The experience of the last hour did not savor much of the millennium. Here was a man holding the rank of an officer of the industrial army, and roughly and rudely accusing Edith of flirtation. His behavior certainly did not correspond with the high praise Dr. Leete gave to the culture and education of the young people of the twentieth century. At all events this conflict between Fest and the family of Dr. Leete demonstrated that contentment is not secured to humanity by the simple introduction of communism, by securing for everybody lodging, clothing and a sufficient quantity of good food. Envy and jealousy threatened our love, and Mr. Fest seemed to be just the kind of a man to make his displeasure felt. The manner in which Dr. Leete proposed to prevent a rash act of the enraged lover appeared to me even more disagreeable than the prospect of a personal encounter with Mr. Fest. And again the question arose before my mind whether Edith Bartlett, my fiancée of 1887 would ever have given a man an opportunity to accuse her of flirtation or to assert that she had encouraged him to declare his love.
When I met Mr. Forest after my next lecture I remarked: “I understand the girls of the twentieth century are somewhat of the style that we would have called emancipated”.
With a short but sharp glance at my pale face which testified that I had passed a sleepless night, Mr. Forest replied: “The mad endeavor to equalize the variety, established by nature, has not spared the relations between women and men. Both sexes belong to the industrial army, both have their own officers and judges, both receive the same pay. The queen of your old-fashioned household has been dethroned. We take our meals in great steam-feeding establishments, and if our Radicals, who are in fact the logical communists, are victorious, we will all live together in lodging houses accommodating thousands of people. Marriage will be abolished, together with religion and all personal property; free love will be proclaimed and we will live together like a flock of rabbits. The natural sense of propriety which is a distinguishing quality of the finer sex, fortunately prevents most of our women and girls becoming victims of the low and degrading theories of communism. But the real girl of our period is a very remarkable although by no means agreeable specimen. Do you know Miss Cora Delong, a cousin of Miss Edith Leete”?
“I have not the pleasure”.
“You will not escape her”, Mr. Forest predicted with a smile of amusement. “Miss Cora is very enthusiastic over the absolute equality of women and men. And since some of our young men are courting their young lady friends, Miss Cora thinks it but fair and proper that she should court some of the young men. She does not hesitate to tell them that she admires their good looks, that she loves them; she asks them for kisses, invites them to a drink—just as young men talk to young girls and just as they invite them to have a plate of ice cream.—She smokes cigars and plays billiards with her male friends, and is doing all she can to “equalize” the sexes. And Miss Cora as well as the other “girls of our period” complains very loudly that she cannot abolish all the differences between woman and man”.
“I am not very anxious to make the acquaintance of Miss Cora Delong”, I confessed. “And I agree with you from my own personal experience that the old style of housekeeping is very agreeable. I would prefer it. But do not the women of the twentieth century lead a more comfortable life than even the wealthy ladies of my former days? And are you not getting more toil out of the women than we did? Dr Leete says you are”[22].
[22] Page 266.
“Dr. Leete is a great optimist whenever communism is discussed”, answered Mr. Forest. “It is, of course, impossible to state with any degree of certainty, how much the girls and women of the year 1887 produced. But I doubt very much the statement of your host that we are getting a great deal more toil out of our women than you did”.
“The separate cooking, washing and ironing at the end of the nineteenth century must have caused a great deal more work than the present way of doing these things”, I remarked. “And Dr. Leete said: There is no housework to be done”[23].
[23] Page 118.