Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-03-17
AUTHOR DEALS
WITH TRAGEDY OF
WOMEN'S LIVES
German Book Creates Fur
or in Berlin and En-
pire.

: pire.
BERLIN-(Spl)- women OF
Germany are profoundly agitated by
the book of the season entitled "The
Critical Age" The authoress is Nile.
Karin Michaelis, a woman past fifty,
who is herself most happily married.
She is Danish by birth, but her hus-
band is German, and she has spent
the greater part of her life in Ger
many. and writes her books in the
German language.
In this extraordinary book, Of which
hundreds Of thousands Of copies have
been sold, the authoress deals with
the tragedy of woman who have pass
ed her fortieth year. 1t is not, strict
lily speaking, novel, but the confes-
sions of a middle-aged woman who
endeavors to tell the whole truth
about herself and what she conceives
to be the truth about her own sen
Here are some Of the characterize
ic passages of these strange confess
sions:
mo man understands what the soul
Of a woman is in reality. No man
has any idea of the inner workings OF
a woman's heart. Men pride them
yes on understanding women, and
are always befooled in this respect"
1.-THE whole truth II never spoken
between a man and a woman; but it
is not necessary on this account to
condemn women; they are never
quite sincere towards men, because
they are never quite sincere towards
themselves. Men can be honorable
in dealing with others, but women do
possess this capicity."
"a woman can love a man more
than her own life; she can sacrifice
her time, her health, her virtue and
her life for him, but If she is a real
woman she can never take him en-
tirely into her confidence. She can
never take him into her confidence
because she dare not"
"a man, on the contrary, even If
only for a short time, can love with
out reserve In this condition, he al
lows himself to be unlocked like a
chest of drawers with many secret
recesses.
Then he delivers himself and his
past to the woman he loves, but q
woman never gives more of her con-
fdence than reason permits. Her
sense of shame is quite different in
character from mans sense OF
shame. She would rather perpetrate
an indecsncy than confess to a man
some of her secret thoughts, which
she would willingly and without re-
serve communicate to another wo'
man.
Every woman plays comedy at
all times of her life with smiles and
with tears. Smiling is a language
which none but women understand;
woman smiles at a great crisis, wo'
man passes over vices with smile,
and with a smile she reflects the
greatest virtues.
men cannot smile at all; they are
not deceitful enough to smile. And
with the smile so it is with tears
Tears are gift from nature to wo-
men, and most women use them tc
excite themselves when they desire
to create scene"
Men believe that a woman grows
old, but this is entirely wrong. be
cause it is only the exterior OF a wo-
man which grows old, leaving he1
inner life untouched and unchanged
by years.
Here are some more of Karin MI
chaelis' characteristic sayings:
ut is very easy for women to de
ceive men when the latter are in love
because when a man is infatuated
with a woman, he believes everything
because he desires to believe it.
"The 'Unbelieving Thomas ought
to have been woman, because wo.
man always doubts. A shadow oil
doubt penetrates into her innermost
hottest feelings, perhaps because she
judges man according to her OWL
character.
The grip which this book took up.
on the women of Germany is quite
remarkable, because within a few
hours of its publication, the book.
sellers stores were being storme6
by members of the fair sex bent OF
obtaining copies for their own peru
sal.
Hundreds and even thousands O.
articles have been written protesting
against Karin Michaelis' portrayal o.
female character and disposition
and tthe book has been denounced
from the pulpit and on platforms by
pastors and lecturers, feminists anl
moralists.