The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-23
Fmancipated Woman.

The future is voiled in a mysterious mist
That looms up darkly. but the whispering winds
Tell ms queer tales Of what is yet to come
whisper these things and then roaring on
To carry stories to some far.off land:
80 men, cnwrapped in all the mists ye sec,
A figure stands and bids the world defiance,
womau's form, but not woman's soul.
And there she stands with proud and curling lips,
Saying quite loud: oh. am free. am free;
No moro am the slave Of british man:
The hope OF centuries is realized.
Woman has risen from the awful miro
That held her down in all the ages gone"
And then. o men, tho figure gl!des away,
And thousands like her. with the same old chant
Throng all the colleges higher education
Makes men OF women. and then o mon. behold,
They walk quite bTiskly to the ballot box.
And now we see them in the statesman's chair,
The Judge bench the Legislative halls
Truly they rule tho earth. and rule men too
Ay. men, take warming from the whispering winds =
And then silence; Of a sudden the mist
Lifts itself. and shows the future clear.
], too. can see womsn's figure there.
A creature small. belonging to a
Ofdvarfs; her back is bent and low;
spectacles adorn her nose and flashing eyes:
Behind them shows a burning. racking soul
Her forehead is wrinkled with the awful knowledge
or science, and the things innumerable
II children are to grow and come OF age.
Her nose il sharp. her posture is defiant:
CLINT Of triumph seems to light her face
And says quite plainly, 81 am free am free.
And never more will bow down again"
And then she laughs. and all her ugliness
Adds to that laugh hollow mockery.
And the wind. returning. carries it swiftly on.
And thus We hear ahdeous. awful laugh
Go trailing by to space, inhnity.
And hooking all the men and women. too.
And seeming loud to say: "Oh. blind fools,
Ys see, and just the same ye do not see!'
Now. tell me, men OF foresight and OF sense.
Is this the nightmare OF an added bran1
Or will this be the woman who shall breed
The race Of future men-men who shall build
Empires throughout the space Of all the earth:
Men who must meet with force the awful needs
OF giant countries and who still must fight
The fearful battles OF the coming age;
Who must stand mp and meet the crushing shook
OF new against the old, of free and slaves,
Democracies and Kingdoms face to face
With one great question pressing TO be solvedi
Is this the woman who must be the wife,
The helpmset OF the working. toiling man
The one to soothe him when great worries come
And take posse 'sion Of his heart and brain1
Would she give up all fame and work and glory
To give her time to petty, household things,
To happiness and love and simple life,
And things that only women can do wenf
Nay, never so! A weakened, puuy race
or worried mon would haunt a busy world,
And then. oh, woe to nations and TO mani
For strength alone means progress on the earth,
And, in their weakness and their learned neSs,
Down they would sink into tn o awful mire
Where fallen nations sleep and pever rise.
No when the time shall come for women. TOO,
To sacrifice their bodies to their heads.
Their heart and soul for knowledge and for fame,
Their happiness for hollow names and titles,
Then such thing as home will not exist.
And there will be no women on the earth
True womanhood. it's pureness and it's power
Will fade away a. cen the vanishing mists.
O. men. take warning from the whispering windsI
JANIS OPPESHKIM.