Year: 1876




From Harper's Bazaar.


We hardly need anything to demon
strate our descent from the man who hic
himself behind scantier fg-leaf thar
the fig-tree bears when he declared, in
the face of his accuser, "The woman
gave me and | did eat" for it is the firs
excuse that rises to the lips of the mos
of Adams sons, to-day. The Spanish
king, who always, when any trouble
arose, asked, Who is she?" originated
nothing; he only followed in his fore.
fathers steps. He held that it was i'm,
possible man should make fool o.
himself unless there was woman in the
case, and he advised all men in all diff
ficulties to get behind that screen. And
others do as he did,


Does a young man lead dissolute
life Vindication is ready for him when
it is said that he would not lead it il
there were not woman to hold out
temptation he could not lead it if there
were not woman to allure. Nobody
has word for that woman, who could
hardly create the youths demand. Does
an older man live days of selfindulgence
neglecting home and his duties there fol-
a gay life and wine and cards? The
head is shaken in pity for the poor fell
low whose home is made so unattractive
by the woman presiding there, or so un-
happy that he is driven from it to those
baser haunts. Nobody says that, if his
home is unattractive, it is his duty to
make it attractive; that neither law nor
nature gives him the right to hold him.
self like an eastern pasha for the women
to fawn upon, to soothe and hatter and
delight; that there is mutuality in all
things, and, if he would do little of the
soothing and delighting himself, he
would find his home growing more at
tractive, every day, instead of less So
Does a man commit one dishonor and
another, barter his power for gold, sell
his fair fame for money? Not voice
is heard declaring that the man was
tired of honest poverty, with its labors,
needs, struggles, tumults; that he want
ed the comfort which assurance of wealth
gives, preferred it, and took the risks
that he loved his costly wines, his luxu-
rious dinners, his fast horses, his fine
mansion, his full bank account. Every
body without dissent avows that his wife
wanted her diamonds and her Worth
dresses, and to sweep like queen
through society. Even when the charge
is not openly made in outrageous words
the dark inuendo supplies its place, and
we are given to understand that the pet.
tiness, the gross appetite, the vanity of
the woman is at fault 1t is never the
sin of the man.


In all this there is horrible injustice.
1t is the lion that writes the book, and
reads it, too. For even were it true
which we are disposed utterly to deny
it is also true that woman is at present
only the mirror of mans wish, and what
she is he has made her. If she has pet
tiness, it is because the heavy hand has
kept her down so closely that largeness
is unattainable by her. What grossness
she has was not hers in the beginning
it has grown by ministering to the gross
ness of those who could enforce it. If
she has vanity and love of dress and
display, not women, but men are respon-
sible for it the men who give their ad-
their attention, their time,
their good report, to the pretty and we'll
dressed women, and let the plain and
quiet woman, who is not so agreeable an
object to the eyesight, and so pleasant a
stimulus to the senses generally go to the
wall


1t is, after all, giving too much po-
tency to so feeble an instrument to claim
that if this man makes fool of himself,
and that one makes wreck of himself.
and the other dishonors his name and
his life, woman is at the foot of it all.
" My son." said an old Grecian, lis the
ablest man in the state, for he has his
mother in subsection, his mother has me
in subjection and | have overcome Mil
tiades. The same principle applied
here would make woman WELD a power
which none in reality accord her. She
is not the lord of creation and, if she
had but her equal place beside that lord
allowed, we should hear no more of this
cowardly cry: THE woman gave me,
and L did eat"


A BRAVE WoRKMAN.-A story of re-
markable self-control is told by the
London Builder of slater named NJ.
A. Karis, Belgian. This man was en-