New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-26
ANTAGONISTIC TO THEIR SEX.
Mrs. Ferris Thinks There Is Little or No
Sisterhood Of Women.


IN a recent number OF The Independent Mrs.
I. II Ferris. OF Nashville. Tenn. makes some
curious observations regarding a Woman's Reia-
tom to the Two Sexes" II IS difficult to mako out
sometimes just what Mrs Ferris IS trying 10 say,
bat the get OF her article appears TO be that up to
middle life women arc naturally antagonsuc TO
their own sex. After that they care more for
women than they do fo- men.
The brotherhood OF man Mrs. Ferris hnda 70 be
.foreordained In very order OF things. but the
sisterhood 81 women is inconceivabls TO her. The
dearest friends betray one another. But the same
women would keep a mans secret inviolats until
death. and il in an open question II the angels In
heaven could win IL from them
Women will never cooperate with one another.
says Mrs Ferris. because. in tho very nature or
things their chief hope and happiness depend upon
their cooperating with men. Until marriage every
woman is the unclaimed part OF some man Sho
Is his complement as ne Is her completion. Ana
il she IS never married she Is never finished She
mn, lie q useful brilliant member Of sociAty but
in her own CONSEQUENCES she is incomplete She
is ike a June day without its night Of stars and
silence like a lily that does not lose Its life IN
white passion OF bloom and fragrance
Nothing IS said however. about a similar incom-
pletcness OF mer.
The intellectual woman" proceeds the writer,
apparently coutradcts the theory to the lack
OF relationship among women, but she is. in fact;
the most conspicuous example We have OF mental
affinity 10 men on the one hand ana OF tempera-
mental autpathy 10 women on the other She may
be willing 10 spend herself for Jheir edhcauoE. but
at bottom IL attitude 10 them is not mis-
sionary condescenson Il IS one OF Tnasnlhceht IN
difference Nor is she more congenial with women
g.Eces there are forced into the same social or
domestic situation the greater Will be the friction.
Men Of this order may work together in harmony.
bat brilliant women are stars that demand single
orbits. and they insist upon shining alone around
wise instinct, for when one Of them finds her way
into a constellation Of other women. less intelii-
gent than herself, she becomes a mhrplot IN her
efforts improve them according To her own
standards. when i is an open secret that women
90 not rise or fan by feminine standards, but by
los 81 lHt i ~ g ols,.' frti ",.nSi;nsf6r
"I tb@ee high handed tactics There would have
and mon Of any degree there is the art adaptu-
btv cuuuinelv IMPLIED or expressed. and there Is
the basis OF an eterua! concession which women
never feel for one another
Even the spiritually minded IS said 10 be
no exception 20 this so-caled biological law or
u man first conceived the idea Of establishing
homes Tor fallen women. and while Christian wom
dark beginning not one of them would have had
the heart or hope TO conceive H. Even now there
Is less IN common between one or the admirable
reueutaIt creature whom she
cares for than between day and night. Privately
consciousness on the same plane with herself. And
even il God demanded il. she would not be able TO
Christian viii undertake the reclamation Of
u sweet pietv that is as admiral bic az il is i'm
practicable. And she VIII end by marrying him,
whether he is rec dimed or not because she is kin
After middle age Mrs Ferris finds that a woman
her Judgment cleared and she learns to appre-
ciate her fully. The characteristics that
Tended now their poetic distinctions. She
il every girl the fair mirage Of her own youth, in
the pathetic, careworn face of the young matron
Mother Of a crown family her own aaen m d ls s
proclaimed her. And for them all she has
clustered affinity. Men have passed out Of her