Show I The New Woman Is She New Taking oft certain ornamental features fea-tures from the new woman of current cur-rent discussions I make out that this delightful creature Is essentially a woman wo-man who is the equal of a man Her negative aspect Is that she IB not a dependent being no clinging vine but another sturdy oak I like this woman not because she Is called a new woman but for the better reason that she seems to bo essentially an oldfashioned woman In all that Is attractive about her character nnd doings The advent of a fashion requiring a woman to be able to do something more than cling and consume must tend to good If It does nothing more than reduce the number of the helpless creatures She Is not new In the world not new anywhere any-where in the world For the woman ot all countries and times the woman who has breathed her soul Into all human hu-man progress the most numerous wo mnn of civilized lands and especially of the United States has been and IH a woman strong capable economically ft pioducer of wealth and socially equal to her man or any other man of her environment I cannot think of a more appropriate way of bringing forward this old fush toned builder of civilizations than to recall here the Introduction to an old mans will which fell under my eyes a few years ago It filled my eyes with happy tears then and the dear tears come hack whenever I remember It After the formal Introduction the old man went on to say that his wife had worked with him for more than half a century that their fortune was as much the creation of her hands as of his and that therefore he set aside onehalf of the estate as rightfully hers to dispose of as might seem right to her The words were plain and sober homespun from the speech of dally life There was no sign In them of a feeling that he was doing anything but a simply sim-ply just act toward a partner In business busi-ness But what a recognition was thereof there-of the dignity and rights of that partner h part-ner lIe did not leave her half of his but all of her own he did not give because be-cause she had nursed him In sickness and stroked his hair the right way when he was excited or angry He might have ascribed this action to her devoted tenderness and faithfulness to her wifely dutlfulness and In so doing have humiliated her How much better than that did this plain American man do by saying that the half was her own by right of creation to do what she like with The new woman of the clubs will have to work hard to get up abreast of this oldfashioned farmers wife This plain vigorous wholesome womarf has mothered and trained our presidents our statesmen our manufacturers preachers and our poets But she has also done her full share in all the other work of creating a nation including all that lies on the long line beginning with the accumulation of property and ending with the endowment of charity art and learning And she has been to the full an Independent person Her husband never dreamed of bossing this equal partner In the firm Their Investments and undertakings have been entered upon after free dJscusslon In which her word hoajyr Ine i fie dime I nonnlt ii Jp acgtn flr3jflei > nce to weigh as much as his and her vote to be as decisive as that of any man partner In a business There must be exceptions Innumerable to a rule covering so vast a tract of matrimonial partnership in some cases the man has been brutally coarse In others the woman has had the butterfly but-terfly instincts and Incapacities But If we divide American society into the poor the very rich and the middle class we shall find that in this last and most numerous section the successful suc-cessful man bus had as a rule a strong woman partner Alice Hilton In the Chautauquan for August Condensed for Public Opinion |