The Washburn Times

Feminism Not Wrecking Institution of Matrimony
By C. W. A. RUSSELL, Butte, Mont.

One loses patience with those who claim that feminism is wrecking homes and the institution of matrimony. The subject must be approached broad mindedly and not in a jaundiced and dyspeptic mood, and bachelors should not in the least lose confidence. No real man is misogynist. Not to like women is not to be a man.
The American housekeeper is still the best in the world. In comfort, in smooth running of household machinery, in good food and drink, in lavish and luxurious hospitality, we are nowadays in a class by ourselves in the matter of housewifery. One may be no longer a constant worshiper at the shrine of blue eyes, pink cheeks, golden hair, and the enshrouding mystery of skirts, but one knows that the best women are nobler than the best men and that the best men may still kneel to the best women. Heroines and angels among women fortify themselves in sanctuaries to which very few if any men have the key. Every good girl has the making of a heroine. All she needs is the opportunity.
It is, of course, too bad that so many bachelor girls are born to blush unseen and waste their sweetness on the desert air. And the bachelor men. Think what they are missing! There is one thing absolutely necessary for a happy union and that is love, that mysterious "something," the divine flame which only death can quench. A good wife is heaven's best gift to man, for, after all, what mission in this world can supersede that of the wife and mother, who holds high her husband's honor and loves her children and their welfare better than all the outside honors the world can bestow? The great majority of all marriages of the present day are successful, for men and women are becoming wiser and more refined through the cumulative force of truth and love.
My married friends tell me that if the unmarried folk really know what a world of tenderness and devotion is felt, lived and expressed toward each other among husbands and wives of the present day they would be rather more eager than otherwise to enter the state of matrimony, and that in the home one finds, or should find, mutuality, reciprocity, co-operation and service.