The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-03-21

Lillian Bell in discussing Men as
/ Lovers, says that the S~erage girl in
I her acceptance Of husband reminds
her of some very nice girls she knows
who when they start on a railway
journey go into the first book store they
I pass to select something to read on the
way. Did you find something you
like2 I ask them when they come out,
and they answer patiently, ] found
| something that viii do. .
Tt is a positive fact that a great many
women read, apparently just to be read
ing and have SO little choice in books
that they viii take anything so it be
sufficiently light and frothy. A lover
+ OF books who has his unsurmOuntable
antlpathies as well as his leading favor
ties in literature can hardly imagine
/ permitting a shop keeper to select his
reading matter for him but this is one
of the duties of statesmen in book stores.
Every such establishment has regu-
/ lar and valuable customers Unsuitable
devourers Of light fiction, who come into
the shop and buy anything that the
clerk suggests. These people are usual
! ~ on the quest Of the new books
/ which are numerous enough in these
4 days of the literary deluge" to keep
his leisure hours provided. Such vora-
/ ciOus readers usually read book IN a
night They read not for instruction or
! profit but merely for diversion and re-
Taxation. Nine times out of ten they
are serious, sober professional or bust
ness men engrossed with wearying af-
fairs all day and an exciting tale of adj
venture or sentiment provides them
with a restful change from their men
tai labors. -
Il never give the librarians a list Of
the books I would like. said frivolous
young debutante who was waiting in
the city library the other day. They
] know what sort of stories 1 like and
/ give me what ever they have. Oh
/ sometimes ] want some particular novel
/ that every one is reading, but usually I
/ don't know what want; Just AWNING
4 interesting. Her idea of interesting
4 proved to be the works of Rosa
/ NOuchette Carey. THE Duchess" and
! others of that nature.
Yes, there are a great many people
who allow us to select their reading
/ matter for Them said one of the en-
/ ployes OF the city library questioned on
/ this subject. Usually they are readers
Of fiction and after we have made a few
choices for them we are able to tell
pretty accurately what they would ike
or dislike. Often too the women who
belong to study clubs and other stud
ents leave the selection of their books
of difference to US. They tell us the sub
i jects they are studying but seem to
have no idea of the relative interest or
value of the different works of reference
which we have or even of the reputa-
ton of the authorities they would con-
suit 1t isn't very difficult to guess
what the patrons of the library want,
after they have taken out few books.
I can usually juQSE f1L N4SlA WAASbAA1A
4 or not a woman would allow US TO
i choose her reading for her and if so
what she would prefer There is Ger
/ tain type of girl that will care for moth
/ ing but the heart interest in story
and I always give her a sentimental
+ tale And there is another type VINO
/ cares for nothing but the risque and sug-
gestiVe OF course the library has no
/ books that are not perfectly proper but
some of them deal with subjects which
+ are eleVating or the reverse according
/ to the ideas and disposition of the read
/ er and the kind of woman 1 am talking
about sees only Nulgaflty anu suSsss
tiveness in some of the noblest works OF
/ literature"
Even making due allowance for the
! IMAGINATIVE abilities of the neWSDaI2e-.
CORRESPONDENTS. the stories told of Miss
Alice Roosevelt indicate that she u
quite as original and unconventional as
/ her distinguished father If some OF
/ them watt their way across the pond,
/ the heavy-Witted and literal Britishers
viii be having her cartooned in the Lon
4 don press as a female brOncho buster
and a 1903 edition of Daisy Miller"
/ Miss Roosevelt was much-feted VS.
4 itor at the Aiardi Gras festivities in New
/ Orleans last month, and a Chicago girl
/ who was down there at the same time
! carried home the story, which has been
4 duly published in the Chicago papers.
that at luncheon given in honor of the
daughter of the president while she was
/ in the Crescent City, that young Wo-
man amused the guests AFTER luncheon
/ hour by illustrating the peculiar and
uncommon hexibilitg of her joints, maxi
/ ing her bones crack. kicking the chan>
delier and doing the split" as after
/ luncheon diversions.
The principal points. an eastern au-
/ thority SAYS for the shirt waist girl who
/ makes her own shirt waists to remem-
/ Der this season is that shoulders are
! broader than ever. but not dropping, be-
4 ing held out, by any means natural or
unnatural. Ike the padding of a mans
coat; that the fronts blouse more bou-
family, # such word there be, than
ever; that cuffs are deep and belts still
show the exaggerated dip in front.
the Girl about Town in the New York
Press. How beautifully she mourns. She
wears a picture hat with a futtering veil
fall ing at the back and a bunch of violets
/ there are bands of snowy Organdie or tulle,
and dangling to her waist is chain Of
/ Jingling jet Her skirt rustles and hutters
in the wind and a gold heart glittereth at
her throat
/ ed to be a widow, although to me the state
always has seemed an ideal one. The
widow hath the freedom of girl and the
/ experience OF married woman. She hath
/ also the income left her by the dear de-
! parted and the title Mrs" without the in
4 cumbrance attached thereto. She is desired
among men, yet independent OF them She
knoweth the brute masculine and under
standeth both the insignifcance and the
necessity thereof. She scorneth the old
maid and pitieth the married woman Yea,
verify ] say to you that of these three
/ girlhood, wifehood and widoWhood-the
most TO be envied is WidoWhoOd.
Table and Kitchen.
Conducted by Ida Ames willis, Mar
/ quette building Chicago, to whom all IN
quiries should be addressed.