The Washington times., 1922-07-25
Staying Of
RIVAL HELD
FEMININE
Under Stress of Passion Mod
ern Woman May Revert
to Cave Type.

NEW YORK, July 25.-Out in
Los Angeles, apparently unruf-
NED and with smiling composure,
MRS. Clara Phillips is facing the
consequences of a brutal crime,
stone-age murder, in which she
beat to death with a hammer her
rival for her husbands affections
-unmerciful in the face of her
vlctlms cries, certain in her rage
that complete annihilation of the
oanger that threatened her home
was accomplished.
What threw her back to the age
OF stone, baffled the inhibitions
pullt up by modern society and
ailowed primitive hate to spend
its force unchecked by fear of
consequences? How is it that ma
ture thus tears aside the veil of
modern restraint and reveals the
ataVlstic soul Of the ancient cave
woman in the body of a modern
American wife?
Crime Feminine.
The crime, based on the deeds of
women as the centuries have rolled
aIong, was distinctly feminine. The
cold.blooded plan by which the
rival was lured by the smiles OF
her murderess to take friendly
AFTERNOON ride to the lonely srot
where she was to pay forfeit with
her life; the decisive, unwavering
olows' ignoring pleas for mercy, by
which the enraged woman beat out
the brains of her pretty rival. are
out repetitions of the cold -bl0oded
acts by which passion-inspired
women have reverted to the primi.
tive at various times during the
march of civilization toward a goal
OF lessened violence and better con-
troll over passions.
Back in Biblical days, Salome was
one of the first examples of this
reVersion to the cave type. The
much-divorCed wife of Herod ground
her teeth in rage when her love
was flouted by the sanity John the
Baptist and then calmly but none
the-less coldly and mercilessly pro-
ceeded to dance the head off his
shoulders, for IL was by her blithe
and smiling dance that she won
from Herod on his birthday the
promise that Johns head would fall.
Tales of AmaZons.
That the Greeks knew and be-
Neved in this tendency of a woman's
soul to revert to atavism Is evil
dent in their NEUROLOGICAL tales of
the Amazons, that army of beautiful
women who, when reused. fought
like demons and who coldly and
without mercy annihilated their
enemies to the last man under the
cool fury of their hate.
Theseus, according to the legends
Of the Greeks, experienced the full
force of this reused feminine fury
when he attempted to carry off the
Amazon Queen. His intrepidity and
ignorance regarding woman's ten
dency to reach back into the ages
for primitive rage resulted in the
destruction of himself and all of the
Athenians. With lance, battle AK and
bow, these unleashed feminine beau
ties fought fiercely and without
mercy.
Farther along in the ages came
Catharine de Medici, her primitive
passions aroused by lust for power.
There have been kings who have
executed and intrigued for power and
whose acts resulted in death and dis
aster for their enemies. But Catha-
rine, the women seeker after power.
left a permanent track along the
path Of history showing plainly that
the death, intrigue and misery meted
out by masculine seekers after power
were but modest crimes compared
with her efforts in the same direc
tion when her fury was aroused by a
desire to dominate.
Played with Sects.
Catharine went back to the primi-
tive in politics with a vengeance.
she played one religious sect against
another, plotting first with the Hu.
suenots and then with the Catho.
lies. When the Protestants became
too powerful, she instituted the mas
sacre of st. Bartholomew, one of the
most cruel, dastardly and cold
blooded crimes in the history of CIV
ilization. Catharine is an example
~ the fact that woman reverts to the
primitive when her passions are
reused to the utmost by other pas
sions than love.
Lucrezia Borgia, one Of Catha-