The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-19
FOR WHAT ARE
WOMEN LOVED?

love women lot InelF ldultS OF lneir
virtues" Dorothy Dix, in the New
orleans Picayune, says:
Men admire us for our virtues, but
they loves US for our faults, andathey
are never so fond of us as when we
are justifying all their gibes at our
sex. of course. men will arise en-
masse and deny this Come to- they
will cry. Are we not always holding
I'D before you the lofty ideal of woman
hood which we would have you attain?
Do we not Pity you for being poor,
weak, illogical creatures, who weep
for what you want, instead of philo
sophically demonstrating your right to
have it? DO we not mock you because
YOU have not enough pratical knowl-
edge of the world to know how to send
a telegram in less than 200 words? Do
we not scorn you for the vanity and
-aiocy of wearing long, trailing skirts
and high-heeled shoes, that hamper
your every movement? Are we not
shocked at your habit of gossiping? Do
we not mock you for being frivolous,
whimsical, romantic and inconclusive,
instead of sensible, practical and
rationale"
Alas and alack, my brothers, you
do There is not woman living that
has not been told these things a thou
sand times, who has not lived with the
masculine ideal of feminine virtues held
UP before her eyes, and there is not
2 woman living with enough sense TO
come out of the rain. who doesn't
know that when a man meets his
ideal he takes to his heels and fees
away from her as fast as he can run.
Take the matter of domesticity, for
instance. To listen to men chant
paeans in praise of the dear little girl
who helps mother and who will know
how to run a house like it was on
creased skids and make her husband
comfortable, you would suppose that
suitors would simply be storm1ng her
door, entreating her to marry them
But how does this lovely theory work
out in real life? The domestic girl-the
girl who has stewed, and baked, and
preserved herself TRYING to come UP
to man ideal-is left to paper the
walls of a ballroom, while her sister
who doesn't know chicken from veal
dances holes in her slippers. 1t is
sad and discouraging fact, but 1t is
a fact, nevertheless, that when man
wants to hold a girls hand he picks
out one that is nice, and soft, and
white, and squeezable, instead of the
one that has made corns on it's fingers
working to come UP to his ideal Every
man will admit that the domestic
girl will be a blessing as wife, but
he is willing to let some other man
have the treasure.
It's the same way about clothes. Men
are never weary of satiriZing the fol-
ly of woman in spending so much
time and thought upon her clothes, and
IL, aaN
10 life and health. But do they mean
one word of what they say? Not one
For years they clamored for a garment
for women that would hang from the
shoulders. The Mother Hubbard was
invented-the one garment ever devised
for women that was simply angelic In
its comfort-and. presto, instead of re-
ceiving it with acclaim, men get laws
passed making it a crime to wear it
in public. Even the short skirt meets
with scant favor from them, and the
long trailer, the fiuffier the silklined-
err a woman is the better men like her.
No woman who wants to do business
with men can ever possibly make
bigger mistake than to take them at
their word about the way she
dresses.
once upon time 1 was acquainted
with a newspaper woman in New
York who was writing leading story
each day of a peculiarly sensational
murder. trial. / met her as she was
starting to the court, and to my sur
prise she wore a fetching Paris waist
of the kind we women call "a blouse,
that was all chiffon and dainty colors.
My eyes betrayed my surprise, and she
said: IT know you think I'm 1nap-
propriately dressed, but, my dear girl,
I've got to bluff three policemen ana
a court officer to let me go into
place where / have no business to be,
and l can do it on this" with ges-
ture at her frock, and, then she de-
livered this axiom when you want a
favor at the hands of man always
put OH chiffon" Later on l saw her
serenely sitting in the bar, close to all
the interesting personages in the case,
while rainy -day-skirted, shirt waist
ed, sensible-hatted sister newspaper
woman fingered disconsolately in the
back of the courtroom.
And tears? Silly aren't they? Child
ish for a big, grown woman to cry Tor
what she wants? No wonder men de-
spise us for them! but, OH my married
sisters, this is the confessional-when
you want an imported hat a new frock,
or to go to the mountains, do you SIT
down and logically bring forth argu-
ments to prove that you need new raj
ment and that imported clothes are the
cheapest and last the longest, or your
health demands a change? Nay, verify.
Tons of irrefutable arguments, noun
tains of logic. are not worth as one
pearly, hypocritical little tear, and
you know it. Why? Goodness knows
l don't, but I do know that man
likes you to weep on his shoulder and
cling to him like you were wet
dshrag, and that a woman who can
cry easily has got simply cinch at
managing husbands. If ever I am
elected President of the Women Ma
tional Suffrage Association am going
to appoint day to weep on our nus
bands shoulders, and we will have the
ballot before nightfall The trouble
with us now--the awful mistake we
are making-is that we are trying
to convince men by argument and
logic that we have a right to the ballot,
and men are not amendable to reason
from woman, but they dissolve In her
tears.
And gossip? Oh, what fault that is
In our characters. and how men scold
US for it. and how they deprecate the
fact that we should talk about our
neighbors. but how dull they would