Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-23
THE ERA OF WOMAN.
Her Condition Much Better Than in
Ancient Days.


From the New York World.
A twentieth century American newspaper
would furnish startling reading to a man
in almost any former stage of civilization.
The scietiic wonders it described would be-
wilder such reader but what would aston
ish him would be the Independent activity
of women He would see half of the human
race. whom he had been accustomed to con-
slider born for subsection to the other half.
now raised to position of complete self
mastery. He would see women competing
with men In every intellectual field and in
most of the Industries.
1t is true that there have been other times
in which women have had large privileges.
In the worst days of imperial Rome the de-
cay of domestic discipline was part of the
general decay of society. Said Juvenal in
that reckless Sixth Satire which put him
under the ban of every Sorosis of his time:
Thus the yirago triumphs. thus she regns;
Anon she s!ekens of her first domains.
T1'i Of an bridal veil one rent she makes.
Thus sw,Ils the list: eight husbands In 1--WE years
inscription for their sepulchres.
When the ladies Of the Roman smart set
were not divorcing their husbands they
were engaged in other recreations equally
modern. Juvenal complains that they in
tested the courts:
women support the oar. they love the law,
And raise litgious questions for straw;
They meet in private and prepare the bill,
Draw up the Instructions with lawyers skill,
Suggest to CELSIUS where the merits lie
And dictate points for statement or reply.
Also they fenced. wrestled. boxed, fought
in the arena and played every sort Of game
but golf and bridge.
Such brief glimpses of feminine inde-
pendence in the past serve to maintain the
rule that history repeats itself. and keep US
from the vanity of thinking that we have
found something new under the sun. But
in most former ages, as in the backward
parts of the earth today, woman was SIM
ply a negligible quantity outside the home,
and IL she ever made her will felt inside the
home 1t was without any support from law
or custom. Often she was sold as chattel,
and even among our eStimable Teutonic an
cestors, who treated her with respect I'M
usual for their time, she was at the mercy
of anybody who could pay small fine. The
Mosaic law confined the privilege of divorce
to the husband. Under the Roman republic
a woman could not have the control of even
her own person or property. If single she
remained for life under the rule of her
father or other male relatives; il married
she was her husbands property. The old
Norsemen had similar system.
Even in our own country, within the
memory of people now living, women were
barred from the professions and from the
higher education, and when they married
they had no legal voice in the disposition Of
their property, their earnings or their chill
dren AS some compensation for their lack
of rights they had certain privileges. NOW
thew have gained the rights and kept the
privileges, too, which leaves the former lord
of creation standing with his neck tilted
hack at an uncomfortable angle ana look
ing hopelessly up at scornfui DANA on
tower.