Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1908-07-12
copyright. by Joseph b. Bowles)

II
Copyright. by Joseph b. Bowles)
No one who knew Europe before
1880 and who knows Il now can fail to
| have observed the wave Of American
ism which has swept over European
women in recent years. Its effect up
to the present time is confined to the
great middle classes, except in Eng
land, where it has reached the upper
stratum OF society. The lower stratum
seems, SO far, quite unaffected by II.
In England the laboring man still
| beats his wife and gets two or three
years in prison for 1t IL the woman
happens to die under the operation.
and the man can prove that he was
drunk when he gave the beating. In
France the woman OF the lower classes
still tolls in the fields. In Germany
she is still hitched with the dog to
| the plow, which The man holds. or,
still with the dog, the woman drags 10
market the cart. in which the man
sits, In Italy the women still trudee
home from their labors in the fields
carrying great burdens on their backs
and sometimes children, too. in their
arms. while the men ride the donkeys
and mules.
The American idea that man shall
| be the chief worker has not yet
| reached the laborirg classes OF Eu-
rome. In every town and hamfet sights
are witnessed every day OF the deg
| radiation of women which would pro-
woke a tarring and feathering. II not
lynching, conducted by the leading
| citizens in any American community.
| In the days Of slavery at the south the
| negro women did only the lightest
| of field work and enjoyed considera-
ton from their masters i'll illness and
old age which to the European peasant
women of to-day would seem like
dream of paradise. In Europe the
| working woman is never too old, too
I feeble or too i'll to work. Nor Is any
thing. from shaving in the mines to
cleaning house. reckoned too hard for
her, nor is any pittlnce reckoned too
little for her.
II
/ Emperor William says that he pre-
fers the women who only know four
iK's-kinder (children), kuchen (kitch-
en-, kleider Clothes and kirche
(church). If his majesty would con-
slider what the working women in his
own Kingdom of Prussia receive as
wages. the enormous toll they undergo
i from birth to death. the wretched
clothes and still more wretched fare
to which they are bound. and then
/ oomnare their situation with that Of
American women OF the same kind, ne
/ would be forced 30 admit that the
women who know more than the four
KS have the best CO II.
An American NAV be forgiven for
thinking his civilization the best. which
/ releases from women the horrors that
are 50 common in Europe that they are
n not regarded as horrors at all. but as
h the normal conditions. Emperor Will
liam may see any day that he goes
Y forth. the woman yoked with the dog.
|, and he perhaps regards II as eminent
n Iy proper. But no American man or
woman can see tina: sight without hor-
TOR and disgust.
n The AmericaniziC. Of the laboring
classes in Europe would mean an in
dus,rial and economic chaos-so II
Il canpo, be expected Those In whom
hope Is not dead aud who by striving
l and pinching almost beyond belief can
1 acquire the price OF Storage ticket
j 10 America come here as 10 their land
Of Canaan. The rest work. starve.
h freeze and die as their fo.bears have
/. ;Bope for a thousand years. that a few
| NAV live and boast Of their "'civiliza-
4 ton"
/ But in the middle classes the Amer
lean leaven is working strongly. These
] m,ddle-class European women see. IN
the tremendous number of American
! women OF all sorts who cone TO them
every year. what vast privileges and
I imnuniticS the American woman has
and they are following her as fast
as they can. In England the Amer
icapixatioo has reached the upper
classes Especially Is this notable IN
| lonGon soc5c;y-bui II Is wholly de-
! eelopusent of the isS; few years.
Up 20 about the yea: 1890 all that
English people OF the higher classes
saw ~ American women was In Lps-
, con. whsrr there ~as a small colony
81 Americans. who conformed strietiy
% English standards. The daughters
Of tsese American parents were made
20 be. as Ear as possible. mutations
o. the English girl These bogrs Eng
| Iish girls knew Iiilc 81 their owa
I crnntrx A. The case always Is VIII