Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-03-16
Cleverness and Judgment.


Cleverness and Judgment.
Among the most valued and affording
OF my friends is an old negro woman.
whose grizzled head IS whitened by the
SHOWS of many winters aud whose
blcarcd eyes have looked on many sides
of life. She belongs to the generation Of
''bef0 de wah" darkies, and can neither
read nor write. but she possesses the hap
by gift of epigram-of being able to hit
off a truth. III a single blow. whitehot. on
the forge of speech. Her occupation just
now is in caring for bright and inter
esting little girl, of whose perfections she
is never weary of discoursing, and she
invariably winds up her panegyric by
saying Il tell you. dat child is smart,
and she's got sense with it,"
TO me that seems the most discriminat-
ing criticism that | have ever heard Of
fered on human being. Moreover. it is
teh thing that comes nearest to explain
ing the myriads of failures in life The
world gave up long ago trying to guess
the hopeless conundrum of why medi0c-
rity passed genus so often in the race for
fame; why so much talent that ought to
have achieved great things went to waste
and did nothing; what became of the in
FAINT phenOmenons, that we never heard
of after they grew up; why so many
good people were unapprecated and why
so many causes that ought to have sue
ceeded failed The answer is simple
enough. II is Just because there are so
many people who are smart without hay-
ing sense with it, or have sense without
brightness to leaven it. When they have
both they have the combination that
spells success every time.
This applies to men as well as to w0m-
en-, but it is peculiarly true of women.
for it must be admitted that. as a rule,
we run TO specialtes. We excel in some
one particular good quality, and are load
ed down to the guards with that but we
don't often carry a cargo of assorted vir
tues, WOmen's training has been along
narrow lines, and we cannot be expected
to break away from it all at once.
AS a wife the woman who is smart
without having sense with it Is Mrs.
Jellaby, who goes off after causes, and
leaves her own affairs to run themselves.
She wants to reform the world, but she
doesn't undertake TO reform the abuses
in her own kitchen. She belongs to uni
verSity extension courses, and gives mon
ey to advance the cause of higher educa-
tOn, but she doesn't see that her own lit
tie Johnny learns his lessons. She the
Orizes on the influence of the home. and
makes her own home so uncomfortable
that her husband takes refuge from it
in his club or the corner saloon. She
believes in woman's mission to uplift the
world, bat she goes through life without
ever finding out that she is a living refu-
tatiOn of the gospel she is preaching, and
that in every single case woman's intlu-
ence has got to be an individual lever
with which she prizes up the individual
spot on which she is standing. No wom-
an who hasn't got sense enough to man
age her own home successfully Will ever
convince anybody by brilliant talking
that she is capable of managing affairs of
state.
1t is, likewise, the lack of sense and
NOT ability, that is at the bottom of the
failures SO many workiugwomen make.
They are intelligent, and industrious. and
they ought to succeed. if only they would
use some reason and judgment in the
way of managing their affairs aud get
ting along with other people Some
times they refuse to see that business
must be done on business lines, and in Il
business way. Sometimes it il lust
merely lack of tact They step ON other
peoples toes. ana bunder against every
body's prcjudices. They offend custom
ers, and irritate their Supporters. and then
they wonder that their services are nor
III demand. The most competeni stenog-
Tapher | know can never keep a place.
She rs splendidly educated, and an expert
in her business, but she is one Of those
unfortunate people who always knows
everything. and argues everything to a
finish. She never stops until she has 81
fenced her employer, aud lost her Situa-
ton. Talent is good. and smartness is
not to he deSpised, hut when it comes to
making ones way in the world there's
nothing like Il liberal endowment of good
hard horse sense. | have known yonns
giri, IN dire Iced of money. but with n
talent for making clever little sketches
That wN,Eld have made her independent.
~ fricnf II lafnite trouble, got her an
order from Il swell caterer for dinner
cards, that might have been the begin
ming of an artistic career and would at
least have kept the wolf from the door.
but the young woman turned up her nose
at the very suggestion as if she had been
Rockefeller and a Michael Angelo
rolled into one.
The IDEAL woman is the one who COM
hines clevcrnesS and judgment She has
the wit To charm us. the intelligence to
attract, the cultivation that makes her
society delight. but underneath it is
the good hard bedrock of common sense
that directs all her acts and makes Them
sweet and reasonable. That is the WON.
an the new century will bring uS-the
woman who is smart. and has sense with
n.-Dorothy DIX in New Orleans Plea
yIIup