Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1912-03-23
" ri i
Dorothy
Of Mans Gallantry in Business
and Love and Mans Unsallant
Treatment Of Poor Girls.

A great many people waste d lo'
of perfectly good time and breath
discussing the subject of mans gal
lantry toward women, and speculat-
ing as to whether the modern wo-
man isn't in danger of killing out
this precious exotic.
The anti-suffragists are particu-
larly alarmed about this, and are al
ways crying out that if women con-
tinue to insist upon their rights men
will no longer be gallant to them,
and ladies will have to pick up their
own handkerchief, which is ter
rible thing,to contemplate having to
do in these straight-front days.
In reality, there is no more anus
inc fiction in the world than that of
galIantry, whether you consider it
in the past tense or the present By
the term "gallantry" WE are supposed
to indicate mans unselfish and ten
der regard for woman, and his plac-
ine her before himself.
Yet. in the good old days, when
Gallantry was in flower, no woman
could 90 out alone without being in
suited, or take a journey except at
the risk Of her life,
The husbands gallantry permit
ted him to rob his wife on her we'd
ding day Of every penny she pos
sessed; women were denied educa-
ton. and we're just as much d mans
caattels as his horse and his sword.
So much for the gallantry of the
past. OF the gallantry Of the pres
ent, it may be said that men are
gallant and chivalrous to women
inst so long as the women don't
stand in their way, and no longer.
A man in a parlor will pick up
beieweled lady's fan if she drops it.
lie will pull out her chair for her at
the table aud hold the door open for
her as she passes out when he is IN
society,
But every day in some cities you
see men sitting in crowded trolley
cars while poorly dressed women,
ofteu with babies in their arms,
stand perilously clinging to straps.
You see men lolling in their seats
and reading their papers while white
faced, weary working girls, ready to
faint with fatigue, sway above their
heads.
It's one thing to be a carpet
knight, but when it comes to stand
ling up to rescue a distressed dam
sci, it's another story.
Mems gallantrY in business is also
a myth, as is abundantly proven by
millions of overworked and under
paid girls and women operatives IN
factories.
And in the professions and higher
paid ranks of labor, what is all the
protest against the woman worker
except mans lack of gallantry when
woman comes in rivalry with him
for a good thing, and he has to COM
pete with her for the cakes and ale?
You never hear of man obJectlng
to woman's work as long as she con-
fines it to scrubbing the floors OF the
Office building. It's only when she
gets a seat at lawyers desk that
gallant man begins bewailing her
leaving her. sacred home.
And what about the home holy
shrine of mans chivalry, to the Wo-
man he swears to cherish and pro-
tect? How many husbands treat
their wives with even common po-
likeness, not to say gallantry?
How many men take all that the
woman can give Of affection, and
work and domestic slavery, and DO
not make even the poor return OF
showing that they appreciate it?
No. Gallantry is a theme for the
poet and the romancer; a superstl-
ton to cherish; a sentimental chiffon
that we drape about life, but theres
nothing real to it.
It's like the little girls definition
of Santa Clans Something we talk