The Topeka state journal., 1902-06-21
FOR The WOMEN.
An Example of the Sensitiveness
Exhibited in Chicago.
Kissed Maclyn ArbUckle For Re-
peating BulWer's Lines.
CONSTANCY OF WOMAN.
Has Long Been FavOrite Topic
For Authors.
win Cause Controversy For
Years to Come.
CONSTANCY OF WOMAN.

shakespeare. when to Ophelias plead
iner Its brief my lord. makes Ham
LET reply. AS WOmans love, mlgh-
have been supposed to have settled the
matter. but the old question OF lhe IN
constancy of woman has again boDDeu
up serenely. and this time it is the wo-
men who have forced the issue "A
thousand women in Powers theater lasi
week Missed the player Maclyn ArpuGhle
remembered in Topeka for ms WoLh III
support of Stuart Robson in Tine lien
rietta' last winter when in a perform M
ance Of The Lady of Lyons ne reelled
the lines, Yes miracle-in other
words, a constant woman NO one
knows how it started. but the nrst low
hiss Of some intrepid and Indignant
member of the maligned sex was lmlne~
diateIy taken up by women an over tiie
house and The sibiant evidence OF us
appreciation of the dramatsts senu-
ment was so marked that it interrupted
the progress OF the performance 4of
several seconds. The players We're
thoroughly surprised. Mr.. Arbuckit
hesitated and stopped, and Miss Mary
Mannering did a very good imitation OF
asrOnishment which was not in the busl7
ness of her part as rehearsed- NO one
was able to realize that women. Wiio
from time immemorial have endured
more or less unprOtestlngly, the accusa-
tion of fickleness. were at last entering
a vigorous denial Of the charge
The incident has revived the question
of WOman's cOnstancy and the arguInellt
Of the relative Inconsistency of men ana
women.
If Shakespeare We're not a suficiens
authority. there are others who have eA-
pressed similar views upon the subject
Sir Walter Scott spoke of woman as
variable as the shade
BY the light quivering aspen made
southey wrote.
s.-,tera avn +t,ss +hi,ers "a wise man will
The wind. the sunshine of an April day
And wqman's plighted faith. / have be-
The weather cock upon the steeple point
Steady from morn till eve; and have
The bees go forth upon an April morn
Secure the sunshine viii not end in show
But when was woman true?"
''Woman's love is writ in water.
Woman's faith is traced in sand sang
Aytoun.
And all these opinions. with others in
q similar vein have been handed down
through the generations and repeated
until they have come to be, for literary
purposes at least. accepted as facts.
Every young versifier writes of the un-
certainty of WOmans love. He believes
that this is essential to his success as
a poet He may never have had love
affair or he may have found all his
loves only too constant TO suit his waV-
ering taste and shifting fancy but he
viii not fail to write bitterly of wo-
mans hckleness. 1t is a part of the
literary tradition, is woman's incon-
stancy. A writer could create as great
sensation by prOclaiming that women
are loving, faithful and true as he could
by declaring that a sunset is hideous
and rose an aesthetic abOmination.
The early bards and masters of litera~
ture declared that women are false
deeting. tickle" and all their followers
have kept it up. Every writer knows
what is expected of him in this re-
spect.
But not all women are like the Chi
cagO women who hissed Bulwer's lines
as an Insult to their sex. We all know
girls who are iattered rather than 9TH
erwfse by the accusation of hckleuess.
They consider it compliment to their
powers of fascination and although she
always stoutly denies it YOU can not