Life — March 9, 1899 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

She: 1 WON'T SHUT UPI The Eternal Feminine. HERE was a time— not so very long ago—when little girls, and big girls, too, were not permitted to study their lessons out of the same school-books that their brothers used. They had books of their own, con- taining the modified in- » formation fitted for’ their sex. “The Young Lady’s Geography,” “A Young Lady's Guide to Astronomy,” and “The Use of the Globes for Girls’ Schools,” led their faltering footsteps as far along the perilous paths of knowledge as it was deemed wise and well for them to stray. Sceing that we have abandoned these deli- cate methods of insinuating instruction, and that female youth now grasps with ease the robust truths, or errors, contained in common text-books, there has dawned upon sanguine souls the hope that able editors may some day cease preparing especial nourishment, of the Mellin’s Food order, for the mental impoverish- ment of women, The sale of this enfcebling diet has been exceedingly profitable, owing to the cheapness of the ingredients and the enormous quantity that can be consumed with- YOU CAN'T MAKE ME SHUT UP! out intellectual effort or result; but to keep up thesupply requires more business talent than the careless sup- pose. There is always the danger that some stimulating flavor, some fibre of nourishment, may slip into the dish and ruin that “THASH a? RIGHT, M’-DEAR.” pleasant insipidity which fits it for the feminine palate. The clever women who are paid large sal- aries to edit what is known as the ‘* Wo- man’s Page” in our big dailies, are well aware that their principal business is to avoid trespassing on the other departments of the | paper. Politics, com- merce, current events, literature, science and art, all those things which, as the wise Lord Minto said, men would naturally talk about when not in women’s company, are rigor- ously excluded from these chaste journalistic harems, where milk and water gossip, recipes and millinery, fill up the allotted space. Iam told that a newspaper which did not give its list of new recipes for old dishes would soon lose feminine patronage, and that the Woman's Page is not only a popular and profitable feature, but a very difficult one to prepare. The exclu- sion of all interesting matter and all in- telligent thought requires more strenuous effort than reviewing scientific books or counseling the effete dynasties of comichooks fom