OLIVE SCHREINER'S MESSAGE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1097, 8 April 1911, Page 11

OLIVE SCHREINER'S MESSAGE.

- TRAGEDY OF LOST MSS. , A pitiful mischance, recalling the catastrophe of Carlyle's first "French Revolution" JIS., is related by Olive Sehreiner, 'famous for her "Story of an African Farm," in the prcfaco to her new book, "Women and Labour" (says a writer in an English paper). For many years she was occupied upon a work dealing with woman's life in all its aspects.. I'rom 1888 until 1899 she worked at this continuously. Then came the war. The Dutch in the Transvaal attacked us, hoping at last to fulfil their dream of driving us into the sea. Among the hapless people who suffered most from President Kruger's mad folly was Olive Schreiner. She was in Cape Colony when war began, and'could not get back to her

home in Johannesburg. Nor could she get a message through to any friend who might have looked after her possessions. ' "Some eight months alter, when the British troops had taken and entered Johannesburg, a friend who, being on the British side, had been allowed to go up, wrote me that he had visited'my house and i found it looted-.. . .' My 'desk'Jia'tl' been forced open aiid broken up' and its contents set on fire. . .Vl.thus knew thdt my book had been- destroyed." '_ 1' At first she hoped to'write'it again, as Carlyle rewrote his great epic. But now she has given up that idea. This volume contains . merely a recaptured fragment of it. That she gives out. she says—one can, well understand her feelings—with considerable pain.

Fierce Satire. • ■If this fragment is typical of tho whole work, then the world has lost heavily' by tlio destruction of the precious MS. All the qualities which long ago-won for Olive Schreiner, tho gratitude and admiration of readers all over the globe are here in their old strength, i'hero is fierce satire, there is deepsou'ed ■, eloquence. There is the same quick reasoning, .the same tenderness, the same poetic insight into the puzzle of life. . " Simply stated, the book is a passionate appeal for the.r.escuo of woman from tho fate of becoming merely-a "parasite." Women, : says Olive Schreiner, have lost their place in the social order. They used to have definite duties which filled; their litres,-apart from the duties of' motherhood' They made clothes for ihemse'.vos and their men-folk, they adorned their dwellings, they prepared salves and simple's for the healing of the wounded and tho sick. Gradually their share in the work of life lias been taken from them. "Throe-fourths of it have shrunk away for over, and the remaining fourth still tends to shrink." This is the real influence behind the Woman's Movement, Olive Schreiner says. Women- feel they are becoming "parasites," ignobly dependent upon men. They demand, therefore, that once again they shall have their share of honoured and socially useful human toil. That is the real "Woman's. Right." "From tho judge's seat to the legislator's chair; from the statesman's closet to the merchmt's office; from tlie chemist's laboratory to the astronomer's tower, there is 110 post or form of toil for which it is not our intention to attempt- to fit ourselves; there is no'closed door we do not intend to force open." Women, in short, will not rest until they have won, back their "right"; to "exist" honourably, not as parasites but as producers on a level with men.

A Typical "Parasite." Olive Schreiner gives several instances' of what sho means by "parasites." One is the daughter of an English officer on half-pay, who had to exist on a few hundreds a year. She can neither cook nor make her clothcs. She can hardly do her own hair or dress. herself. She has no intellectual or artistic interests. "In a lifo of twenty-eight years this woman has probably not contributed one hour's earnest toil, mental or physical, to the increase of the sum total of productive human labour." Another caso is that of the wife of a leading barrister. Her husband is absorbed in his work. Her children are at school. Her house is looked after by servants. If she tries to talk to her husband in tho evenings about her visits, her shopping, her bazaars, ho is bored. She lias-lip duties, no real occupations, 110 interests. The obvious criticism of Olive Schreiner's attitude is that sho is mistaking local • and temporary circumstances foi - , a universal and permanent change in human relations. It is only, after all, one class of women who suffer from having no definite employments; and the'cause of their suffering is simply over-civilisation and tho_ accidental excess in certain countries of women over men. Still, among this one class there is enough unrest to justify uneasiness. The feelings which are behind the vanous women's movements could not find clearer or more eloquent expression than they do in this remarkable book.

Milly—"Kitty got the prize for a dinner at our cooking class." Tilly—''How proud she must be! What is it." Mill}'— 'A most useful book—'First Aid to the Injured.'