The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-30

IRVING up that country lane
"a on bright spring day it
81 was she for the simple life.
The year was young. Under
So the big scattered elm trees
the shadows of the first
leaves lay on the tender green grass.
The sunshine was golden; the breeze a
| perfumed caress. The lane winds
along picturesquely between two main
Travelled roads and there are a few
| cottages here and there along it's
sides-not the thirty or forty room
summer cottages of the wealthy, but
humble little buildings, perhaps cab
/ ms would be the better word.
do you see that?" she said to her
companion. ST could be perfectly
happy in place like that with a man
I loved and baby" She indicated a
tiny new yellow pine house of per-
haps two rooms standing near to the
road. There were morning glory vines
| started over the windows, and the
grass dotted with dandelions grew up
close to the doorstep. In the back
ground lay a tiny garden-every row
straight and clean, with the rich black
earth lying like ribbons between. You
know how interesting q neat little
vegetable garden looks in the spring.
In the foreground stood young wo-
man in simple print gown holding a
little child in her arms and with a
| fodder hanging to her skirts. She
was pretty, healthy looking girl.
The wind played with her dark hair
and blew it in the baby's eyes. She
| laughed and the mother kissed her,
and the toddler at her feet said, me
too, mamma; me too" The husband
and father was not in sight. But per-
haps that was just as we'll for the pic
ture.
yes" sighed the girl in the STAN
hope, 81 could be perfectly happy in
! q situation like that-happier than 7
| have ever been-and wish with all
/ my heart that that was my lot in life.
| You needn't laugh. I do. What do
with that? You may say what you
please about the New Woman and the
Higher Life and the compensations
| of independence and education and
all that. Right back there in that lit
| tie yellow pine house Is the epitome
of woman's destiny, deny it as you
will. Evolution may nave something
| else in store for us, but up to date
| there's nothing takes the place to any
natural woman of the principal pur-
poses for which she was created. OF
course marriage and children haven't
| altogether gone out among us yet, but
compare the situation of the woman
| we just passed with that of the women
in our class. The latter are poor
enough usually, goodness knows. but
think how easy that is, and then
/ think of the striving, the straining,
the worry, the effort inseparably con-
nected with love in a fiat. Under our
conditions the simple life is utterly
impossible. One has to go back to
that''-she waved toward the cottage
Ito attain it, and I'm for it,
1t was fall before she drove up that
lane again, early in the morning of a
raw November day. She had staid
over Sunday with a friend at her coun-
| try place and the friend was driving
| her back to town in time to go to
| work Inci6anf2lIV after the
of suburbanites, the friend was doing
what errands she could by the way.
Among other things she had the fam
lily laundry in two big bags in the
front of the surrey, and although her
guest was a, little nervous about de-
lays, because she wanted to be at the
office by 9 o'clock, the hostess said
as they logged along: sI have to go