The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-17
WOMAN MOVEMENT"
 BRINGS COMPLAINTS

BRINGS COMPLAINTS
 The recently auickened interest in the woman movement" has brought forth afresh the old complaint that women are incompentents. and, as some say. must always remain so. They have not that commanding ability which usually accompanies masculin- ity. Their brains are small and silly. and there is no use in trying to brace them up. It can't be done. A good many women. says Kate Upton Clarke in The Brooklyn Eagle. join in bring ing these grevious indictments against their own sex. and we look around us In dismay. wondering if they really are right; or whether. as Tennyson says. the woman might not. with equal husbandry." achieve as notable victories as her brothers. She certain ly has not. during the past years. re- ceived anything like this ''eouai hus- bsndry.y
 There is one thing which is against the average womau--the woman who holdsga spark of genius. She can cul- tivate ambition and strive for emil hence in art until she falls In love. Then, in more senses than with man. the chord or self does indeed "pass in music out of sight"
 It is said that there are ambitious women, who neglect husbands. chill dren and home. in their mad pursuit of some form of art--but many of us have never seen such. The women that we know, who have to sally forth to shop
 or office. or who toll at desk or in stu dio. are either those with whom the course of true love has not run smooth ly or those who have had to earn money to help out sick or unlucky hus- S.~ A. H.x ma .pfo whose husband is able to supply the wants of his family. as a rule. lets all outside interests, except social ones, slip through her fingers. If she plays or sings, she ceases to practice, If she paints or writes or embrofders or ham, mers brass or binds books or set jew elry. as too many of our bright, wo- men are doing nowadays, she straight way proceeds after marriage to forget what she has learned, and her right hand loses it's cunning. The welfare of husband and children absorbs her ut- terly.
 In recent issue of Harpers Bazar, this phase of the feminine character was humorously brought out in little play in which an artist who Is full of recent exhibition and her own tri- umphs in painting. visits 6 fellow-work CT who was but few months before quite as much interested fin such mat ters as herself. but who has now be- glowingiy a history of late events in art, but the young mother listens with deaf ears. and brings the conversation back invariably to the baby.
 This Is Q description of a type. The ambitious principle in the woman na- ture is, broadly speaking. absent. When it exists strongly. 1t Is abnor- mai. It may be developed by deep personal sorrow. when q woman bends all the energies of her soul to the drowning of grief. It Is often the fruit of disappointment in love. when cha grin or indignation brings it on.. But the average wife and mother does not know what fierce and absorbing artistic ambition for herself means. Mrs. Jameson even went so far as 10 say that no woman who has had an unruffled married life has ever achiev- ed an artistic success. Why should she? She does not want ft--does not try for it--is taken up night and day with the interests of her husband and children--and though greatness is sometimes said to be thrust upon peo- pie, such greatness Is rare. Fame is generally the result of concentrated purpose and long and hard labor--as when explorers, after many trials, dis. cover the North Pole!
 For instance. while ago a friend asked a weli-known editor why he had printed nothing recently from the pen of certain writer.
 T can't get anything" he replied. 'I have urged her. but she has a new baby. and she Is all taken up with her family. I begged her 10 turn her chill dren over for an hour or two daily to some trustworthy nurse and send us something in her old vein. She can we'll afford 1t. but she says she has no longer any interest in writing and she will probably never write much again. Too bad" he added. Dozens of people have asked us jast what you did just now. She has real genius. and incidentally, her work woulds help to establish the standing of women every where--but 1t is of no use. When hus- hand and children enter c woman,s life art flies out of the window"
 Another result Of this absorption of good women In their own families and their contsntment with their lot. Is that they cannot realize the needs of othr classes. Not alone art. but also artisanship and the great world of toilers outside their ken. ceases to inc terest thcm. This is one explanation of the lack of sympathy which so many feel with the great battle of good wo- men for the ballot. By the way. 1t is sometimes said that the influence of evil women is greatly to be dreaded in the. granting of equal suffrage. It seems hardly likely that harm will re- suit to any great degree from this source. since 1t Is not generally known that such women desire the ballot In addition, most of them have no settled abode and do not care to furnish their address, as they would have to In reg isterfng. Those who are best informed In the matter. as the managers of re- formatories and rescue homes, say that bad women are much more likely to vote for good measures than is the sim liar class of men. which Is enormously larger. and almost to 6 man in favor nF vfrfnt,a faOiafnftou