Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-03-17
{ PARTAN QUALITIES OF THE
AMERICAN WOMAN.

French, English, or American woman
is easily distinguishable. The Amer
lean woman is totally different from
the English woman. So is the French
woman, tho the difference in this case
is not so intense. so is the German wo-
man; so is the woman of Italy. The |
American woman, he thinks, while diff
fcring from all her European sisters
of today, bears a marked resemblance
to the woman of ancient Sparta. The
Spartans resembled the present-day
Americans; the Athenians were like
the English. Going on to point out
II what respect the American woman
is like the Spartan woman, he pro-
tests that he has not "the slightest in
tention of being disagreeable" when
he says of the American maid wife or
mother 81 do not blame, | do not
praise; II only say, and l say emphat
ically, that the American woman is
not womanly; she is not woman"
The whole of the United States, he
says, is under petticoat government,
and man is practically non-existent.
lie says as quoted in the Literary Di-
gest:
"An American woman commands
man. Man does not count there. The
last man that came to America was
Christopher Columbus. Today man
has no existence, he does
not talk in the drawing
room, but is dummy. The wo-
man lives one life, the man another,
and they are totally distinct from each
other. She lives so that she can have
good time; she lives for sensations.
do not blame her, / do not condemn
her. Her interest lies not in man. She
wants to be alone, and she can not be
alone without dabbling today with
chemistry tomorrow with physiology,
and the day after with Buddhism, pass
ing on to Swedenborgianism to wire
less telegraphy, and to the works OF
Marie Corelli Having taken in doses
of science, of philosophy, of mathe-
mates, she then thinks she Is up to
date; she feels she has developed into
something new; 1t is the search for a
new SILVER, something out of the or
binary, deadly desire to be very
new Aspasias, Gretchens, and Ophe-
las are obsolete, in her opinion. She
IS as new as a man born today is new;
she Is made up of restlessness and
fidgetiness long before she is twenty
five. But she is very beautiful; she
has the best complexion in the world
better than that of any European wo
man. She is also well built and hand
some. You see fine speciments of the
American woman in Kentucky and
Massachusetts. But she Is type quite
distinct from the English type; she
does not try to have dignity or refine
ment she wants to affect man by what
she says, and not by what she does not
say. She has no passion, no senti
ment; all this is alien to her. She is
n mass of nervous energy. To her
home and husband are nothing, and
her child-her own creation-but very
little The two types of woman, the
American and the English, are in fact
totally different"
He thinks it omens i'll to the future
of the United States that woman in
this country is really a Spartan In
character and disposition, and he says
the American Imperialism and big
sticlxism" are largely the result of this
type of femininity. Thus:
"a few miles distant from the Athens
of old-what would be but a short rail
way journey in these days-lay Spar
ia. The Spartans were imperlalists
and they wanted to conquer the whole
of Greece. The Spartan woman, as
have remarked was like the American