OUR WOMEN COMRADES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1162, 8 June 1894, Page 16

OUR WOMEN COMRADES.

Sarah Grand, tho authooress of " Tho Heavenly Twins," has an article in a recent number of the North American Review dealing with the woman question. In

matter it contains nothing new, in style it is harsh and discordant. Perhaps a quotation will best illustrate this : " Tho Bawling Brotherhood consists of two sorts of men. First of all is he who is satisfied

with the cow-kind of woman as being most convenient; it is the threat of any strike among his domestic cattle for more consideration that irritates him into loud and angry protests. The other sort of Bawling Brother is he who is under tho influence of tho scum of our sex, who knows nothing better than women of that class in and out of society, preys upon them, or ruins himself for them, takes his whole tone from them, and judges us all by them. Both the cow-woman and the scum-woman are well within range of the comprehension of the Bawling Brotherhood, but tho new woman is a little above him." According to tho writer, man is morally in his infancy, and as it is a woman's "place and pride and pleasure" to teach the child, she now holds out a

hand to tho child-man to help him up. This imagery forcibly recalls an advertisement of Pear's soap modelled in terracotta, entitled " You dirty boy." It is neither a truthful nor pleasing way of illustrating the situation.

To give one more quotation from the article: " O man! man! you are a very funny fellow now we know you! But take care. The standard of your pleasure and convenience has already ceased to be our conscience. On one point, however, you may reassure yourself. True womanliness is not in danger, and the sacred duties of wife and mother will bo all tho more honourably performed when women have a reasonable hope of becoming the wives and mothers of men. But there is the difficulty. The trouble is not because women are mannish, but because men grow over more effeminate. Manliness is at a premium now, because there is so little of it, and we are accused of aping men in order to conceal tho side from which the contrast should evidently be drawn." This outburst is coloured by the peevish petulance of a weak woman suffering from acute sex consciousness. If Mrs Grand's writings and tho characters she pourtrays are in any way representative of the new order of women let us entreat that a prohibitive duty be imposed upon the importation of the article into New Zealand.

Let me revert for a moment to Mrs Grand's statement that men are growing ever more effeminate, and that there is so little manliness left. Supposing such to be

the case, at whose door lies the blame of this masculine degeneracy ? Does not any race improvement or the reverse depend at birth upon the mother and her selection of a mate ? The first seven years of the child's life are the most impressionable, and upon, the good or evil training and personal influence of the mother during the early years of life, manhood rests. " The nation which has the most intelligent citizens will be the greatest nation," said Lord Playfair recently, and I should be inclined to put the word " mothers " in lieu of citizens, although perhaps the|oiio includes the other, at any rate in New Zealand. If our mother-citizens would only

be a little less anxious to see their sons in asituationof smug respectability with a black coat and soft hands, but let them rough it a bit, and get their characters chiselled and hammered out with hard knocks, instead of keeping them soft enough to be moulded. If, at tho same time, they would teach their daughters the realities of life, and then trust them; not send them to play at work until they get a husband, but see that they learn a trade with the throughness that will bring them in good money, and with it the self-respect that leads away from any temptation to sell themselves in legal marriage or otherwise. Then, indeed, wo might hope to lead the van of progress as a young and vigorous nation, where manliness and womanliness develop side by side, where men and women are not antagonistic in labour, but supplement each tho other. Then will Mrs Grundy's funeral requiem be sung and Olive Schreiner's dream be realised, that tells of the land where walked brave women and brave men hand in hand. "And they looked into each other's eyes, and they were not afraid." # # * #

Mrs Besant returned to her home in London last month, after nearly five months' lecturing tour in India and Ceylon. Her reception everywhere was of enthusiastic appreciation. The people heard her gladly, and priests and philosophers literally sat at her feet. She has

! roused tho leaders of Indian society to an interest in theii ancient constitutions and religion never before manifested. " I found her seated in her study," says a Chronicle interviewer, " looking very picturesque in a simple Tussore dress, with an Indian shawl arranged gracefully over one shoulder and around her waist. An Indian servant, in native head-dross, was in attendance. Mrs Besant's hair is now silvery white, and her face has a fuller contour than of yore, and a deeper and more introspective expression." The object of her tour was to show the Hindus that Theosophy is identical with the teachings of their own scriptures, that it is the underlying truth of all religions, and that the ancient Hindu Scriptures contained the fullest presentment ever made public. Following Madame Blavatsky, Mrs Besant claims that tho Hindu scriptures and Hindu religion are tho origin of all other scriptures and all other religions. With regard to the position of women in India Mrs Besant says : —" It may seem strange to English people, but as a matter of fact tho Hindus look witli great disapproval on

