THE WOMAN BOOM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10263, 22 January 1895, Page 7

THE WOMAN BOOM.

By Marion, S. W. White, M.A. " The subject for-discussion to-day," said t*io President o£ the Fisb-and-fly Bfcciub'ut] Society, "is tha Woman Boom." 'J.';.s.re was a dsad silence. " The—l don't think I quite caught the title," Millioent said at last in a faint voica. "The Woman Boom," repeated the President firmly! Three membera of the society, and Freddie, rose to their foet. " Will you excuse me 1 I had forgotten an engage" Bat the President waved them back to their places with an inexorable band. "It is of no usg," she caid, and when sha spoke in that tone nobody darsd to resist her. "We must discuss it. Ws have done ' The Future of New Zealaad,' the ' Coming Australian Wovelist,' ' Spiritualism,' 'Tbeosopby,' and ' Oar Neighbours' Faults." The other great subject of the day ia the Woman Boom, and if we neglect it we are BhirkiDg a duty. Freddie, sit down." Freddie's enemies say that he is "harmleas," bat his friends indignantly deny the accusation. He ia admitted to the discussions of the society chiefly because he rcorit go away and fish. The society has another fiaa feature besides Fraddie. Although everyone is bound to discuss, nobody is ever compelled to have an opinion, or to arrive at a conclusion. So that its arguments do not flow ia keen, clear streams, but drop lite dews from tha eaves o? a thatched cottage. "If you are going to discuss Woman with a capital letter," said Freddia very decidedly, " I have an engagemsnt. Woman ■with a small' w,'" he added, looking pathetically round upon the society, "ia an ang-.il; but woman with a capital is a bore. Ail 1 ask is, has this one a capital ?" "We shall discuss hsr with a small letter," said the President placably. I Freddie heaved a sigh of relief and sank j back upon the grass. The society had jußt finished a spirited cray-fishing competition. They were now sitting or lying about tiie bank of the stream, waiting for the billy to boil. By the laws of the society all ciscuaeions had to take place in the open air, because, as the President fondly believed, the smells of matrata and fuo song* of tuis destroy prejudice and promote generous views of life. „ "First;," 3aid the President, "we Bball take definitions. MiUicsnt, what is the Woman Bo.om 1 " I "It is the effort," said Millicent, "that women are making under tha guidance of a few fanatics to nsnrp all the duties and j : privileges of men. On psper it is a callec-1 - tion of all thetedious and unprofitable ques- i tioca ever invented. In tram cars aad rail- | way trains it is the strong-minded v»onia,n with the bagful of tracts oa the franchise. In the atmosphere it.is a frightful fuss." | " Your definitions are all hostile," Baid the I President. " MaiT, it is your tura." " The Woman Bsom," said Mary, "is a nickname given in contempt by BmallI minded and ignorant psopla to the coble efforts women in our day are making towards enlightenment, freedom, and "a larger idaal of living. Its leaders ars brave women who face in a good cause the prejudice, apathy, and insulb of their own sex and the brutal hostility of the other." "Doris, give your definition," said the President. "It is dres3 reform, isn't it ? and cycling and smoking cigarettes on the balcony, and wearing tailor-made frocks, with those dear neckties that suit Millicent so well." Thus Doris, and poked out her foot to admire its instep. " Freddie, define the Woman Boom." " Woman—tha female of thq bnmaa racs," said Freddie, quoting bi3 dictionary. "Boom^-to roll, to roar, as cannon, thundar, &o. Woman Boom, the rolling and roaring of the female of the human race. What's the matter, Mary ? '•' "Women are not whales," Mary said with great scorn; " besides, dictionary definitioaes are lazy. You must make oae yourself. Make a metaphor."

