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Show ;A WOMAN'S POSITION. Mrs. Frank Leslie Writes of Woman as Man Regards Hor and as Woman ; . Means to Bo. LA DEUS IX MAOHIUA. The Eolative Position in Society That tbe Female Sex do Now Occupy. I The fly on the" coach wheel aid, How fast we do travel ! And just about as much as tho fly regulated the speed of the coach, so much do we control and regulate the speed of the world. Of course ever so many of us imagine ourselves thedeu ex machina, and fancy that if we wcro eliminated from the affair, af-fair, the coach must either stop or be ahunted off the crown of the highway where we keep it. But then, others, looking at the matter more philosophically, philosophic-ally, perceive that through the few thousands thou-sands of years of which alone we know anything at all the world has gone methodically me-thodically on, carrying out some system of which we know very little indeed, the earth producing her treasures, such as gold, iron, coal, water, oil, just at tho time the previous supply of material is spent, and not at all in answer to man's demand or greed. We see, too, how the race of man has gradually developed from perhaps the baboon, perhaps only the clay devouring savage, to its present condition, which, let us most devoutly hope, is not ita final perfection; and we see, which Is just now what we want to consider, the curious curi-ous development of woman's place in the ' scale of existence, and of her relation toward man. Taking for a moment the biblical account of the creation, we perceive per-ceive that it proceeded, perhaps by evolution, evo-lution, perhaps otherwise, from the low- st forms to the highest, man coming after the beasts, and woman after man, thus placing her at the crown and summit sum-mit of creation. Perhaps it sounds a little arrogant for a woman to say that this eminence is actually act-ually woman's proper position, but I think few men will deny that "a perfect woman nobly planned" is the highest work of creative power from more than - one point of view, if not from all; and when ono considers the development of woman in these latter years, and perceives per-ceives that the progress of that development devel-opment is rather accelerating than diminishing, di-minishing, one clings closer to the coach wheel, and wonders where in life it is taking us tot Of course we all know that woman has not always stood at the head of creation, , That proud eminence has hitherto been claimed by man, who assumed to be lord not only of creation, but of woman also, and woman has more or less meekly and move or less consistently allowed the claim. - There is a pretty legend in the Talmud that when Adam was created a woman was also made, and named Lilith; she was of such beauty, grace and charm as has never since been seen upon the earth, and being independently created, had as much power and regnant authority as her mate. The consequence, so tho Talmud Tal-mud says, was more than a little unpleasantness un-pleasantness in tbe paradisiacal household. house-hold. Adam laid down the law, and Lilith serenely capped it with another, which she claimed was just as valid as his; and we can well imagine that Lil-ith's Lil-ith's tongue and wit were just as much more nimblo than Adam's aa yours, dear, t are than your husband's today. ' The consequence was that Adam, finding find-ing his life not worth the living, appealed to Allah for relief, and with better result than many husbands obtain nowadays, for it was then that the deep sleep came upon him, ad the rib extracted from ' his side was fashioned into a woman, who, being derived from man, was subject sub-ject and obedient unto him, and, as Adam declared, was the helpmeet he had failed to find in Lilith. n, or tney marry country squires ana "suckle fools and chronicle small beer" until their drowsy death. But it is ua-gracious ua-gracious to pursue this retrospect of what woman's existence and what her relations to man have been in-ho past, fcr nous a writ change tout c?n, and woman in the present and in the future is a far fairer sight. But man, like the fly upon the wheel of Time, feels the movement, dimly perceives per-ceives the progress, and cannot for the life of him understand what is the power, or how to control it. Steam he knows all about; electricity he is grappling with pretty successfully; the odic force he talks about with more or less intelligence, intelli-gence, but what sort of force or power moves thi3 coach wheel, which he dimly perceives he does not move, only rides upon? Well, giving up the problem, he says there isn't any power at all, it just goes nobody knows how, and for his part he is not going to attend to any such nonsense; non-sense; woman is what she always has been, the adjunct of man, .the feebler, less responsible half of his own existence, whom he is bound to control, to educate, to protect and to patronize. While she is young and pretty he will make love to her, and if she resists his pursuit he will probably want her very much indeed, and say a great deal about her perfections perfec-tions and merits; having obtained her and in parenthesis the man remarks that she generally is as glad to be caught as he is to catch her the man's duty is to treat her kindly, but not to let her suppose sup-pose she can manage her own life, much less his; hasn't she promised to love, honor and obey, and does she fancy he isn't going to exact the whole bond? He doesn't expect her to know or care about his business; if he is a business man, she couldn't understand, and her opinion wouldn't be worth taking; if ho is a lawyer, he takes good care not to tell her anything about his cases, bo-cause, bo-cause, you know, women can't keep a secret, and invariably put on their bon- nets and run over to Mrs. So and-ao's to retail every bit of gossip they can pick up; besides, a woman has no idea of law, logic, equity or precedent. If he is a clergyman, he has a flue time, for he pelts her with St. Paul, and enunciates, "Wives, be obedient to your own husbands," hus-bands," in a fine chest tone. Altogether man is quite sure that he knows all about woman and is perfectly competent to guide and govern her, along with the children, etc. But this new departure! What is to be done about it? First, he peevishly mutters: "Nonsense! Don't be Billy! Go get a new bonnet if you want it, but dun't talk like a fool!" This doesn't quite seeirj to quiet the commotion, and he