SOURCE: "Easygoing Men and Dressy Ladies," in Gender, Fantasy, and Realism in American Literature, Columbia University Press, 1982, pp. 115-25.

In this excerpt, Habeggar argues that in the 1860s, "humor . . . was a club for men only," substantiating his assertion with a study of the masculine bias in several texts.

Marietta Holley's Main Characters, Betsey Bobbet and Josiah Allen's Wife, Argue About "woman's Speah":

"I have always felt that it was woman's highest speah, her only mission to soothe, to cling, to smile, to coo. I have always felt it, and for yeah's back it has been a growin's on me. I feel that you do not feel as I do in this matter, you do not feel that it is woman's greatest privilege, her crowning blessing, to soothe lacerations, to be a sort of a poultice to the noble, manly breast when it is torn with the cares of...