The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-17

young they marry. If they are old the
wearp revolving of the wheel of fortune
saps away their strength. Routine ex-
hausts women, and routine is the soul
of business. Women lack punctuality and
conciseness. They are unable to shake
themselves free of petty annoyances at
the close of the day. They expect chlvai-
rous courtesy from the men with whom
they come in contact. In only two pro-
LESSONS do they succeed. Those are nurs-
ing and teaching. There she reigns SUI
preme. For where a woman's heart is
touched she knows no WEAKNESS.
Mrs. Florence de Graft Shaw objected to
this restricted view of woman's sphere.
II do not believe that there is one set of
characteristics for men and another for
women. But if there be a quality which
our sex has been endowed with in all ages
it is persistence. Woman did not enter
the business world willingly. Necessity
drove her to it, and necessity stood with
lash in hand to drive her back. Boys are
trained for business. Woman is driven to
it unframed by desire to help those dear
to her. No love of appreciation led her to
the business world. She was not wanted
there. She was warred against inside and
outside; there were many sister hands to
drag her back, many voices to entreat her
to remember woman's sphere. Woman S
sphere then was no wider than home
keeping and husband hunting, but the
woman already has husband, however
inefficient he may be. And children are
not like orchids. The do not thrive on
air. But in face of discouragement within
and without woman persisted and entered
the business world. -
Mrs. Dimies Denson stated her opinion
tersely. when a man enters business
life, she said, The has for his object his
own self-support and probably that of a
family. When a woman enters business
life she has for her object her temporary
self-support. The nesting instinct has
been eliminated from her. and mating
time comes. When it comes, unless she
relies upon infant incubators and auto
matte cradles, she cannot show the same
persistency in business pursuits as is
shown by men,"
DR.. Heating said that women showed
in their business pursuits far more per-
sistency than men would show under the
same circumstances. Women, she said.
were usually not educated for business,
but went into it poorly equipped from
necessity. They had to battle against a
lack of training, social traditions, sensi-
tiveness, love of home and many other
things which men did not find at war
with their desire to enter business. Wo-
men had also to remain home seekers and
to fulfill domestic and social obligations, as
well as professional ones, necessity
which did not confront men. Yet women
persisted with a courage unknown to men
Mrs. Antoniette Taylor, speaking on the
| negative, said that women were not per-
sistent in business pursuits from lack OF
proper training, lack of equal reward
with men and innate love of change.
Mrs. Gertie Rosenfeld spoke of the women
who were business amateurs, trying to
run millinery shops and the like on after
noon-tea principles, and thus bringing
discredit on the whole race OF working
women. She also said some sensible
| things about the undertaking in
women's work. "No woman she said,
"has a right to sell her labor at rate too
small to support her in physical and moral
vel being. The girl who does this to
make matinee money for herself is
deliberately lowering the prices of women
who live by their labor, to her standard,
and is making it impossible for her to
live.
Mrs Adeyn Wesley Smith the last
speaker on the negative said some clever
things. Let us consider ourselves neu-
ter beings, she suggested, cease to be
complimentary and be merely just. There
is not, ] venture to say in this honor
able assembly one who would not say
that certain vices are the exclusive pre-
negatives of men. Would it not be grace
full to admit that they have their peculiar
persistency in business Business
is but an episode in woman's
life. The typewriter clicking the
keys is planning to study science or
to go home with a well-tiled purse to
! father and mother, or she is thinking of
the time when there will be -four feet on
| the fender. = She leaves her work with q
sigh of regret, but with hope for the flu
ture. She has brought into her work re-
inement, delicacy and gentleness. She
takes from it to her next segment OF
woman's sphere habits of correctness, ac-