239

BARRIERS AGAINST WOMAN

They Are Mostly Erected by the Women Themselves Blind Superstition.

Prejudices of Youth Which Endure Through Womanhood -- A Flea for the Unusual Woman.

All that follows is for women. The men are not forbidden, but they are advised not to read it.

But, the, they will read it. A man always does anything he wants to, particularly if it is forbidden."

It is so from his earliest days.

At the age of 6 he says to himself:

"If I climbed to the top of that baro I wonder if I would see anything that I never saw before."

He climbs to the top of the barn. he sees fields, houses, woods that he did not know existed. And he perceives that the world is large -- unexpectedly large. His mother comes out of the house and sees him on the barn. She does not scold him. She thinks he is splendidly adventurous. She mends his torn trousers without complaining.

But let her little daughter show any such inclination to see the world! She is called names that are a shock to her innocence. She is told that she is a "tomboy" -- terrible word! Her budding modesty is offended. Her ambition is [?] She drops bitter tears into her little checked apron and admits to herself that it was very naughty indeed of her to try to find out if the world was large. She discovers that for a woman it is not large -- that is to say, no larger than the door yard.