The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-04
WOMAN'S
WORLD.

The new man.
aThe new MANI" she exclaimed.
certainly" 1 replied, ARE you so
.oor an observer that you have not
o+iced that we have a new man, as
..au as a new women? The old man"
E u,ent on. was a pretty good fellow,
,,,t the new man is the edition de
81 ,.,va of his kind, the flower of civiI-
-o+ion. the crowning triumph of evo-
ntion. as much superior to the old
E Adam as a rubber-tired automobile is
s,nerior to the old creaking OK wag-
an Women have made the journey of
II life with both, but with one 1t is a
prolonged luxury. while with the 9TH
or it is a series of jolts."
& The woman laughed, and then ask
s. ed. I'm what respects does the new
man differ from the old?"
First, in CALAMITY answered.
The woman stared.
ooh" said, At know that it is the
custom to say that gallantry has gone
4 ont of fashion, but that is the rank
4 est nonsense that was ever uttered.
4 This is the first really chivalrous age
the world has ever known, because it
is the first age that has ever recognize
f ed Uoman's right to a share, not only
in the perquisites of life. but to the
necessaries. 1t is mighty easy to be
4 generous and mighty hard to be just.
i The old man, when he had it to give
and after he had had all that he want
cd would throw out dole in the way
of food, and clothes, and education to
women, and say. Take this by my
grace, and be properly grateful for it,
ese
ter and share in all the good things
Of the world co-heir of all the ages
with me-
Talk about your Sir Launcelots and
Sir Galahads, who went about rescu-
ing distressed damsels and protecting
helpless innocence! What is that to
the chivalry that makes it possible
for any decent, self-respecting, we'll
behaved woman to go from one end
of the country to the other as abso-
lutely safe as If she had whole bat
talon of armored knights clanking
around her? There was a time, and
it hasn't been long ago, either, when
a lone woman could not travel with
out being subjected to annoyance.
when a woman going to a hotel by
herself was looked at askance If she
wasn't refused admittance outright,
and when no woman would have dared
board a trolley car and go alone to
the theater.
Now fully half the travellers are
women. When a woman arrives and
marches UP to the hotel desk to regis
ter nobody even looks at her, and in
all the Northern cities the lone woman
at the theatre makes up a good part
of the audienceA and nobody dreams of
offering her insult because she hasn't
husky man to protect her. This was
chivalry of which the age of chivalry
never even drea med.
1t may be true-though l don't be-
lieve 1t is-that the old man used to
pay US more compliments but the new
man gives us work, and between a SUI
gar plum and a good, thick slice of
bread and butter, give me the bread
and butter every time 1t has been
my lot to work side by side and Shout
ger to shoulder with men for many
years now. and their generosity to wo-
men, their helpfulness, their considera-
ton and patience have seemed to me at
times absolutely godlike. 1 have never
known any woman who was at all COM
petent and who showed even a fair
amount of reaso, and good temper who
DID not find that the men who were
her co-Workers would go out of their
way to help her and do things for her
that they would not have troubled to
Fifty years ago. when a woman was
left poor, or born poor, there was moth
ing for her to do but to endure the bit
ferneSs of her lot. She was forced to
eat the bread of dependence, and only
TOO often she grew narrow, and sour,
and cross, and mischief making, be-
cause her whole nature was warped by
enVylng those who had the good things
OF life that she craved, and her active
pTaln, lacking wholesome employment
ana interest, vented itself in Spleen
To-day women and men stand abso-
iulely upon the same plane. so far as
Her ability to make a good living is
concerned, and there is no woman who
need want the things that money buys
unless she is toa lazy, or too ignorant,
or too proud to work
ms great and glorious opportunity.
mat Is as much better than being sup
ported as independence is better than
ndil.y, we owe to the new man. He
mas hung open the gates of trade and
tHe PROFESSIONS, and so far from re-
Sentlng our intrustons in them, he gives
Us everywhere helping and a well
coming hand.
another place where the new man is
vast Improvement on the old is in
rne domestic relations. When the old
man got married he had one single
go ana mat was that he was going
~ De the head of the house, and he
honestly believed that all that any
monnah could possibly ask. or expect,
vas the felicity Of being his wife, and
MdIting upon him hand and foot as long
as she lived. He didn't mean to be
1hiIA'ho' Oh, no. far from it. Only
olat was just how he thought she would
IHILJoS herself most. He treated her
NE combination slave, child and
81 me new man marries for Just one
SSiIiIs-to get partner. He doesn't
UesIIe sIaV:sh obedience. He doesn't
"aiIt childish whims and unreason and
TTTpIlce' He isn't looking for a toy.
nat ne wants in a wife is a woman
IN Hno mas intelligence enough to compre-
1nu MIN and judgment enough to adj
Loe MN and love enough to make life
sweet and beautiful.
- ne marries a woman of talent he
aoesl put her to scrubbing floors and
co ing beds, and doing the work of
cured Iired girl, because the old popular
~ Oh domesticity required that of
@ "1ie He leaves her free to de-
Up her own genius, and live her
~. ~ untrammeled spiritual and men
va. me secure always that her heart
TO its nest.
Inc other day I was dining with a
"oHian who, to my mind, is the great
a. american woman novelist, and who
eftalnly one of the most successful
ana best known, and the conversation
turhed on this very topic. and the hus-
udnQ laughed ond sagd.