Wichita eagle., 1889-06-27
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Daily eagle
WOMAN AND HOME.
CLEARING THE DECKS FOR ACTION
ON WOMAN'S WIDENING SEA.

They Have Been Mothers of Good Men.
/ Woman Not a Joker-A Clergyman's
Tribute Something Concerning Little
Men and Wor,er-HouseholdH Hints.
The rapid changes in social habits indicate
that women are destined to share more and
more the work Of men. 1t is now common
TO meet women In places where formerly they
were never seen-in postofices, libraries, lab
oratories, observatories, counting rooms, ed
itorial rooms, lawyers Offices, and SO on
indefinitely In great buildings created ex-
pressly for mems work, which formerly were
never trodden by the foot of any woman but
an occasional scrubber Of floors, the opening
Of any door may now reveal modest clerk
or typewriter, and nobody stops to criti-
rise the invasion. a change Of habits so
great necessarily involves other unconscious
changes. The employer Of women in all
these cases is apt to become a little more dec
crous and orderly, to exercise more control
of temper, more propriety Of speech, than
where he had men alone as companions or
observers.
On the day when women were first to vote
for school officers In Massachusetts, | hap
pened TO meet one Of the leading political
managers In my own ward, who had never
favored their voting. Iexpected to find him
shaking bis head over the innovation but
he was, on the contrary, wholly absorbed in
making the ward officers clean up the voting
place and put out sign, ''No smoking al
lowed here" He said 1.-THE ladies are
coming; we must make it decent for them"
And soon after the state passed q law for
bidding smoking at the polls, TO the great
relief of the ward officers. Men cleared their
decks, Ii manner, before admitting women
70 share their undertakings, just as the order
is given on naval vessels to clear the decks
before going into action.
But It is not men alone who need to do
this Women have a right to demand that
all should be done which is fitting in the way
of moral propriety and reasonable courtesy
when they enter the counting room or the
workshop. On the other hand, it is for them
TO remember that business is business, compe-
tition very great, and the demands of en-
ployers are necessarily exacting. Men do
not commonly employ a woman rather than
a man for any particular work, because of
chivalry or q sense Of justice, though that
may occasionally happen They employ her
US being more convenient, more economical,
or In some way more useful Having thus to
compete Us woman, she must try as a wom-
an to make herself as useful or available as
possible, and TO reduce to a minimum all in
conveniences that stand in the way. There
Is the matter of dress, for instance
Many men really like to have women about
them as employees, were 1t only because they
usually look heater and tidier than young
men in the same station. So far their mode OF
dress Is an advantage. But when, on the
other hand, the employer desires to post a
letter at the street corner, and knows that a
male clerk would simply throw his hat on
and go there and back while the young lady
was adjusting her bonnet, he Is stricken with
doubts as to the advantage OF employing wo-
mon. A young lady studying In a college
town complained to me that she had to give
more of her daily time to the buttons on her
gloves, in order TO 60 to and from her recita-
tons properly, than her brother in college
gave to his whole wardrobe.
Far be it from me TO recommend any dar-
ing changes in female costume, but the first
study of any young woman who has her own
living to make should at least be to dress In
such way as to reduce all these discomforts
TO q minimum, that she may be, wherever it
IS possible, as alert, as free, as ready for
action as if she were man.
And In the same way young woman who
has her own living to mako needs to disem-
barraSs herself of all false pride, keeping al
ways closely, of course, to true self respect.
] remember an old fashioned employer who
used TO say that he would never employ O.
young woman until she was as willing as a
young man would be TO 60 through the streets
with q bundle. Most women, he thought,
would only do this at Christmas time, this
being, in respect to bundles, a sort of carnival
season when all rules seem to be suspended
HsrDar'S Razar