The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-04
MRS. CLAXON FIFTY
YEARS BEHIND Times"
MISS A. c. FRUCHTE.
Teacher Declares Minister'S Wife
Is Not Acquainted With
Woman's Advancement.
IDEAS ARE 0LD-FASHIONED.
Considers Paper Unworthy of Seri-
GUS Thought Because Expe-
ricnce Shows That Men
Are Chivalrous.
IDEAS ARE 0LD-FASHI0NED.

Mrs. A. W. claxon and her paper on tho
Ideal Wife are fifty years behind the
times said Miss Amelia Ciementina
Fruchte, instructor Of literature at the st.
Louis High School, yesterday afternoon.
Miss Fruchte is the highest ranking teach
er at the High School and has been identi-
ned with educational work in this city for
the last fifteen years. She is also well
known throughout the country among per-
sons engaged in similar work. She has
often read papers before conventions of
educators in different parts of the United
States.
How Mrs. ClaXon became imbued with
the ideas she has recently tried to promul-
gate is more than l can understand said
Miss Fruchte. Il find that L cannot
working woman agree with her in any par
ticular. Her ideas are all foreign TO me.
They have been neither my experience nor
observation.
II do not wish to be unkind, but really.
have not ,, considered her paper seriod hs9
lutely too old-fashioned. 1t appears to me
that Mrs. CiaXon was reared in IA home
TO be absolutely ignorant of what women
were doing or what they have accom-
piished.
.'If American gentlemen are losing their
chivalry, / have failed TO notice 1t, and l
have come In contact with men in my WORK
and on the street cars for the last fifteen
years. On the contrary, L ma tHat civ diks
Is as marked as 1t ever was, even among
young America. In my experience have
come in contact with but three boys who
failed to treat me with courtesy.
ION the street cars It is the same way
/ seldom get on a crowded car but what
have a seat offered ME.
of course l have noticed exceptions. but
do not charge 1t to lack of chivalry
but merely a lack of the proper cultivation.
/ take 1t that such person mas not at,
tanned that degree Of courtesy. Understand
now, too. that I do not expect seat, as
believe the working woman should enter
the business world as man does. on the
same footing. not expecting him to make
things easy for her.
Mrs Claxon's paper. as I see H. creates
the impression that woman enters the
business world purely from necessity. That
is not so. The times are changing. She has
a duty to perform, and she is performing 1t.
She knows she is capable of doing some
pride in doing it. Fifty years ago all men
and boys who would not work were classed
as vagabonds.
looked upon as not much better: but.
thank God It is not so to-day. Women
nowadays want to brin- out their attain
ments and they can do so without ut. Losing ng
of to-day do not ask about woman s
physical projections. Beauty. OF face and
form are but secondary considerations with
them Now it is. What does she know
and, How many ideas has she" are the
first questions to be asked.
MIS-, ClaXOn Is WTOnS ne Kits Oh tD-
day are not simply working for their daily
bread. They have a mission to perform, To
say that they are doing the mems work is
absurd"
WORKING woMAN's VIEWS.
The following communication received by
The Republic Is what another working
woman has to say:
There is an old proverb which saws,
have stened to r the 10 heaped
the girl in the street car, the girl in the
business world the girl behind the coun-
ter Poor things Not t tied to e, bsn hs
Moons chat by woman who.is evidently
looking for position as a carver Of hui
man character and human happiness.
"A poet who can build houses. an artist
who knows how to picture in glowing colors
table dno1s d d th may win Se1 c 70 aSont
the ingredients Of the dish as the poet
knows about architecture or Mrs Claxon
she thinks can live on the smoky atmos-
phere of the New st. Louis
Man knows little: God knows all: and
not till the angel sounds his trumpet ana
ciety girl to a reward or punishment VIII
the virtue among the business woman
appear great and put to shame fine clothes
and show only 'whitened sepulchers ana
rotted bones
How can any woman, and the wife of a
preacher at that, dare to assert that the
business woman's activity robs men of re-
spect for womankind? Not so! They are
respected and honored by every man who
has not forgotten his own mother as a
woman.
You have styled man as a brute We
must, for charity sake. IL he is one begin
at the bottom and not at the top. If We.
poor business women cannot draw that
brute out of his subterranean lair and
humanize him. We are gone.
1.-The question before us is radical evolu-
ton or devolution. civilization or devili-
zation. Nj. Z. s..