Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“ There's not only no fun without 'em--no real sport--no competition; but these women aren't WOMANLY. You know they aren't."
That kind of talk always set Jeff going; and I gradually grew to side with him. "Then you don't call a breed of women whose one concern is motherhood--womanly?" he asked.
"Indeed I don't," snapped Terry. "What does a man care for motherhood--when he hasn't a ghost of a chance at fatherhood? And besides--what's the good of talking sentiment when we are just men together? What a man wants of women is a good deal more than all this `motherhood'!" ”

“ We told them of the belief in the resurrection of the body, and they asked if our God was not as well able to resurrect from ashes as from long corruption. We told them of how people thought it repugnant to have their loved ones burn, and they asked if it was less repugnant to have them decay. ”

“ You see, it is many centuries that we have been breeding the kind of cats we wanted. They are healthy and happy and friendly, as you see. How do you manage with your dogs? Do you keep them in pairs, or segregate the fathers, or what?"
Then we explained that--well, that it wasn't a question of fathers exactly; that nobody wanted a--a mother dog; that, well, that practically all our dogs were males--there was only a very small percentage of females allowed to live.
Then Zava, observing Terry with her grave sweet smile, quoted back at him: "Rather hard on Thomas, isn't it? ”

“ They were a polygamous people, and a slave-holding people, like all of their time; and during the generation or two of this struggle to defend their mountain home they built the fortresses, such as the one we were held in, and other of their oldest buildings, some still in use. Nothing but earthquakes could destroy such architecture--huge solid blocks, holding by their own weight. They must have had efficient workmen and enough of them in those days. ”

“ There were no wild beasts in the country and very few tame ones. Of these I might as well stop to describe the one common pet of the country. Cats, of course. But such cats!
What do you suppose these Lady Burbanks had done with their cats? By the most prolonged and careful selection and exclusion they had developed a race of cats that did not sing! That's a fact. The most those poor dumb brutes could do was to make a kind of squeak when they were hungry or wanted the door open, and, of course, to purr, and make the various mother-noises to their kittens. ”

“ Do they enjoy it--living without mates? Are your dogs as uniformly healthy and sweet-tempered as our cats?"
Jeff laughed, eyeing Terry mischievously. As a matter of fact we began to feel Jeff something of a traitor--he so often flopped over and took their side of things; also his medical knowledge gave him a different point of view somehow.
"I'm sorry to admit," he told them, "that the dog, with us, is the most diseased of any animal--next to man. And as to temper --there are always some dogs who bite people--especially children." ”

“ Presently there were twenty-five New Women, Mothers in their own right, and the whole spirit of the country changed from mourning and mere courageous resignation to proud joy. The older women, those who remembered men, died off ”

“ And Jeff said, "Nonsense, Terry--you know men like dogs better than women do--as a whole."
"Because they love it so much--especially men. This animal is kept shut up, or chained."
"Why?" suddenly asked Somel. "We keep our father cats shut up because we do not want too much fathering; but they are not chained--they have large grounds to run in." ”

“ We rather spread ourselves, telling of the advantages of competition: how it developed fine qualities; that without it there would be "no stimulus to industry." Terry was very strong on that point.
"No stimulus to industry," they repeated, with that puzzled look we had learned to know so well. "STIMULUS? TO INDUSTRY? But don't you LIKE to work?"
"No man would work unless he had to," Terry declared. ”

“ For five or ten years they worked together, growing stronger and wiser and more and more mutually attached, and then the miracle happened--one of these young women bore a child. Of course they all thought there must be a man somewhere, but none was found. Then they decided it must be a direct gift from the gods, and placed the proud mother in the Temple of Maaia --their Goddess of Motherhood--under strict watch. ”

“ Here you have human beings, unquestionably, but what we were slow in understanding was how these ultra-women, inheriting only from women, had eliminated not only certain masculine characteristics, which of course we did not look for, but so much of what we had always thought essentially feminine. ”

“ They made a brave fight for their existence, but no nation can stand up against what the steamship companies call "an act of God." While the whole fighting force was doing its best to defend their mountain pathway, there occurred a volcanic outburst, with some local tremors, and the result was the complete filling up of the pass--their only outlet. ”

“ Well--that original bunch of girls set to work to clean up the place and make their living as best they could. Some of the remaining slave women rendered invaluable service, teaching such trades as they knew. ”

“ They were decimated by war, driven up from their coastline till finally the reduced population, with many of the men killed in battle, occupied this hinterland, and defended it for years, in the mountain passes. ”

“ Why, the hunting dogs and watchdogs and sheepdogs are useful--and sleddogs of course!--and ratters, I suppose, but we don't keep dogs for their USEFULNESS. The dog is `the friend of man,' we say--we love them."
That they understood. "We love our cats that way. They surely are our friends, and helpers, too. You can see how intelligent and affectionate they are." ”