Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1908-09-24
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 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 Spanish air Of jealous jailer-
ship which says that a woman should
come but thrice abroad-to be bap-
TIED, 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." "Straitlaced" is hardly
the adjective that the modern suf-
fragist would use. Another of these
well-known--
spaniel, Il wife and walnut tree,
The more YOU beat EN-, the better they
be.
One talking proverb of undouhted
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 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 petticoats. Matrimonial
proverbs, as 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-
lance, as we'll 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 cottagers as cour-
tiers, and, as an Italian saying has
1t, 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 old forms of speech
still linger, exhibits most unfeeling
disregard for woman's tears. The
tears of beauty in distress are usually
supposed to be among the most power
full 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 We're able to say that sit is
as great pity to see a woman weep
as it is to see a 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 barefoote.' 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 effon,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. rhrale 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 fill with tears, and in few sec
onds the round drops of "pearled
dew We're chasing one another down
her smooth cheeks. Sophy's weeping
was certainly no Sore distressing than
the barefooted progress of a goose