Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-07
WHATDO WOMENW ANT?
Is SISTERS PRIME DUTY TO BE A
HOUSEWIFE?
Is Man Selfish and Conceited
Brutep-Does He Want All the
Privileges


Robert Kitchens la the Queen.
President Roosevelt has been unburden-
ing his soul on the subject of the proper
place and function of women in the world,
and Lucas Maet has been dealing cautious
~ with the Presidents remarks in the col
umns of a contemporary. Lucas Malet is
one of the sanest and most well-balanced
of the famous women of the day, and she
has sense of humor which is a shield and
buckler against the attacks of folly. 1t is
not surprising therefore to find that she
does not shrek against the declaration that
tine prime duty of the woman is to be the
mother. the housewife She simply says:
VIII the great middle class the women of
IL, agree TO this in our modern day? Will
these women, who doing so much that
is quite unconnected with motherhood and
housewfery, consent to give up their be-
loved occupations and careers, and return
to the cradle and the Kitchen" l do not
use her words, but that is in effect what
she sobery says:
We may not be very imaginat tive,
but | sometimes try to be. ! sometimes
try to imagine what / should feel about
men If | were a woman. 1t seems to mel
may be wrong-that the first thing l should
feel would be Amusement at the colossal
se!fshness of men. AS man. this selfish
ness. calm, steady, self-satisfied, often stag
gers me, out L am sun more Staggered-eN
cuse the expression, it really is the best one
by woman's often apparently contented
endurance of it. Upon my word, 1t some
times seems TO me as If women think man
unmany when he is unselfish, as if they
think less of him than of the tramping
selfish tyrant who orders them about and
will not let them do anything they want to
DO unless it happens also to be what he
wants 10 do. This type of MAINLAND he is
the eoi1monest type-says of every woman
who does not want metaphoricaIy to black
his boots for him that she is .'unseXed
ne condescends to no argument. he enters
INTO no explanations; he simply states that
she is 'unseXed," and implies that she is
unht to exist any longer. No wonder that
some women have risen up and resolved to
do some work in the world unconnected
with ministering to the wants of the eter-
nally selfish man.
Man the Master
POSSIBLY man wcs intended by the
,-redtor To De the master. l believe Lucas
halet thinks so, though the American ,vo-
man does not But surely he was not in
tended to be so unpleasant a master as he
100 often is. His methods are really too
crude. He shows no tinesse in his selfish
hess woman, when she is selfish does
generally show a great deal of finesse Rnt
wen FreSldent Roosevelt is rather crude
ana III is delightful to note with what smil-
ing subtlety Lucas Malet lets him alone
Her humor must often be fed by the how
wow man, who goes about stating exactly
what was the design of providence in
creating women.
Women We hear were meant''-tbat
Is faVorite phrase-for this and were
not meant for that. and invariable you
Will ma that what they We're meant for is
something that ministers to the comfort of
man, and what they We're not meant for is
something that would administer to their
own comfort. One thing that is absolutely
certain is that deep down in his innermoSt
soul almost every living man is of opinion
that women are here not for themselves
or their own happiness but for him and
his happiness You find that feeling in
men from those of the highest rank to
those of the lowest. Only a few DAYS ago
a young peasant of Italy said to me: The
Sisnore created women for men, so they
ought to obey US in everything, oughtn't
they. signore?' And what the peasant
boldly says the peer calmly thinks
The Unreasonable Husband.
The prime duty of woman is to be the
housewife Perhaps so. But it ought to
be the prime duty of man to be good-tem-
pered in the house, to be ready to UNDER
stand the worries and difficulties of house
keeping. to be lenient when little things go
wrong, and not to be imbecile in expecta-
ton. Lots of men-thouSandS and thou
sands-who possess what they are pleased
to call minds, and cooks, ask such ques-
tons of their wives as the following:
why has the cook put so much pepper
into the soup this evening""
why are the potatoes burnt toniGht?'
Why has the cook forgotten to send up
bread crumbs with this pheasant" Why
is this chicken so tough?" etc. And these
questions put to wives who are not
cooks. and whose husbands do not wish
them to be cooks. How wife know
why cook does foolish thing any better
than her husband? She does not inhabit
the cook. The husbands ''why?" often
drives the wife nearly mad. but it is
less for her to try to explain this If she
does so the chances are that the man calm
ly replies, My dear, ii is your business
another very favorite expression-''it Is
your business to know these things" The
phrase sounds we'll and the husband re-
tires magnificently, while the wife sits
down to puzzle out by what process she
can be herself and also the stranger whom
she has engaged al a salary to be the cook,
how she can have her own and also the
cooks mind. For only by possessing the
latter can she be ready at all times with
the explanations her husband continually
demands.
"Why-why-wh How many wives
are weary OF that word. and are inclined at
last 10 give it very wide application and
say. Why were We born to be house
wives?"
And yet. as I have said. many women
seem to think that an unselfish man is
rather weak, unworthy creature, and
send him to the wall. Sometimes l wonder
exactly what women really do want in u
man what they desire men to be to them
what is their ideal man.
Lucas Malet has told us cautiously many
things. Now l want her incautiously just
TO tell us that
What do women want In men? l should
have thought unselfshness, solicitude and
a greater humbleness, had / not observed
that selfish, careless and conceited men
so often adored by women.
Cannot Lucas Malet solve the mystery?
Women know well enough what We want
of them. What do they really want of us?
---->--
A School for Spiders.