The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-28
WORLD
On OTHER woMEN's ADJUSTMENTS.

on OTHER WOMEN's ADJUSTMENTS.
1t was after they had roundly
abused the young woman whose man
ners and clothes were not as their
own, says the New York Herald, that
the group of noble DANES gathered
around the tea kettle remarked, almost
in unison: "Of course, we wouldn't
say anything against her for worlds;
we really like and admire her good
qualities But we do hate to see so
nice a girl as she really is making a
fool of herself"
And among them there was not one
to suggest that perhaps the girl under
discussion was not making a fool of
herself. There was none to intimate
gently that If the discussed ones pas
sion for purple, while rendering her a
little conspicuous, satisfied her own
eyes or gladdened her own heart, it
was not folly but high wisdom to
wear it. There was none to remind
the tea drinkers that one woman's
meat in the line of amusement is an
others poison, and vice versa, and
that it is to make a fool of ones
SELF not to discriminate between
them for ones self.
Where two or three women are gath
cred together there you will generally
find in the midst of them the unfortu-
nate figurative dummy of some absen-
tees pleasures. At that they hack
and hew according to the most i'm
pressive methods of femme butchery
1t is almost always with the absen-
tees ideas of pleasure that the quar-
rel is begun. You don't often hear
critics bewailing the fact that Laura
beats her aged mother, or that Addie
cannot be safely invited to dine be-
cause of her penchanc for the silver
spoons of others. or that the widowed
Susan is neglectful of her only sons
education or morals.
No, you find excited groups declar-
ing that what amusement Laura can
find in the society of mere college
boys passes their comprehension (but
they always regard this statement as
a slur upon Laura rather than as a
confession of their own dulmess). They
are utterly at a loss to account for
Annies devotion to the relaxa tons of
the vaudeville stage. For their own
part they like the theater, of course
Hamlet and Julius Caesar" or
Bernhard. and all that-but those
continuous performances-how can
any woman who has not some serious
blemish in her character stand them?
AS for Susan, they are quite out of
patience with her for the hours she
spends upon the golf course, making
frantic passes at ridiculous ball and
getting her nose red in the wind.
And Hester, who works all day,
ought to go home at night and to bed,
instead of dining and dancing and
sparkling until all sorts of unholy
hours. And Rose really ought to be
reused out of her lethargy; the way
she spends evening after evening with
in the circle of light from her own
lamp, reading her dull old books, is
something extremely aggravating to
those who have hit upon the exact
mean between frivolity and dullness-
the speakers. And Bessie's hats are
fast looking and Jennies cavaliers are
faster looking, and altogether no one
Is taking her pleasure as the tea ket-
tie circle requires.
It is this impotence with all other
standards of pleasure and of taste
than our own that leads to at least
nineteenth of the gossip and scandal
with which the world is flooded. Com
paTatively seldom do the scandal
mongers get hold of a succulent morsel
of real crime. Their most notable
finds are that So and So was seen at
an after theater supper again with
This and That, and every one knows
his reputation! And she must be GU
rious person to care for his society! 1t
is seldom that So and So has done
anything dreadful in the eyes of the
law of the land, or even of her father
confessor, for the matter of that.
She simply happens to like her re-
axations in somewhat different
form from that in which you and /
like ours; she never takes up to task
for preferring a morning musicale at
the Waldorf to supper party on
Broadway. She is enjoying her re-
Taxation sufficiently to be quite toler-
ant toward the incomprehensibilities
of other women. But we-can 1t be,
after all. that we resent the success
which attends her efforts to amuse
herself because we are so dreadfully
bored at our own? Are we declaring
against her diet of pleasure because
our own does not agree with us, and
we are a bit dyspeptic? 1t sometimes
seems uncommonly like it. If that is
so We should for very pride's sake for
Dear in our criticism.
At any rate the amusementS of 9TH
er people need not seriously affect us.
II studio teas make us hopeless >of the
future of art and civilization, it is our
oicSS6u privilege TO dVOfQ Slu0lO tCdo.
And If we avoid them we shall be ig-
norant of who attends them. IL vau-
oeVllle CRATES upon our oversensitlVe
nerves, vaudeville never insists upon
invading our peaceful homes and MAX
ing us hear it's topical songs. II golf
strikes us as unwomanly there is not
the slightest danger that a course or a
professional will insist upon taking
up quarters in our Harlem fiat or our
hall bedroom. And if We, in the pur-
suit of those mild pleasures which are
our delight, attend strictly to our own
business, we will not know that the
young woman with a fondness for
purple hats or for college boys is en-
gaging in all the amusements which
we scorn.
1t took the world long time to
reach such a pitch of tolerance as 1t
has attained in the matter of religion
and politics. But still it has attained
TO a measure of it. Most men are
willing to admit that their next door
nelghbor may be trusted alone with
the money bag or with the children
without temptations to theft or cruel
", even though he is Democrat or
Republican, as the case may be, or
whether or not he is a seven-day Bap-
list or a High Church Episcopalian.
When the next triumph of tolerance
is gained, and women are willing TO
concede the ordinary household vir-
tues to their sisters who take their
pleasure in a different way from them
selves, the advance agents of the mill
lenium may announce the immediate
& Enf lnrao q