The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-17
Man the Leaning Sex
on supposed it was woman? So it is


N/OU supposed it was woman? So it Is
generally supposed. But it is not
1T is man, and this will be proved
to you. Next time you ride in a troll
ley car watch the trousered sex and
see how universally it leans There are
not enough seats to go around; OF
course not Men and women stand.
But observe how men stand. 1t is not
sufficient for leaning man to hang
Imply to a strap. His whole being
sinks into his feet and if there were
anything lower than his feet he could
sink into he would do it, One knee In
Sent Slumpy and advanced in front Of
the other. like the fore leg of tired old
-2orse. That is one way you know a
horse is eld--if it stretches one fore leg
out in front of it and stands upon the
other. Judged by this plain rule e
korse sense, man is always old.
Even the clinging to a strap by one
hand. one or both knees slumped and
crooked one foot advanced like the
fore leg of an old horse-al this is not
enough for a member of the leaning
eek. If an angle or panel of the side or
door of the car is near, his other arm,
long and -lanky. sprawls across space
that he may clutch at this angle or
panel, or anything that looks like .
L support Ut. ny T6dSOI Oh Dctnk
built new fashioned the car has seats
across instead of lengthwise. the indi-
vidual belonging to the leaning sex will
hump his back against the corner OF
one of these. knocking askew the broad
hats of all the women within reach.
Thus braced and shored up on all
sides. man is enabled to ride a few
blocks without going to pieces. But all
the while he affords to sympathetic
woman a spectacle of weakness and
brittle ruin such that, If the string
which holds him together should sud-
denly give way. as it were, his bones
would fall apart. A noble ruin, may
hap but a ruin.
| If in the lottery for seats man sue
ceeds in winning place. then the bum
| die of bones and tissue, loosely tied
up. is deposited with much the same
I appearance of weakness and decay.
Man sits not square and upright, but
| slantingly upon the end of his spine,
that the pressure upon the great nerves
OF the trunk may be as uneven and
one sided possible, thus insuring to
himself neuralgia and backache, has
tening the oncoming of locomotoT
ataxia.
Nay the individual belonging to the
| true leaning sex cannot even in a sit
| ting posture hold his lower limbs taut
and clipper shape. He must cross one
leg over upon the other that it may
lean upon and be supported by its
mate. The foot of the supported MEM
Der swings loose and tumbly far out
into the aisle, that ladies may wipe their
skirts upon it. Man thus depends upon
woman to clean his shoes for him, that
too. upon her best frocks and for moth
ing. A spectacle to gods and men it
is to witness well dressed women dodge
right and left between twin rows Of
mems upturned shoe soles, striving
vainly to avoid getting the street dust
and CRIME therefrom upon their costly
garments And man, the leaner sits
in his huddled up heap doubled over
upon himself and complacently watches
them do it.
And, by the way, only yesterday did
rot a man who was leading his pet
dog ION a string faint and fall and
have to be carried into a drug store
when the beast had fit and a police
nan shot it? Yea, verify. Even upon
the street corner, criticising with his
mates the ladies that pass by, man
leans against a lamp post. When he
walks away from it the leaning habit
is still so strong on him that, in the
words of an observant German lady in
America
He walks as though he was kneel-
ing into his knees"
The erect spine, standing or sitting,
the trinity held shoulders, knee and hip
Joint, the resulting strong, steady nerve
flow through all parts of the animal
economy seem a touch beyond man. the
leaning sex. If nothing else is handy
he will lean against the side of a
house. And how often does he not
depend on woman for his very bread ?
How often does not man. the true
leaner. hunt for a rich wife to brace
him and support him?
ELIZA ARCHARD CONNER