Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-12-28
Mental
Differences
Between
Man and Woman
BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.

Copyright. 1915. by Star Coz
The mental difference between man
and woman has been set forth in little
pamphlet by Asaph Lewis She says OF
woman:
Her mind Is higher, more refined. This
Is where the principle of selection shows
ultself most by endowing the weaker part
Aler with that physical grace and refine
Ient of organization and her mental
culties are correspondingly refined
Man. as we see every day, delights
h competition, and this leads to ambi-
'tiOn. which passes too readily into sell
fishness. Woman, who has never entered
upon the competitive field, has not de-
veloped this selfish spirit. A woman is
more prone to sympathy; she is more
human than man.
Man cannot understand woman--the
clumsy inability OF a eoarser nature to
appreciate the feelings Of the finer. The
mental hide Of q man through the dit
ferent stages Of evolution has been hard
ened, and he carries into his homo those
qualities of insensibility. self-assertion
and self-ssel<ins which have elsewhere
led to success In the struggle for exist
gIiGp 1nAo - tnc Naho0 VI ~ hANAAI eeAS-
happy homes today. Man. who IL natur-
ally coarse. cannot understand woman,
who Is naturally refined.
Il have obtained sufficient proof Of this
from the many homes I have had to
visit. The more ignorant the man the
more brutal Is his treatment of his wife;
the more educated the less brutal he IN
to his wife. The mental difference IL
easily noticed between the sexes"
II has been the observation Of this writer
that men are really moro modest and
often more humane than women. We
ksSEe only to look in the bathrooms, pub
10 and private. in theaters and opera
houses, to see how immodest good. cul-
tured, respectable women can be in their
dress.
Husbands, fathers and brothers OF these
women suffer modification of the spirit
in seeing how their dear ones urneces-
sarily display their bodies to the public
gaze.
Woman should be educated and woman
should have the franchise and woman
should have a voice in the government in
which she lies. But not because she is
superior to man or more refined or moro
humane, but because she is a thinking.
toiling human being like himself. and It
is her right to be his comrade and CO.
worker in all things.
Mrs. Lewis in a personal letter. writes;
when was writing my little booklet
I thought of Adelina Patti. Mary Gar
den, Marie Corelli. Mrs. Patrick Comp
bell and many others, and what education
has done for women. Before woman was
allowed to be educated she had only her
physical attractions, and when that was
destroyed by the hand Of time abe was
helpless.
But now woman is so advanced that
the one who depends upon her physical
attraction to carry her through Is but
the mere shadow woman. What woman
I ask you, today will stick little bits of
court plaster ON her face as an aid to
her beauty? What kind of man Is he
who admires such foolishness7 Is 1t pos
sible that We can say such women are
educated? Is that the kind OF education
<shey receive at collegef
women depend now upon their men
talities. Today a woman knows that her
intellectual attraction Is the only attrac-
ton worthy the notice of a real man."
Again the writer OF this article must
disagree with Mrs Lewis. Much as I
approve of education. culture, equal fran
chise and social Industrial equality OF the
sexes, the eternal feminine appeals
strongly TO me, even when 1t exhibits
itself in the eoquetry Of bit Of court
plaster ON the cheek or chin The woman
who ignores oil the pretty little arts of
beauty-making and who cares only to be
clean and neat and never alluring has
crossed over the line from real femininity
to the masculine border line.
IT Is necessary always for a woman to
remember the Importance OF being beauti-
full, not only morally and mentally. but
physically, Just as II Is important for q
man to be strong. mentally, morally and
physically. TO be the complete man.
The woman who cultivates beauty in
her personality has much greater power
in the world than the one who relies
wholly upon her intellect. Il Is impossible
TO change the idea OF men on these sub
jects
The woman who undertakes TO hold q
mans regard by simply being his menta
associate. ignoring all the arts and frivol-
tiles of dress and the care OF her com
sfIeSion, her hair and her figure. is NOR
than likely TO find herself superseded be
fore middle age In the mind OF the mar
OF her choice by some other woman
mentally her inferior. but possessing
physical charms.
Mrs. Lewis needs to study both sexel
a little more closely before she ex
presses herself too emphatically on thi'
subject