The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-26

Tolma, Possessed of a fortune, is able
to entertain herself in any way she
chooses, and one way that pleases her
is to take yachting cruises. She has
commanded several ocean going yachts
at one time and another.
In France women are allowed to have
certificates as navigators, and one of
the expert and daring, not to say reck-
less, yacht masters of the Paris fash
ionable set is a lady of the old French
nobility. This sprightly parsonage was
one of the first to take up motor boat
racing, operating and guiding her own
craft. She is among the leading mo-
tor boat engineers in France very fond
of giving her friends a good ducking
by rushing her craft into high waves.
The fact that her friends do not al
ways feel dead sure of getting back
home safe rather adds to the excitement
and pleasure of race on the French
lady's motor boat.
The old gentlemen of the British
government board of navigation have
not yet got their brains aired ssuffi-
GENTLY to give woman a license to be
a ship captain. Lady Ernestine Bru-
denell Bruce, one of the most noted of
Englands sea loving and sea going
women, applied to the London board of
trade for certificate as yacht master.
pleasure purposes and in any case
would have risked few lives except her
own. Besides, she had prepared her
self for and passed the most thorough
and searching examination required of
| a candidate for the yacht masters Ii
cense, yet the board solemnly denied
it to her. They made no bones either
of the fact that it was because she was
a woman they refused. They slid
no hTIc m he RIT7i0 q ifxy
that the word master" could not mean
| a member of the feminine sex.
Among New York society women
| several of the best known have taken
a course of instruction and passed ex-
| animation as navigators of yachts.
| Well known yachtswomen are Mrs G.
oliver Iselin and Mrs. John Jacob AS
tor. Mrs. Iselin accompanied her hus-
| band in one or two of the victorious
| races for the Americas cup. Not a few
fashionable women are yacht owners in
| their own right and spend much time
cruising in many seas Mrs. Ogden
Goelet is one of these. Mrs. Lucy Car
| negie sister-in-1aw of Andrew Carne-
gle, is another. They seem happier at
sea than ashore and small blame to
theml
Best known of all American yachts
women, however, is Miss Susan de
1
ker. Mrs. Parker obtained a number
of years ago her certificate as ship mas
ter. studying navigation and seaman
ship in nautical school at New York.
She was extremely apt as a pupil. Mrs.
Parker's yacht is her home. She loves
the sea so that she lives on it She
says living on the water costs about
the same as a residence on shore does,
and she much prefers the water When
she prepared for her life at sea- about
nine years ago. Miss Day purchased the
Scythian, a comfortable ocean freight
steamer of small size and fitted it up
fuxuriously. If on this earth there is
any such thing as the ideally happy
life it is that of Mrs. Parker on her
yacht. To every part of the globe she
goes, as the fancy takes her.
| Susan de Forest Day seems to have
been the first woman in America who
ever received the government license
as master of an ocean going steam yes
| sci. She is and always has been the
| commander of her own craft. She is
the fifth woman admitted as a member
of the New York Yacht club.
More than mere amusement. hoW-