The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-20
By
A
CLUB
WOMAN
G A s u AL
CO M NJ f N Il

sign-everybody believes tive believe IL
ourselves 1t means you are going TO be
married.
Delighted to hear IL. 1 made up my mind
some time ago that I'd like to get married.
the only fling lacking is the man."
But you needn't joke about il. II really
is certain TO come true; we've seen II so
many times
Yet these were ladies of the highest stand
ing and OF unusual intelligence and educa-
ton. Howbeit, the young woman who was
surprised by these experiences has supersti-
tions of her own; she likes to see the new
moon over her right shoulder, and she be-
lieves the number nineteen has a special
connection with her fortunes-that exciting
and interesting things will happen 10 her
on the nineteenth of the month, etc. But.
she justly observes. there is difference
between harmless and harmful superstitions
the term harmful being applied to the
ideas of the believers in witches and the
fear of moving the cat, not to the wedding
sign.
One would suppose that the statement
that the girls better scholars than the
boys in the public schools the young wom-
en- than the young men.
FaithfuIness in colleges and UNIVERSE
or Ability ties, was something new.
by the remarks that one
reads in the papers recently. In fact, it has
been an observed phenomenon wherever
and whenever coeducation has given the OPP
portunity for comparison. have no doubt
that President Birge is correct when he says
that the superiority of the girls is often due
to faithful, conscientious work rather than
T. 4
that the girls are more faithful in their
work than the boys, rather than that they
surpass them in ability. Robert Webster
Jones is trying to be nice when he says
that genius is an infinite capacity for TAX
ing palms, and conscientious, faithful work
is the best proof of ability. AN infinite ca
pacity for taking pains" is just what genius
is not, as before pointed out in this column.
and faithful. conscientious work is not aoil-
ity 1t is rather more important than abil-
ity, as a factor of success, but IL is not the
same thing / should say that the BOYS and
girls are probably about equal in ability.
different in kind rather than in degree, and
that, therefore, since the girls are the more
faithful workers. they rank higher in their
classes. 1t may also be truly said that men
are slower in mental development than
gifted girls one knows. and then considers
the qualities of the young men whom these
girls are acquainted with, one wonders
much how the girls ever to marry men
not vastly their interiors. But when one
looks at the married couples of forty or fifty
years old whom one knows. the husbands
seem to average rather higher intellectually
than their wives. This is generally because
Ali. g.
associated with his superiors, and the young
woman with her inferiors-with children and
servants. Also. as we grow older. we mar
row ourselves to our line Of work. The pres
sure and strain of daily work takes all our
thought and strength, and the general diff
fused brilliancy of youth is lost. But the
mans work is something that shows, that
counts, that the world is accustomed TO
reckon achievement The woman's work
is not counted. To make pleasant home. to
bring up the children well, to dress taste
fully, these are matters of course She is
highly reprehensible If she fails in these
things, but she is not to be especially
praised for succeeding. Yet these are the
very things that are the last and highest
product of civilization-the pleasant home.
the weli-brought-up children, this is what
church and state, factory and shop, mine
and farm, art and learning. are all for. To
secure them requires a complicated power
of administration. a constant thought and
attention to detail, d watchfuness and skill
that men do not realize at all, until. in some
emergency, they try to do il themselves.
And this is what the womans intellect has
gone into. this is the unreckoned. unreal-
lied great work that she does. II is a won-
derful testimony to the way she does IL,
that we expect success. as a matter OF
course A man is as likely to fail in business
as to succeed. but certainly few respectable.
intelligent women fail as housekeepers, and
if the children turn out badly. 1T is seldom
the mothers fault.
II forgot to say, when we were planning
my university for teaching elementary SCI
ence to novelists," said the Critical One,
that over the blackboard
81 100000 in every lecture room shall
in Gold. be painted in large letters
this inscription:
ONE MILLION DOLLARS IN GOLD
WEIGHS MORE THAN TWO TONS.
II will not have my graduates make a
man carry off a million in gold in his pock-
cts, or load burro with it and convey 10
across the State of Texas, or even have
four men lift it, in heavy iron-bound chest.
out of deep hole, load it into skin. and
row off to ship with it-which feat was ac-
complshed in the pages OF Harper's
Monthly
You wouldn't catch Mark Twain on that.
I remember that Tom Sawyer and Huck
Finn had suitable amount OF difficulty in
handling twelve thousand dollars in gold.'
zone doesn't usually catch Mark Twain
in plumbers of any kind"