The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-10

- and-out professional woman, says
q writer in the New York Sun. Whatever
the early environment and education of
the latter may be. she finds in the eternal
struggle that many niceties of life must be
put aside for more important matters. She
can no longer spend hours before her mir
ror adjusting her veil, her stock, her this.
that and the other. She has often TO keep
an appointment with a certain carelessness
of dress. which is the result of having too
few hours IN the day rather than inherent
and slip-shod ways.
The remittance girl. secure in the knowl-
edge that she has some one TO pay the bllls
is always neatly turned out as If she
were going to a function of some kind
Triaes are arranged with precision, and
she has IN her manner that superiority that
comes only with perfectly fitting and adj
justed clothes.
girl who was really self-supporting
tells of her experience in living with re-
mittance girl
The latter was a poetess and received a
certain of meney for her board and
rooms. AS she had taken upon herself the
career of the professional woman. her fam
lily expected her TO make her own pin
money for the first year-she went back
the second.
she always had her breakfast in bed. and
would then take a bath and massage, after
that she would gown herself lingeringly and
lovingly. / have known her to spend half
an hour before the mirror adjusting the
intricacies of a shirtwaist in the back so
that every tiny fold was exactly in the
right place. She usually got through about
H. and read a while until luncheon. In
the afternoon she took nap. sometimes
wrote for half an hour, and then attended
some 5 O'Clock tea, a picture gallery or a
reception.
'She said she could only write her poems
when she had an inspiration and the in
spirations were infrequent.
when she needed money she borrowed
II and waited for the home check to pay up.
She was good-natured. easy-going. and a
devotee of good times.
But her attitude was amusing. She
really believed and called herself a self
supporting woman; said how much she en-
joyed ii; that there was nothing quite like
an independent existence. and her friends
at home. who knew nothing of the home
checks. spoke of her and wrote to her as if
she were phenomenon.
When she saw a collar awry, a seam
unsewed. any little evidence Of careless
ness on the part or her roommate, she was
absolutely horror stricken. She could Dor
row money TO take her through the week
and the next minute make the professional
woman feel that she was not fit for decent
society because she had a skirt whose
braid had become unfastened from it's ma
tural mornings"
Quite in line with this is the story of q
Southern girl who came TO New York &c
study Delsarte. She had small class in .
tiny Southern town which is still talkins
about the war and looks upon any one hav-
Ing much money with suspicion.
Sally had n good deal to tell about the
difficulty she found in breaking away from
tradition and supporting herself. being. sc
TO speak. one of the new women. who were
rather looked down upon in her section as
being unfeminine.
She had persevered. she said in the face
of great discoura cement, and even hel
coming TO New York 10 continue her WORK
under able masters was looked upon witt
disfavor and pronounced disgust.
One day she came 10 the friend to whom
she had confided this 10 borrow som,
money. She said her check from her father
had not come.
But thought you said. Sally. that yol
were independent
so / am. asseverated the Southern
maiden so / am. But of cos the parent
pays my board and for my clothes. That:
the least he can do
To this day the friend Is in ignorance a:
TO what Sally meant b. being independent