Show 44 4 44 A aa 4 40 10 4 1 4 0 pathos of being A woman py dy DOROTHY DIX 44 4 4 0 4 r long ago the papers told ahr th N NF story of the western mother who killed lier her babe us as boon at as it i was ai boru boria bf because cause it was I 1 ti a girt girl the woman aa ikas a i poor sickly mouro creature an networked ner worked ed drudge of a farmers wife ifo whose whole life had been spent in tolling toiling beyond het her strength on the treadmill ot of domes tic sla acry her husband ft as one of tho the dull stolid unemotional uner notional men who nho nover never think to show abow their wives any affection or appreciation so BO there wag as nothing to recompense her for all sho ebo endured existence to her mont liot nothing bilig but ej idless labor arid suffering and so BO sho that ahe nh ha had d thrust life upon it girl who was wap in ili all 11 probability do doome doomed orneAl d to grow rip and follow folon in tier her own bidding foot stops aha reached out tier her feeble worn hand and chobod the child to death tho add that tho the was waa crazy cray they took tier her away to an all asylum und and nhe elie went vent 0 ocr er and 0 oer er again 1 I have sa cd her from being a woman I 1 this Is of courso course an abnormal illustration of the sense of tragedy that all airwoman airwomen air women feol feel underlies woman noma hood no ever looks looka for tho first time in the faco of her little daughter daught kr without her eyob dini dimming ming a very passion of pity for all tho little being must go through and th that at la Is tho the inescapable heritage of 0 f nor her sex not without reason do tho the big guim boom arid thoro aro are ingi arid and fc asting ahn a boy Is born arid and do pomplo walk valk boatly and quietly when A girl alra opens lier her i yea tyes on tho world tho the most call oui und and hardt hearted of us might well ap veep when wo we hear tho the thin little wall of protest protect with which tho women greets life it so BO fully pro prea agos ages tho the tears that she eho must shed that are arc a part of her fato womans comans heritage indisputably there la is no use in grieving o over oter ter spilled milk what Is it and she eho who la Is born A woman cannot escape her sex and must oen dree her weird as tho the scotch fatalists say eay but there Is nothing moro pathetic than the lot of womanhood just to be born a woman Is to be born under tho the double curse of nature and boci society foo clety ety nature lays laya its ban first upon w woman om by making her of frailer and rid weaker physique than man by giving hor bor a more complicated bodily structure and a more highly strung nervous organization than ho has then it lays upon her e cery ery disease c ory alry agony of flesh to which ho he la Is heir and adds other sufferings in separable from tier her sex that no man ever knows and that aro fco co gre great that they thet havo como to ho bo tho vory very syn synonym onria of pain that may bo borne tho the greatest invalid among men inen does not buffer moro more la in a lifetime than dom just juet the ordinary who has avan ago k health having thus incapacitated woman oman tor for heavy and continuous labor fato fate no provision for her but chucks her ber out into the world to sink or saim the llo or die benlo bur IN 0 or perish au as she ahu ma there la a theory that every cn m woman has a home that thera tera la Is fomo aest to shelter her borne boac strong arm ana to defend de fend br this la 19 true only of tho the f favored averted fe few the gnat gervat majority of aomen unloved sick tuff buffeting buffor eTing lnE with aching bocks backs and weary cary hands bond glo hopt always fighting d aiming iming battle against tho the conditions condition that surround Bur fiur round arid and that aro mide made b their womanhood ifer her portion of clars tt ars in all the world there Is no place for woman except tho the place of to tears a re she bears bearis the ht a ii vt load and the largest share of borrow sad and at tho the of fit alfi ta Is thankful to wit oil of the of plas pla uio smil and this is what nhat makes s being a werman jtb u pathetic pat hette thing suppose that a woman wants to mirry loe le for her makes tho the dlf dif lemuce en nee between hemen and hell between existence being a paradise or a pur gators 3 and yet she Is lot fro to sock nock it nor win in it ab a man lb ib she cannot go out oud aud choose A t hus bawl pick out from awong aguon all mon men the man that EDO feels is the complement to herself and who nho la is hor her real mate sho she must sit bit quietly at one bide and wait alt pati ottly in jhb hoyc ho 00 alib rw siaa man will trill come along and if lie dobai t ahe must stifle her longings r her bearl down and either arid and lonely tho the balance ot hr her aar or else decline upon a lower love and marry theman who happens to fancy her instead of the one fol foi wham her whole being cries out lis la sadder than the woman oman is who ho im loves es yet who does not daro to tell her lovo if j d woman desires to earn herr her living she Is again under the curo ot of her sex aex by reaton reason of both her phy floal inability to do hoay labor and the prejudice her she sha and thirsts la Is cold inrid naked lust just abinan an maii ta Es slit she has tho samo coads of taming hor her by tho sweat of her brow but oon onen whon sho eho doos does tho earne labor labon that win tuan dopa does slit she la Is ni forced t take a smaller wage bac abuso sho she Is a illi am indeed only within the last few years has ebo bho boon been permitted to voik at all except at tho most moat mental menial drudgery and there la Is no badder i capter in the book of Alar marcks than anat chemin la Is inscribed the lito life tory of thosa thos proud spirited women who havo known knon how bitter Is tho bread arid and how steep p tho the stairs of choso who liao hao beon been forced to jhc ihfe in a another 1 ahouse and debarr de barrad Ld from independency co solely because they were women the sex ser handicap arid ard it la Is the infallible part of the of being a woman oman that tho the woman who works finds her sex aex not only a drawback to but a constant on stant menace and danger danged the pretty young girl who goes gocs out to earn her dally daily bread must not lot only compete with men but defend lier her self against anem she literally holds tier her honor in one hand while she struggles with tho the othar I 1 and the poor woman who bhend their lives in the dull round of house hoube hold duties who cook and sexy and wash and mend and pinch and con trite hrire e to make one dollar do tho the work nork cf two who bear children and rear thein la in poverty who ho have hac for cars und oud years a little child tugging lii at t their breast and another clinging to their skirts who nover never know what it Is to got get a good nights sleep and v ho stumble on through nor rack I 1 cd d vars oars Is theirs not a piteous iota it la is a lot ovet over which tho angels might weep and yet it is tho the groat great leu iol ct womankind 19 it not pathetic nay full chrit because sho she has haa the misfortune mib fortune to bo be born a woman the bist and most intelligent woman oman Is IB baraf barnd d isiom flora tho the privileges of citizenship 1 11 hall are gi given en to the hobt ignorant and vicious mam maji who manages to I ica mcp outside of a prison la Is it not sad that just because she la Is a L woman a woman oman has bas to bg b t g on bended knees foi a brivil for what man as s bit right thore are of a foin few bomin born to health and and post I 1 lion and beauty but thi average is fato IH hi ono of bor borrow roiN ind and buffering intensified a thousand fold b by y lr ler fex cx for thero is nothing tint a 9 man hae to boar bear or do that a woman doom doca not havo lia 0 o to do and bear wid aid the doing of it is harder just because che la Is a woman |