WOMAN'S INHUMANITY TO WOMAN.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2294, 12 January 1900, Page 2

WOMAN'S INHUMANITY TO WOMAN.

[By Alien.] " Man's inhumanity to man makes countless millions mourn," but what of the inhumanity of woman towards her sister woman? Women seem to possess an instinct, a subtle snake-like capacity, for perceiving and massing together all the hundred and one details that go to make up other women's lives. They act their detective parts, uot with the bold out-spokeu and coarser attitude of men but with ail the softness and delicacy so essentially characteristic of women, and therefore their condemnation is the m >re stinging by reason of it« very subtleness. One look of interest on the face of the suspected one when a certain man speaks, one chance conversation with hiin discovered, and her fate is sealed. The ball, once started, roils swiftly on, till in a ahort period it has amassed adequate material to utterly condemn the sufferer aud her lentenoe is social ostracism if not worse. Then there are the women who profess a state of neutrality and who by their protestations of unconcern and uninterestedness condemn almost as utterly as the sleuth hound who by deiicate finesse has exposed the whole of the pseuao culprits' life. In all lives there are littls secret thoughts hidden away from the gaze of ihe world and which we would fain forget, little sins and actions concealed in pigeon boles in the cupboards of our hearts and no man or woman can say that within his or her heart these dark places are not. It is for these hidden places in the life of the suspected one that her sister woman search and when their search is successful they, who are so pure in heart themselves, bring in a verdict of guilty. They pause not to consider the fallacy or unreasonableness of their verdict, their will is law and the p >or sufferer henceforth mrst face the cold stares of the wnrl I and if she be overcome by her condemnation and fall in reality, other women blame none but herself.

Let & man of high rank and noble ancestry marry a woman his social inferior and however happy they may be in each other's love, the eyes of the majority of her fellow women are on the wife and let her beware of her steps. If a gifted man, a deep thinker, and famous scholar marry a woman not his equal intellectually, soeiety, which cannot realise taich a thing as love turns ou to the wife's life the fierce search liyht of public opinion and Inngs to find a flaw. What wouder then thatthey wl oar conlemnedsouujustly cry in the'r dest*ir. "0 Lord, how long, how long? What defence --an there be against the nemini parro «ititad; and the choice delicate sarcasm of a woman who has made up her mind to j idge another. It is all «o ci uel, yet

so chaste, so modest and so virtuous. Even in little things women are so cruel in their judgments. Let a woman separate herself from the rest and live in a little world of her own amongst her own family, even for a brief time, and the knell sounds: she is no longer of them. Let her show her contempt for the hundred and one little things that rerve to amuse the majority of her sisters and to them she is for ever dead. And what has she done ? How long will it be before womn , and men as well, open their eyes to thek nowledge that there is something far grander, far nobler and far higher in life than the endless conventionalities which too often go to make up the sum total of everyday existence ? How many of us care for the conventionalities of life after we have probed its secrets, and in doing so became world stained, blase and disillusioned ?" A little condescension, a grain of sympathy sometimes, might mean so much to the weak and wayward. Many may be waiting for the helping hand to raise them from the mire of despondency, and if that hand is forthcoming the fallen one may rise again, but how often is it forthcoming? The most bitter lesson in the life of a woman who attempts to associate with her social superiors it t* find that though she may be welcomed to sewing guilds, sales of work or other functions of that kind, when the season comes on and the tide of social life flows again, she must keep her place. When will it be realised that life is not a play in which the one thing needful is to pose before the footlights, wearing a mask for the delectation of an audience who are players themselves in turn. When this is realised—then will cease the endless starch for something new and original to appease the desire for amusement, and the blind following of the decrees of Fashion whiohits votariesnow, would sooner lose a limb than disobey, and then too, will cease the inhumanity of woman towards her sister woman. Let then the motto be—- " In the darkest path of man's despair Where War and Terror shake the troubled earth Lies woman'B mission: with unblenchingbrow To pass through scenes of horror and affright, Where men grow sick and tremble: unto her AH things are sanctified, for all are good. Nothing so mean but shall deserve her care, Nothing so great but she may bear her part."