The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1891-10-14
WHAT BECOMES OF A GIRLS MINUTE.
Did You Ever See One Who Could
Answer the Question:

Answer the Question:
Does anybody know whas becomes
of girls timer Was there aver a
girl who could tell what she did with
it, or where she put it. or account in
any reasonable way for its mysterious
disappearanceP says Kate Field.
Are the girls minutes like the lost
pins of which nobody ever finds a
trace. though the factories have been
at work so long that one would think
that the dropped ones would constitute
in themselves au adequate source of
supply.
There are some things which have
this capacity for utter humiliation.
Wild animals are never found dead in
the forests; watering-place friendships
vanish into wind-swept space; the hole
in the stocking speaks of texture
which once was there but is there no
longer; yet these things get out of the
world no more quietly and unaccount-
ably than the hours and minutes of a
good proportion of young women
There is a theory. which is common
ly accepted, that girls time is all
spent upon dress. Certainly a little
of it goes in that way, but the amount
must be small. Older women, with
many social and domestic cares. dress
quite as well as young girls, and usual
ly better.
They cannot give all their time, or
even any appreciable part of it, to the
planning and purchase of their raj
ment, SO there is evidently fallacy in
the idea that feminine attire is capable
of engrossing the entire attention of a
woman.
There is another theory that girls
time is spent in entertaining members
of the other sex. but this is absolutely
untenable. Even the mildest of firta-
tions calls for two flirters. and as the
student of our social system is never
weary of pointing out. we have no
class of men whose time is their own.
A girl may spend her evenings and
Sundays in amusing the masculine
half of creation, but business hours
are sacred from her invasion. Her will
might be good to so spend the hours
from sunrise to midnight, but in the
nature of the case her opportunities
are limited.
Is it domestic cares which are SO alb
sorbingP The newspaper paragrapher
would say not, and ] think on the
whole he is right. This is not because
most girls are unwilling to share the
household responsibilities. but because
during the time of their education.
home life goes on without their assist
ance, and once out of school they find
no place ready made in which they can
be useful.
1t is about as easy for the camel tc
go through the needles eye as for the
daughter of well-to-do family to find
any domestic duties worthy of the
name in her fathers house.
There are yet other ways in which
it is popularity supposed a girls time
is employed. such as study Mnd cor.
respondence. But did you ever go tc
morning classp If SO. you know per.
fectly well the formula: II was SO
busy hadn't minute to spare fol
preparation"
Have you any women among your
correspondents, and did one of them
every write letter without explaining
how busy she was, and had been for
weeks past, and would be for weeks tt
Gomez Whatever the mysterious grind
ing tasks which fate imposes upon the
young women who have apparently
nothing to do, by their own confession
studying and writing are not among
the things sought.
Perhaps the subject is worthy OF
scientific Investigation. 1t would be
as useful to the race as the discovery
Of the North Pole; and though the in
quiry might be as long and tedious as
an Arctic exploration. it would not be
so dangerous. Industrially it might
be of value.
Here is vast amount of labor which
we know, on the testimony of every
girl in the land, is put forth daily, yel
without visible result. Would not ex
periments to make it productive be as
legitimate as those for the reduction OF
aluminium or the utilization of the
solar forceP
Anthropologists might spare little
time from the study of cranial develop
ment and turn their attention to find
ing out what becomes of girls time.
1t ought surely to be done, if for no
other reason than to crafty the dear
girls themselves. who are as much in
the dark on this question as any one
else.