Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-04-30
AMERICAN WOMAN DISSECTED
SHE is "THE Show AND CREDIT
ABLE TO THE MANAGEMENT.

vival of Backwoods Conditions
Both Sexes Cold, Says English Mag
azine Writer.
'4The American Woman" is the
title of an article to which a promi-
nent place is given in the current
number of the Nation, writes Lon
don correspondent of the New York
Sun. In nothing, declares the writer,
is there exhibited more general fail
ure to realize the underlying facts
of a situation than in the general esti-
Il ate placed on the influence of the
American woman in her own country.
Neither the American woman nor
the American man has any mystery
for the writer, who says: European
visitors to America use language
which suggests that the women are
a distinct and superior human species
to the men, superior not only in grace
and physical attractiyeness but in
character, intelligence and individu-
atty, and the complacency with which
the American man will accept and
indorse this testimony to his inferi-
ority is accepted as conclusive con-
firmation'
This is a fallacy which the writer
of the article proceeds to explode.
The apparent domination of the Amer
lean society by American women is
explained, he says, by looking TO the
foundation of American society In
pioneer life in the New World wom-
an necessarily attained large meas
ure of independence, together with
special consideration due to her scare
ity.
When this primitive condition had
given place to life in the modern IN
dustrial city, with the swift emerg-
ence of the new rich class, the women
had no time to lose all the transmitted
energy and personal efficiency of the
earlier womanhood. The first need
of the industrial male conqueror is to
display financial power through the
ostentatious waste of conspicuous leis-
ure. but natural inclination and habit
prevent him from performing these
rites in his own person, so his VIE
and daughters become apt instru-
ments for the vicarious expenditure
of the time and money that attest his
economic prowess and they carry into
this career the energy, confidence and
resourcefulness of backwoodsmen'
granddaughter.
Male ascendancy," continues the
writer, sis as real and at least as
strong in America as in any Euro
pean country short of Turkey. me
social sway of woman is due to a
different valuation of society by the
American man from that of European
countries. What Henry James and
other critics affirm, that the Amerl-
can man is business man, polite
ian and a club man, but leaves So
ciety largely to his wife and daugh-
tiers, is quite true. But what appar-
emily they fail to recognize is the
characteristic mental attitude of the
male American toward this social
life.
His extravagant wife and daugh-
tiers, with their receptions, diamonds,
trips to Europe and sprightly talks
on books and art, are tC him prl-
marily big entertainment, an expen-
sive elaborate show, which he can
afford to keep up and likes to pay
for. The average successful male
American would no more think OF
competing with his wife in the dis
play of social arts and graces than
the Londoner who visits Maskelyne
and Devants would think of vying the
mystery men there. But his
real control of the social order is
not less deeply rooted on that ac-
count.
1.-THE American nouveau richie has
no remnants or revivals of the feudal
state with which to make display
of ostentatious waste. Everything in
recent circumstances of Americas
life tends to make woman, her social
activities and ways of going on, the
single relief element for the strenu-
Gus life of the pioneer turned 'hust-
ler.'
The writer admits that it is not
really as simple as this sounds, for
there are other factors affecting di-
rectly the sex relation. He proceeds
to examine one case in a passage full
of possibilities for controversies. He
says:
Some cause, possibly climatic, has
certainly reduced the intensity of sex
emotion. This, of course, is a sug-
gestion incapable of proof, but few
who have studied closely the conven-
tional bearing of American men and
women toward one another will doubt
that it is the very freedom of asso-
citation between young men and wom-
en- which attests it, possibly induces
or assists it. 1t would perhaps be
too much to say that sex emotion has
faded into sentimental interest, but
the change is something of this ma
ture.
THE conventional, simple admira-
ton in the man and the firm tone or
confident self-possession in the wom-
an attest it. So far as fic-
ton holds the mirror up to American
nature it exhibits quite significant
paucity of sex emotion in its more
spontaneous, mastering flow.
Possibly the conquering American
woman owes much of her triumph
in circles where self-possession counts
for so much to this touch of inner
chill. That she owes anything to
intellectual superiority over the male
of her kind cannot be conceded, for
no such superiority exists.
"She reads more, and talks more
because that belongs to her deeora-
tive function The thought of Amer
lea owes little to her. though she
has long enjoyed more ample oppor-
tlnities for education than the other
sex. Her contribution toward seri-
Gus literature, art and science is
small. almost negligible. Almost all
the best brain work il America. even
in fields where women are most occu-