Golden Valley chronicle. (Beach, Billings County, N.D.) 1905-1916, 1907-12-19

(Anna Farwcll de lIoven. wife of Regi-
Maid de Koven. the composer. IS wen
lat;on of Pierre Lofts Iceland Fisher
man" which was praised by, the critics.
In 1884 appeared her first novel, The n saw
port and New York. 1t went through ten
editions and was republished in England
and India. Her novel, by the Waters of
Babylon" was also distinct success
The liberty of American women has
become so universally accepted a fact
that it has passed into 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
fluence of widely scattered location.
into a basis of fine responsibility and
finer courage. From Virginia and
the more southern states we have a
fluent charm. soft womanliness and
grace both lovable and admirable. but
regrettably lessening with the disap-
pearance of the characteristic life of
the south.
of 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 a thorough col
legiate education is as rule not &C.
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 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, deficiency of logic so Sc
rious and SO ominous in this certainly
universal inclination on the part of
American parents that one may we'll
stop and inquire its reason.
In 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
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
sense that women's only profession is
to please the men, their masters. He
f,,,, thor
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 vivid expression of the
idea of woman and her proper func
ton and limitation. But his idea is
only too prevalent at the present
time, even in America, the last outpos
of European civilization. The linger
ing proof of this deep-lying prejudio.
is shown in it's application to the edu
cation of American women The con
clusion derived from the prejudice i
inevitable-it is dangerous to be cley
er. Such a reputation may be a TO,
midable handicap in the race for har
piness, If woman's happiness is i
the hands of man. 1t is idle to den
that this is so. And here we have tn
reason why the daughters of the rio
are guarded from any such peril, VIII
beauty and charm, gentleness, goo,
ness and submissiveness are the qua
ities which clothe young mans fanc
and dictate the choice of wife.
The question now is pertinent. Dot
q cultivated mind, with it's infinite
various resources, detract fro
charm? Does trained logic, with i
:nnumerable applications to the pro
lens of life destroy it? 1t is asto
fishing that the reasoning masculi
mind for these centuries should ha
persisted in the conclusion that tn
do. The slightest hint of rivalry
the male intelligence is destructive
a budding prediction and a Gimp
of blue above slipper more perilo
than a whisper of bifurcatiOn.
All this is true with a solemn
profounder than it's irony; but t
weapon is in the hands of women.
weapon forged by centuries of subor
i nation-the faculty of meeting con
tions. In the hands of a really clev
woman this is tact; in those of the
ept and ignorant, deceit and subt'
fuge. It is only ostentatious clev'
ness. not cleverness at all in IA
which is deterrent to the exercise
any charm or talent. There is new
an hour in the life of a woman VIII