The Elbert County tribune., 1907-12-19
Copyright. by Joseph B. Bowies)

(Anna Farwell de Koven, wife of Regi-
maid de Koven, the composer. is wen
known as an author. Among her first lit
erary work may be mentioned her trans
man, which was praised by the critics.
In 1874 appeared her first novel, THE Saw
port and New York. II went through ten
editions and was repubished In England
and India Her novel, by the Waters Of
Babylon" was also a distinct success"
The liberty of American women has
become SO universally accepted a fact
that 1t has passed into a byword of
comparison to the older nations.
The puritan idea has become at
last Transmitted. through the light and
luxury of wealth and the diffused in
fuence of widely scattered location
into basis of fine responsibility and
a finer courage. From Virginia and
the more southern states we have
fluent charm, soft womanliness and
grace both lovable and admirable. but
regrettably lessening with the disap-
pearance of the characteristic life of
the south.
1t is too early to attempt an analysis
o. the western idea of American wom-
anhood, for the west, from Cleveland
and Chicago outward, is but a system
OF eastern colonies with only one gen.
eral and determining condition, and
that is liberty, under which individual
traits, traditions and tendencies find
their full opportunity of development.
These various ideas, historical as
we'll as local, in their origin have pro-
duced the types of women thus largely
Indicated in our country. Profoundly
felt and almost universally operative,
beneath these varying influences, re-
mains the old-world orientalism that
women should be first charming, again
charming and always charming. Char
acter, logic, reason and other stern
requirements of life are for the most
part left to develop in some mysteri-
GUS way, INTENDED.
The desirability of thorough col
Iegiate education is as a rule not ac-
cepted voluntarily by the solvent por-
tion Of our national community. The
female universities are demanded by
the future breadwinners among wom-
en- and supported by them. This is an
almost universal fact and it has a
double significance. 1t is at once a
promise and a reproach. In plain
words, the American girl is superb
cially educated except when she is
compelled to earn her own living
There is a shallowness of foresight so
universal, a deficiency of logic so Sc
rious and SO ominous in this certainly
universal inclination on the part of
American parents that one may well
stop and inquire its reason
In a certain celebrated essay by
Schopenhauer, an essay as acrimoni-
GUS as it is profound, he remarks upon
the universal jealousy between all
women as women. Jealousy among
men, he insists, is largely professional,
when it is not intensely personal from
particular emotional impulse. The
male will fight for his chosen mate as
long as the race continues; but watch
a pretty woman, says this philosopher,
as she walks the street and see the
glances cast upon her by the women
she crosses in her path. They are the
glances of the Guelph and the Ghibel-
line. The jealousy is as universal as
the sex. likewise professional, in the
to please the men, their masters. He
goes further and with savage bitter
ness declares that the libery of women
is monstrous idea, German Christian
In its origin, which is the curse of
Europe. He advises the restoration of
the feminine seclusion of the middle |
ages and lauds the institution of the |
harem, which he insists would elimi- |
nate vice and all the dangers which |
beset homogeneous civilizations. This |
Is indeed a vivid expression of the |
idea of woman and her proper func-
ton and limitation. But his idea is
ouly too prevalent at the present
time, even in America, the last outpost
Of European civilization. The linger-
ng proof of this deep-lying prejudice
IS shown in its application to the edu-
cation of American women. The con-
,lusion derived from the prejudice is
is dangerous to be clev-
sr. Such a reputation may be for
nidable handicap in the race for hap
,iness, If a woman's happiness is in
he hands of man. 1t is idle to deny
hat this is so. And here we have the
-eason why the daughters of the rich
ire guarded from any such peril, why
beauty and charm, gentleness, good
less and submissiveness are the quail
ties which clothe young mans fancy
Ind dictate the choice of a wife.
The question now is pertinent Does
/ cultivated mind, with its infinitely
Tarious resources, detract from
harm? Does a trained logic, with its
applications to the prob
ems of life destroy It? 1t is aston
shing that the reasoning masculine
mind for these centuries should have
PERSISTED In the conclusion that they
10. The slightest hint OF rivalry to