The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-30

vious at first sight upon our intellectual
life.
The real defect in our present system
is not an eGuca tional defect at all. 1t is
rather to be found in the unnatural sep
aration of interests between man and
women which forms so striking a feature
of our social and domestic life IN France,
in Germany, in England, everywhere, in
deed, in the Western world, outside the
United States--a woman does not view her
husbands life work as segregated from
her own interests. For all this our men
are primarily responsible. 1t is a matter
of honor with them that their women
shall have no cares, no anxieties ard few
responsibilities. The man bears his bur-
dens all alone in order that the woman
may be light OF heart. He sits in his
study office throughout the summer, so
that she may have her cottage in the
country or her voyage to Europe. He
holds his nose perpetually upon the grind
stone and becomes narrow and limited,
and rather dull, in order that she may
be free to learn and to observe and to
enjoy. 1t is magnificent, but it is not
common sense.
Not in formal education, but in a re-
version to more natural relations between
the sexes must be found the solution of
this vexing problem. When the man and
the woman learn to lead one life. instead
of two, when the man learns to look upon
the woman as something more than
pretty picture or a household ornament,
and when the woman learns to view the
man as something better and nearer than
a walking check book or a superior valet
de place." then all this talk about dis
illusionment and lack of sympathy will
end.
The girl bachelor threw something
across the room. says the New York
Sun.
Have you happened to see that Mr..
Edward Box has been having another
heart-to-heart talk with himself about
women?" she asked. This time the sub
iect of his meditations and lucubrations
is Women as Poor Pay
Now says Mr.. Box, says ne, 1t is
almost beyond belief how slow women
are to pay their bills! and by way of
proof, he tells of sundry fashionable dress
makers who are nervous wrecks along
the strand of the dressmaking business.
All because women are such poor pay.
lone of the hobbies Edward loves to
prance on is a particular grudge against
what he patiently refers to as the higher
education of our girls. He just reels off
sentence after sentence, each one fuller OF
wisdom than the last. There is too great
a lack in the practical education of our
girls, says Mr.. Box, says he. We go
on and let our girls study useless ologies
and isms, but of the practical things they
are taught nothing or little.
What do YOU think of the perspicacity
that finds in the higher education of our
girls the cause which is making nervous
wrecks of our fashionable dressmalkers?
DO you suppose there's room up in the
Hall of Fame for nice tablet for Mr..
Edward Box? Such power of reasoning
should be recognized in some fitting man
ner.
when he was preparing for his heart
to-heart talk, why do you suppose he
confined his Investigations to the dress
makers? He does not seem to have con-
descended to notice anybody else that
ever had the courage to enter into money
transactions with women. 1t would be
interesting to know which sex would
show up better If one investigated the
books of only fashionable tailors and
fashionable dressmakers.
THAT would seem a little more like the
fair thing; though even in that case the
circumstances would be quite different.
Most men are responsible for their own
bills and most women who go to fashion
able dressmakers are not. That puts
them in a class apart.
when Mr.. Box rails against college
education as having any bearing on the
unhappy state--if it is so unhappy-of
these dressmakers, he shows an igno-
rance of the facts concerning our girls
which is really painful. 1t is a well
known fact that very few society girls
the girls who patronize the fashionable
dressmakers then and in later years-go
TO college. College-bred girls are the
very ones who do get some experience
in handling money, paying their own
bills and learning to feel responsible for
them.
Here again 1T would be interesting to
hear from the tradespeople OF Poughkeep-
sic and Northampton as to the paying
qualities Of Vassar and Smith girls and
compare the testimony with that from
Cambridge and New Haven.
but to get really fair estimate of the
relative financial honor of men and wo-
men one ought to consult people who
deal with the same class Of both. There
is the boarding housekeeper, for instance.
Mr. Box is hereby advised to put his re-
markable reasoning faculties in cold stor-
age and call on some Philadelphia land
ladies'
New York boarding houses are full Of
tributes to the good paying qualities Of
women, especially of self-supporting wo-
men, the only class which can be fairly
compared with self-supportng men. One
woman who has kept a boarding house In
this city for over twenty years told me
| that she has never lost cent through
| a self-supportng woman and that she
has lost hundreds of dollars through
men.
There is a big building in Fifth ave-
| nue., near Twenty -third street. which has
| an unusual proportion of women tenants.
| There were artists, agents, headquarters
| for women societies and other feminine
| lessees.
THE manager OF the building said the
other day that he had never lost cent
| through any one Of the women tenants.
When asked II he had lost through men
| tenants he made a wry face and said he
wished he had all he'd lost right now ana
IN a lump. He would feel rich for a while.
Banks, which deal with women have
| the same testimony 20 give about them,
| although that Is tribute more to their
| honesty than TO their actual paying
qualities. Still Il counts for something.
perhaps In removing Mr.. Bok's stigma
/ from the sex.
"1-he truth about II Is that the women
who. are poor pay are OF the class of
those who pride themselves on their ig-
norancc of money matters and please
| their male friends by exhibiting their lg
noranco-or an imitation OF H. 1hey are
not women who nave rad an opportunity