THE REBELLION OF WOMAN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 306, 19 September 1908, Page 11

THE REBELLION OF WOMAN.

• In this generation tho cry of tho woman for liberty and justice is heard in every quarter of tho globe (says a writer in tho "Ago.") Tho women of the West are aflame

with enthusiasm; the women of the East are wakening to tho consciousness of new needs; everywhere there is movement and lifo and tho breaking of barriers. In somo countries, both of the Now World and of the Old, the greater parts of liberty liavo already. been won; in some, the personal and spasmodic rebellion of all time is finding its first organised expression; in all, tho rebellion of the woman has become the rebel-

lion of women—tho uprising of a sex. In tho East tho demand is for education, though the political need has already been voiced. In. China and Japan there is a widespread educational movement among women. So far havo tho Japanese women developed in co-operative effort that they issuo a special . woman's paper, and havo during the last two years presented two important petitions to their . governors. In India and in Egypt tho education movement is strong, and has recently won somo minor victories. The Eastern women in tho domains of the Russian Tsar are struggling earnestly for tho knowledge, power, and status that education will bring them. The women of the Musselman race in the towns of Elisabetpol, Hadgi, and Ufa have recently organised societies for tho libera-

tion of their sex from tho bonds of ignorance and oppression. Their sisters of the Government of Orenburg havo sent a long and piteous petition to the Duma, claiming education, porsonal and tho status of human beings. In- this document they say:—"Our learned mullas . .

t want us to remain for over ignorant, our husbands deprive us of liberty and keep us shut up like slaves. Musselman deputies of tlio Duma! You mustdomand all the necessary rights for the Musselman women. You must obtain a law which shall protect us from tlio tyranny of our despotic husbands, from oppression and suffering." The movement in Europe and in Eng-lish-speaking lands has been re-vitalised by the oncrgy and resource of the Neo-Suffra-gist, who believes in protest and pressure as well as propaganda. The great cry throughout these lands is for political sex equality, the right of political representation, the Parliamentary vote. Tho daughters of the Western races are* demanding the power and status of citizens in all'tho great empires of tho world, and this demand means f?,r more than tho expression of their desiro to share in tho wider lifo of their nations; it means that women are demanding a world-wide recognition of their humanhood as co-equal with the humanhood of man. Behind tho claim for equality of voting right lies tho conviction that women are entitled just as men aro to all liberties of thought, action, and expression * that liberty is a human, and not a sex, necessity. In this direction tho Western woman's rebellion grows apacc. Evidence of tho industrial unrest of women is found as universally as tho ovidonce of their political rebellion. East and West, • North and South, tho woman worker is making spasmodic olforts to improve her conditions. _ Almost as universally women of education and leisuro aro devote ing themselves to tho work of aiding the establishment of economic independence for their sisters. In Great Britain tho unrest is voicod by tho demand for equal pay for equal work, and in the claim for apprenticeship and training now being put forward on behalf of woman workers. It is found also in tho recent great progress of Trades Unionism among women, and in the opposition to outside interference of which tl«j married woman .workers oL Lanuaaliiro

and tho barmaids have given recont examples. l'orhaps tho new spirit of independence manifested by tho homo makers of tho nation provides even more pregnant evidence. Tho woman who works and lives in tho home is generally tho last to rebel. But tho educational work of tho Women's Co-operativo Guild lias produced so independent a spirit among its members that several effective protest havo been made against tho want of recognition and Dayment accorded to the work of married women in tho homo.

STAGE STRUCK. MAXINE ELLIOTT'S ADYICE-"DON'T!" Writing in the "Theatre Magazine," Miss Maxine iilliott (Mrs. Nat Goodwin) gives somo sound advice to stage-struck girls. Sho writes

"I am deluged by lotters which pour in from stage-struck girls from all parts of tho country, all clamouring for a 'career. 1 Tho majority of them apparently lack even tho most rudimentary education, and write with a crudity of expression peculiar 'to the housemaid. To tho few of gentler breeding and bettor equipment, I will try to speak. "Tho stage offers bigger prizes to a woman than any other profession, and for those lucky enough to gain the prizes, lifo presents a broader horizon and many of the agreeablo perquisites of succcss. But ob, you stagestruck girls! If you saw a dozen people struggling in the water, and realised that only one or two could possibly escape drowning, your instinct would bo just as ours is— to warn others against jumping in. That is why we shout 'don'tl don't! don't 1' in tho hope that it may save somebody from drowning.

