Part 21 (2/2)
The girl-child, peering out, sees this forbidden field as belonging wholly to men-kind; and her relation to it is to secure one for herself--not only that she may love, but that she may live. He will feed, clothe and adorn her--she will serve him; from the subjection of the daughter to that of the wife she steps; from one home to the other, and never enters the world at all--man's world.
The boy, on the other hand, considers the home as a place of women, an inferior place, and longs to grow up and leave it--for the real world.
He is quite right. The error is that this great social instinct, calling for full social exercise, exchange, service, is considered masculine, whereas it is human, and belongs to boy and girl alike.
The child is affected first through the r.e.t.a.r.ded development of his mother, then through the arrested condition of home industry; and further through the wrong ideals which have arisen from these conditions. A normal home, where there was human equality between mother and father, would have a better influence.
We must not overlook the effect of the proprietary family on the proprietor himself. He, too, has been held back somewhat by this reactionary force. In the process of becoming human we must learn to recognize justice, freedom, human rights; we must learn self-control and to think of others; have minds that grow and broaden rationally; we must learn the broad mutual interservice and unbounded joy of social intercourse and service. The petty despot of the man-made home is hindered in his humanness by too much manness.
For each man to have one whole woman to cook for and wait upon him is a poor education for democracy. The boy with a servile mother, the man with a servile wife, cannot reach the sense of equal rights we need to-day. Too constant consideration of the master's tastes makes the master selfish; and the a.s.sault upon his heart direct, or through that proverbial side-avenue, the stomach, which the dependent woman needs must make when she wants anything, is bad for the man, as well as for her.
We are slowly forming a n.o.bler type of family; the union of two, based on love and recognized by law, maintained because of its happiness and use. We are even now approaching a tenderness and permanence of love, high pure enduring love; combined with the broad deep-rooted friendliness and comrades.h.i.+p of equals; which promises us more happiness in marriage than we have yet known. It will be good for all the parties concerned--man, woman and child: and promote our general social progress admirably.
If it needs ”a head” it will elect a chairman pro tem. Friends.h.i.+p does not need ”a head.” Love does dot need ”a head.” Why should a family?
COMMENT AND REVIEW
I watched and waited for Margharita's Soul through eleven glittering chapters of fair words; and when it appeared at last, in the twelfth chapter, it was the funniest little by-product, born of imminent peril and ice-water.
A beautiful great body had Margharita and a beautiful great voice; but her long-delayed soul was the size of a small island and one family.
Funny notion of a soul! A hen might have it. No, not a hen--she is a light-minded promiscuous creature; but a stork, let us say; she is monogamous and quite bound up in her family. No--not a stork either--storks migrate; no island would satisfy her. Apparently it takes a human creature to be proud of a soul that size.
It is a very pretty story.
Thesis: the only thing a woman is for is matrimony and much childbearing! If she don't like it--no soul.
To develop thesis: Some unusual conditions; and a weird feminine product, of such sort that her lover's sudden surrender and frantic marriage is as it were involuntary. It is of the kind that requires no soul in the beloved object, a soul might have been a little in the way in that violent attack.
Then--to sharply accent and enforce the thesis, our soulless charmer--(her overwhelming allure for the men about her, during this period, casts a sharp sidelight on the value of Soul as an Attraction!) is given a Golden Voice.
This Voice is evidently one to give measureless pleasure to thousands; not only so, but is shown to have such power as to touch hard hearts and lead them heavenward; she with no soul a.s.sisting the souls of others; long careful chapters are given to this voice; evidently as one decks out a sacrifice; for the world comforting voice is only given her that she may give it up--for Roger!
It seems a pity--with all this arranged, to ruin that voice by the shock and exposure which aroused her Soul, She herself regretted it--having so much less to give up--for Roger. She meant to give it up anyway, she said. Perhaps the author didn't trust that new Soul completely--knowing her previous character. Anyway there she is, plus a soul and minus a voice; living on the island and populating it as rapidly as possible, perfectly happy, and a lesson for us all.
But is there not also Madam Schumann-Heinck? A great sweet voice and a great sweet mother too? Has she not a Soul?
This Duty of Childbearing is evidently weighing on the minds of men, in these days. The thing must be done--they cant do it themselves, and they are mightily afraid we won't, if we have half a chance to do anything else. If a woman was by way of being a Dante or a Darwin, she had better give it up--for Roger--and take to replenis.h.i.+ng the earth.
She can't do both--that is the main a.s.sumption; and if she chooses to serve the world outside of the home that is sheer loss.
Says this wise Searcher of Feminine Souls: ”For if all the wisdom and experience and training that the wonderful s.e.x is to gain by its exodus from the home does not get back into it ultimately, I can't (in my masculine stupidity) quite see how it's going to get back into the race at all! And then what good has it done?”
The gentleman does not see any way of advancing the human race except by physical heredity--or by domestic influence.
What Shakespeare wrought into the const.i.tution and character of his daughter Judy is all that matters of his life and work. Keats, having no children, contributed nothing to the world. George Was.h.i.+ngton, childless, was of no social service. Lincoln is to be measured by the number and quality of his offspring. Florence Nightingale, in lifting the grade of nursing for the world, accomplished nothing. Uncle Tom's Cabin was of no service except as it might in some mysterious way ”get back into the home.” What mortal perversity is it that cannot see Humanity in women as well as s.e.x; see that Social Service is something in itself, quite over and above all the domestic and personal relations.
This getting back into the race means only the boys. It would do no good for generations of Margaritas to inherit that Golden Voice--each and all must give it up--for Roger. The race gets no music till the ba.s.s, barytone or tenor appear.
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