A WORLD WITHOUT WOMEN.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 24, Issue 18, 7 March 1913, Page 7

A WORLD WITHOUT WOMEN.

WHAT A DREARY PLACE IT j WOULD BE. What would the world be like if there were no women in it ? If the world’s population were cut down by half, by the immediate abolition of women, it is certain that civilisation would develop on somewhat dir'ercnt lines from those it Is travelling along at present. In fact, a very f ftW years would sho w a l l sorts of curious consequences. Daring women who have penetrated to the outskirts of civilisation, to places where the face of a white woman is scarcely ever seen, are often amused by the curious effect they have on their hosts. Faces unwashed for weeks retire bashfully for a while, tol return several eh ides lighter in colour. Beards which have sprouted almost unnoticed are guiltily shaved. Strangely, platted hair is cropped to a decent shortness'.

It is a curious fact that men living in the wilds of the earth never realise how far they have slipped from the decent, cleanly ways of civilisation till the presence of a. - woman reminds them of the fact. MANNERLESS MEN. The relapse would imperceptibly take I place all over the civilised earth. We should not notice it, but the instincts of personal cleanliness and neatness would steadily disappear. Psychologists declare that, however ingrained ■ they seem, these instincts are in men entirely artificial habits. In women they are more of a true instinct—women; being the physically weaker sex, having had to do less of the 'rough work. . of the world. . Set a woman for a few years on; a desert Island, and she will devise some sort of hairpin, and do heif hair dally, A masculine Robinson Crusoe will return a figure to amuse the most unkempt of tramps. In, fact, in a civilisation without women, the world of men would cease to think itself in need of a daily toilet. Another big change would be in Speech would be less polity and more brutal. The lubricating oil of courtesy would be removed from daily life, and the world would be a much worse place for the weak than it is now. It is the civilising eflecti of - womenj that has shown the other sex that brutality is a matter for contempt, not for pride. . \ Th< world would go to the strong hand again. The civilisation of science and invention and manufacture would advance as rapidly as ever, but the finer side of it would steadily decay. So it is not only . to sew its buttons on and wash its face that the world, needs woman ; it needs her to shake a reproving finger when the savage peeps, out,

COG-WHEELS AND CHARING. But if women returned to the world after thet absence of a century or two the changes she would find would not all be unpleasant ones, A world deprived of women would have to face the problem of making itself very comfortable at home —and it would make itself very comfortable indeed; Housework and cooking have in the hands of women shown little or no advance for centuries., The sex with the greater initiative would refuse to turn itself into l charwomen and kitchenmaids. If only one-tenth of the inventive genius that has been applied to the manufacture of steel alone were to the kitchen, household work by hand would be abolished, and the work of a house would be as automatic. as that of a motor-car.— "Answers.”