"Of course, tho warning will never deter the girl who is destined for success. That is not tho stuff sho must bo made of. But one feels the consciousness of duty performed in shouting out tho danger. "Why go on the stage if you have pleasant surroundings and a happy home lifo? You must givo it all up for an extremely uncertain victory that is years and years ahead. Your life will be full of small humiliations and hardships and disappointments, the recurring uncertainty each year of what tho next season will bring forth in tho way of an engagement, the isolation of life on the road, tho inescapable discomfort of travel, of being away from homo and friends, and all that makes for .your happiness. You will liavo years of poverty and loneliness and obscurity. The papers won't print fearful and wonderful accounts of how you reduce your weight, or what operation makes your nose turn up or down when you live in a hall bedroom, niako your own clothcs, wash your handkerchiefs and collars surreptitiously and dry them on tho glass as most of ns have done. You nre obscure in thoso early' days and are not good 'copy.' So you won't be thrilled with columns about your soothing and luxurious milk bath while your brilliant anatomy is still sore from acrobatic efforts to get clean in the general washroom of the sleeping cars. This perquisite of your success belongs to tho stardom period.

"If, however, you are not of the lucky ones with tho happy homo, if poverty pinches and

you must work to live, then, of courso, tho situation changes. Try tho stage, but be very suro it is your vocation. You must have serious ambition and reasonable qualifications—the constitution of a horse, the skin of a rhinoceros, and that which is perhaps tho best definition of genius—an infinite capacity for taking pains. If at the end you see the light, perhaps it is worth it all. That will depend on your philosophy and temperament. At all events you will bo a more developed entity, with a truer idea of values, and perhaps tho people whose modest achievements seem so paltry to you now in tho light of your great ambition will aave a larger significance in your eyes when you begin to learn how difficult it is to achieve anything at all. It looks easy, but ease is the lovoly result of forgotten toil. "Remember that Nature on tho stago bears no resemblance to Nature, and the actor who succeeds in being just natural has travelled far in art only to find out how little he knows. "Nobody can teach you to seem a real being on the stage. Tho spirit comes from within, and it is only the individual note or expression that gives one's work tho smallest value.

' "You can train a bright child as you can a parrot, but _ directly the ago of self-con-sciousness arrives that child ceases to be ablo to act, and must acquire ease a.nd expression by the long and painful apprenticeship in art. It is an acknowledged fact that brilliant child-actors . seldom attain fulfillment of their early promise." A SAFE RULE FOR CHILDREN.

It seoms to me an excellent rule that children should nover put any loaf, berry, or flower in their mouths, writes Alice Morse Earle in "Good Housekeeping." I would not oven let them put the harmless rose leaves, lest they make some mistake at a later day and get a petal that is not from a rose. Last spring I saw a lovely little child in his carriage holding five or six sprays of 1 ily-of-tlic-valley, a flower with some hidden charm that makes all children love it; ho had thrust them in his mouth and was sucking them. I said in great alarm to his mother, who walked ■by tho sido of his carriage: "Do you know that thoso flowers aro most poisonous?" She glanced at me with surprise. "Why, they aro not poisonous flowers," she answered, "don't you see they aro lily-of-tho-valley?" I answorod earnestly: "They aro one of tho most harmful plants in our gardens. Any part is dangerous, and tho flowers tho most so. Please take you boy. home and wash his mouth and hands carefully, and I would send" for your physician." I do not know the result • tho child may not have luyl the flowers long enough to acquire much poison. In England, where tho lily-of-the-valley grows wild many oases of acute poisoning havo coino from it, deaths,