THE VANITY OF MODERN WOMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 14184, 8 October 1909, Page 7

THE VANITY OF MODERN WOMEN.

America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, judging from the newspapers, is now absorbed in one topic—namely, “the vanity of modern women ” ; and the question whether that alleged vanity is imperilling the race has been widely raised and heatedly argued. Other summer newspaper discussions, such as “Do Wo eat too much Do wo marry too young?” 100 old for work at fifty,” and similar problems, which have already been threshed out on your side of the Atlantia (says the New York correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph’), have been started, but after a fair trial they have all yielded to this remarkable strife regarding woman's vanity. .So far us one can judge, the American woman, and not her European sister, is the real issue, though much of what has been said and written in the last few weeks relates almost equallv, it is argued, to both. The American man is only pilloried inferentially— that is to sav, most of the prelates, statesmen, diplomats! authors, and plain citizens who have entered the arena of debate have strongly contended that woman is what she is not on account of herself, but on account of man Ample space is given to both sides ol the question, and the ladies have proved themselves just as good controversialists as the men, and better. To tell the truth American men are too largely absorbed in the accumulation of dollars to' devote themselves with abounding zeal, intelligence and resourcefulness to a summer discussion, and for every male who writes a dents tht ’ re : ‘ FC iV dMCn female corrcs pon-

-A Priest's Opinion.— It is charged that the increasing vanitv ot women has resulted in producing what one writer calls “women of the'’suffragette type, which is ungallantly defined by ™°«}« as a “ highly educated, screeching, childless, and husbandless sisterhood.” American - w-omen have from childhood been taught to regard themselves as queens of the universe, and no homage is ever spared them, so you may imagine that when a big section of them are assailed with such “ginger,” to use an Americanism, they reply with scathing effect. might quote a dozen correspondents here who have assailed women's vanity most vehemently, but Father Sullivan, formerly professor of philosophy at St J/Ouis University, and a man who is greaUy revered by 16.000,000 of Roman Catholics in America, leads the assault as well as any.

It is H farce, he says, this highly educated, screeching, childless, and husbandless sisterhood, ft might be laughable weie it not for the effect that such antics may have upon the young of the present generation. Women nowadays don’t want higher education or culture, if we H n e n to f J r U . d> i e l lr S ni the cner B.v »wl amhi- . tha I t , b . od . v ot ti,cm ' vll ° have the wealth and leisure to enable them to get ever 1 / “i™ 1 T >'CV tlo not exert themselves otherwise than to acquire a few charming superlatives, vaued by an appropriate gipgfe or two, winch equipment is sufficient to get them along m polite society. Father Sullivan does not believe in the higher education for women, because he declares tliev have not shown themselves observes C eSlrcus acquiring it. He The inordinate trivialities of modern fenmnnuy do not point to a desire for mental development, and in losing their reverence tor the older responsibilities in an attempt to overstep their limitations i se women have been thrown upon a sea of vapidity and discontent. They to ,I* e and are admired, not for what is in them, but ratliev for what is on them. Woman being neither the mental nor the physical equal of man, elie will be compelled to suffer when masculine chivalry, her only prop, shall be withdrawn from her.

In behalf of the American woman there is no lack oi champions to assert that she is the best-educated woman in the world so far as hook knowledge is concerned, that her voice and diction, though not always according to English standards, have a native charm and piquancy, that quality in children is better than quantity, and that in an age when girls and women find congenial and highly remunerated work in every big American city, “ there Ls no longer any reproach, but a decided advantage very in being hu&handless.”