The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-07-26
OF INTEREST TO WOMEN
DISCOVERY THAT BUSINESS WOMEN
ARE NONCHURCH-GOERS.
PhiIanthrOpic Work Requires a Spe-
ciaI Gift-An Old Rule Now
Obsolete.

A great many people are exercised in
these days over male nonattendance at
church, says a writer in the New York
Tribune, but it has not occurred to any
clergyman to attack the business woman
regarding this special sin of omission, or
to devise ways of Turing her into the sane
tuary on the day of rest. Yet the fact is
that the average business woman is no
more inclined to go to church than the
average business man. Perhaps she is even
less so, for she generally gets more tired
than he, and she has ways of spending
her time on Sunday from which he fortu-
nately is excluded.
LAS far as l can judge from experience
and observation" said one business wom-
an, business women do not go to church.
This is not from any lack of love and rev.
erence for the church, but only because
they want the day to themselves. 1t re-
quires too much nervous energy and
strength to dress and then sit through
two or three hours service, and the woman
who works hard all week wants one day III
seven upon which the thoughts of rising
will not hang heavy upon her heart when
she wakens; when she can have her break
fast in bed, provided she is willing to
squander the quarter, look leisurely over
the newspapers, dwaddle over her dressing
and attend to the hundred and one odd
things for which she can find no time dur
ing the week. She wants a day when she
can wash her hair, sew on button or two,
put stitch here and there, arrange boxes
and drawers. wash few handkerchiefs,
write a friendly note or two, fall asleep in
the afternoon over a book or magazine, and
get little strength for the toll and money
getting of the coming week.
IF it is a fine day the business woman
may feel obliged TO fill some social oblga-
tons, and she is generally rejoiced on this
account when she can waken to the sound
of falling rain. !. 1t is not that she likes
her friends less, but that she loves her one
day of freedom more, and grudges every
hour that she has to subtract from it's
peace and quietnesS.
Il have found and have also been told that
the business woman receives more invita-
tions tl.an calls. People who have homes
or money-seem averse TO calling on q
woman who lives in a boarding house, and
think they have done all that courtesy de-
mands when they ask her TO come and
see them. And boarding houses, truly
enough, are dismal places to receive friends
In. So the woman who has home says
little thinking what il meanS-'You come
and see me- and if the other woman wants
to see her she must go. And if she goes,
1t will probably have to be on Sunday.
have ASKED good many business
women about this, and they all say that
they do not. as rule. go to church on SUM-
day, and. of course, it is out of the ques-
ton on any other day. If woman is q
Roman Catholic she probably goes to an
early mass, while Episcopalian may go
to a similar service, which lasts less than
an hour. one or twice a month, but other
wise they stay at home on Sunday. / have
found this TO be true even of women who
had been considered church devotees before
they were obliged to become self-support-
ing and don't think there would be any use
in starting a crusade for the evangelization
of the business woman. Unless the weekly
grind which makes the day of rest so des-
perately necessary u her can be mitigated
she will never go to church more than