The San Francisco call., 1904-03-07


By MISS ADELINE KNAPP.
rFornerlv Editor The Household" New York.
Author o. The Boy and the Baron. IRE
story Of the Philippines Upland Pas
tures." Etcl
Copyright. 1904. by Joseph B. Bowlesp
/ received a letter recently from a
young girl living in the country She
writes that she is living at home and
teaching music in her village; but
that she is weary Of the mOnotony
OF country life. she wants to come
10 ;he city and become independent
She says she knows she could not
teach music in town; her attainments
are not sufficient mot a word about
wanting TO study in the city,. She
asks II / can advise her about get
ting a position in an Office or a store.
She is sure she could give satisfaction
as 2 saleswoman.
Now. this dear girl not only has a
home, but a good one. She is needed
in il. moreover daughter always is
needed. Her social position is good
in her small community: a horse and
buggy AT her disposal when she needs
il and her music teaching gives her
enough money 10 clothe herself nice
" without taking her too often from
hcme. What more does she want?
What does she mean by being inde-
pendent-on the salary of a sales
woman. or clerk in an office?
She feels dependent upon her
father and mother because they give
her food and shelter. She is a poor
sort OF daughter who cannot make
a more than adequate return for that.
But she wants. forsooth. to be in
dependent" The idea of what they
consider economic independence is
Curiously fascinating to many girls.
The independence bacillus is even
buster among girls than is the the
atrical one. and it inoculates its vic
Tins with a far vainer delusiOn. The
stage-struck period OF a girls life is
usually brief but the yearning TO go
10 work for starvation wages. there
by 10 feel independent. is usually
durable only by large and bitter doses
of experience which leave lasting
traces cn character.
To begin with. this idea Of independ-
ence is in itself fallacious. II is like the
little boys description Of a certain road
which he was asked about. 1t don't
so nowhere, and if it did there amt
nothing there" The notion that a girl
al work in any of the avenues usually
open 10 her and for the average wages
paid is independent is stultifying TO the
intellect The girl who feels that in
such work she is better off and more
self-respecting than in her fathers
home is stupid. OF has not grasped the
fundamental idea Of self-respect. She
may be earning enough to satisfy her
wants if these are reduced to the low
est possible terms; she may feel freer
away from the restraint Of home but
instead Of being independent she is in
curing a moral debt to the community
which she can never discharge. Her
sO-caIled independence is. for the most
part, only INDUCED self-will. She has
turned her back upon a place in which
society needs her TO enter one which
curtails her own time and opportunity
and which tends TO lessen the OppOrtu-
mites and the earnings of others to
gain that which profits not.
Society does not need the girls. BY So
ciety / mean the body social, which
makes uD communities. 1t needs them
in the gatherings for social intercourse,
and it needs them in the work Of pre-
serving the social state. This is the
servators Of society. as men are it's
builders. The home sense becomes
duIled by disuse. yet the home sense,
the home-making talent in women, is
the very bone and substance of the So
cial state.
The restless. uneasy desire to be out
and doing something for herself. which
so often possesses the young girl who
life. is a thing to be held in check. 1t
must be examined critically before it
is pronounced good. 1t is not neces-
sarily a wholesome or desirable i'm
pulse. any more than a habit of inor-
dinate novel reading is desirable as
showing one to be intellectual or true
book lover
who are you" / often feel like ask
ing a girl who expresses this wish,
that you should put the desire to do
for self above the desire to do for So
ciety? Do you imagine that you are
helping society any by turning your
back upon that which upholds and con-
serves it to gain for yourself a tenn
porary thing not worth having Do
YOU fancy that you are Independent
and supporting when you take the
time which belongs to your home TO
earn an amount which you could not
decently live upon without the help Of
that home? 1t is not all of life to earn
money, my dear. 1t is nobler and bet
ter TO earn a rounded. useful living in a
sense which makes your life center Of
heIpfulness. your personality, a key
stone in some strong arch of the great
social structure.
FrighfS .4b0ut Disease.