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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1887)
Jt0itii!ttft for JUoumt. KiU UiitMm of I'l'mgh. -tr-ioir tlmn mi. Ilnjr .imi. blol with With ti(l -(fil n'l fin Kwi KUr. rrh hk a DrniJ rwk. Or lik M'l" laod 'I'1 ,Ul lrt' I Vft from tl. miti nl -m1II iut with m. believe that it in of the sentiment expn-""'! in tbcw lines, and others like unto them, licit women lurame admirers of fragile UpYw, aii'l thought uwdensness an all-essential tu laI To 1-e a Imp? mass, like unto a lruil rk, or a spire of land walled in with mews, in, indeed, the most rrN-llarit Meal that could ! prcwntcd lo woman, refined and sens itive on we know her to 1. Hut thin figure is not well taken, and in misleading. The com bined intellectuality, spirituality and physique of woman, l-e her hugeness ever so great, in nowhere, within the range of comparison, ! likened to the rurk or land. And hugeness in no more nt ct-ary to a strong, healthy pbys iin' in one sex than in the other. True, (here are women with strong, healthy ladies, who are rcpuMve; hut it in Dot the fault of the l-dv so much an of the mind and heart. lit these ! slrong anl healthy, as well an the lly, an (iod Intended they should, and the l-Mr Iconics a owcr to do good and an ornament to society. And tardy, though die l, to n-nijniire the fart, woman in 1-eginning lo underMand, through practical exjxrienie, that the little, delicate women are going out of fhimi, Htid that the world, through its shoj, it salesrooms, it hoolrooms, and over itn platform, in inhering in the reign of a larger, tnngiT woman one ahle to contend w ith hard rvaliti n and sum-rd. The shoj-kci'j-rr tells tin that " a commanding and fine hioking woman will w 11 a sealskin cloak in five caw out of six where a little woman will fail. You little wo men may I refined gold, hut then in nothing imjt Mve al"ut you." ' A small woman in oit of plair in a show room," said Mme. iVm ont, when one of her friend night a situa tion for a rthy, iut unders'ued lady. " 1 have no un for lier t.Vrr. She ran not sell ru n i pattern. 1'i-ople w ill not go to her ; they will jai her hy and go to a salcwoman more t j lih and commanding." l'jm tin platform or the ntage, it in the woman of physical mag netism, as well as specially cultivated powers, that thrill an audience and carrieH off the lau rel. In it any wonder that women are open ing their eye to the fact of needed physical strength? 1'scfulncss shall solve this prohlem for them that usefulness, which requires phys icul strength, not the overdone fancy work, time spent with which some one has so sugges tively called " busy idleness." Strength comes through strength, and " To him that hath, shall lie given, and he shall have more ahundantly." One of the last, hest outgrowths of civiliza tion is the respect show n to woman. American women take it as a matter of course, which in deed it is, with them, and should 13 every where. Hut all are not so well favored, even in so-called civilized countries. Visit Cuba, and behold the treatment which ladies there exjiect, lierausc it is that which they arc accus tomed to receive. There is a marked ahsence i of ladies on the streets or highways society does not allow it. If ladies desire to make any purchase, which is ahsolutely necessary, they drive to the store and the clerk displays the good at the carriage door. Our American sense of freedom could not ahide such a custom. Our evening strolls how delightful and re freshing they prove to taxed muscles! In Cu ha, such a treat is seldom allowed to our sex. To l-e a lady in America, is to receive the hest seat, if entering a car filled with gentlemen; is to have the cigar cast aside, out of deference, and to le treated courteously by all present. To ! a lady in Cuha, is to k prohibited from going alone, and if attended by a lady, only to receive the impudent and ill bred remarks from strangers of the best society, and insults from the vulgar and uneducated.. Hie French phi-' ' losopher, ItoTocqueville, considered that the chief cause of American prosperity was the su eriority of its women ; and we would add, that the chief cause of the superiority of American women is the freedom to come and go and le, which they enjoy to so high a degree. Iucy M. Hall, associate professor of physiol ogy at Yaar mllt-p, shaking of the effects of