Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-10-15
DISCOVERED AGAIN.

Just about the hardest rap Ameri-
can womankind has been dealt since
the Pilgrim Fathers days is contain
ed in an article in the current Sat
urday Evening Post by an anony-
nous writer who styles himself "a
Discreet Frenchman" He makes the
unequivocal assertion that the WON,
an is the boss, and he sets out to
prove it by bringing the following in
dictments against the sex:
She is the head of the family, and,
behind the scenes she often runs her
manikin-husband's business.
She Is the splendorin-chief of every
household.
She is not only the arbiter ele.
gantiarum of society, but the one
from whom puny official man takes
his orders in all questions relating to
public or private morals.
She decides what shall be the re
l1gion of each family. runs the
churches, and one of her number has
become the supreme pontiff of a new
and powerful sect.
She relegates her husband and
brothers to the background, or sends
them to their offices to earn money,
with the same airy insouciance she
would employ in giving orders to the
hired man.
She takes upon herself the role of
general manager Of everything, and
| spokesman for every occasion.
This much about the general bear
| ing of the sex. Then the discreet
Frenchman, who showed great discre-
| ton, 1t must be admitted, in not
signing his name to the article, goes
on to say something about the per-
sonal appearance of woman:
| American women are too thin to
be defined as of symmetrical form.
They do not carry themselves we'll
or gracefully.
| am amazed by the awkward arm
swinging, hip-wobbling gait of your
younger women and girls, that I'M
presses me as not a whit less gauche
and ugly than the ridiculous hussar
stride of the English women.
When the American woman talks
she talks about too many things, and
too f1ippantly, in the brief space of
| time.
When she eats she makes her food
| disappear much too rapidly for diges-
ton or good form.
He closes his observations by stat
ing that the only plan he grew to de-
pend upon for knowing which wer3
the matrons and which the maids was
this: If he saw a meek-faced man
standing away little distance FROM
a lady and gazing at her furtively he
knew the latter was a married WON.
an, and if he saw a phalanx Of men
surrounding female and smilingl-
Gutdoing each other to obey her
! naughty behests he needed no one to
inform him that the young person in
the middle was still unmarried.
Then he summed up his findings
in this wise:
To you Americans these extrao--
binary facts may be signs Of what
you call the progress of the age. To
us Europeans they are actualities to
be deplored. You have taken women
from their lofty sphere and planted
them in realms from which they
should be vigorously excluded. And
that is not all. You have produced a
national feminine type that. even if
1t possesses all the cleaner inner vir-
tues, is, specifically at least, brazen
and aggressive; type that is drift
ing away from, instead of approach
ing. the exquisite ideal conjured in
the poets vision; type that. fear.
will soon be completely bereft of all
those alluring endearments, thost,
tenderly bewitching attributes that
cluster about and proceed from the
most wonderful, the dearest and best
miracle God ever performed-the
creation of womankind.
The weakness in the observations
of the discreet Frenchman is the
same weakness that crops out in til,
writings of all the European critics
of Americans and American customs
an appalling ignorance Of the subject
that is the more marked because of
the cock-sure pose of authoritative
ness assumed by these men from the
foreign shores. who come to America,
mingle with us a few months, and
then break into print to tell of the
discoveries they have made. The
Frenchman in this case should not
have emphasized his discretion. If he
expects to have the people give any
weight to his observations he should
style himself "a Wise Frenchman."
instead of "A Discreet Frenchman. -
for it, as he thinks, he has truly dis
sected the feminine mind and truly
few months that he has been making
depicted American femininitv in the
his observations task that the