Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-06-25
WOMEN AND PROGRESS.
LINES ALONG WHICH THE SEX
SEEMS TO BE ADVANCING.

forts of Women as Observed. in tho
Accounts of Their Doings- Sensible
Criticism of the Exclusiveness of Clubs.
Opening daily newspaper l found in
three parallel columns three different series
of notices in regard to women, and they
seemed like so many detached lines in
which the women of the present time were
marching on into the future. Each rep
resented strenuous labor, personal effort,
organizing ability and in many cases I'M
selfish industry
In one column there was Il report of pro-
cee6ings at woman's college; in another
record of Il convention of working girls
clubs; and in the third series of items of
what is called Society Intelligence-a din
ner party at Mrs. A. IS, theater party of
Mrs. BIS and "a very pretty wedding'' at
the charming country house of Mrs. c., on
which occasion "the presents were numer-
GUS and costly"
OF these three classes, that which is the
theme of the society paragraphs is, on the
whole the least interesting to the scientific
observer, though often the most attractive
for purposes of social intercourse. 1t is,
indeed, for this function of social inter-
course that it eXists-to preserve 1.-The
usages," the ways of refined living, the
standards of cultivated intercourse.
VALUE OF SOCIAL USAGES
1t is of Unreasonable Importance that
this should be efficiently done; chat the
world should keep all that it has got in the
way of neat personal habits, kindly and
courteous observances, and delicate tastes.
Even "the gospel of good gowns" is, az
Mrs. Moulton long since pointed out, by
no means to be despised. Fine social inter-
course is really the finest of fine arts; and
if painting and sculpture and architecture
are worth cherishing, SO is that higher
standard of manners without which these
things are merely a misplaced fringe for
barbarism.
1t is true that manners joined with moth
ing better are disappointing. 1t is true
that hungry man would rather dine with
boor on venison than with Duke Humph-
rey on his proverbial dinner-that is, on
nothing. But if the boorishness destroys
ones appetite, where is the good of veni-
SON? And "a dinner of herbs, where love
is''-or even where refinement is-turns
out the better bill of fare.
The true charm of fine manners is best
seen in poverty, when attainable there;
but wealth is doubtless the better school
for them at first, and this is one reason
why men are tempted by wealth. The
English word "means," or the phrase "a
man of MEANS" is very instructive, foy It
views property but as a means toward
something more important. And though
many men go no further than the means,
yet it is something that we have this great
truth recognized in language. So all the
love for fashionable novels is really an ex-
preston of longing after the retinements
of life.
And though the society columns" are
often made up largely of the doings of the
socially obscure, and though the socially
prominent usually try to keep out of them,
yet they are no doubt a humble school for
good manners to those readers who dis
trust themselves. The young girl who
with vague admiration reads of Mrs. AIS
and Mrs. BIS entertainments perhaps &C.
quires the wish that when she also is an
nexed to some matrimonial letter of the
alphabet, she also may have an attractive
home.
KINDLY CRITICISM.
Yet, after all, the newspaper column
that records the convention of working
girls clubs has hearter sound and
deeper interest than these society, para
X
"bone and sinew" of the community, or
would be were it made up of men, 1t is
pleasure to look on gathering so hearty
and so genuine, and to know that here, too,
is society in the making. There is fear
less simplicity in the words working girl"
although the writer has never been of
those who seriously objected to the word
"saleslady," since that on its side repre-
r,ented, like somewhat excessive bonnet,
the longing already described for the re-
finements of life.
But the other is the solder term, and
has the merit also of going beyond caste,
because many of these clubs are founded
by those who do not in the common sense
of the word belong properly to them, and
who often in organizing them have been
in the very hardest sense working girls.
There is something fine and wholesome in
the success with which the more favored
young women thus often work for the
benefit of the less favored, and thus spirit
ually benefit themselves most of all.
The present writer has once or twice adj
dressed these working girls clubs, and has
found in their rooms a piano, a little Ii
rary, a good attendance and a cordial
hearing. They are often composed of a
mixture of nationalities and religions, and
thus do a good which the ordinary parish
or guild organization cannot accomplish,
and help toward that fusion in these re-
spects which is the only safeguard of our
institutions.
Sometimes, fear, they show little
spirit of exclusiveness in their own way,
as where Shey take in those employed in
shops and omit those who work in fac
tories, or where they include compositors
in printing Offices, but not those who
achieve their compositions with the aid of
cooking stove or a broom-in other words,
what are technically called 'livin' out
girls"
This seems to me quite unreasonable,
and like the attitude of that barber in
Dickens Nicholas Nickleby' who de-
clined to shave coal HEAVIER because it
was necessary to draw the line somewhere,
and he drew it at bakers. But these lin
gering bits of conventionalism are not,
probably, the prevailing practice, and will
soon be outgrown.-T. W. Higginson in
Harper's Bazaar.
Working Women in Foreign Lands.