Points of Friction
are in no wise comparable); but he explained with careful emphasis that the French woman, unlike her American sister, is not, and does not desire to be, "un objet sacro-saint." The reverence for women in the United States he assumed to be a national trait, a sort of national institution among a proud and patriotic people. "L'idolâtrie de la femme est une chose américaine par excellence."
The superlative complacency of American women is due largely to the oratorical adulation of American men,—an adulation that has no more substance than has the foam on beer. I have heard a candidate for office tell his female audience that men are weak and women are strong, that men are foolish and women are wise, that men are shallow and women are deep, that men are submissive tools whom women, the leaders of the race, must instruct to vote for him. He did not believe a word that he said, and his hearers did not believe that
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