The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-05
THE LADIES
BY col. A. e. PACE

| Man pretends to look with indulgent toll
Grafton upon what he is pleased to term
feminine whms and foibes-but 1t is only
| a pretense a make believe kind of self
serving declaration relied upon as proof
| of his intellectual superiority. He smiles
benignly at her little whims and eccen-
| tricities, and she turns her head anu
smiles at his smiling. He styles himseil
the lord of creation; she let's it go at
that, and permits him to wear his lordly
crown during hours In the society of his
| own sex; but there 1t ends.
| She can dispose of the nebular hypothe-
sis and the fourth dimension in that one
word which Is the alpha and omega OF
her logic, 'Becauses, and spend an hour
rapturously describing a new hat; but
even in this she is truly logical, for the
nebular hypothesis was never more than
a possibility, while the fourth dimension
is an obvious impossibility; but the hat
Is "a thing of beauty and a joy for a
season. Ordinarily, the intricacies OF
business are not to her liking, the prob
lens of governmental science may not
appeal to her, and the beauty and glory
of political graft may be to her sealeo
book. But she can cook and serve DIN
ner that would make an ascetic forget his
VOWS and an epicure pray for a thousand
years to live and enjoy. 1t is stated on
high authority that she cannot drive a
nail nor throw straight; but she can get
a more varied and valuable service from
hair-pin than a man can from all the me-
chanical devices known to the patent OIL
flee reports and Mark Twain said she
can sharpen a pencil II you give her
enough time and enough pencils.
Sometimes woman signs for emanclpa-
ton. as If she were not already emanci-
pated from a thralldom that has been
more harmful, more baneful and more
costly to the happiness of her sex than
mere Withholding of the ballot. The time
was. so l have been told, that woman
could not confess and confide the tender
secrets of her heart to the one she loved,
without appearing forward, unless that
confession had been extorted from her by
a vigorous cross-examination that In Sc
verify rivals the third degree; but that
time has passed-so / have been told-and
the idea that a woman Is outraglng mod
esty and cheapening her own Womanhooo
by approaching the marriage relation
without manifesting an assumed reluc-
lance at every stage of the game, With
out appearing to be urged into 1t half
against her will has happily been rele-
gated to the limbo of forgotten things,
along with the hoop skirt, the pull-back,
and the Grecian BEND. In support or the
proposition that a woman may honoraoly
confess to the tender sentiments which
the creator mas lIlpldiltcu III noA oo'oiii'
hear me. as I misquote Sir Walter Scott;
Rreathes there a girl with soul SO dead,
Who never to some man has said.
II love you" as he held her hand;
Whose icy heart forbids the bliss,
The rapturous transport of a kiss,
While fitting on the golden band?
If such there breathes, go mark her
well;
For her, no manly hearts e'er swell;
Her frigid charms like worthless pelf,
Will linger idly on the shelf;
A human iceberg all her days,
Unthawed by loves congenial rays
She'll pass from human view unmissed,
| Unloved, uncourted, and unkissed.
If, In speaking of woman, / may seem