Here is another collection, Madam, which I bring you from my readings of this month. I open it with a piece carried by one of the foreign magazines under the title: Femininity Is Woman's Treasure. It caught my eye for its value, which is never exhausted and never fades so long as there is a female in this life!
The writer draws us two pictures from the very heart of life. He shows us a girl in a gathering of men, one leg crossed over the other, blowing out the smoke of her cigarettes in the manner of the man addicted to smoking, arguing in a raised voice, with heat and a sharp turn of phrase. Then another girl came in and sat down in silence, her face suffused with the captivating blush of shyness, and the men fell quiet. Then they turned to her, trying to draw her into the subject of conversation; she neither refused nor accepted, but answered with a radiant smile. They offered her a cigarette, and her face grew redder still; she was flustered — what could she possibly answer? Yet she only smiled once more
and shook her head. It galled the first girl that her companion's rising should be the beginning of her own setting, so she lit another cigarette and tried to stir the talk up afresh; but the men's eyes had already turned to the new guest. There was in her a sweet mystery, a stirring stillness, and a silence stronger than any call!
After the two girls had gone, one of the company turned to his companion and said: Did you see how the little guest took hold of our feelings, though she is neither more beautiful nor more eloquent than her companion, nor more learned? Rather, there was in her something greater than all of that — virgin femininity, opening out in the modesty of dew-fresh flowers. As for her companion, she has taken from us men everything — the smoking, the raised voice, the sharp phrase — so that nothing is left in her that is not in us; we spoke to her as to a man. Femininity is woman's treasure: if she loses it, no beauty, no money, no position can make it up to her.
To what degree you believe this
saying, I do not know; but imitation prevails in our age, and its danger grows sharper when it turns to sweep over the other sex with its current and to snatch away some of the traits that belong to them — such is the belief of some. And now I shall move on with you, Madam, to hear the opinion of a certain speaker on the value of hope, and whether one can live without it. The writer believes that a human being can live three weeks without food, three days without water, and three minutes without air, but that he cannot live three seconds without hope. The speaker was calm of tone, addressing a group of parents, and despair showed on the features of the fathers and mothers as they held in their arms children whose leg or arm — or both together — had been cut off.
Sow hope and you will reap love; and with the help of the two, and of modern medicine, your children will be able to walk and run and work in society like any normal person. When the cancer patient waits in the hospital, fighting his pains with patience until the hour draws near, many say: let us help him go to his Maker in peace. But hope runs counter to this theory; indeed, it may take flesh in another person, who labors in his laboratory and comes out at last with the cure for this dread disease in his hand. Hope walks the farmer out to his field to work it anew, after he has lost the past season in his struggle with the fields. Hope keeps a man sound of mind in a world that strains every nerve to strike him down and shatter his nerves..... It is a phrase we utter at every moment and wherever we may be: we hope to win such-and-such a venture; we hope to reach this position; I hope my children will turn out successful... and all the other hopes that pass through our minds and set our feelings quivering with eagerness and gaiety. But do we stop for a moment to think of this hope — which, if it dies, freedom dies with it? For where injustice and tyranny hold sway, hopes and freedoms are buried! ... So despite the difficulties that face us at every instant,