One View of the "New Woman"

—In that most “gruesome” and most uneomiortable story, ’ full of “ the horror and darkness of shadow and sin and death,” Mr. Marion Crawford’s Casa Braccio, we come occasionally upon some keen and subtle general reflection that seems worth preserving, The other day I picked up in one of its pages this little nugget : “ She had that rarest quality in women which commands men without inspiring love. It is very hard to explain what that quality is, but most men who have lived much and seen much have met with it at least once in their lives. A hundred women may rebuke a man for something he has done, and he will smile at the reproach. Another will say to him the same words, and he will be gravely silent, and will feel that she is right, and will like her better for it ever afterwards. And she is not, as a rule, the woman whom such men would love.” All this seems to me to contain a fine truth that has never been very generally recognized or pointed out. I am certainly myself acquainted with several women possessing this power, noble natures, who, “ without inspiring love ” (indeed, at least two of them never married), have yet, to a remarkable degree, influenced and guided, and up to a certain point moulded the lives and actions of more than one man with whom they came into close contact. But I do not agree with Mr. Crawford that “ it is very hard to explain what that quality is ; ” on the contrary, the solution of that mystery seems to me very easy. The quality, or rather combination of qualities, from which that power emanates that “commands men ” is simply character. And by character, I here mean all those tendencies that make for truthfulness, sincerity, loyalty, courage, honesty, and a fine sense of honor, in a wider interpretation of that noble word. Not the honor which a woman alone is supposed to be able to lose, but that other “ gem ” which manifests itself in steadfastly keeping a promise made, redeeming a given word, discharging a debt incurred, of whatever kind, — the honor that will make us brave enough to come forward without flinching, to face and meet disagreeable things, even though we know they will hurt our vanity or pleasant opinion of ourselves ; indeed, in all and every possible way to live up to our own best convictions and ideal standards. To sum it all up in one comprehensive term, I might call it that perfect rectitude ot nature, more commonly supposed to be the attribute of man than of woman, but which, when it is found in a woman, almost appears to be worth something more, to he lifted to a still higher plane, touched and consecrated, as it were, with a more subtle and beautiful light by the ewig weibliche in her, the generally finer texture of the woman’s whole mental fibre, and thus comes to be all the more potent for good. For as she is so universally esteemed the “ weaker vessel,”fickleness, untruthfulness, cunning, deceit, and dissembling have been almost looked upon as a woman’s privilege, her natural weapons of defense, against man’s overwhelming physical force. ‘ I have read somewhere of late, “ The strong force of Lady-was her sex : weak, untruthful, cowardly, and malicious, she was still no more than woman may be.” This, of course, is a bitter, satirical fling, yet I must confess not wholly undeserved ; for it is but too true that somehow the unwritten laws of honor (in my definition of the word) do not seem to be equally understood and accepted by both sexes. I may illustrate just what I mean by a more good-natured passage from another book, and ought perhaps to premise that the words are spoken by a man, and that “ what she did ” was, in this case, deliberately to conceal, though not destroy, a will, by the simple non-appearance ot which she came into a fortune : “ The difference between masculine and feminine character is immense. No man with a grain of honor in him would have done what she did ; only some dastardly hound, who eouhl cheat at cards. And she, somehow she seems a pure, good woman in spite of it.” She had coveted the fortune very largely for the purpose of procuring more comforts and a life free from anxiety for her sick mother ; for, you see, she was a “good girl.” Only, what an argument ! It seems to me every woman ought to resent this, to protest against the pernicious as well as insulting assumption that there can be anything but one code of honor, that binds equally every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth ! Of course, not all men live up to that code. hat an ideal place this world would be if they did ! Indeed, the very individuals most influenced by some woman who “ commands ” them, without inspiring love, are probably, whether conscious of it or not, themselves most deficient, or at least most weak and vacillating, in those qualities that lend power to the woman. Mr. Crawford’s concluding words are entirely true, “And she is not, as a rule, the woman whom such men would love ; ” but we might add, The worse for him ! tor in all probability she is the very helpmate his life most sorely needs, hut the point I make is, that the general standard of women in such matters is not as high as that of men. And here it is where the real “ new woman ” and her true mission should begin : not by attempting to ape and imitate in outward things, in all ways most distasteful, revolting, and absurd, the one creature of earth whom at the same time, by an affectation more utterly absurd still, if that were possible, she pretends to look down upon and despise, man, unfortunate, inferior man ! But let women impress upon their girls as well as their boys, by every precept as well as by the force of their own example, the importance, the priceless value, of truthfulness and loyalty and honor, the eternal obligations laid upon them by those splendid old words noblesse oblige, and see how quickly they, as well as their daughters after them, will rise to the coveted plane of perfect equality with man in all ethical regions, as woman is already undoubtedly his superior in a certain more restricted sense of the word “ moral.” Just now, the “ new woman ” is the laughing-stock of the world,a kind of hybrid, not belonging entirely to either one sex or the other, a grotesque and ridiculous “ sport ” on the great tree of humanity. But if the new woman will only, instead of wearing his outer garments and smoking his cigarettes and playing his athletic games, “ be a man in honor,” not alone this, but also every coming generation “ will rise up and call her blessed.”