The Saint Paul globe., 1904-08-25

A st Paul woman commented re-
Gently on the trivial things that most
women one meets talk about. They
tell you how much company their COOK
has. what the dresSmaker said to them,
or otheE equally important things. Sell
dom does one meet a woman who has
really anything to say worth listening
to- While all this is very true, the HI
tie things that go to make up Wo1n-
ans life should be taken into account
and they should be excused according
Iy. For many lives are bounded on one
side by the kitchen and on the other
by the nursery, hence it would be I'M
possible to give utterance to lofty ideas
when ones mind is concerned in to-
DAYS dinner and whether Johnnie's
and Katies shoes will last until the
end of the month The scraps of talk
one hears in cars between women are
almost always about the most COM
monplace things. Only rarely does one
hear two women talking of the latest
book. or of music and other arts. But
then the other kind of talk is exceed
ingly human and it often interests It's
hearers more than disquisition upon
Shakespeare's tragedies.
We all like to hear about our neigh
bors, what they are doing, what they
wear and other details which may not
be anv of our affair but are interesting
Just the same. Once in a while one
strikes a woman with a vicious
tongue, but after all, they are rare and
few. In one of the magazines which
recently contained an article upon
woman's inhumanity to her own sex,
there has been appearing every month
since a series of letters from women,
some condemning, others agreeing with
the writer that women are proyerb1ai-
ly unkind to each other. Numerous in
stances are cited of the mean things
they do to each other, but to offset
them one is glad to read also OF the
beautiful things women have done for
their own kind. One letter appearing
in the September number of the mag
azine in question is so natural, SO pa
thetic and at the same time so pltlful
that it is worth quoting. 1t reads in
part:
'* I have a niece by mar
riage. She is so tender and kind to
dogs and cats that she will pick up
any stray dog or cat she finds and ship
it to the ranch (She lives principally
- l.
do not like dogs and cats in the house,
and 1 am obliged to stay on the ranch.
One day she sent ten dogs and five
cats here and Chinaman to- feed
them she put a basket in the sitting
room for them to sleep in, another for
kittens that We're expected; box Of
ashes in the hall-a plate for food, a
bowl for water, another for milk-and
dishes for two dogs that were to be
1rnr h. not q a~6 dor "
any trouble she would sit up all night
and care for them. Now, this woman,
so kind and tender and loving, inf1ictS
untold torture upon an old woman
sixty eight years old who cannot help
herself. The dogs howl all
night. She says if people do not like
her dogs and cats they are not obliged
to stay. She is generous to strangers,
charitable to the poor and very nice to
men. This is the exact truth,
only the old woman was sick in bed
four weeks, nearly wild, and just talk
ed dog, so they tell me. This tender
hearted woman came and looked at
her, and said to the woman who cared
for her: Get anything she wants and
charge it to u.s. My God, one loving
word she wastes on the dogs would
have been worth so much more. 1 fear
1 bore you. (Mrs.) Julia Sorgent, the
Old Woman"
This painful letter hardly needs any
comment. The niece by marriage is
one of a class of women whose hearts
seem to go out to animals and remain
like adamant when human distress is
in question. 1t is very humane and
praiseworthy to care for dogs and cats
and protect them, but it counts not at
all if the same person is deaf to the
call of his own. Human beings come
before animals, and the story told
above is an example of false and val
ueless humanity.