The Washington times., 1920-11-23


their admission TO the professions.
and for the assertion OF rights OF
married women TO their own prop
erty. as against the right OF any mar
ried blsckguard who had deserted his
wife to descend on her at any mo-
ment and sell her house over her
head and drink the proceeds or spend
II on another woman after deserting
her again. and to repeat this process
ad libitum. the followers OF John
Stuart Mill and Henry Fawcett cut
their hair short; put on mems stiff
collars and cravats; wore waistcoats
and shirtfronts and watch chains;
and made themselves mannlsh above
the waist whilst remaining quaker
ish below it,
There was no sense In this. as
women were much more sensibly and
pleasantly dressed than men in these
parts: In fact. men were moving to-
ward soft collars and taffeta or flan-
mel shirts. and substituting neckties
for cravats, the tennis shirt being
much more like a woman's blouse
than like the old SEARCHED manly ar
ticle. Still. IL was Inevitable .that the
movement should begin with women
Insisting on doing everything that
men did
EXULTED AT FEATs.
When woman beat all the men at
university examinations. the wo-
men OF the movement exulted enor-
mously. and were indignant when
| described the feat as the reductio
ad absurdum OF university educa-
tion, just as described votes for
women as the reductio ad absurdum
or democracy (my own demand was
that all governing bodies should have
a due proportion OF women on them,
votes or no votes, no matter how
they got there). 1t was clear to me
that what women had to do was not
to repudiate their femininity. but to
assert its social value; not to ape
masculinity. but to demonstrate it's
insufficiency. That was the point OF
my play Candida" l895). in which IL
Is made quite plain that the hus-
bands masculine career would go to
pieces without the wife's feminine
activity.
This view OF the matter gained
ground. and is now, / think. the
standard view. The reaction began
by pronounced antihomonist move
ment. in which man was no longer to
w '"Asot"N' but
butt. a dupe, a hopelessly untidy. un-
practical. helpless person. depending
on woman from his very conception.
In short, the secret that men are
very much afraid of the matrimonial
pursuit and domestic tyranny of
women, and are organized against
them far more or defensive than Of
fensive lines. was given away.
This counter movement has not
balanced itself yet. 1t eliminated in
the campaign of the suffragettes,
which was conducted with extraordi-
nary violence and resisted with fran
tic savagery. But before it broke
into volcanic eruption 1t had obiit-
Grated the would-be manly woman.
The suffragettes insisted on their
womanliness much more consciously
and strenuously than the Victorian
women.
GAVE UP CRYING.
The manly phase. however, had es-
tablished federation for pratices
which. though formerly confined to
men, were really as proper-or i'm
proper--to women as to men, For
instance, women gave up crying and
fainting, and took to swearing and
smoking. My mother, who went her
own way without ever dreaming of
belonging to movement or smoking.
never cried. When anything bothered
her, she relieved her feelings with d
hearty Damn.
When she formed her habits, smok-
ing by women, or even in their pres
ence, was unheard of. There was
not even smoking room in the
house. Men went down to the kitchen
late at night and smoked up the
chimney. There were no smoking
carriages on trains. though every
one smoked in the third class car
riages. The result was that men
were engaged in permanent con-
spiracy to get away from women so
that they might smoke.
When women discovered that the
toleration and even the practice of
smoking was the price of male corn
pany. they first tolerated and then
practiced. The habit is one of the
most extraordinary alterations of
our civilization, imposed on us as it
was by the redskin at the climax of
the Renascence. Men were always a.
little ashamed Of ii, and were actual
ly heading for its renunciation when
women gave il an enormous impulse,
and made it quite shameless.