The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-12-03
TOLD ON THE QUIET

About the DeSJ InlnS nave SOihC
across lately is a newspaper article by
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, on Women Who
Dawdle." 1t is divided into chapters or
sections under the heading of ''1ncom-
plete Lives" 1.-THE Might Have Been
and The is Not" Gone Woman's
Toilet" Drifting on the Sea of Time"
and Golden Moments"
.'Life's pathway" says Ella, IS
strewr with wrecks of incomplete lives.
Here and there we come across a sue
cessfuI structure, but everywhere we
see the might-have-been and the-is-not
Especially do women seem to fall short
of their early dreams and aspirations
in life. Scarcely a woman l meet but
tells me of her longing to be or DO this
or that and how she has been nam
pered and hindered by lack OF time IN
olden times women could not do what
thew desired for lack of opportunity.
To sew, to embroider. to spin, to weave,
to rock the cradle and keep the house
there was her sphere and there alone
Eff she 1onged to ride a horse, to
swim across the river, to develop her
physical strength by outdoor sports, to
become a linguist. or a botanist, or a
mathematician, she was obliged 10 keep
such unWOmdnly thoughts "lIhlh heA
own breast.
mo matter how bold and brave she
might be, how willing to defy pupnc
opinion, there was not the opportunity
for her to gain her ends
"But in this age scarcely a country
village exists in the remote interior
which does not contain it's gymnasium
c11It class
in botany or languages, and its plunge,
lake or pond where ambitious girls can
ACQUIRE the useful, healthful and charm
ing accomplishment of swimming.
"All that any girl needs in this day
IN he cultured in mind and athletic in
body is time and ambition.
THE impulse Of the age IS amoleioH.
Bl1t woman seems utterly at loss TO
know how to use her time.
This is where Ella says. the whole
trouble lies-''how to use the time. .
1t can be summed up, according to the
gifted poetesss, and it is dime to
penny that she is right, in two words,
sDon't Dawdle." The greatest time
at which dawdling is INDUCED in by
women, seems to be over their toilet,
and as Ella is supposed to know more
about such things than even doctor,
I quote her own words to one Oh heT
sex in reply to a question what is
dawdling?"
'Just what you have been doing for
the last fifteen minutes"
why, I have been making my toll
Iletr'
'I disagree with this assertion most
earnestly. But [ added, you have not
been making your toflet-only pretend
ing to do 50. You asked me TO come
into your room and chat with you Wnlie
YOU dressed. You let down your hair
and took UP your brush; then you turn
cd and began to talk to me without
making one movement toward dress
ing your hair. All you said could nave
been uttered while you braided your
tresses and pinned them up You were
not delivering an Grafton which re-
ouired gestures or the concentrated
power of your body
"sThen you picked up your slipper
and seemed to fall into a reverie over
it, Then you walked three or four
times across the room with evident
object in nind-you we're looking for
something, but you had forgotten what.
All this time your hair was down, and
I saw you pick UP and lay down your
| hairbrush five times without dong
more than to give your Jocks an ann
less stroke each time. This used your
time and vitality and accomplished
nothing. You wasted time enough N
that one operation to have mastered
the indicative of one French verb
s..You dawdled in the same way over
your gown You took needle and
thread to haste in a piece of lace about
the neck and wrists. and then you
dropped your hands in your lap and
lleaned forward idly. while you told me
with pain in your eyes and regret IN
lvour voice how disappointed you were
! in not having more time to use in study
This is the way your precious moments
| drift by. unnoticed and unseen by you
| IF YOU gathered them like gold beads
/ on a string. you would be rich IN hours
! by and by, which you could devote tt
study
Ella didn't make her point more eff
fective by concluding with the mascu
lime 'See?o, but she would have beer
perfectly justified in doing so. Their
| she goes on to describe the womer
whom she knows who dawdle before
the shop windows when they wall
down the street gazing at everything
with no intention of buying solitary
thing; who dawdle in the doorway
when they make a call; who dawdls
! over their Homework, who dawdle, il
fact, over nearly everything they dO,anC
concludes by making the uncontrovert
lible statement that: Such peopl,
waste life's precious cloth of gold b.
tfraying and raveling out the threads
and then complain that the fabric il
too small to cover their needs. The sue
cessful in life are less frequentl.
lgeniuses than merely people who d,
not dawdle."