The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-10-09
WOMAN'S WORLD


woman marries a man who has spent
i all his life in business, and who has
not had the opportunity for the wide
| culture she has. she must always be
| to a large extent lonely. She has
1 thoughts he cannot follow; her mind
/ browses in pastures he cannot enter:
| life means things to her II can never
mean to him. No matter how good and
kind he is. or how fond she is of him.
| there is always just that lack. She goes
| through life intellectually starved, and
she knows that it would be better and
happier for them both if they were on
| the same mental plane.
DO not think. though, that I oppose
| college education for women. Far
from it. 1t may be a good thing for
pretty girl. For an ugly one il is in
absolute necessity. 1t undoubtedly
lessons a girls chances in getting mar
I ried, but if she does find a man with
sense and courage enough to escort her
to the altar. l am convinced that she
is better fitted to make him a good
wife than the girl whose mind and
character have not been disciplined by
thought and study. If / were a girl
and Heaven had blessed me with a
passable nose and a good complexion,
and a knowledge of how to dance the
two-step, I shouldn't go to college, be-
cause l should prefer a husband to
diploma, but if / were a man I should
choose a college bred woman for wife
every time. That sounds contradic-
tory, but it is the two points Of view
of the question.
Other things being equal, the
chances are that the educated woman
will be better housekeeper and man
ager. If the lack of knowledge of
books predicated a knowledge of do
nestle affairs there would be some rea-
son to make a mad rush for girls who
have never read anything but Marie
Corelli and the Duchess, but it doesn't.
Some of the worst housekeepers in the
world are women who are just as igno-
rant Of cooking as they are of Greek,
and who can no more add up a butch
ers bill than they can do a problem
in geometry. 1t is ignorance in every
line that is at the bottom Of failure.
The woman who understands chenis-
try is not liable to accept the luck
theory about her bread turning out
light or heavy. The woman who has
mastered the science of mathematics Is
going to know enough to grapple with
the household expense account, and aft
er she has studied the germ theory you
may depend upon her not letting her
family be poisoned by defective drain
age, or her baby be slain by the bac-
terra in a sour milk bottle.
The educated woman is also more
apt to be reasonable than the unedu-
Gated. The only absolutely hopeless
people are those who are so narrow,
and so prejudiced that they can never
see any side of a question but their
own. This is the peculiar province of
ignorance, and especially of feminine
ignorance. That sort of a woman's
town, though it is only Birds Centre,
is the biggest place on earth, and its
ways the only proper ways.
Her religion is the only true faith
Her political party the only patriots.
To try to change her is like beating
yourself up against stone wall. Now,
the only way to keep believing that
Birds Centre is the metropolis of the
universe is never to get outside of it.
The educated woman has broken down
the walls, that shut her off in her own
particular Birds Centre. and her views
are as liberal and broad as the horizon
her eyes scan.
In marrying a highly educated wom-
an a man also casts an anchor to
windward and comes as near as he
may to taking out an accident policy
against those evil days of matrimony
that are sure to come when the flush
of youth and beauty are dead on a
womans cheeks, and the gold in her
hair has turned to ashes. Too many
women, who had only their personal
charms to recommend them, have
nothing left when that is gone, but
the educated woman can never be less
than interesting, and if it was the
beauty of her mind and soul that charm
ed a man in the first place, he may
count on all succeeding years adding
to the delights of her companion
ship.
In spite of the learned professors
warning the educated woman is the
preferred risk in matrimony for a
man. As for the risk the woman runs
of not getting a husband by going to
college that is, as Mr.. Kipling would
say, another story"
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