WOMEN WHO HATE MEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11825, 30 November 1901, Page 5 (Supplement)

WOMEN WHO HATE MEN.

It is, perhaps, not unnatural that some women should have no great reason for loving the sterner sex; but few happily carry their prejudices to the same extent as Fraulein Marie Irrgang, who died in Vienna a few weeks ago. Fraulein Irrgang claimed the remarkable distinction of being the " champion manhater" of Europe, and no one has ventured to dispute the right to her title. She was loyal to her sexual antagonism to the last, for she left the strictest injunctions in Tier will that no male should be allowed to take part in her funeral procession to the church of Lichtenthal.

But even Marie's decree could not prevent the "in re males" from looking on, and the streets of Vienna were densely packed with men and boys, curious to gaze on such a unique procession. Her corpse was followed by an enormous crowd of women of all ages and positions, and by deputies from every female society in Austro-Hungary. But, alas ! the banner of the Austrian JungfrauenVerein was so heavy that no woman could carry it, and it was actually borne proudly aloft by a man, the only mule in the procession, i Fraulein Irrgang had a rival in Fraulein Gretchen Marie Schultz, an old maiden lady, who lived for very many 3'ears in a suburb of Berlin, and who was known throughout Germany as the "man-hater." Gretchen had a love disappointment nearly half a century ago, and took a solemn vow that she would never speak to or, if possible, look on a man again so long as she lived; and as she was a woman of some wealth she was able to keep her vow to the last.

She bought a suitably retired house about half a dozen miles from Perl and equipped it from basement to attic with furnishings specially made for her by women's hands. "No male hands," she declared, "should contaminate anything she touched," quite forgetful, poor woman, that the very house she lived in was built by her enemy. She surrounded herself with a chosen band of women, each of whom took a similar vow of hatred against the sex; and so skilfully managed matters that for nearly fifty years <die neither saw nor spoke to a male of any description. On a headstone in a Yorkshire churchyard nay be seen this strange inscription: "Sacfed to the memory of A H , who died on March 13, 1811. After a more than common experience of the falseness and Frailty of man, she spent twenty years of happy life without holding any communication with any member of the sex she had such good reason for despising." This good lady, of whom many strange and some amusing stories are still current in the district, had perhaps sufficient reason for holding men in low esteem ; for. as a child, she was cruelly treated and abandoned by her father, as a girl she was basely deceived by a lover to whom she was ardently devoted ; and of her two husbands one dissipated her fortune and abandoned her, and the second attempted to take her life. An amusing story is told of a persistent vicar who made several determined efforts to interview this strange parishionei. She equally resolutely refused to admit him; md on the last occasion dropped a note at his feet from an upper window. On it this message was written: "Go away! You know I hate men, and you parsons are the worst of the lot." The parson never called again. Fortunately, perhaps, the majority of these man-haters are content to allow their antagonism to die with them; but Mine. Marie Lenoir, who died a few mouths ago in Paris, was not of this order. By her will she left the whole of her estate, amounting to 75.000 francs, in trust to two lady friends, " to use the interest thereof in waging warfare, in such ways as may seem fitting t'i them, against the selfishness and tyranny of man."