" The Woman Boom," said Freddie promptly, "is f ass, And, fuss is'the smoke of the factory where progress is manufactured. It is like other smoke—very unwholesome and spoils the scenery, but can't be helped." " Your grammar is loose, Freddie, butyonr sentiments do you oredife," said the President approvingly. "Now I shall give you my definition. The Woman Boom is ths latest and mpßt dangerous phase of class feeling. We see the working Gf class feeling between the rich and poor, betwja-em-ployers and labourers, asd between the white and tha dark races. Now tha Woman Boom i 3 the introduction of this hostile spd bitter sentiment between m?.n and woman. The literature of the Woman BGom always treats men as a class, and women as a class. Some authcra praise women and blame men. Others deify men and defama women. Bat. you will find this principle of disunion and antagonism in all the writing on both sides. Mary, dear, push a stick against the billy lid to see if it is shaking. If it is, that means that the water is boiling. If .not,. come back and say something." The billy was not boiling, and Mary spots, leaning against a broadleaf tree and looking very much in earnest. " I think," she said, "that if people would look at the conditions of a woman's life fairly, without bring prejudiced in tbeir views by their fastidious taste and dislike of loud noises " (here she glanced at Millicent), "they would see that women are unfairly treated. They are trammelled by conventions all their lives. If they are single, their lives are narrow and dreary, and they are sneered at for not having captured husbands; if they ara married, they ara often household drudges, bouad to their kitchens asd nurseries, with no time for books, or for anything higher than a gossip over a new dress." (Here Mary's eye fell on Doris, who, however, is not married.) " I honour and ap- j plaud the efforts that are being made towards equality and a frae field for man and women alike." The President knitted her brows. " When you talk of household drudgery," she began, " I often wonder what picture you have in your mind o£ a man's daily work. Your husband kisceo you in the morning. I beg your pnr^on, dears—l moan be wilt kiss jou, and goes to work. You begin to duist tha dining room (although certainly that should be done before breakfast) and to make the pudding and darn the socks; and you sigh and envy mea their freedom. But where are the men all day V

The President here made a rhetorical pause, but no one venturing to account for tbe absent husbands, she resumed:

"They are working in factories —candle factories, jam factories perhaps, or standing bahind counters pulliag down the same two dozen rolls of twesd, silk, calico, nun's veiling, and dolaine hoar after hour and day aftar day, for the same 20 types of customers to look at and sniff over; or they sit in offices and add up figures on pain of dismissal if they forget what they ought to carry; or they plough, or harrow, or mend sod fences, or ride after droves of bullocks at threa miles an hour in the <3n3t and the wind. I don't say, remember, that dustiDg the room or making ths Balad is exciting or ennobling. But I think most people, if thsy thought it over, would rather do that than many of the thiogs men do. Freddie, wake UD ! "

Freddie woke with a start. " That's what / say," ha remarked cordially; "and as for old maids, the nicest people I know in tha world, except fonr, an old maids."

"Nobody spoke of old maids," said tiie President calmly; "but pince yon are awake, say somethiog about the heroiaes of tho Woman Boom Books." Freddie wade a grimace,

