The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910)

ice, now, is wholly human; no other creature has a post office, but there are families in plenty

pment in humanness; in mechanical, mental and social lines; in the extension of love and

is, the care and nurture of the young. To protect the helpless little ones, to feed and shelter them, to ensure them th

e think about it; and, in our strange new power of voluntary action do things to

tue-the unswerving devotion to one mate-is common among birds and some of the higher mammals. If Ba

from an institution for the best service of the child to one modifi

g that all a parent is for is the best service of the child. Ancestor worship, that gross reversal of all natural law, is of wholly androcentric origin. It is stron

we ought to give our minds to it. When we use our past merely as a guide-book, and c

egitimate and right in proper use; only mischievous when excessive or out of place. Through them the male is led to strenuous competition for the favor of the female; in the overflowing ardours of song, as in nightingale

n it is, naturally, their femaleness that has been studied and enlarged upon. And though women, after thousands of years of such discussion, have become a little r

es, desire, combat and self-expression, affect

is that of sex selection. The males, numerous, varied, pouring a flood of energy into wide modificatio

or by purchase, does the choosing-he selects the kind of woman that pleases him. Nature did not intend

proves our speed: the other does not. If males struggle and fight with one another for a mate, the strongest secures her; if the male struggles and fights with the

erogative of the female, this primal duty of selection. The males were no longer improved by their natural competition for the female; a

tribes the chief's wives are prepared for him by being kept in small dark huts and fed on "mealies' and molasses; precisely as a Strasbourg goose is fattened for the gourmand. Now fatness is not a desirable race characteristic;

le female m

e female mo

little, female

maleness has been demanded and pro

archate; the father being her assistant in the great work. The patriarchate, with its proprietary family, changed this altogether; the woman, as the property of the man was considered first and foremost as a means of pleasure to him; and while s

wife is held to involve man-service as well as child-service, and indeed far more; as t

a is bad for children. See our common law that the man decides the place of residence; if the wife refuses to go with him to how

; regardless of the sin against the child involved in such a relation. Public feeling on the

She is first taught duty to her parents, with heavy religious sanction; and then duty to her husband, similarly buttressed; but her duty to her children has been left to instinct.

"innocence" does not enable her to choose a husband wisely; she does not even know the dangers that possibly confront her. We vaguely imagine that her father or brother, who do know, w

and opposition serves to prevent her marrying him. "I love him!" she says, su

ren. We have magnified the duties of the wife, and minified the duties of the mother; and this is in

t of the associate and equal, as when she joins him in his business. It is not that of a beneficial combination, as when she practices another business

of the world cook and wash, sweep a

ly unnatural and injurious. The father expects to be served by the daughter, a service quite different from what he expects of the son. This shows at

and a son, should a form of service be expected of the

does not manifest itself in noise, or combat, or display, but in productive industry. Because of her mother-p

ill be shown later in treating his effect on economics.

rea, he thereby confined her to primitive industry. The domestic industries, in the hands of women, constitute a survival of our remotest past. Such wo

ic industry once-when every savage mother set up her own tepee. To be confined to domestic industry is no proper distinction

t of half the field. We have a world wherein men, industrially, live in the

s as his, not belonging to themselves, their children, or the world; has hedged them in with restrictions of a thousand sorts; physical, as in the crippled Chinese lady or the imprisoned

ivities. The woman, bound, has not so grown; and the child is born to a progressive fatherhood and a stationary motherhood. Thus the man-made family reacts unfavorably upon the child. We ro

y working nearer to the cradle, a new sense is wakening of the importance of the period of infancy, and its wiser treatment; yet those who know of su

social contact, social service, true social life. (We may note in passing, her passionate fondness for the child-game called "society" she has been allowed to entertain herself withal; that poor simiacrum of real social life, in which people decorate themselves and madly crowd together, chattering, for

ic home cannot teach him. We live to-day in a democracy-the man-made family is a despotism. It may be a weak one; the despot may be dethroned and overmastered by his little harem of one; but in that case she becomes th

or 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 sub

eave it-for the real world. He is quite right. The error is that this great social instinct, calling for full soc

ondition of home industry; and further through the wrong ideals which have arisen from these conditions

ng 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 l

annot reach the sense of equal rights we need to-day. Too constant consideration of the master's tastes makes the master selfish; and the assault upon his heart di

roaching a tenderness and permanence of love, high pure enduring love; combined with the broad deep-rooted friendliness and comradeship of equals; which promises us m

pro tem. Friendship does not need "a head." Lo

T AND

ers of fair words; and when it appeared at last, in the twelfth chapter, i

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

very pre

for is matrimony and much childbea

er's sudden surrender and frantic marriage is as it were involuntary. It is of the kind that requir

verwhelming allure for the men about her, during this period, casts a shar

hard hearts and lead them heavenward; she with no soul assisting the souls of others; long careful chapters are given to this vo

