The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-26

tie AillSldhG VI lliSH lives III StltiuS
away from it,"
1--WE have gotten away from it. thank
heaven" l reply, fervently, land what
is more significant still, is that men
have gotten away from it, too. You
may rail all you please at the modern
woman, but you wouldn't stand for the
old woman with her faints and her
helplessness and her ignorance, one
minute now. If your grandmother
should come back she would bore you
to death. You can't any more go back
to the vine type of woman than you
can go back to stage coaches and tai
low dips. after you get used to auto
mobiles and electric light. The modern
woman is simply modern convenience
and a labor saving device we can't get
along without
The beauty about an argument is
that nobody is ever convinced, and you
can always start fresh every time, and
go over the same ground again. The
man and l have threshed this subject
out dozens of times. / always contend
ing that a woman has got just as good
a right to make money and enjoy the
pleasures and perquisites of life as
man, and he holding that her only aim
in life should be to cling to some man.
Neither one of us ever change our
opinion a particle, but the other day
the argument had rather curious end
ing.
1t CHANGED that both of us were in
vited to a studio tea where a lot of the
newest new women in New York had
gathered. One was a popular actress
another was an expert buyer for big
department store. another was an artist
whose pictures sold, another was a
physician with paying practice, while
still another was a successful news
paper woman. All were low-voiced.
gentle-mannered, refined, cultured and
beautifully gowned. The man enjoyed
himself. He is bright and witty, and I
could see his face flash as his bon mots
were caught up and his funny stories
to the clever audience that was listen
ing to him and applauding him.
We left the house together, and
said, II felt awfully sorry for you.
The new woman is so emphatically
your bette noire that it was rather rub
bing things in to invite you to such
a gathering. There wasn't a woman
there who didn't contradict your grand
mother theory at every point. The
actress ought to have continued to
eat the bread of dependence of her
unwelcome relatives. She didn't. She
defied the kinsfolks, who thought she
ought to be willing to wear their cast
off clothes and darn the children's
stockings, and do most of the house
work for her board and clothes. She
owns an apartment house of her own
now. The business woman was left a
widow without a dollar and a crippled
child to support. She has made things
lively for good many men who want
ed the fat job she is holding down.
The artist kept the wolf from the
door while her husband was writing
a great book If the newspaper wo-
man and the doctor had lived fifty
years ago in the halcyon days you are
so fond of talking about, they would
have been sitting down in some OBJ
scure corner, making beds and cook
ing dinners, when they had anything
to cook, and eating their hearts out
in envious longing for the good things
of life, instead of having them"
Every one of these women" / con-
tnued, started without a cent. She
has made a good living for herself
She has helped others. Best of ALL
she has not been a burden on any poor,
overworked father, or brother, and if
she isn't worth as much to the world
as your lackadaisical timid, shrinking
vine, 1 don't know what's what that's
all Moreover, for the life of me, I
can't see why the woman who turns
first in the morning to the stock re-
port in the paper, isn't just as woman
ly as the one who turns to the married
and died column"
But the men only grunted in reply
to my words.
A few days after that he came to
see me about a poor family we were
interested in. 1t was one of those
pathetic cases where the bread winner
dies suddenly, leaving a houseful OF
helpless women to face the world
alone.
"They will have to go to work"
said
"They can't" he replied, they don't
know anything to do. Why, 1 don't
suppose Mrs Blank ever decided a
question for herself, or bought a rail-
read ticket, or checked a trunk in her
life. She wouldn't even know how to
go about it. She's one of those gentle,
timid, clinging little creatures that
don't know bit more about the prac-
teal affairs of life than baby"
We'll that kind of woman is always
so appealing to men," 1 suggested, ma
liciously; its what they like"
Don't you believe" he calculated;
''it's a confounded nuisance when you
are trying to help them. | was up there
this morning for two hours trying to
explain some business to her, and she
didn't understand it any more than a
blithering idiot. I never saw anybody
so unreasonable. How on earth the wo-
man can be so ignorant of the COM
mon commercial usages in this day
beats me-"
why don't you marry one of the
grls?" asked. "They are just the
sort of women you admire-they don't
dabble i'm stocks, or keep up with pol
itics, or feel they have a right to vote,
or desire to compete with men in bus
iress, and either one of them would
ask nothing better than just to cling
to man through life, and let him do
her thinking for her."
Thanks, awfully," he returned, "but
when / choose a method of suicide it
will be something less painful than be-
ing bored to death. Fancy life with
woman who never read, and didn't
know anything!" Then he looked up
and our eyes met.
81 am converted" he said, with a
laugh, land l am glad I didn't marry
my grandmother
I'm my library" / said, 1T have a
pair of beautiful old silver candelabra.
"Yes?" he said, interrogatively.
"And / have had them fitted up with
electric bulbs. They are just as pic
turesque as they ever were," / went
on.
YES" he said again.
But they give more light" / added
with a smile.
'If am the leading lady in a funeral
before spring" said a woman who goes
everywhere, to the representative of
the Chicago Chronicle, II want my obit-