| OCR Text |
Show Yi Women Were Men. By W. D. Howell. esecm NH often hears tho eprcts!on lu women: "Oh, If I wore. tr only a manl" "I shou.d just llko to bo n man, once!" I fi SSk I 'would glvo nnything to lion man:" In nil honeaty, then, or in u g yi I ns much honesty ns Mio ls obliged to have, ls not woman, when ji J'f she Is thinking of living her life over ngnln, thinking of living fc ( n mnn'8 life? Is not ehe wishing to set an example to her bus-ft bus-ft jj baud, who has shown himself so little able set an example fcaniLLi,-i to her, nntl fur whose discipline she Is believed oftenest to Indulge In-dulge what seems a vain aspiration? A very strauge thing In regard to this Is that men are never lirard sighing to be women. The weakest, the unhnpplcst, the most abject of men Is not known to wish himself n woman, nnd when he considers living his life over ngnln It Is certainly u man's life that ho has lu mind. lie Is perfectly willing to allow that 11 wouinn Is much better by nature, wiser by teaching, sweeter, lovelier, geutler, nnd yet be does not nsk to chnnge his lot with hers; If he wero a beggar, mid she n queen, ho would not. no Is found saying, lu print and out of It, that women have by fur the safest, easiest and plcnsnntcst tlmo of it, but still, somehow, he docs not envy them enough to offer changing places with them. He will tell them, ns he has often told them, thnt thoy nro the rrnl rulers of tho world, nnd that In tho sacred quality of daughter, wife nnd mother they are the holiest beings on earth; ho bows down lu worship of them, but he leaves them their nltar. He does not think It any great thing to bo n ninn, but he Is nut surprised Hint the objects of his Idolatry should sometimes declare themselves eager to descend from their high places and bo men, In the dust nnd grime of nffulrs, the din nnd bent of battle, nud the wild, useless efforts to cs;npe from the strugglo of life. He understands that they with to be men In order to sb-iw men what men ought to be, and would be IC they were- women, nnd that thoy ur not meaning permanently to be men, nnd bo forgives to their Ignorance nnd Inexperience what he osud not otherwise account ac-count for. llo fopjUca It Willi a smile, and possibly with a ;hucl:la |
