The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-29
JupGrNG By coNrRAsr.

JUDGING BY CONTRAST.
The revulsion of sentiment which might
naturally be expected to follow the great
advances which for years have been max
ing in the Improvement of the political,
legal and social status of woman is le-
ginning to manifest itself Where one
man could not be found ten years ago
to speak in other than terms of admirins
approval of the general extension of i'm
proved rights to womankind ten can be
heard today expressing doubts as to the
good effects even upon woman herself
of the great reforms achieved.
Women, no doubt, have in many cases
shown little understanding or apprecIa-
ton of the improved conditions attending
their lives in their relations toward men.
In many cases there has been perhaps
disposition to the leading of useless and
dawdling lives, and a throwing down Of
the bars of feminine modesty and retire
ment while improved female opportuni-
ties of education cannot be said to have
wrought any great visible results on the
feminine intelligence.
But the critics of the policy of freedom
and enlightenment for women have AFTER
all little to sustain them in their conteu-
TONS If they would have the admir-
able effects from the public and private
standpoint brought out in the clearesr
light they should consider the woman in
certain foreign countries, and the con-
trast which her condhion presents to
that of the American woman.
Perhaps of all European countries
France is today the most backward in
loosening the trammels of mediaevalistu
which have bound womankind There the
fight is steadily maintained in favor of
woman's rights without much appreciable
effect being produced. Up to within three
years women in France were not COM
petent witnesses in civil proceedings.
They were not deemed competent to be
witnesses to a marriage or a baptism.
Even now a workingwoman cannot pu5
her savings in bank and draw them out
without the signature of her husband. if
she is married He can, unless she has
before marriage secured what is called a
division of property" spend every cent
in the world she has, and she has no
redress. She has no voice in the educa-
ton or training of her children or their
settlement in life. Should she become a
widow, she is denied the right to act as
their guardian.
We all get glimpses occasionally,
through our reading, Of the wretched cor
dition of the poor working girl in French
cities. Rarely able to earn enough to
save her from the saddest recourse left
to unfortunate womanhood, she is pro-
verbal for her extreme industry. The
French needlewoman of today comes aa
near the realization of Tom Hoods poetic
picture as one wants to contemplate; while
almost every form Of active, private and
public employment is shut against the
women of France. X
There may be and there are abuses
visible today in the United States spring..
ing from the enlarged horizon of woman
hood and from the often foolish adula-
ton bestowed on woman by her male
companion But he is the victim simply
of blind prejudice who will deny that it
has been a good thing for woman as we'll
as for man that the two sexes have been
placed on an equality in their relations
before the law and in social life