The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1907-07-13
= Women
k1Hat0rS0f
Men
. By Rebecca Harding Davis e
Womanity VS. Humanity-Vanity
of Modern Woman Over Her
- Achievements - Business Not
Her Highest Occupation-"T
Keep House and Be Joyful
Mother of Children" Woman's
Birthright.
Copyright by J. B. Bowles.)

(Mrs. Rebecca Harding Davis has long
t neen known as talented writer of fic-
| tlon. Among her many works may be
mentioned "A Law Unto Herself" John
Andross," Frances Waldeaux'' and DIR.
wa Marrick.s Daughters.,' Her home is in
| Fhlladelphla She is the mother of Rich
ard Harding Davis, the author.)
Surely we are all familiar by this
time with the claims to admiration
OF the new woman; the beauty and
energy and keen mother wit which,
as Americans believe, set her apart
from the women of other nations and
make her unique, as was once the
huntress Diana among the gods. "
She never tires of counting over her
recent successes, from the marvellous
costumes that she wears to. her
achievements in biology, in cookery
or in founding new religions. The
woman of the last generation walked
in a narrow path; in her life, as in.
a Chinese song, there were but three
notes-love, marriage and motherhood
But this queen of the present hour
has thousand parts to play. You
never know where to find her. She
may be driving a four-in-hand in
Broadway or looking for the north
pole in the arctic seas or nursing
some poor beggar in the slums, or,
most likely of all, she may be set
thing herself comfortably for life as
duchess or princess in some old Eng
fish or Italian family.
We all look on with pride, and
| wonder comn1ooon+1v u,b,+ che will do
| next
The chief difference between her
and her grandmother-and it is a
very curious differences that the
older woman regarded herself sim
ply as part of the human race. The
man was it's head, it's spokesman.
She thought Of herself as his child,
his wife or his mother.
The woman of to-day is not only
his equal but his antagonist. She
talks not of humanity but womanity.
Every village has it's club of women
who urge each other into new profess
s1ons, work or studies which have
hitherto been considered the business
of men only.
Every newspaper has woman's de-
partment in which the successes OF
the sex in wrestling trades and handi.
crafts from their brothers and hus.
bands are daily noted.
| saw to-day the announcement. that
q >wo man was now filing a place ar
brakeman on western railway. This
fact is told with hysterical sob OF
triumph, as though when this ener-
getic young person laid her hand on
the brake she had dealt fatal blow
at the foe of her sex and had made
for herself long stride upward in
the scale Of being.
| In our national exhibitions, too,
there is always woman's department
where statues, pictures, soaps, confec-
tionery, etc., made by our sex are ex-
hibited apart to prove that women
are as skillful with their fingers as
men.
confess I do not understand this
belligerent attitude in the modern
woman, nor her vanity. Is she not
human, like the man? Has she not
the same fingers, eyes and tongue?
She is not a monkey nor freak that
her cleverness should be trumpeted
and paraded as abnormal in the pub
lie eye.
A man when he invents a new pillow
or paints picture does not shout out:
"A mana man has done this! Not
a woman! See how superior the male
of the race is to the female!"
But we American women Of late
years never weary of boosting OF the
the ground that they are so much like
the doings Of men!
It is true that at the close OF the
civil war our women were forced ia
compete with men for work and
wages in every part of the field OF
labor They had to make a place for
themselves then as Wage-earners or
starve 1t was no wonder that they
were aggressive and sharp during that
time. (.
+ But why squabble and fight now?
The whole field is open to them. All
Of the fences are down. There is not
now, believe, single honest occupa-
ton by which a living can be earned
which is not open to capable, decent
woman to try for it. Men give her
q fair field and much favor. Whethe,
she chooses to drive garbage cart OF
write a historic novel, they invaria-
u bly, are kinder to her endeavors and
applaud her more loudly than il she
J were a man. 49,.
u Why, then, this incessant, defiant
assertion of woman's achievements
and possibilities?
II This constant noisy boasting seems
J. to be akin to the loud cackling in thu
ii barnyard of a hen over each new-1a,1
j egg. as if an egg never had been LAID
l before. s ~
i Another mistake, it. seems to me. i.
made: BY my I. energetic Il young sister
i when she thinks that her chief errant
Into life is the work which she doe