Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-10-01

desperation to break away from old as
sociations, and every man and woman
who does it is, in a way, martyr:
They are hound % be misJudged:
They are accused or being stuck up. OF
running after great people. OF being
snobs. and they cannot defend them
selves. They cannot say, The people
who interested me once interest me no
more The little tittle-tattle gossip | once
found so absorbing fills me now with
deadly WEAKNESS. | want 10 talk OF the
worlds great happenings, not what Mrs.
Smith bought at the market. want 10
hear of books, art, music, from those VINO
feel these things like | do and as you,
good and kind and dear as you are, never
can feel them" The old friends never
understand this. Unhappiy, the new ae-
quaintances often fail to comprehend 1t.
too and many and many lonely man
and woman must have felt that it would
have been happier for them If they had
never aspired to anything better and
higher-if they could still content them
selves with the association OF those
whose whole horizon is bounded by the
scandals of the neighborhood, and the
politics of the corner saloon.
Particularly True of Girls.
This view Of the subject must ofteH
present itself to US. and never so pois-
nantly as when we look across the sea
of faces in one of our public schools.
Then. through all our surgIng pride III
our great national institution, there must
creep dull wonder if we are not pre-
pairing a great tragedy instead of bless
ing for many Of these eager young stu
dents This is particularly true of the
girls. not only because the world offers
women 50 many less opportunities TO rise
than it does men. but because girls are
so much quicker to assimilate intangible
influences than boys are. Women are
like chameleons, and can change in the
twinkling Of an eye 10 the color of their
surroundings. \ girl viii pick up styi"
and manner while you wait. She aC-
quircs the knowledge Of how to dress Ey
intuition. She absOrbs at least the imlta-
ton of culture as sponge does water
and just because she is 50 quick to get
the best Of our system OF education, she
i 50 inevitably the victim of its worst
Take the girl, for instance, and her
name is legion, who comes from n poor
and squalid home and is the child of
utterly uneducated parents. What Of
her when she goes back to the life TO
which she was born, and for which her
education has done its best to unfit her?
In the democracy of the classroom she is
associated on terms of perfect equality
with girls belonging to the highest rank
of society, and who will cut her dead,
or bare and patroniZingly recognize her
existence the moment the school door
closes upon them. She has been cul-
tured, refined, taught tastes that she
has no money to crafty. and that be-
come a cross on which she is daily cru
Gifted.
The woman who does not know the
difference can be just as happy going
down the street in a clean cotton as
she would he in silk-lined tailor
made, the girl who can't tell Beethc-
ven from Wagner enjoys the handOrgan
on the corner grinding out "Bedelia" just
as much rs she would a symphony or
she whose own grammar is I'M
prlncd and luxurant isn't going to shud-
der ut every lapse from the rules of
Lindlcy Murray the young man who
comes counting her makes. Once teach
her exquisite, discriminating taste in mu-
sic and art. 10 realize the horror Of ugly
surroundings and inappropriate dreSs-in
short. raise her above her family and
her social strata. and put her out of
touch and sympathy with them, and you
have opened up every avenue Of misery
and temptation TO her Women are not
often given to the cowardice of suicide,
or else we should have the tragedy Of
the Young man who killed himself be-
cause he couldn't get into society repeat
ed every day in the year.
Future of the Nation.
One would not deny to any fellow
creature the opportunity of higher knowl-
edge and Il broader outlook. but We can
not shut our eyes to the unconscious cru
city of arousing social aspirations that
cannot be gratilied 1t may be the best
for the future of the natioa. Unrest and
dissatisfaction with ones lot has in it
somewhere the germ of progress. but it
does not make for the happiness Of the in
dividual. The woman with social aspira-
tions, whether she be the poor bookkeep-
cr's wife. who bankers after the smart
set, or the working girl who would rather
starve clcrliing in Il store because it is
gcnteel than cook in somebody's kitchen.
is the victim of our whole social system.
We boast that America gives everybody
a chance, but sometimes it does seem a
mighty poor chance. and that there
would be Il great and exceeding peaceful
ness if we could only be little less pro-
gresSivc and more willing to stay in that
station OF life in which it has pleased
God to place lis. Dorothy Dix in New
Orleans picayune.