Rerieic of Rerietnt. IfSf'lC 



Leadina Articles. 



183 



THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 



Even Ajviong the Tartars. 

 The woman's movement moves indeed. Oregon 

 on the Pacific was convulsed last month by the at- 

 tempt of women to amend the Constitution in their 

 favour, but in America this is not surprising. In 

 Xew York a movement is reported among women 

 in favour of an appeal to the Supreme Court to 

 declare their disfranchisement an offence against the 

 Constitution, which has never disqualified citizens on 

 the score of sex. Much more remarkable is the evi- 

 dence reported by Mr. Vamber\- in the Xinctcoiili 

 Century for June as to the dawn of a womans move- 

 ment among the Tartars of Orenburg. He says: — 



In one of the numbers of the Vakit, a Tartar journal 

 of Orenburg, a young lady writes as follows: "How lon^ 

 shall we suffer under this want of due respect and con- 

 sideration? Our men are walking day and night in open 

 air, whilst w© are shut up in airless close rooms. Our 

 men never trouble themselves with the education of chil- 

 dren, they walk with full liberL.v in spacious gardens. 

 enjoy their life in tea-houses, reataurants. and in places 

 of resort we only occasionally hear of: whilst the Mussul- 

 man women must look after their helpless aud ailing 

 children, and have no rest day and night; they have no 

 quietr meals, no sweet sleep, and no bright day. Our men 

 frequent all kind of schools, learn all kind of sciences, 

 read all possible books and papers, they enlighten their 

 minds and gladden their bearta. whilst we poor Tartar 

 women are deprived of education and instruction, and 

 remaining ignorant and uneducated, we have to spend 

 our life in pain and sorrow without seeing the slightest 

 ray of hope and consolation. I write these words with 

 burning soul. Ye men! Remember us poor women, whilst 

 you secure your happy condition of life, do not forget 

 xkA pitiable creatures, try to give us some education, for 

 how can we uneducated behave properly towards vou, and 

 in our helpless and neglected state of mind we must ap- 

 I)ear in your eyes without grace, love, and attraction. Is 

 not this the reason that so many educated Russian women 

 beguile our men and snatch them away from our hands? 

 When some time ago Princess Veml>e. the sister of the 

 Khedive of Egypt, was seduced and abducted by a Grerman. 

 the whole Moslem world gave an alarm, and it resounded 

 from the East to the West; but with us every year so 

 many yonne Tartars arc beguiled bv Russian girls, and 

 we do not dare to raise ouv voice. Ye men! do you think 

 na to be lacking every feeling and sentiment? 



I conclude this letter with my last request. 0o accord 

 ua due respect, teach us and try to be fair and just, for 

 otherwise our connection will l^ecome loose, and should 

 we rise and open our eyes against your will, then our 

 mutual relation must inevitably cool down." 



How natural and how pathetic ! 



THE PFESIDENT'S PRAISE OF THE HOUSEWIFE. 



Good HoiiSikt'cping opens with an admirable 

 paper on Home Life by President Roosevelt. More 

 important far than the industrial or commercial oc- 

 cupation of the people is, he says, the way in which 

 thev conduct their family life: — 



No piled-up wealth, no splendour of material growth, no 

 brilliance of artistic development, will permanently avail 

 any people unless its home life is healthy, unless the 

 average man possesses honesty, courage, commonsense. and 

 decency: unless he works hard and Is willing at need to 

 fight haid. and unless the average woman is a good wife, 

 a eood mother, able and willing to perform the first and 

 greatest duty of womanhood, able and willing to 

 bear and to bring up as they should be brought 

 up. healthy children, sound in body, mind and character, 

 and numerous enough so that the race shall increaee and 

 not decrease. 



It is on motherhood that the President waxes most 

 eloquent : — 



No ordinary work done by a man is either as hard or 

 as responsible as the work of a woman wlio is bringing 

 up a family, of sni;\ll children; for upon her time and 

 strength demands are made not only everv hour of the 

 day but often every hour of the night. The birth-pangs 

 make all men the debtors of all women. Above all our 

 sympathy and regard are due to the struggling wives 

 among those whom Abraham Lincoln called the plain 

 people, and whom he so loved and trusted; for the lives 

 of these women are often led on the lonely heights of 

 quiet, self-sacrificing heroism. 



THE BUTY OF MOTHERHOOD. 



The President return's to his solemn warning 

 against race-suicide: — 



There are a good many people who are denied the 

 supreme blessing of children, and for these we have the 

 respect and sympathy always due to those who. from no 

 fault of their own. are denied any of the other great bless- 

 ings of life. 



But the man or woman who deliberately foregoes these 

 blessings, whether from viciousness, coldness, shallow- 

 heartedne.ss. self-indulgence, or mere failure to appreciate 

 aright the difference between the all-important and the 

 unimportant why, such a creature merits contempt as 

 hearty as any visited upon the soldier who runs away in 

 battle, or upon the man who refuses to work for the sup- 

 port of those dependent upon him, and who, though able- 

 bodied, is yet content to eat in idleness the bread which 

 others provide- 



The existence of women of this tyi^e forms one of the 

 most unpleasant and unwholesome features of modem 

 life. 



THE NATION THAT DESERVES TO DIE. 



After gibbeting in the name of morality and re- 

 ligion a clerg}-man who had advised that no one save 

 a rich man should have more than two children, the 

 President says : — 



A race that practised such doctrine— that is a race that 

 practised race-suicide— would thereby conclusively show 

 that it was unfit to exist, and that it had belter give 

 place to people who had not fyrgotten the primary laws 

 of their being. 



His last words are: — 



The woman's task is not easy — no task worth doing is 



easy — but in doing it. and when she has done it, there 



shall come to her the highest and holiest joy known to 

 mankind. 



NATAL AND RHODESIA. 



Practical articles on British colonies, obviously 

 written by residents, not by the fleeting tourist, often 

 appear in the Empire Review, this month's number 

 of which contains two — one on " Farming in Natal," 

 the other on " Life in Rhodesia.' Each is a part 

 of a series. Mr. Maurice S. Evans's paper on Natal 

 should be ven.- helpful to inteniling emigrants. As 

 to the Natal settlers, he sa}-s : — 



No Britisli colony has been stocked with eettlera of a 

 better stamp than Natal- In the country districts Scots- 

 men and Yorksliiremen predominate some of the best 

 specimens of these shrewd, hardworking, conscientious 

 folk, and mingled with them are m^.ny who have seen 

 much of men and affairs. Indeed. I do not think you 

 would find amongst the same number of British people, 

 taken at random in the Old Country, so many men of 

 edac:»tion, force of character, and originality as are to be 

 found amongst the population of Natal. 



The Colony is now supposed to be passing through a 

 time of almost unprecedented depres.^ion. yet signs of com- 

 fort and luxury are present everywhere, commercial 

 failures are infrequent except among small traders, gene- 

 rally recent arrivals, and insolvency among the farmers is 

 practically unknown. 



But the outsider certainly does not realise to what 

 an extent Natal imjiorts food-stuffs and other articles 

 which she could produce. In former times Natal 

 fed her.self much more completely than now. The 