waxes witty about "kmc haired men and short haired women," wo-men," and asks his wife, or daughter, or sister, if she is going to order the nether garments of his tailor or buy them ready made. Even this withering sarcasm doesn't altogether nip the pestilent growth of this stem of rebellion, and then the shrewder kind of man tries to identify himself with tbe new order, and is magnanimous mag-nanimous and kind and patronizing to Lilith, and holds out his hand, saying: "Come, then, I'll help you up to the saddle sad-dle right in front of me, and you shall manage the snaffle ring, and I'll hold the curb and keep the whip." To this proposition Lilith replies, in effect, that man is quite welcome to ride his own horse after his own fashion, and she shall not interfere so long as he does not obstruct her path, but that she is herself her-self well mounted, and feels quite able to manage snaffle, curb, whip and spur; she is very willing and desirous to ride alongside of her comrade man in the most amicable spirit; she sees that they are both bound to the same goal, and she grants that each can make the road pleasanter and more profitable for th other, but she insists upon it that her steed Progress is quite as valuable as hia nag Precedent, and if lie will not allow her room to ride by his sido she shall certainly push for the front, and may unfortunately crowd him to the wall as she passes. At all events, she does not propose to bo crowded to the wall herself, nor does she intend to ride any longer upon precedent, pre-cedent, either behind or before men; she is daughter of Lilith, equal in every way to Adam, although in a different direction; direc-tion; she does not claim to govern or direct him, nor does she mean to let him govern or direct hor. That sort of thing does very well for the daughter of Eve, that poor creature who could not resist the blandishments of Satan nor the der sire for forbidden fruit, and who, having got herself into a scrape, dragged Adam into it after her. But I, says Lilith, am quite a match for Satan and his pippins, and am brave enough to fight uiy own battles and bear my own penalties. All I ask is that man should treat me as well &a T t.ren him. nr na ha r.rflnta hia l-imfhai Tbat young woman, disgusted with the introduction of a rival, went away and e:t up a paradise of her own, and from her miraculously sprung a race of glorious but rebellious beings, a sort of afrits or jinn, who ever since have claimed the earth for their own and constantly con-stantly amused themselves with tempting tempt-ing and domineering over the sons of Eve and thwarting and annoying hor laughters. And the reason I have told this long story just here Is because I am dead sura rthat tho daughters of Lilith, like the wandering tribes of Israel, have strayed ' across the sea, and are claiming the New World as their especial domain. This accounts for a groat cteal besides the milk in the cocoanut; it accounts for the aggressive and independent stand ' assumed by woman during the last half of this century; it accounts for the min-' min-' gled admiration and indignation with ' which men regard her new demands; it ' accouuts, above all, for the disagreeable things the women who don't want to vote say about those who do; it is the old warfaro of tho daugh-: daugh-: ters of Eve against tho daughters of ' Lilith, and with a little consideration one may divide all tho women of one's acquaintance into three classes Liliths, Eves, and a third estate so mixed iu their heredity that they side with rirst ono, and then tho other, and then with both, ' and then with neither of the more positive schools of thought and purpose. I am afraid I am a Lilith, for I never have been able to train myself into that meek and mild admiration of man as a master that Eve and her daughters so sweetly exhibit, and the future of woman seems to me to largely embraco the future of the world and of mankind. So long as Lilith and her daughters remained re-mained in their eastern solitudes no Stanley has yet explored, the daughters of Eve occupied the stage of the world's drama, and both history and tradition ' show the part they played. The slaves sometimes of man's passion, aometimes of his indolence, they toiled for their savage lords, performing menial labor while he hunted or fought; prepared pre-pared his food and ate the morsel tossed to them over his shoulder; bore children, yet on pain of death must not punish a on; lived in less honor than a horse or camel, and died less regretted; then, in days of chivalry, they rose to be pampered pam-pered and flattered objects of an un real devotion, did embroidery, listenod to bards singing mile long ditties of love and combat, flirted with the pageor the chaplain, and became bitter prudes j and bigots in their old age; later on, I they scheme to outvie each other in the ' traces of a grand monaraue, or a Charles j man. Thero lies the question. Will mau, cau man see that a new condition of affairs obliges him to adopt a new attitude? atti-tude? The good steed Progress is bearing bear-ing woman to the front; will ho draw Precedent aside and make room that the two may rido on together, true and faithful faith-ful comrades, or will ho insist that she run at his stirrup, sit cozily upon a pillion pil-lion at his back, or perch precariously in front and guide the snuffle rein? Ono thing is sure and certain, tho old order of the world is changing and a new order is coining in; nor can the will of one man or all the men in tho world, no, aor of all tho women into tho bargain, retard, or accelerate, or alter tho course of that great change. The ouly thing we, both men and women, can do is to adapt ourselves to it. Let the women open wido their eyes to tho new uphere of action opening btffore them; let them emancipate themselves in the best moan ing of the word from the swaddling bands and chains of roses that have fettered their limbs hitherto; let the'nt in their own per:K.ns and in their daughters, daugh-ters, seek to know what is going on in the world, and form opinions upon such matters as independently of men as of each other. Let them cultivate the manly man-ly virtues of justice, honor, courage, self command, while not letting go their own birthright of tenderness, patience, faith, self devotion. Oh, what a noble creature the woman of the future may be if only to the glorious glo-rious strength and freedom of Lilith she can add the feminine charm of Evet |