and finally, an inordinately tall English woman, whose teeth resembled garden implements, expressed herself in these terms:
“I also wish to assure you of the support of the women of Free England offered to the picturesque feminine population of France, for the final and entire emancipation of the female sex! Hip, hip, hurrah!”
At this the Negro began to utter cries of such enthusiasm, with such immoderate gestures of delight, throwing his legs over the back of the seats, and slapping his legs with fury, that the two custodians of the meeting were obliged to calm him.
Patissot’s neighbor murmured: “Hysterical women! All hysterical women!”
Patissot thinking that he was addressed, replied: “What is it?”
The gentleman made excuses. “Pardon me, I was not speaking to you. I simply said that all these women are hysterical.”
Monsieur Patissot, prodigiously surprised, inquired:
“You know them, then?”
“Well, rather, Monsieur. Zoé Lamour took her novitiate to become a nun. That’s one. Eva Schourine has been punished as an incendiary, and decided to be crazy. That’s two. Césarine Brau is a mere intriguer, who wishes to get herself spoken of. I see three others there who passed through my hands at the hospital of X⸺. As for all the old jailbirds who surround us, I need not speak of them.”
A loud “hush” came from all sides. Citizen Sapience Cornut, returned from exile, arose. He first rolled his terrible eyes, then, in a hollow voice that sounded like the roaring of the wind in a cavern, he began:
“There are words as great as principles, luminous as suns, resounding as bursts of thunder: Liberty! Equality! Fraternity! They are the banners of the people; under their folds we bravely marched to the assault of tyrannies. It is your turn, O women! to brandish them as weapons, to march to the conquest of independence. Be free, free in love, in the home, in the fatherland. Become our equals at the hearth, our equals in the street, our equals especially in politics and before the law. Fraternity! Be our sisters, the confidants of our grand projects, our valiant companions. Become truly a half of humanity, instead of being only a small part of it.”
And he plunged into transcendental politics, developing plans as large as the world, speaking of the soul of society, predicting the Universal Republic built upon these three indestructible bases: Liberty, equality, fraternity.
When he ceased talking the hall was almost shaken down with the salvos of applause. Monsieur Patissot, amazed, turned toward his neighbor, asking:
“Isn’t he a little crazy?”
The old gentleman replied: “No, Monsieur, there are millions like him. It is a result of education.”
Patissot did not understand.
“Of education?” he asked.
“Yes, now that they know how to read and to write, their latent foolishness comes out.”
“Then, Monsieur, you believe that education—”
“Pardon, Monsieur, I am a Liberal. I only mean to say this: You have a watch, haven’t you? Well, break a spring and take it to this citizen Cornut, begging him to mend it. He will answer you, with an oath, that he is not a watchmaker. But if there is anything wrong in that infinitely complicated machine known as France, he believes himself the most capable of men to repair it at a sitting. And forty thousand brawlers of his kind think the same and proclaim it without ceasing. I say, Monsieur, that we lack here new governing classes; that, as men born of fathers having held power, brought up in that idea, especially educated for that purpose—just as young men are taught who are intended for the Polytechnic—”
Numerous cries of “Hush!” interrupted him again. A young man with a melancholy air took the platform.
He began: “Mesdames, I have asked to be permitted to speak in order to combat your theories. To demand for women civil rights, equal to those exercised by men, is equivalent to demanding the end of your power. The exterior aspect alone of women reveals that she is not destined for hard physical labor nor prolonged intellectual efforts. Her sphere is another, but not less beautiful one. She puts poetry into life. By the power of her grace, the glance of her eye, the charm of her smile, she dominates man, who dominates the world. Man has strength, which you cannot take from him; but you have seductiveness, which captivates his strength. Of what do you complain? Since the world began, you have been queens and rulers. Nothing is done without you. It is for you that all fine works are accomplished.
“But the day on which you become our equals, civilly and politically, you will become our rivals. Take care, then, that the charm that constitutes your whole strength shall not be broken. For then, as we are incontestably the more vigorous and the better equipped for the sciences and the arts, your inferiority will appear, and you will become truly oppressed.
“You have a fine role to play, Mesdames, since for us you represent the whole seductiveness of life, the illimitable illusion, the eternal reward of our efforts. Do not seek to change this. Besides, you will never succeed in doing so.”
Hisses interrupted him, and he stepped down.
Patissot’s neighbor, arising, remarked:
“A little romantic, that young man, but with good sense for all that. Will you come and have a bock, Monsieur?”
“With pleasure,” Patissot replied.
They went away while citizeness Césarine Brau was preparing to respond.
Suicides
Hardly a day goes by without our reading in some newspaper the following paragraph.
“On Wednesday night the people living in No. 40 Rue de ⸻, were awakened by two shots in succession. They seemed to come from the apartment occupied by M. X. ⸻. The door was broken in and the man was found bathed in his blood, still holding in one hand the revolver with which he had taken his life.
“M. X. ⸻ was fifty-seven years of age, enjoying a comfortable income, and had everything necessary to make him happy. No cause can be found for his action.”
What terrible grief, what unknown suffering, hidden despair, secret wounds drive these presumably happy
