The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-07-22
A TALK ABOUT "AtRE MAN"
fRY SARAH GRANpA

|
| decline to be accused of calling man any
names. ! do not decline out of consideration
| for mere man" altogether but in self-de-
Tense. To use such an expression deprives
me of any dignity which might myself derive
from the dignity OF my subject
The saying is. 'In small things. liberty,
in great things. unity; in all things char
ity," but when you meet a man who de-
scribes himself as "mere man." you would
always do we'll to ask what he wants, for
since man first swung himself from his Dough
in the forest primeval and stood upright on
two legs, he has never assumed that position
for nothing.
My own private opinion which confde to
you knowing 1t will go no further, is that
he assumes that tone, as rule, to overawe
sovereign woman. more man" is a para
doxical creature. II is not always possible
to distinguish between his sober earnest and
his leg pulling exercises. One has to be on
ones guard and woe be to the woman who
in these days displays that absence of the
sense of humor which is such prominent
characteristic of our comic papers
~
Sovereign woman is the Uitlander OF civ
ilization--and man is her Boer. II seems to
me that woman Is very much in the position
OF Queen Esther; she has her crown and her
Kingdom. and her royal robes, but she is
liable to have her head snapped off at any
moment On the other hand there are hun
dreds Of men who have their heads snapped
off every day. Mere man has his faults,
no doubt but woman can also be a rasping
sort OF creature, especially If she does not
az v NTH cgp
grows older.
Personally, and speaking as woman whose
guiding principle through life has been to
never do anything for herself that she can get
a nice man to do for her, n principle which l
have found entirely successful. and which
strongly recommend to every other woman;
personally, l have always found man an ex-
celent comrade.
He has stood by me loyalty, and held out
an honest hand to me, and lent me his
strength when mine was failing, and helped
me CALAMITY over many an awkward bit or the
way and that too, at times when sovereign
woman whom I had so respected and admired
and championed, had nothing for NE but bon
net-pins.
In the great republic OF letters to which
have the honor to belong-in the distin-
guished position of the letter "Z"-my ex-
perience is that woman suffers no lndignity
at the hands OF man on account Of her sex.
That is the sort Of experience which creates
a prejudice. 1t gives one sort Of an idea
that there are men in the world who would
stand by a woman on occasion: and l must
confess that l began life with very strong
prejudice of that kind.
4
For a woman to have a good father Is
20 have been born an heiress If you had
asked ME as a child who ran to help me
when I fell, l should have answered my
daddy When a woman begins life with
prejudice of this kind she never gets over it,
The prejudice of a man for his mother is
feeble in comparison with the prejudice of a
woman for her father. when she has had u
man for her father.
1t has been said that the best way to
manage men is to feed the brute; but woman
never made that discovery for herself-I be-
lieve 1t was man in his mere man" mood
who first confded the secret to some young
wife in dstress-somebody elses young wife,
Feed and datter him. Why not? Is there
anything more delightful in this world than
to be flattered and fed? Let US do as we would
be done by.
When 1t comes to facing life day after day
as so many men have to face 1.-THE working
men, in all classes of society, upon whom the
home depends, men whose days are only too
often a weary effort. and whose nights are
an ache of anxiety, lest the strength should
give out which means bread--when one thinks
OF the lives which these men live, and the
way in which they live them, the brave, un-
complaining way in which they fight to the
death for those dear to them-when one con-
slders mere man" from this point of view,
one is moved to enthusiasm, and one is faln
to confess that sovereign woman on a pedestal
Is poor sort OF creature compared with this
kline of mere man." in that so often she
not only fails to help and cheer him in his
heroic efforts, but to appreciate that he is
making any effort at all
positively refuse to subscribe to the as
sertion, How poor thing is mani" 1t
takes more genius to be man than manhood
TO be genius. AS to the differences between
men and women, believe that when finally
their accounts have been properly balanced
1t will be found that it has been a case O,
six OF one and halt-a-dozen Of the other. both
in the matter of sovereignty and of mere
ness.