Women as Judges

1895

It is perhaps out of order for a woman to condemn her own sex, but it is none the less true when a feminine voice declares that women as judges are not just, and that when they are called upon to analyze the frailties of their own sex they never take into consideration all the heartache and the pain, all the struggle and the weariness that prompt the actions that they cannot understand and therefore cannot rightly interpret. The martyrs of olden times were as nothing compared with the women of today who go about with smiling faces, while underneath that calm exterior lies a tragedy that the world will never know and which frequently impels them to actions that in the light of censorious judgment seem unwomanly and positively immoral.

What right have any of us to judge of the superficial character of any one with whom we come in contact? We know ourselves that we carry about with us a double nature. What we are to one person we are not to another. The life that we show in one place is quite distinct from the one which brightens and illumines an entirely different residence. Which one then, is real? By which are we judged? And can a safe estimate be given of any one's character from the transient gleams that are given in kaleidoscopic fashion, first bright, then grave and infinitely sad? The woman whose life does not hold some sorrow is blessed beyond measure.

Few there are who attain the age of 30 who have not lived through ordeals to which in comparison the stake would be a momentary pleasure. Gossip and scandal roll rapidly away the foundation stones of a woman's reputation, but would it not be wiser, would it not be more humane, to examine first the incentive that prompts many actions that in the sight of the world are to be criticised and condemned? Charity covereth a multitude of sins, likewise a multitude of faults, and the most womanly attribute that can be cultivated is charity. Man's judgment is perhaps harsh, but it is likewise just. Woman's judgment is hasty and likely to be mistaken. — Philadelphia Times.