The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1916-07-06
GRAFTON
Jane stsss
The Modern Woman

They say that man is mighty,
He governs land and sea,
He Yields mighty scepter
Der lesser lights that be;
But a mightier power and stronger
1.-The man from this throne has
hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Among the ancicnts there was
a curious belief, traces of which
may still be seen in the monu-
ments handed down to US, that
man and woman were originally
one being. but having offended
the great. deity. He decided to
cleave them asunder. Separate
they were most unhappy and
their punishment was that, for
Yvermore. their descendants
ishould, man and woman, seek to
he reunited. and only when thus
reunited should they cease to be
restless and discontinued. How
yer much of fable there may he
! in the old legend. the lesson re-
mains the same even nuto the
ipresent and no state of civiliZa-
tion succeeds wherein the activ-
/; lilies of men are not supplement-
ed by those of women. From the
very beginning of the human
race. where man first appears to
the most ardent student of an
'thropology. he is nghting-now
with the wild beast. now with the
angry forces of nature and with
the other savage and harbarous
jpcople. As he advances he has
other battles-battles for life
liberty and the pursuit of hap
ipiness. Man is the warrior and
ever has been. Other functions
also belong to man. He is the in :
ventor, employer and discoverer.
'Granting, then, these great at
tributes to man, il may be fitting
to ask, that are the greet persi-
|stent attributes of woman? Here
again may be found just what
the close observance of humanity
would expect to find-that where
ever man has gone. woman has
followed closely at his side. If b..
is a warrior then she is the nurse:
if he is an employer either in fields
of country or thought, then she is
the inspiration, encouragement
and rest. In short, woman is the
conserver, preserver and help
mate.
II is not difficult to recognize
he part women have played in
h" family and community life
!. ven away back in early times.
The first division of labor was of
necessity between the sexes. 1t
brought about naturally tn" con-
roI Of production by man and
!! he control of consumption by
woman. Man hunted, fshei,
tended the tlncks, carried on war
fare both offensive and defens-
i've, while woman planted, har-
vested, converted the gathered
grains into meal, modelled the
iearth into useful utensils and
wove The wool of the sheep into
warm clothing. The conditions
'of the time made man provid-
Ter and woman the homemaker
The home itself was whatever the
woman made it.
After the advent of christian
|ity the condition of woman diff
fered somewhat in the different!
countries i'm which they lived.
From the fifth to the fifteenth
century. during the long period
when the world was busy with
fcudalism and chiv-
airy, and the occupation of Thu"
majority of men was that of the
war, the position of women was
unstable and uncertain. During
this period the women of the
aristorcatic class especially de-
voted themselves to the mOnasti"
life. II may be said that from
the seventh to the twelfth CEN
turtles that monaSticiSm was The
refuse of the suprrfluous women
of the feudal class.
With the dawn of the wonder
full period of he Renaissance
land the birth of modern thought,
new social motives and new rules
of conduct were evOIovcd. In
1880 public opinion had 50
Ichang"d regarding woman and
her attributes that one man had
1.-THE courage to hulislI a beck in
(which he argued That the differ
fence of sexes was one OF body
and not of soul. He wrote ''as to
the soul men and women ara.
alike. but in all else women a."
SUPERIOR" and as a proof of this
argument he called attention T.,
the fact that in an ascending
scale. she was created after and
act before man.
The woman of today has /:
great many ddvanta ..-.; over !hc
sistrces of one hundred or even
twenty-five years ago. Because
of the invention of so many Labor
saving devices for the home Il
great deal of the work which