The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-07-16
Women ana Thelf hats.


The wOman's hat question. its interest
Tagging somewhat In The theatres. has
recently been shifted TO the churches.
Fifteen hatiess females recently appeared
in the front rows at q Sunday service In
one OF the Brooklyn churches There
have been augmentation and quotation
OF ST. Paul thereupon, and many pioais
souls are, no doubt, wondering whether
there Is, after all. any good and sufficient
reason why women should appear In
church with their heads covered. The
ology, Of course, Is for theologians. But
even for laymen there Is a curious his
torical interest In q custom which seems
70 have been universal among Christians
Until the recent movement In Brooklyn.
II Is needless to say that the head
covering spoken OF by St Paul in his
epistle to the Corinthians was not hat,
but veil The passage illustrates wildly
the thoroughly Asiatic origin Of the
Christian religion The wearing of wells.
whether to cover the head only. Ike the
Spanish ''mantilla." or the face as well.
Hike the modern Egyptian "burka." was
not general among either the Greek or
the Roman women of those days. Roman
priestesses, certainly those of Vesta.
wore wells, but 50, too, did their priests,
as witness the famous bronze head of
Julius Caesar In his character Of Pontifex
have worn anything that struck them as
becoming; but they usually went bare
headed. In the Metropolitan Museum
there Is a pretty terracotta ngurine show
ing an Athenian woman with q very be-
coming broad-brimmed, untrimmed hat.
But the idea that to appear in public with
the head unveiled IL unwomanly seems
to have been imported from Asia
This Oriental sentiment was fostered
W aad q M O.
er in. the East today than 1t was in st.
PauPs time. One traveler-Russeil-teils
of woman at Aleppo who could not be
Induced to let a male physician examine
her head for the purpose Of diagnosis.
thereby afording another strong arsu-
ment in favor Of women physicians as
missionaries in the East. But the wo-
men partisans of hatless attendance at
church have this much in their favor.
looking at the question from a woman's-
rights standpOint-that, both from the
drift of that obnoxious chapter In First
Corinthians and also from what can be
gathered of later primitive Christian
tendencies, this regulation about feminine
head-covering was unquestionably part or
a system intended to keep the fair sex
in subordinate position, and not merely
an effort to enforce Oriental ideas OF del
fcacy.
The makers Of King James's Author
lied Version. being OF the first generation
of a married clergy in their country,
very wisely shrouded the real. the hide
cusly arrogant. assumption OF mascu-
line superiority In /. Corinthians. H, 10,
in unintellig1ble language. ITO have
power on her head" really means. TO
carry on her head the symbol OF author
fly" The VEIL which was the sign OF
a husbands authority over his wife, rs
appears in the Latin idiom, by which.
when Balba married Caius. she doomed
the veil' for him. while Caius was said
to lead Balba'-into subsection. Of
course Small wonder that the Ebionitas
OF a later generation accused the writer
of this epistle of having become an enc
my to the female sex through the daugh-
ter OF High Priest at jerusalem, whose
rejection Of his addresses led 10 his aban-
doning Judaism for Christianity. as he
had formerly abandoned Hellenism for
Judaism. But this is an incredible ard
malicious bit Of anti-Apostolic gossip.
The truth, undoubtedly. Is that Chris
tianity came upon the Roman world at
time when the Roman women Of the
upper classes had attained degree ot
freedom and no mean measure of social,
T. not political. rights They went where
they pleased. with faces. IL not heads.
uncovered. in Rome at least: they were
mistresses of their own property; they
studied philosophy as deeply and as free
w as the men did: they even kept up
woman's Debating Club on a scale OF
magniflcence never approached by our So
rosis, until a scene between two ladies OF
the Imperial family. which took place at
one of the meetings. Obliged the Emperor
TO suppress the Senate of Women" Such
PoinR-on probably shocked the primitive
followers OF the creed. which, be II al
ways remembered, came from the East.
and as a natural consequence, the teach
ars of this creed tended more and more
to the extreme theory Of female subordi-
nation, as against the equality OF the
sexes.
Clement Of Alexandria-not himself an
Oriental by birth or education, though
his see was in Egypt-lays down rules
for the conduct of Christian women which
would aggravate any American woman
of these days beyond endurance Clement
was not an exceptionally severe anti
gynaecist; he only REJECTED and formu-
lated the current Christian discipline OF
his day when he declared that a woman
must never 60 away from home except
to church. or. in her husbands compa-
nv, to visit the sick, and never without
her veil. This was mild IN comparison
with some Of the TRADES OF Tertullian.
the famous apOiogist; he addresses the
sex directly. tells them collectively. We
are the devils gateway" and as good
as says that he fails to understand why
they, as a sex, are permitted to exist.
But there was a reaction against this
violence. Contemporary with Tertullian
were the sect OF the Quintiliiani who
were called. also. derisively, the Bread
and Cheese Heretics. because they added
cheese 10 bread In their celebration OF the
eucharist. The QuintiHiani represent the
eynaecist reaction OF those days AZ its
greatest extreme. Among them. women
held the office Of prieft. and even OF
bishop: II was their custom 10 have the
gospel expounded al their services by a
band Of seven virgins. carrying torches;
they gave special thanks in their public
prayers for Miriam. the sister Of Moses,
and for Eve. who. according 70 Tertui-
liam, was the greatest bane OF the human
race.
rhe action and reaction about this point
seem TO have settled down after those
primitive days Of persecution In the rapid
IN growing cult Of the Blessed Virgin
Mary and the institution Of chivalry. But.
in relation 10 this question OF the cover
ed. or uncovered. head Of a woman IN
a church n IL worth noting that neither