The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-23
WOMAN'S RIGHTS QUESTION.
HENRY r. FINCK REPLIES TO
HIS FEMININE CRITICS.


-
ing for Equal Rights Sex In Min
Women's Right to Look Down
ON Men-was Tcnnyson q %surragist?
A professor at a oo-educational college
told me a good story the other day. Tho
pupils In his literature class we're 30 dilatory
In sending In their essays that he lost pa
tience and made a rule that thenceforth
manuscripts would be received In each case
only up to a certain date and hour.
Now there was among The students q
young woman who has since become promi-
nent among suffragtsts and who had already
at that time given emphatic expression TO
her opinion that women should have the
same rights and privileges a. men. This
young woman sent In her mart essay six
hours late, wherefore the professor returned
II to her as unavailable.
With flashing eyes abe promptly called
on him and wanted to know II he thought
that was the way a young lady ought to
be treated. With a smile he replied:
Il am treating you just like the boys'-
whereupon she tossed her head and walked
away.
An equally amusing instance Of suffragist
Inconsistency occurs in Ida Hustled Harper's
life Of Susan b. Anthony. In 1865 Miss
Anthony took her petitions for women's
rights TO the Legislature at Albany. The
chairman OF the committee appointed TO
repor. on the matter drew up a statement
In which he said:
Ladies always have the best place and
choicest titb!t at the table. They have the
best seats In the cars. carriages. and sleighs.
the warmest place IN winter and the coolest
10 summer. A lady's dress costs three times
as much as that OF q gentleman.
IL has thus appeared to the married gentle
mau Of your committee 80 that II there Is
any Inequality or oppression. the gentlemen
are the sufferers. They. however. have pre-
sented no petitions for redress, having doubt
less made up their minds 10 yield to an In
evitable destiny.
On the whole, the COMMITTEES have concluded
to no measures. except that they
have observed several instances In which
husband and wife have both signed the same
petition. In such case. they would recon-
mend the parties TO apply for q law author
ling them 70 change dressed. 80 that the
husband may wear pettiooats and the wife
brooches and thus indicate to thor neighbors
and the public the true relation ia which they
stand 10 each other.
This report, according to the Albany
Register was received with roars of laugh
ter Miss Anthony's biographer informs
us that a number Of her friends wrote to
her mot TO be discouraged at this insult.
but II may be imagined that she took up
the work again with a heart filled with
resentment and Indignation
Why an insult and why filled with
resentment and ~indignation"9 Miss An
thony. Ia the honest opinion Of these men.
had left the proper sphere of women and
had appeared In full Amazonian armor to
tilt them. wherefore they felt justified In
thruItlng out their lances and fitting her
In turn with raillery or whatever other
kind Of argument seemed most effective.
They treated her as they treat each other
whenever they Engage In combat. and every
woman who forgets hat her troubles are,
in the words OF Tennyson, more soluble
sss by gentleness than war; must e1-
pect TO be treated in the same way.
Although the above incident happened
thirty-six years ago the ~panoplied cham
pions Of what they are pleased TO call
-woman's rights have not yet learned
their lesson, but still expect men TO treat
them as women and as men at the same
time. 1t cannot be done.
II the African chief. against whom the
King Of Dahomey sends his Amazon war
riors, met them and exclaimed; Il beg
your pardon. ladies. for Ibis rudeness in
opposing you and defending myself TO the
best Of my ability, but why, bless you,
his head would be chopped of by one of
tho .razor-women' before he could finish
his sentence.
The bearings OF this observation LAYS
In the application on it, as Bunsby would
say. A few weeks ago | had an article In a
weekly periodical on "The Evolution of
Sex In Mind, in which I attempted 10 prove
that sexual differences Of mind, face and
form are diminished il not eliminated II
women do the work Of men or men the
work Of women: that the state in which
there Is least sex In face and mind Is the
state Of %savagery; that the woman suTra-
gists, instead Of representing progress,
would really take us back to the good old
times (for men only when the women had
the privilege Of supporting not only
themselves with hard labor, but their
husbands, too: that II they had their way
the fair sex, the highest productof civili-
~zation, would he eliminated again, and the
world become once more a bowling wilder
ness Of masculinity and Amazonian man.
nishness; that the Boomer movement was
not only a sartorial but a mental phenome-
non, which had for its true ~inwardness
the determination OF female beauty; that
womanly beauty Ia mightier than manly
muscle and does not need the ballot 70 get
whatever women want, and that IL it is
difficult for a man 10 be a politician and
remain n gentleman, for n woman 20 engage
In the besmirching football Of politics and
remain a lady would be infinitely moro
difficult.
This article was preceded by another
entitled only a Girl" in which / decla red
that during all the centuries whon men
looked down on women II was the women
who should have looked dow on the men,
because II was the women who led ovo-
luton, both In physical and moral develop |
ment and because the ~distinctlvely feminine
virtues are Of a higher order than the dis
tlnctively masculine virtues, though IL
took the divinely inspired genius Of Christ
TO convince the world of the superiority
OF the feminine virtues
One Of the leaders Of the suffrage move
mont, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, wrote
three replies In tho Womdn's Journal TO
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