" I don't mind reading about thwsrbs said cautiously, trying to keep the emphasuf from falling on the fourth word. " Gould you fail in lovs with them?"" "No, unless there was nobody-thereout of the other books." " You pay them a bigli compliment?' muzi mured Mar/. , "Thoy have bad tempers mosttyf Said Freddy, with a yawn, "aad baS maniiersf1 I'll tell you now," lie K<3ded with moie_sni< motion, " what I don't like about them; WJj&t relation should yon say Woma9,£nitb a capital, is to Mac, with a capital 2" ■•:." " His aister," said Pori3. " Clossr than that," " His mother." "Yes, The Universal Woman' is *tna TTniTa-sftl Man's mother. A»d if her «oa had nil those feults the e&w authoress accuses him of, she should forgive him and love him as oor mothers do. Shs shouldn't howl ati bira acd show him up as if he was .some* b&dy el3G'3 little boy." "i- think," said Milliccut, " the reason' why I dislike tiiis eubject %o mucb is that iff is ruiriag literature. We have good novelists still, but we never get a good novel. Tha moment that the Revr Woman is introduced, cither ia fan or in earnest, she ruins 4h« book. Esatry is dead." 1 " That follows naturally from my defiaw ' tion," said the President. " The Woman; Booui is a wedge inserted between man and woman—there is Freddie asleep again—and' j such a division is es antagonistic to poetry, as the amputation of a leg. The secret of poetry is that it hag the power of seeing everything in ita entirety. The poet sees a man and a woman as oca perfect creature. Their two souls together form the soul oj I humanity. The woman boomers see a-maj^ and avroajan as representatives of two oppos- ! ing classes, requiring to be armed against each other. Good gracious! they are-. all asleep." : "No, I am aot," eaid Doris; vltTbaYe-}nsif I ..remembered spmethiag that often puzzles aa« j when X hear people talking. There is ai^ argument, isn't there, ttat women are mi I ferior to men ia varions faculties becanss they have cever been educated like men—<■ because their mothers were ignorant,.they;ara ignorant ? " 1 "It is quite true," said Mary. '"To-lia : born a woman is to ba bora ender tba weight of the thoasand disadvantages which have been heaped upon our sex fotfj I centuries." 1 " Bnt," objected Doris," this isvhat pnzzierf me. A boy and a. girl might be twins.* The boy might take after his mother and the ! girl after her father. Then would the boy] ! inherit all tbe disadvantages from bis mothesf I and tha girl all the advantages from heri father? Suppose the father to be very! I clever aad learned, or very inventive, otf i nensible, or raasical, wouldn't the girl get thff i best cbaace of having s. brilliant iutnre-2'" ■ I " Bdncation would rain her cluuice," saftrf I Mary, dodging the original question' -very > sweetly. ! "Ah, but lam thinking oalyof heredity; ! just now," Doris exclaimed; " every prl W j the daughter of her mother end her fatherj I and every boy is the son of his father and his mother. Will anyone explain to me how; the centuries of oppression can affect the ona [ mere than tho other 1 It always seems ■;tci ime that they staitqnite fair when they-rara I babies at any rate." " The billy is boiling," aßßOnncecUHarft' 5 •■ "Well," said the President, "I wisfcitw say spmathing bsfore R-e make tea. Mary; you spoke of a want of freedosa andol tracamsis and convenyiues weighlog- npoq women. Now, I wish you all this year jtaj test how raany of these trammels are real; and how many exist only in the writing3=oi the woniea boomers, I do not say tbatj women are free everywhere; bnt Ido saythafi in osr own country thers are no restrictions [ placed upon a woman bat such as rest on! every humsa beiDg—the restrictions of timidity and incapacity. What profession i»! closed to a New Zealand woman 2" " PoUtic3," said Mary boldly. The president shook her head. "Parliament Is closed to us".,at': tfifs monießt," she said, "bnt everyone knows, that if three women could be found in tha twe islands with a genius, fer statsamanshi^1 they would' be admitted to the House withitf tho year. I say again there are no- cohven-j tious against ns bnt snch as we onrselvea snbscribe to; and bo there need.not betmy ( smoke from ocr prograss; factory nnless>w3 really like smoke." '"' And I think," went on the PiesldeHW "that we should all try not to drive in that vredga of disunion any deepsr. Women are oftea uahappy and discoatonted, and theic lives are narrow aiad their ambitiona cramped. Bat all those conditions rest upon,' mea too, although there has not as yet beea' a special msn boom to wail over them. Woman, as a scs, have ugly faulte; but onW womsa, as iQdiyidual3, will ever cure them; Here come tbe men with a trout. Freddie^ quick, tha frying pan. Mury, the bntteK"" ■ " We have not come to any conclusion^ haf ewe ?" aaked liiliicent. "No one ever does en this subject,"'said' ths President, composedly,.spooning bnttesj into thapan. "Aad no one acquainted with the-society! would expsot it on any-subject,"-.&dd«i Mavy, unpacking the cups. _" _