The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-04-18
CHAPTER VI.
The Baseless Fabric.

The Baseless Fabric.
True philosophy is ascetic. 1t may
best be practiccd under conditions in
which the material is in abeyancc IT
exalts the spiritual. IT is distinguished
by indifference TO environment. There
rs nothing so fatal to its profession as
extravaganza. Frugality is TO the
philosopher what modesty is TO wou-
an-the essential thing without which
| IT and she cease TO be.
The atmosphere into which Katherine
Brenton was suddenly plunged by her
bold step was the very antithcsis of
all these requirements. 1t was un-
healthy: and, like unhealthy airs, it
| bred disaster. She had been trained
to independence Of conditions, to dis
regard of circumstances, as well as to
| dlsdain OF restraint; but there was that
within her surroundings which from
! her first experience of them, she felt
instinctively TO be vitiating. which
! tended to deprave, which precluded the
exercise Of clear, uninaueHced mental
! itv. Especially in her case was this
true, since the luxury with which she
| had been surrounded appealed so subtly
TO the preponderant, and IT must he
admitted. immortal feminine in her
composition. Sex distinction. sex diff
ference was the one thing against
which she fought. Sex equality was
the supreme good to be desired in her
scheme of right relationships between
the individual and the universe. While
she rebelled against her sex, yet she
rejoced in it, Glad was she sometimes
on that very account that 10 her was
given the opportunity to prove her
superiority TO the limitations, disabli-
ties and man-made trammels Of woman
kind.
Born Of two fanatics on the same
IL, ,,-hn ~ Sal
and Modified by brilliancy of intellect
in every other field of investigation
and experiment, Katherine Brenton
had been trained to the hour for her
profession, for the exploitation of her
principles. The greatest OF universities
pointed to her with peculiar pride as
one of the children of the free; free
from everything in thought and deter
mined to be free from everything in
action. Much was expected from her.
and the world was not disappointed at
tho first result Of her mental labor
There were certain oldfashioned peo-
pie who deplored the perversion of so
much talent and even genius TO the de.
fense of error, but these did not count
The world bought her book in thou
sands, read it avidly and regarded il
as the last word of the last woman of
the end of the age on the sex problem.
Clcverly Disgusting her philosophy in
the form of fiction, with one bound she
had leaped to the forefront of all the
writer's struggling for recognition. Pub
fishers sought her. Magazines pursued
her. Another book took shape in her
mind
Singularly enough her education and
the erratic bent of her mind had left
her primarily quite unspoied, She was
the product not merely of her age her |
environment, her parents, but of a long |
generation of people to whom her
thoughts would have been as abhogrent |
as her person was agreeable. The un.
conscious Christianity which surrounds |
woman, kept her pure and sweet and |
lovable-these i'll spite of, not because
of her perverse and perverted philoso-
ply, Though she defed convention in !
its spirit, she was naturally subject to |
it in its exercise. For instance, to
her the marriage bond was indeed n
bond, the marriage vow a confession
an, at least-aDd the marriage relation
an acknowledgment of inferiority-
again on the part Of the woman. She
would have none Of these things in her
life, Yet, as she thought, she had
given her heart to a man-alas, the
submission to the eternal law!-and
although their relationship was sane
toned by nothing but their affection,
it was to her as pure and as holy a
thing as if the contract had been wit
messed and blest by thousand
priests. What was it to himg She
counted without the other sex. Many
other women unfortunately have done
the same.
Not content with tho writing Of
books, her intense devotion to her
cause, coupled with her unfiagging en-
ergy, had found vent upon the lecture
platform. The curious crowded to her
feet at once so bold, so radical, so
beautiful and so innocent. One of her
first converts had been the only son
OF multi millionaire, bygone bonanza
king of the Pacific slope. His conver-
sion was not so much an effort of pure
reason as Of primal passion, although
the fact was in nowise apparent to her,
She would find that out later. This
modern Hypatia, skilled in the learning
Of the schools, burning with exhaust
less zeal, permeated with fiery energy,
was yet as innocent in some ways as
any. of her humber sisters. AS that
good book which she disdained in the
mower illuminations which had come
10 her might have said of her. she was
IN the world but not Of it.
Unconsclously she fulfilled many in
functions Of him who, had she but
known 1t, was the greatest of philoso-
pliers. Naturally, she kept herself un-
spotted from the world. Yet when the