Man as a Relpmeet

Evening Star, Issue 8718, 9 January 1892, Page 4

Man as a Relpmeet

The education of man as woman's "helpmeet" has hitherto been crievously neglected. As s* consequence the male sex i 3 fast going to the bad. swear, fight, gamble, smoke, chew, drink, make eyes at the girls, play baseball, frequent theatres and variety shows, aid waste their time and money on a thousand foolish dissipations. Lst them learn instead, like the young women, to sew and kuit, cook and sweep, waih and iron, picklu and preserve, dress aud drince, phy and siog. The welJare of families will be vastly promoted in after life by their possession of these accomplishments. They will then better appriciate the value of labor thus applied.

This will be in the order of evolution. Every step upwards from barbarism towards civilisation makes males more efficient industrially, and widens the circle of masculine occupations. The savaga man only hunts, fights, and loafs. Agriculture and mechanical arts he despises. Among barbarians work is for women only. Savage women plant and reap, make clothing, prepare food, build and removo habitations. May it not be that in the highest civilisation, which will no longer hunt and fight, the sexes will unite even in housework, co-operating in the kitchen and the laundry, and even iu tho sewing of buttons and the darning of stockings? So much has been said and written about " woman's sphere," and her duty and mission as man's " helpmeet," that it has become slightly monotonous. Give us a rest! Turn the tables. Has not man also a sphere and a duty and a mission as woman'B helpmeet? And is it not about time that ho Bhould seriously consider these ? Since it is evidently Nature's intention that a majority of women shall be wives and mothers, it follows that a majority of men must become husbands and fathers. Why, then, are not men speeially trained and edu cated to fulfil the requirements of these responsible positions ? Evidently the first business of every man should be to make some woman happy. Bis first duty in life should be to make himself useful and agree able to her. For instance, few women drii k liquor or use tobacco. The tasto and Bmel, of these things are disagreeable to most women; therefore men should carefully abstain from both. Women like order, cleanliness, politeness, graceful manners, kind attentions, unselfhh habits; boys, therefore, should be taught these amenities, How often we are told that happiness in marriage is promoted by a wife's cheerful deference to the tastes and wishes of her husband ! Very true, Would not happiness in marriage be equally promoted by a similar deference of the husband to the tastes and wishes of his wife ?

Certainly no equal {suffragist will object to the most extreme and conservative view of the propriety ox educating women to be agreeable and helpful to men, if, also, the corresponding duty be inculcated in the education of the opposite sex. But this is precisely what the opponents of women's emansipation never propose, One would suppose that the world was created solely for men, whereas it is made equally for women. It would be just as reasonable, and no more so, to regard men's interests as secondary to those of women. Milton, the old fogy, contrasted Adam and Eve as—

He for God only; Bhe for God in him. In the revised version it will also read— She for God only; he for God in her. But as two wrongs do not make a right, the final version will be-

Both for God only; God in one another. —• Woman's Journal.'