The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1906-1908, 1908-11-07
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 sex almost
exclusively from the point of view of
a man of the old sehool-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 Spanish air of jealous jailer-
snip which says that a woman should
come but thrice abroad-to be bap-
tlzed, married and buried. Burton
quotes 1t In his Anatomy of Melan-
choiy," but is obliged to admit that the
philosopher" who said 1t was too
straitlaced." "Straitlaced" is hardly
the adjective that the modern suf-
fragist would use. Another of these
masterful proprietary proverbs is the
well-known-
A spaniel, wife and walnut tree,
Inc more you beat 'em, the better they
be-
One talking proverb of undoubted
truth Is that which says: "a woman
may knit 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. 1t Is also used quite rightly
of men In the sage connection. With
regard to abuse in general 1t is quite
certain, and men may as well freely
admit the charge which can hardly
be denied, that many of the lords of
creation are as arrant gossips as any
wearer Of petticoats. Matrimonial
proverbs, as a whole, bear marks of
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-
nance. as well as the maxims OF pru.
dence and forethought that are SO
freely quoted by those who have es-
capped the little gods shafts, for Love
is as warm among cottagsrs as cour
tiers, and, as an Italian saying has
II, Love can neither be bought nor
~OAN' 40 OhAy pIlCS Is love.
Another old saying, still often heard
In country places, where old modes of
thought as well as old forms of speech
still linger, exhibits a most unfeeling
disregard for woman's tears. The
tears OF beauty in distress are usually
supposed to be among the most power
tul weapons in the arsenal of feminine
charms; but the hearts of our forefa.
theirs Tor some of them must have
been steeled against laehrymal assault
when they were able to say that ut Is
as great a pity to see a woman weep
as 1t Is to see goose go barefoot"
or, as one seventeenth century writer
phrased It: There is no more pity
to be taken of her than to see a 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 mere effort of will, such
as the beautiful young lady named
Sophy Streetfield, who was one Of the
circle that gathered round the Thrales
and DR.. Jonson at Streatham. Weep,
Sophy," Mrs. Thrale would say, and
thereupon, without the movement Of a
muscle or the slightest disturbance
OF the calm repose of her lovely coun.
tenance, Sophy's beautiful eyes would
slowly I'LL with tears, and in 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 thar
the barefooted progress of goose.