The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-03-23

I xIS merely luAI tuS Q0OpFcs do a
whole, are intrenched in stupidity and
tied up with fear Of taking. any ini-
~tiative.
As life advances in sophistication it's
demands become more involved, more
universal, more diverse.
Its perfunctory enough to say that
the necessities of the present were the
luxuries of the past.
And they are necessities.
The more highly trained human or
ganism must be sustained by a more
complex system of activities.
Thoreau pulled away from all this.
The machinery of government he
regarded as an incubus and an absurd
ity.
The environs of what is termed civil
~ization he looked upon as a sort of
savagery, a hindrance to the devel-
opment Of the intellect, of the spirit.
But Thoreau was a genius.
One set apart.
dental humorist.
And-he wasn't married.
To return to the superficial aspect.
1t Is ever mans way to point to the
woman.
II he has to supply her with more
luxuries, he has injured her to them
and himself.
Why is it, in instance, that many
men do not marry?
Not because they can't find some
women to consent to the hardships. of
his limited income but because he
doesn't want to give up whatever COM
forts might accrue from it's entire di-
rection to himself.
Hating and h%esitating because he
thinks he can't afford it"-although
he may have been assured, as just
said, by the party Of the other part"
that she is entirely willing to take the
risk and perform any necessary sacri-
fices-his reasons are not SO much al
trurian as they are selfish.
He hates, in fact, to take on any
added responsibility.
Scrape off the surfaces and it is only
the occasional woman who by her de-
mands for herself and children is the
cause of a mans moral deterioration.
On the other hand there are innum-
cradle women performing heroic sac
rifices. without a murmur, to give their
husbands every business chance, ev-
cry opportunity to make good"
And not only conducts a menage like
a financial genius and in a way which
very few men could duplicate, but
remains cheerful under every discour-
agement, every hindrance, every blow
of fate.
And possibly, in the intervals, boosts
her husband along, cheers him up, pats
him ON the back, flatters and cajoles
and protects from every unpleasant
ness within her power.
What is her reward?
Sometimes its appreciation. But not
often.
1t may be, as in the case of a Ger.
tain celebrated magnate, merely a cast
ing off of the old love to be on with
the new:
Such an instance is found in John
Rawn," by Emerson Hough, extended
reference to which was made the 9TH
er day.
But with the great mass of those
with moderate incomes it is often cal
lousness, and not only a lack of ap
probation but a total lack of com
prehension of what she has done.
Oh as to the men-don't they have
cigars, and booze" and clubs and lit
tie trips out of town? A lodge is, af-
ter all, nothing but a club. 1t takes
money to keep 'em up just as it does
to keep a club going.
Men deny themselves very little.
And if they do they have compensa-
tioEs-greater freedom both in thought
and act.
An ability, inherent in the sex, to
isolate himself from his domestic sur
roundings, while of them and to live
two lives-both perfectly respectable
at lone and the same time"
For a man is an unhampered entity
in the scheme of things.
A woman, as has been said before, is
ever handicapped by the burden of
her sex.
And if the women and children do
demand and insist-why its not such
a bad state of affairs after all.
1t keeps a man hustling. And that's
what he's made for.