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. A

einck? A great sweet voice and a great

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

erful sex is to gain by its exodus from the home does not get back into it ultimately, I can't (in my mascu

advancing the human race except by phy

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 so

enerations of Margaritas to inherit that Golden Voice-each and all must give i

ic in their little efforts

uthor's name to

Anne Royall. By Sarah H

$1.50 net; po

of Anne Royall, but the life of America in the early part of the nineteenth century, in our young, crude, dangerous days of national formation. A novel has been defined as "a corner of

he Civil War, dying in 1854. In 1797 she was married to Captain William Royall, an exceptional man, a Virginian, cultivated, liberal, singularly broad-minded and public-spirited, and life with him added years of genuine culture to the energy of a naturally bright mind. Le

use of her pen, a rarer profession in those times. The more remarkable thing is that in the face of overwhelming odds she stood for a religion, at a period w

e passionate devotion so natural to a woman's heart. But Anne Royall, while she also was passionately devoted to several well-defined "Causes," was unique in that she kep

are not so many, either men or women, of this mind, that we can afford to overlook this sturdy pioneer "new woman." She had virtues, too, good solid Christian virtues of the rarer sort; she visited the sick and afflicted, gave to him that asked, and

t unwisely. Her abusive writing sounds abominably to-day, but must be judged, of course, by the standard of her time. The worst things she said were not as bad as things Sh

e relative to defend her; being poor, and so further defenceless; being old, thus lacking weak woman'

stung so sharply; and in 1829, in the capitol city of the United States of America, a court of men tried-and convicted-this solitary woman of sixty as a Common Scold. They raked up obsolete laws, studi

f PAUL PRY. In 1836 another took its place, called THE HUNTRESS. And on the sale of these newspapers

nformation as to new authors and new words. "Playfulness," for instance, is one which she stigmatizes as "silly in sound and significance," and declares that she does not read the new novels "with the exception of Walter Scott's." More interesting

thusiastic about Anne Royall than the reader becomes, that is clearly due to an unusual perception of life-values; a

n the Santa Claus myth pops up anew with Christmas time; and puzzl

is of fact, the world old festival of the turn of the year, the coming of the sun; second, a history of rejoicing peoples throughout all

playing in the grass; the joy of the young year. If we want legends and stories, every religion behind us is full of them; stories of sun-gods a

ashamed of our religion or don't we believe it any more? If we do accept it in all the long-told tales of miracle and wonder, then we hav

s beautiful legends, there remains enough historic foundation to begin w

Christm

uman world; historic people have feasted and danced and sung for thousan

ve things at Ch

een away-and you could just see her-a long, long way off. You had seen her go-and go-and go-farther and farther; and then s

d the candles and all the details of ceremony, th

ristmas, Mama?"-then you must tell him

a mere comic supplement character; a bulbous benevolent goblin, red-nosed and gross, doing impossible tricks with reindeers and chimneys, and half t

le, they are prone to like what isn't good for them. They like brandy

hings to the deep glowing beauty of life. We seem afraid to take life at its splendid best; choosing rath

period we were accustomed to strong excitement, long hours of quivering suspense, mad rushes of blind fear, and orgies of wild triumph. Our nerve channels were like the beds of mountain streams, in dry warm lands; lying shallo

Yet when the young grow restless and fretfully "wish something would happen!" we rebuke them; from the he

excitement; and we ought to have more of it, much more. These young people are perf

hy continue to make our helpless children's minds the submissive channels for poor w

reared in this atmosphere of cold

Life is dreary. Lif

are right. They come in new every time. The

of looking down on it as we do-then we could take advantage of that

back to our Christmas-t

w year; the new-born year, the o

, in the old triune godhead of Isis, Osiris and Horus

shall see the meaning of The Child mo

is a sweet pretty dressable object; far more time and effort being given-even before i

pathetic is the inadequacy of the young mother! She would never dare to undertake to ru

oves

d honor Motherhood-in spite of its obvious deficiencies. But none of these fe

derstanding

orefront of the world-the world of

we guide and teach them both, so s

can for our own little one

es a

e than that t

ated in our Christian F

e to Come, deser

which we owe to our Successo

d to our paltry old sto

im

d but give our minds to it. The whole swiftly spreading enchantment of our varied arts and industries is making a garden out of a

s in the world should proudly serve the child. We should consider him as a

tival. Every beautiful myth of the past remains to decorate it; every beautiful truth to

y-and Hope-and Lo

Gi

ible fruits. Gifts to the happy child to make him happier. Gifts from the happy child-and the ne

charity nor anything of that sort. Not the mere visiting of the sick and the prison

pose yo

y they will. Should we not gratefully recognize the care and service that gives as ever

served and guarded and gener

object," some of us dead or alive have made. The accumulated services of all the people gone have give

ho have given you the

isgustedly, "Given! Not mu

s our

by a long way. And further-if we had outgrown this temporary custom

e'd have to have some millionaire sailors and house-builders and black

giving-the outpouring o

means. It is the Fest

and Giving-for

NAL P

re sample, left o

of my income on dress than I ca

r earn her own income and

nt with that. G. would

do her duty as a mother

r duty as a mother she wouldn't be

to her children is not to be measured by quantity, but by quality. If a mother understood an

mother leave her chi

e could be a milliner or dressmak

neral rather than persona

All the nice men in our town have left it-or are married. There are

ore men. Go as a matter of business, earning your own living. K

UR WOR

rk DONE, to

can take

the sun o

ter than go

pring-time of

he sunshin

e harvest-d

n the fruit

we grieve o

d we fret

he smalles

er whose ha

rtise

WN

little for candy of any kind

nor chocolate pudding, nor chocolate to drink-unless it

Lowney's; they beguiled me into feasting upon Lowney

attractive box, that is still kept to put small tre

n, to see others eat candy; but now I strove with them, like a fr

ds in Portland, Oregon, on the fourteenth of June, and with s

and every single one of those ch

the evidence of person

re pure and honest an

od as the best

candy,-Tha