The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1906-03-22
FRENCH woMEN's RIGHTS.
The Way That the Men and Women
Hold Conference in That
Country.


The idea of women's rights in
FranceI exclaims the Brooklyn
Eagle. An assembly of men and
women are sitting in one of the
old fashioned drawing-rooms of
an ancient house in the sleepy pro.
vincial town of Meaux. They are
looking out on an admirable land
scape, from the high windows,
and watching the falling of the
scar and yellow leIyes. In the
distance, they see the spire of the
Meauxcathedral, in which Bossuot
preached submission and obedi-
ence to women. Near the old
hearth. where a bright wood fire
burns, sits q beautiful blonde
young woman, dressed in filmy
white, who deplores the fate Of
her kind, the sacrifices she must
make in devotion, in heroic acts
that are never known, because
they are a part of her obscure mis-
sion. "a woman cannotlive alone,
without husband, without chill
dren, without sacrificing herself to
the sick, to the suffering, while, On
the contrary, man has his gun,
his fishing pole, his books and his
servant" Then Paul Adam, the
celebrated writer, gets up from
his chair, and, standing near the
window, tries to prove that tho
spirit of sacrifice in the woman is
also a species Of egotism. She
must devote herself to somebody,
to something for which she is
physically constituted. Still, there
are women who can call them
selves "free women"
"Yes," said the blonde woman,
''the women who have an object in
view, who are writer's, artists,
who throw words to the winds;
but a good woman cannot live
alone; she is ignorant; everything
in life prevents her from going for
ward"
Paul Adam then speaks of the
American women, how they cross
the ocean and travel over con-
tinents alone, coming to France
alone, onlyfor the purpose of "buy-
ing gowns and things" Then he
speaks about the independence Of
American women in their own
country, for he has been there.
But the young woman is ignorant
of the American woman. Her cir
Gle is narrow, she only sees her i'm
mediate surroundings, and every.
where is the same confiict-man
taking possession of the woman in
her youth, considering her as part
of his goods and chattels, and
woman all her life stands before
him as an enigma, to which he does
not give a thought. And as the
day fades into twilight, and the
embers of the fire in the hearth |
throw lurid light over the room,
the young woman continues her
litany.
Il have seen so many young
women and young men, couples
who were always in love, always
the same, forever the same. Nei-
ther time nor dissensions have had
the least effect on them.n The
young woman stops and takes up
the litany. at is the only line in
which woman is the equal of man.
Love? All happiness lies in the
OF that word; the old
walls, the twilight, the moon, the
beauties of autumn, all proclaim
it, There must be no master,
there must be no slave, there
must be only men and women who
understand each other, who toll
,'fate each other. Liberty is only
/ sensation, and if you willlend an
var to voices Of the past you will
hear them laugh and sigh over the
word, liberty which we have con.
tinually on our lips to day, and we
hear voices which tell us that
liberty is a word which has no
meaning"