The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-15
WOMEN At HOME AND ABROAD

! The conclusion of those Chicago
club women that 1.-THE social functions
| called parties are less frequently the
first meeting place of the future hus-
! band and wife than formerly is a less
| important discovery than it sounds. In
the frst place. every one knew it be-
Tore. AS women have taken up ath-
letfcs and have gone in for occupa-
! tons and professions of one sort or
another, whole new line of interests
( has arisen which are common to men
and women and furnish. a far more
promo meeting, place of the future
husband and wife than parties. Not
that parties: are on the decline. but
girls and boys have so many other
strings TO their bows in the way of
social diversions that parties count for
less than they used to do. But some
OF the reasons assigned for the fall
IN party matrimonial stocks by those
Chcago club women We're funny. The
matrimonial market has degenerated
Fbecause the women who go TO parties
leaVe their serious thoughts behind
them, and those who do not go feel so
| mighty independent" was the decIara-
ton Of one The oId-time husking
party and the good time dance of a
generation ago were the busiest matri-
monial marts known" said a second.
! w hen girls go to parties they display
/ only the frivolous side Of their natures
! and they grow artificial and silly" an
nounced yet another. Young men feel
[ the frivolfty and the artificiaIity and
| are discouraged and diSenchanted" OF
| course, girls are frivolous at parties,
! but so are the men. One does not
! dress up in lovely frocks for the sake
| or discussing womanS rights and the
| Immortality of the soul with ones
| partner. 1t is doubtful If girls are any
! more artificial in a ballroom than on
20 lfF1ly III
! mentS are different. Many a nice
| sweet girl who is charming In her own
/ home is subjected to cruel mortifica-
| tons at a dance where girls inferior
/ TO her in every quality except ball
room attractiveness are bellies. Per-
| haps this is what the Chicago women
mean when they speak of her artif-
! ciality and frivolity The prospect OF
| being wallfiower is enough to make
| any girl artificial
What is sauce for the goose is sauce
| for the gauder. At all events they
| do not mean over in BROOKLYN that the
poor little rich child shall be forced
| to play in his own back yard or prom
eHade the streets with his nurse, while
the gamfn Of both sexes has a public
playground of splendid dimensions
fitted up for him and equipped with
sand gardens, swings, "teeters," paral-
u
incIosed by brick walls, with truly
grass and trees in it, and now and then
a bird. has been secured, and through
the tender days of spring and early
summer babieS-rfch babies-wfu
ehuckle and gurgie; the older children
Will see-saw and swing, and man
superintendent will shoe off all in
truders. For to belong to the Heights
Playground association ones father
must first have paid $40 as an inftia-
ton fee for the family, and after that
II for each baby or child enrolled. That
gives the freedom of the new play
ground for year to the youngsters Of
that family. "A cooperative hack
yard" 1t has been called 1t might also
be dubbed children's country club.
IF every woman would give two
hours day to serious mental exer-
cfses she would be a healthier and
happier creature The clever French
woman who said that only repeated
what every up-to- date woman knows
from her own experience. NaTrowness
is the besetting sin of women. The
domestic woman, engrossed In the
round Of meals, ironing days and ser
want complexities, gets out of touch
with the wider interests OF life and
then bewafls her lot when she finds
herself treated like a back number bv
huSndHu anu chlIdFen- often the same
inertia and apathy seem to strike the
body. How many women one has seen
grow old and dampy before their time
in placid round of duh domesticitiesi
They know nothing of the refreshuent
and exhilaration of little systematic
study 1t may be music, Greek art.
| anything you like, provid-
ed II has something tough-problems
| to be encountered and solved in 1t.
Byron long ago wrote from some Vene-
| tan monastery that he had been
| twisting his mind around some study
| or other. That is what women should
| do They should twist their minds