good wives and good stepmoth-
ers, and were the most economical
housekeepers in the world. They
were raised that way and neither the
dog nor the little niggers got any more
scraps than they could eat.
But now the new woman is either
smart and aggressive, or she is poor
and pitiful. She comes to the front
with her brains and her ambition and
wrestles boldly with the men as editor,
writer, lecturer, professor in schools
and colleges, and even as office seeker,
and generally succeeds in what she
undertakes; or else she takes n hum.
bier place behind the counter sf in the
preSSrOOms or perhapa in tho foo+o