Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-11
wOMAN's PRIVILEGES.
The Nost Valuable Possession n Nor
NAL Woman Can Acquire.

The most Valuable Possession n Nor
NAL woman Can Acquire.
Whoever says an unexpected thing at a
public dinner, and says it well, is entitled
to the gratitude of the company, comments
Harper's Weekly. No matter if the unex-
pected thing runs counter to some of the
convictions Of those present; the license
hat is issued to an after-dinner speaker
carries the right to relieve the mind, 9TH
| erwise no one worth hearing would take
such a license out.
The remarks of Miss Josephine Dodge
Daskam at the pilgrim Mothers Dinner
last week, in New York, had this surprising
merit OF being unexpected. The dinner was
| given on the anniversary of the landing Of
the Pilgrim mothers, by members OF the
New York Legislative league. Most Of them
are pronounced woman suffragists, solicl-
tous for all the rights that woman can OBJ
tain by legislation or constitutional amend
ment. Miss Daskam's theme was The
American Girl Of the Future" She was not
very strenuous about rights, reminding her
listeners that the recent multiplication Of
women's rights had not perceptibly loos-
ened the hold of "our brother on the ad-
vantages he had always possessed, nor in
creased the strength Of women, she sug-
gested that the girl Of the future may have
to choose between her present privileges
and her rights. In which case, said she,
81 should advise a young girl who asked
me what to choose, to hang on to her priv
ileges and let her rights CO." When we
read that in the paper the next day we all
smiled, and said 1t was a joke on the
mothers" Miss Daskam went on: "If
you cannot in this generation get your vote
| cap a1uyava Caf yOur vOfar dnO'h
think the young girl has changed very
much. She has no more mind than she
used to have, though she may use her mind
a little differently. There are two things
which woman must always have had to be,
since the creation of the world. to be sue
~cessful: she must be good, and she must
be charming. II she is not good, the world
cannot progress; II she is good, and moth
ing else, she will be as dull as anything the
world ever made; but IL she can be good
and charming her heritage and posterity
can ask absolutely nothing better"
Miss Daskam spoke for the majority.
Most Of the rights-the legal rights-that
have been won for American women in the
last fifty years were due and overdue, were
we'll worth winning, and are we'll worth
keeping, but they have not put her in a po-
sition where she can afford not to be charm
Ing. A large snare OF success In THIS WOrld
goes by favor. There are women who make
their way and win their dues by sheer abil.
ity and persistence, but the commoner ex.
perience is that the women who get what
they want win it more by grace than by
main strength. A lot Of valuable qualities
so to the making of a charming woman
intelligence, the quick sympathy which il
at the bottom of what we call tact" kind
ness, unselhshness, sweetness. Charm ha.
not much to do with physical beauty, ex.
cept as that itself is a reflection Of the innel
spirit, for charm is mainly spiritual. No.
body should, scarcely anyone does, 1isdair
it as an attribute of weakness, for. rightly
understood, 1t stands out as a form o
strength.
After all that has been done for American
women by legislators and educators, ant
college builders and reformers, it still re.
mains true that the most valuable posses.
sion a normal woman can acquire is a suit