Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-01-18

things in many states, wide catholic
ity of sympathy, the strength that
springs from knowledge and the mag
nanimity that springs from strength.
| We bear the world, and we make it.
The souls of little children are mar
velously delicate and tender things and
keep forever the shadow that first falls
on them, and that Is the mothers, or,
at best, woman's. There was never
a great man who had not great moth
er. 1t is hardly an exaggeration. The
| first six years Of our life make us. All
that is added later is veneer. And vet
some say If a woman can cook din
ner or dress herself well she has cul-
ture enough.
"The mightiest and noblest Of human
work is given to us. and we do it ill.
Send NAVY to work into an artists
studio and see what you will find
there! And yet, thank God, we have
this work, she added quickly. Yt is
the one window through which we see
into the great world of earnest labor.
The meanest girl who dances and
! dresses becomes something higher
when her children look up into her
face and ask her questions. 1t is the
only education we have and which
they cannot take from U.S."
| She smiled slightly. "They say that
we complain of woman's being COM
PEELED to look upon marriage as pro-
| fessiOn, but that she is free to enter
| upon it or leave it, as she pleases.
Yes, and cat set afloat in pond
is free to sit in the tub till it dies there.
| 1t is under no obligation to wet its
feet. And drowning man may catch
at straw or not, just as he likes. It
Is glorious liberty! Let any man think
for five minutes of what old maiden
hood means to woman, and then let
him be silent. Is it easy to bear
| throughout life name that in itself
signifies defeat-to dwell, as nine out
of ten unmarried women must, under
the finger Of another woman? Is it
| easy to look forward to an old age with
out honor, without the reward Of use
full labor, without love? wonder how
many men there are who would give
up everything that Is dear in life for
the sake of maintaining high ideal
purity"
She laughed little laugh that was
clear without being pleasant. .And
then, when they have no other argu-
ment against us. they say: Go on, but
when YOU have made woman what
you wish and her children inherit her
culture you will defeat yourself. Man
will gradually become extinct from ex-
cess of intellect The passions which
replenish the race will die Fools!'
she said, curling her pretty lip. "a
Hottentot sits at the roadside and
feeds on rotten bone he has found
there and takes out his bottle of Cape
smoke and swills at it and grunts with
satisfaction, and the cultured child of
the nineteenth century sits in his arm
chair and sips choice wines with the
lip Of a connoisseur and tastes deli
cate dishes with delicate palate and
with satisfaction Of which the Hot
tentot knows nothing. Heavy jaw and
sloping forehead, all have gone with
increasing intellect, but the animal APP
petftes are there still, refined, discr4mi-
native, but immeasurably intensified.
Fools! Before men forgave or wor-
| SHIPPED, while they were still weak on
their hind legs, did they not eat and
drink and fight for wives? When all
the latter additions to humanity have
vanished, will not the foundation on
which they are built remain?"
She was silent then for awhile and
said somewhat dreamily, more as
though speaking to herself than to him:
| "They ask: What will you gain, even
If man does not become extinct? You
will have brought justice and equality
on the earth and sent love from 1t.
When men and women are equals. they
will love no more. Your highly cul-
tured women will not be ioyable, will
not love.
do they see nothing, understand
nothing? It is Tant' Sannie who buries
husbands one after another and folds
her hands resignsdly-"The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away, and
blessed be the name of the Lord'-and
she looks for another. 1t is the hard
headed, deep thinker who, when the
wife who has thought and worked with
him goes, can find no rest and fingers
near her till he finds sleep beside her.
"A great soul draws and is drawn
with more fierce intensity than any
small one. By every inch we grow in
intellectual height our love strikes
down it's roots deeper and spreads out
its arms wider. 1t is for loves sake
| yet more than for any other that we
look for that new time" She had
leaned her head against the stones
and watched with her sad. soft eyes
the retreating bird. "Then when tina,
time comes" she said slowly, when
love is no more bought or sold, when
it is not a means of making bread
when each woman's life is filed with
earnest. independent labor, then love
will come to her, strange sudden
sweetness breaking In upon her earnest
work, not sought for, but found. Then
but not now
Waldo waited for her to finish the
| ,I,o 10 hoy