As We Go | Page 8

hear a good deal about the highly
educated young woman with reverence, about the emancipated young
woman with fear and trembling, but what can take the place of the
interesting woman? Anxiety is this moment agitating the minds of tens
of thousands of mothers about the education of their daughters.
Suppose their education should be directed to the purpose of making
them interesting women, what a fascinating country this would be
about the year 1900.

GIVE THE MEN A CHANCE
Give the men a chance. Upon the young women of America lies a great
responsibility. The next generation will be pretty much what they
choose to make it; and what are they doing for the elevation of young
men? It is true that there are the colleges for men, which still perform a
good work--though some of them run a good deal more to a
top-dressing of accomplishments than to a sub-soiling of discipline--but
these colleges reach comparatively few. There remain the great mass
who are devoted to business and pleasure, and only get such intellectual
cultivation as society gives them or they chance to pick up in current
publications. The young women are the leisure class, consequently--so
we hear--the cultivated class. Taking a certain large proportion of our
society, the women in it toil not, neither do they spin; they do little or

no domestic work; they engage in no productive occupation. They are
set apart for a high and ennobling service--the cultivation of the mind
and the rescue of society from materialism. They are the influence that
keeps life elevated and sweet--are they not? For what other purpose are
they set apart in elegant leisure? And nobly do they climb up to the
duties of their position. They associate together in esoteric, intellectual
societies. Every one is a part of many clubs, the object of which is
knowledge and the broadening of the intellectual horizon. Science,
languages, literature, are their daily food. They can speak in tongues;
they can talk about the solar spectrum; they can interpret Chaucer,
criticise Shakespeare, understand Browning. There is no literature,
ancient or modern, that they do not dig up by the roots and turn over,
no history that they do not drag before the club for final judgment. In
every little village there is this intellectual stir and excitement; why,
even in New York, readings interfere with the german;--['Dances',
likely referring to the productions of the Straus family in Vienna.
D.W.]--and Boston! Boston is no longer divided into wards, but into
Browning "sections."
All this is mainly the work of women. The men are sometimes admitted,
are even hired to perform and be encouraged and criticised; that is, men
who are already highly cultivated, or who are in sympathy with the
noble feminization of the age. It is a glorious movement. Its professed
object is to give an intellectual lift to society. And no doubt, unless all
reports are exaggerated, it is making our great leisure class of women
highly intellectual beings. But, encouraging as this prospect is, it gives
us pause. Who are these young women to associate with? with whom
are they to hold high converse? For life is a two-fold affair. And
meantime what is being done for the young men who are expected to
share in the high society of the future? Will not the young women
by-and-by find themselves in a lonesome place, cultivated away
beyond their natural comrades? Where will they spend their evenings?
This sobering thought suggests a duty that the young women are
neglecting. We refer to the education of the young men. It is all very
well for them to form clubs for their own advancement, and they ought
not to incur the charge of selfishness in so doing; but how much better
would they fulfill their mission if they would form special societies for
the cultivation of young men!--sort of intellectual mission bands. Bring

them into the literary circle. Make it attractive for them. Women with
their attractions, not to speak of their wiles, can do anything they set
out to do. They can elevate the entire present generation of young men,
if they give their minds to it, to care for the intellectual pursuits they
care for. Give the men a chance, and----
Musing along in this way we are suddenly pulled up by the reflection
that it is impossible to make an unqualified statement that is wholly
true about anything. What chance have I, anyway? inquires the young
man who thinks sometimes and occasionally wants to read. What sort
of leading- strings are these that I am getting into? Look at the drift of
things. Is the feminization of the world a desirable thing for a vigorous
future? Are the women, or are they not, taking all the virility out of