The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1908-10-27
SAID ABOUT WOMEN
REMARKS MORE OR LESS UN.
COMPLIMENTARY.
One Wonders in Reading These
Whether Men Of the Past Were
Fair in Their Treatment
Of the Gentle Sex.

Proverbs regard the fair e almost
exclusively from the point OF view OF
q man of the old school-a man, that
Is, who believes in the absolute in
feriority of woman and in the stern
necessity of making her know and
keep her place. There Is one with
quite a Spanish air of jealous jailer-
ship which says that q woman should
come but thrice abroad-to be bap-
tized, married and buried. Burton
quotes it in his Anatomy Of Melan-
choly," but is obliged to admit that the
philosopher" who said it was too
straitlaced." "S~traitlaced" is hardly
the adjective that the modern suf-
fragist would use. Another of these
masterful proprietary proverbs is the
well-known-
A spaniel. a wife and a walnut tree,
The more you beat 'em, the better they
be.
One talking proverb of ~undoubted
truth is that which says: "A woman
may knit a knot with her tongue she
cannot unite with all her teeth" This
was familiar more than three centuries
ago, and may still often be heard in
the north, especially in Scotland. with
reference to an unwise or inadvisable
marriage. It is also used quite rightly
Of men in the same connection. With
regard to abuse in general it is quite
certain, and men may as we'll freely
admit the charge which can hardly
be denied, that many of the lords of
creation are as arrant gossips as any
wearer of p~etticoats. Matrimonial
masculine authorship and press rather
hardly on the weaker SEX. Sayings
in praise of marriage and of the good
wife are comparatively rare. How
ever. Cupid may be depended upon to
set the proverbs of i'll omen at de-
iance. as well as the maxims of pru-
dence ard forethought that are so
freely quoted by those who have es-
capped the little gods shafts, for Love
Il as warm among cottagers al cour-
tiers" and, as an Italian saying has
It, Love can neither be bought nor
sold: its only price is love-"
Another old saying, still often heard
In country places, where old modes Of
thought as we'll as cid forms of speech
still lipger, exhibits a most ~unfeeling
disregard for woman's tears. The
tears of beauty in distress are usually
supposed to be among the most power
ful weapons in the arsenal of feminine
charms; but the hearts of our forefa-
theirs Tor some Of them must have
been steeled against lachrymal assault
when they were able to say that 1T il
q great a pity to e q woman weep
- It is to see a goose go barefoot"
or, as one seventeenth century writer
phrased it: There is no more pity
be taken Of her than to see q goose
goe bare-foote." This might have been
reserved for the shedders of crocodile
tears or for those ~curiously endowed
folk who are able to make their eyes
overflow by a mere effort Of will, such
as the beautiful young lady nared
Eophy Streetfield, who was one of the
circle that gathered round the Thrales
and Or. Jonson at Streatham. Weep,
Eophy," Mrs. Thrale would say. and
thereuy on, without the movement of q
muscle or the slightest disturbance
of the calm repose Of her lovely
tenance, Scnhy's beautiful eyes would
slowly all with tears. and in q few. Sec
onds the round drops Of "pearled
dew" were chasing one another down
her smooth cheeks. Sophy's weeping
was certainly no more distressing than
the barefooted progress Of q goose.