The morning times., 1896-07-26
WOMEN NOT SAVERS.
Their Utter Indifference to a Bank
Account.


| new woman has made good her claim to
| the abiiisy TO successfully enter all Iraues
and professions. Her faculty as a bread
| winner is no longer open to question. But
| II would appear mat ner talent lor affairs
stops short here, that the brain power COM
pletely spends itself upon acquiring. Fol
tis IA uepioiaDic IacI tnat When 1t comes
TO outstanding her resources, wise jGdg-
| ment is for the most part conspicuous by
its absence, and snug little bank account
/ seems 10 be the very last thing on earth
| that especially appeals to her.
| Tradition and education long go instiiied
| into the minds of men that what they
| achieve and acquire must be well on it's wa y
| before they are fifty. The ball set rollin z
| in early manhood may continue to bring
them in an ever creasing income; but the
| average man scarcely expects to embark in
any great and successful enterprises after
| that period
| With women the winning time is even
shorter, for they often do not begin until
late in lIfe-after the hope of settled es-
| tahiishment has died out-aDd already at
| fifty the average woman Is conscious of a
certain loosening OF the grasp, lack Of
spring and elasticity, and a generally iow-
cred vitality. Then comes a long the
younger woman, abreast with the times,
with fresh outlook, clean grip, new ideas,
and all the experience of the Older one is
as naught against it, Yet from the type
writer at SO a week to the singer at ten
times ten, from the maid in the kitchen
TO the popular actress, women wage-earn-
ers in America seem TO live in absolute
forgetfuness of such conditions and are
smitten to the soul with the mania for
spending.
A CASE IN POINT.
nj T hay honp
with d sort of pathetic interest a young
court stenographer. The pluck, energy,
grit, the alertness, vitality, and cheeriness,
the real hfe's blood that she puts into her
vocation are refreshing and inspiring to
see Night after night she comes into her
office after a da Y in court-wbich means
five or six hours of the most tense, con-
centrated, responsible work imagina BILE
and If a case has been ordered, out comes
her machine, and she typewrtes or die
tates until the Wee small hours. The pro-
ceeds of the written evidence added to her
$40 day in court frequently brings her
average to 500 week. She has kept
this sort of thing up for nine or ten years,
and though still in her early thirties is
beginning to lose something of her keen
ness and vital force. Insomnia and nerv-
BUSINESS often claim her for their own.
But Instead of the good little bank ac-
count that she ought to have, this be-
nighted young woman begins each sea on
little behind, and exerts surplus ingenuity
in "staviDg off Creditors She has no
one in the least dependent upon her, but
enjoys aking expensive presents to her
family. extremely wellconditloned people.
Her money gees largely into pretty frivol-
tiles, which haven't even the merit OF being
iii good taste for the business woman. The
$50 hat, covered with pluInes, which is.
w-,sH
first week CT its appearance, for court
must be rea ciied ut certain hour, showers
or no; the $50 sealskin cullarette, which
takes the place OF neither cloak nor cape,
and which, in Il moment OF alteration,
from overstrained nerves, is dropped by
the wa yside; flowers, bonbons, opera
tickets, even book agents, eoine in for
their snare. Anything Will do, apparently,
so long as it stands between her and a
bank account. And the SO and S15
week girl carries out the same principal on
a smaller scale. In fact know of but one
woman stenographer who has teen really
prudent She has earned less than my
friend, lived as well and dressed better
not SO extensively, but better-and has
now Sc 900 al interest.
1 do not like to think in this connection
of some OF the shabby older women have
sometimes seen coming into lawyers Of
fices with dimmed eyes and trembling
fingers, soliciting copying.
THE DAY OF RECKONING.
chance to know intimately also one OF
the best vocal teachers in America. For
twenty years her income has approached
$4,000 year. This means that during
the busy season she sits day after day on
her piano stool from 8 nsthe morning
until perhaps at night, trying to give
out method, style and inspiration to all
sorts OF voices and teniperaments. At
fifty-seven she is breaking. She needs now
to retire and fill out the remainder of her
days In gentle, dignified ease. But 1t is
10 more possible than it was ten years ago.
Open house, dinner parties, gowns up to
the limit have absorbed the greater part
OF this generous income, and the burden,
even now that its weight has come to be
felt, must still be carried with the oc-
casional aid OF physician, saEitarium or
voyage-everythiBg except the most needed
and weliearned leisure. And you cannot
escape the reflection that she could have
lived as well and had as much on half the
outlay, had she but used 1.-THE OF the brain
in spending her money that she did in
earning 1t.
The majority of singers Of average popu-
larity-by those mean women who have
salary OF perhaps 81 900 a year for choir
position, and 81 90 or $50 for concert en-
gagments during the eeason-usuaily start
In on teaching when obliged 70 give up