, 1891-05-03

A Woman's Experience In New York or
ices Fifteen Years Ago.

certainly Is not, but she is anything ex-
cept the grim, i'll favored woman who
used to be thought the only aspirant for
rights and things. Mrs. Beckwith is a
charming, pretty woman, at the head of
a household that adore her, one and all,
from the big, manly husband to the pug
dog Merrylegs. She is thoroughly wide
awake on questions of political economy,
which she has carefully studied. She
belongs to several liberal and economic
clubs, is a graceful, effective speaker,
and is the New York state manager of
the Women's National Liberal union
She wears handsome, beautifully fitting
gowns, and has soft pink cheeks and
wavy dark hair sprinkled with gray.
About fifteen years ago, when the Beck
with family were not so well off as they
are now, Mrs. b. acquainted herself
with bookkeeping, and went into the
office to help her husband in his business,
1t was an unheard of thing for a woman
to work in IN office u.the business part
OF New York, however, and the owner
OF the building said she should not do it.
that this was not a fit place in which for
a woman to be, wen with her own hus-
n But there was need that she
should work, and Mrs. Beckwith quietly
visited one office after another in the
huge building, and asked the gentlemen
II they were afraid to stay there if she
should come to occupy a desk and chair
alongside Of Mr.. Beckwith. They as
sured her they were willing to dare the
risk, like brave men. Armed with this
permission h lady visited the stubborn
landlord, and then, after some persua-
sion, he yielded reluctantly. l have al
ways thought that maybe Mrs. B. S sweet
voice and winning ways, as well as her
attractive face, had something to do
with melting the old gentlemau's opposi-
ton to women in his Office building. At
any rate, Mrs. Beckwith had a triumph
antly successful career pioneering the
way for ladies in New York offices. All
this happened only fifteen years ago, mind
you. Now there is scarcely an office of
any size and Importance in New York
that has not from one to a half dozen
girls and women employed there in vari-
GUS capacities.
l observe that old paragraph is stiu
going the rounds which makes Mrs.
Tenant, mother of Stanley's wife. say
that she saw in America, as in England,
thousands of sweet, lovely. worthy girls
fading away because there were no hus-
bands for them. That may be, but 1 OBJ
serve that they don't fade half as fast as
the girls that get husbands.
Speaking Of a suitable dress for bust
ness women and the Inconvenience of
the present one the New York World
says: 1T is for women themselves to
remedy this evil. The matter is entirely
in their own hands" Is it? Who is it,
pray, that boots women, mobs them and
crowds them so they must be taken to a
police station when they appear on the
streets wearing a dress unlike the con
yentlonal one? Who is that says he
would not speak to his wife or own her
if she should wear a dress that showed
her feet2 Who is it that is always prais-
ing trim built women and small feet?
Women, of course.
l am more than ever satisfied that
women will get all the legal rights that
men have as soon as a majority of them
want these rights. The apathy of wom-
en- whose sphere of thought is bounded
by a mustard seed shell is the worst
obstacle to progress that is to be over
come. And these apathetic women will
never be walked up till some torture
wrings their W souls. Meanwhile the
rest of the world waits.
To several women whom l might
name, but will not: Let us have peace.
There is nothing in this life worth quar-
reling about. You put back the wom-
ans cause a hundred years with your
petty personal spites and nonsense.
Stop it. Drop your everlasting self
seeking, and don't try to force your
selves where you are not wanted. Cease
contention and strife.
Elizabeth Sargent, daughter of ex-sen-
ator and Minister Sargent, of California,
has prepared herself thoroughly by study
in America and Europe to be an oculist,
and she is already winning a fine repu-
tation in her practice in California.
The Little Mothers society in New
York city is doing much good in the
n of affording rest and recreation to
little girls of the poorer classes, who
are loaded down with the care of
younger brothers and sisters. These
poor little victims of a civilization that
Is out of joint, Il out at the elbows be
sides, never know n childhood. As soon
AS they are old enough the ever present
baby is placed in their arms to mind
while their mothers go out rag picking
scrubbing or working in "a factory.
Many of these forlorn little girls never
saw the country. One of them, on her
little vacation trip last summer, said
with a giggle to a lady manager who
had spoken of her own little boy, 'Oh,
didn't think you were married, because
YOU laughed so much"
have been amused many a time at
the portraits of women that were painted
fifty to a hundred years ago. The air of
meekness and submission expressed in
the heads, bent forward and crooked
sideways, is laughable beyond descrip-
ton. l have lately seen a picture of
Miss C. NJ. Sedgwicli, in which the ex-
preston Of c~ountenance suggests that in
those days it was a gross improperly
even for a woman to hold her head up
straight. Well, We are not quite so meek
and quiet as we We're. We are going to
use our brains and our hands now for all
they are worth. What is more, we are
going to use them for our own benefit,
too.
Ia@McA~s~ G,s~ev