The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-21
The AbdicatIon of Wan.

me ADuituNiOn III
In a well studied article in the North
American Review for August Elizabeth
Bisland asserts that man is himself re-
sponsibe for the democracy of sex, and
for the loss of his sway over woman.
The discussion of the relation of the sexes
was forgotten in the whirl Of the war,
which for the time being made the democ-
racy Of sex ridiculous, and brought the
old feudal relation to the forefront. No
feminine voice was raised TO protest
against this resumption of the pedestal
by man, because in Miss Bsland's opin-
ION. woman prefers the old relation and
would maintain it if man himself were
willing. She asserts that it depends lpOn
man whe her woman returns TO her for
mer relation or not since her modern at
titude is not OF her own choosing, but
has been thrust upon her by the sterner
sex. There was a day when mans su-
preme rule was founded on woman's 10y
atty. but now, that he has ceased to reign
over woman does not require even to be
asserted. Why this state of affairs?
When was this amazing revolution effect
ed? the writer asks.
Some attribute this state of affairs to
an advancing democracy; others suppose
that mans supremacy having no satisfac-
tory basis, he has been compelled TO aban-
don pretensions which rested merely up
on use and wont. SIN others assert that
woman has been examining man with an
unprejudiced eye and has come to the
conclusion that her powers do not suffer
by comparison. The writer insists that
such explanations are weak in that they
do not take into account the fact that
woman is not by nature democratic, but
intensely arstocratic.
Il accuse man himself" she says mo
ruler is ever really dethroned by his sub
jects. No hand but his own ever takes
the crown from his head. No agency but
his can wash the chrism from his brow.
1t is his own abdication that drives him
from power-abdicatlon of his duties, his
obligations, his opportunities. Ceasing to
rule, he ceases to reign When man
dropped all outward show, threw off the
insignia of sovereignty, and ceased to
govern, woman was not long in dropping
the sham of subsection or submission that
remained. She again accuses man Of
abandoning his mastership and becoming
a bourgeois in appearance and manner
through a slothful desire for ease. Louis
the Grand, imposing in his manner and
his robes of state was respected by his
subjects who submitted to many indig
mites at his hand but not so of Louis
XVI who worked at a locksmith's forge
while his wife played dairymaid at the
Trlanon. The people could not submit
to rulers so much like themselves. Man
has carried this democracy of sex further,
she asserts, 'by adding rigid plainness
of behavior to ugliness of appearance
forgetting that a woman, like the Child
and the savage, loves pomp of manner
as we'll as of garment, and that what she
does not see she finds it hard to believe"
To sum it up her accusations are that
men do not dress well and do not behave
dramatically, but frivolous as these rea-
sons may seem she considers their sig
MITIGATION a deep one. Selling upon demo-
cratic ideals man seeks to carry them in
to domestic application, forcing demo-
cracy of sex upon woman. Women have
begun to accept these stern theories, she
says, and are applying the cruel logic
of individualsm.
No doubt the tendencies of the day have
been such as to lead man to shirk many
of the responsibilities which former con-
ditions imposed upon him, and the fault
seems to have been carefully placed by
the author. But whatever ascendency
man may have lost in these respects, he
will never lose the relation of defender of
the sex which must always look to him
for defense.