The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-22
WY DO THEY WHINE?

"Y OMEN are queer after all. Per-
" haps even now, after fifty years
of trial, they are yet too new
to money earning and business ways to
adopt the best methods of conducting
enterprises to success. Perhaps during
decades of centuries they have become
so accustomed to gaining their aims
through tears and mournfuI appeals to
the sympathies of others that-poor
soulsi-they drop through heredity into
this lugubrious style when they want
you to hire them to work or to buy from
them a new patent shirt waist fastener.
At any rate. many a woman's first
essay in the industrial world is a
wretchedly unbusinesslike appeal to
the sympathies of others Say Mrs
Tobias BODY is canvassing for the grip
it-fast shirt waist clamp. She comes
into your presence and sinks into a
chair with the sigh of q lost soul Then
she opens out. She tells you she is a
widow with small children to support
that she has been cheated out of her
little property-the more fool she for
allowing herself to be cheated! She tells
you how infirm her health is and how
she suffers from some kind of ailment
1t may be this or it may be that but it
is always chronic, like her own down
and unpleasant that you instinctively
want to look away from it. She en-
larges on how dreadfully hard she has
to work and how tired she gets and
oh-ah-oh, till you feel as though you
would rather see a sheriff's summoner
come into your house than a self sup
porting woman.
Even a girl who earns a good salary
too often takes this woebegone, faIl-to-
hours as so much of her time that she
is defrauded out of by adverse fate
and whines because she has to support
herself instead of glorying in the fact
This down-in the-mouth attitude is
seriously in the way of business wom-
en- of all conditions. It is the attitude
of the beggar who stands on the street
corner and parades his deformities to
draw money out of people. Because we
are widows with children to support
because we have q chronic toe ache or
used to be rich and were fools enough
to let ourselves be- cheated out of our
wealth-none of these is any reason
why other people should put their
hands in their pockets and give US
money.
Business is business. 1t presupposes
that two parties make an interchange
of labor and money or merchandise
and money on mutually advantageous
terms. give and take, fair and square
Sentiment and sympathy have abso-
lutely no place in commercial transac-
tons, only it seems hard for women to
learn this.
1t is not a hardship to work for ones
living, whether at cooking or anything
else. 1t is being a useful member of
society, contributing to it's economic
strength. 1t is something to be under
taken with pride and satisfaction. The
woman who has the brains and grit to
maintain herself is to be congratulated
not pitied. She is not in the least de-
serving Of anybody's sympathy; on the
contrary.
Why she should attempt to draw on
peoples sympathies is a mystery. Per-
haps she imagines she will gain by it.
If so, she is mistaken. All other people
have troubles of their own. as many as
they can carry, and they therefore have
so much sympathy for themselves that
little is left to spill over upon others.
A whine and a dolefuI tale a few times
repeated will harden any mortal and
close his ear against all who approach
him mingling business and beggary.
The two do not mix successfully.
Undoubtedly the attempt to succeed
in trade by drawing on mems syrnpa-
thies has something to do with SO many
womens failure in the business world.
1t does not work, it never will work.
The noble, self respecting attitude is
the only one.
The woman who succeeds is she who
is prepared to give full market value in
the trade or labor world, who keeps all
her troubles and weaknesses to herself
and thus gives the impression that she
is strong and capable. who greets all
the world with a brave, cheerful. con-
fident mien and words thus giving the
impression that she is successful in
what she has undertaken.
ALICE A. BROWNE.
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