many of the ways and customs of Euro-

pean women, and consider that the Western ideal of womanhood is far lower than their own. They hold to family ties far more strongly than is done in the West, and fear the disintegration of the family would bo one of the results following on the Western education of women/' # # # # In reply to a question as to the truth of tho report that she had bathed in the sacred river—embraced Hinduism, Mrs Besant assuied her interviewer with a laugh, that whilst in India she did not bathe anywhero out of her bathroom ; also that there is no change in her position with regard to Hinduism. " Theosophy is tho ancient Brahma Vidya of India. Of this, Hinduism is the earliest and best exoteric presentment. Exotercally, therefore, I am a Hindu in my religion and in my pholosophy, but this was as true when I went to India as it is true now. As a philosophy intellectually accepted, Theosophy may remain apart from all religious faiths, but regarded from tho spiritual side —if devotion is to form any part of the life—the Theosophist will use tho religion most adapted to his own nature. In my own case that religion is Hinduism in its ancient and pure form/' * * # # In the Westminster Review for March there is an article signed " Mary Campbell Smith" on the subject of picturesque village homes. The writer's object is to make known tho work sho has interested herself in on behalf of " the thousands of women of gentle birth with small incomes, and endowed with no special training for any profession or business pursuit by means of which they can increase them. With an annuity of perhaps £3O to .£SO, some of them live a lonely life in dreary lodgings or boardinghouse, others a still moro uncomfortable one with more fortunate relatives." In order

to brighten their days, Miss (or Mrs) Smith is the promoter of a schemo whereby she hopes to implant interests in the lives of some of these lonely women. She rents and furnishes a small house or picturesque cottage in a convenient locality, with a certain amount of ground attached, and sub-lets the rooms at a low rent to lady tenants who receive every encouragement to develop industries in co-operation. These industries at present are chiefly in the horticultural line, consisting of flowers and fruit for the nearest market, and also bee culture. Tho writer herself points out the weak place in the scheme, when she says that although she has been overwhelmed with applications a very small percentage of the applicants are fit for cottage life, and that capable women are required to make it a success. It seems to me that the really capable woman, if unencumbered, will make a success of her life somehow if left to her own exertions. It is

the incapable women that are difficult to help, and the incapable men who make the loudest cry about women competition. Miss Smith says further that she wishes to help "the fatherless, brotherless, husbandless women, who have been brought up to depend upon others, and after all have been compelled to stand alone. A dull life in a dull lodging is too often considered good enough for the elderly aunt or cousin when her homo is broken up, and her relatives have no need of her services; and in that lodging she pays out of her scanty pittance an overworked landlady to do for her what she is quite able to do for herself. It is hard for middle-aged women to begin work again after a life spent in teaching or other sedentary pursuit, and it is painful to find that they are rarely fitted for the ideal cottage life. The lady cottager must be domesticated, and the member of the club must bo willing to make herself useful, to bear and to forbear, to give and to take/, » # # # Again and yet again would I fain impress upon the mind and soul of every woman comrade the depth and value of the motto chosen by the Sydney Women's College, "Together." There are interests enough for all, there is work and brightness enough for all, if women only pull together. Think of all the women, young and old, employed in business in Wellington alone. Instead of stowing themselves away in all sorts of lodgings and boardinghouses, why do they not join funds and establish a residential club, giving some capable woman a good salary to manage it, each member paying so much a week towards mess and laundry expenses. But no woman's club will ever be a success unless its members are broad-souled enough

to ignore social distinctions and religious differences. Wider interests will breed wider ideas. It is quite appalling when one comes to think of the number of unsatisfactory dinners cooked and eaten be-

tween the hours of 12 and 2 daily in Wellington. Of the waste of good food material, of firing, of the increase of the in-

forior cook brigade, and tho dyspepsia, liver complaint and bad temper produced by their evolutions. It is not given to every woman to bo a good cook and household manager any more than it is given to every man to be a good scientist and mathematician, and our unfortunate method of preparing food and eating it in units is not calculated to develop tho cook genuis. One cannot help feeling the urgency of the plaint of " a Family Man " in the National Review. " Will some capitalist soon arise, and try to do for us (the working gentlemen) what they have done for other working classes in such schemes as tho Peabody and Guinness' trusts. Why should not a whole street of houses be linked together by somo system of common verandahs, back and front, which would give access to public kitchens, laundries, eating-rooms, reading-rooms, &c, &0., with garden at tho back free to all, and large enough for lawn tennis or recreation grounds ? By cooperation we could live far more cheaply, avoid half the worries of the great servant problem, and gain not only somo release from the incessant, insistent, and necessitous cares of the body, but also somo much needed time for the recreation and amusement of the mind. This is tho bitter cry of the working gentleman. How long will he have to wait for tho outstretched hand of relief?" Now, women comrades with your practical knowledge of details just cudgel your brains a bit and evolve some workablo scheme of relief for tho poor follow. Start a company, show the colour of profit, and the capitalist will be on hand. This leads mo to a consideration of the domestic servant problem, but as Uncle Remus says, "'twon't do for ter give out too much cloff for ter cut one pa'r pants," and Grip will reserve tho perplexing servant question for next week. Grip.