Los Angeles herald., 1905-11-13
VICES OF WOMEN or THE
WEALTHY IDLE CLASS
TIPPING AND GAMBLING ARE
INDULeEp IN
Mrs. Russell Sage Says the Amount
Of Drinking Done by Women Is
AppalIing-Rooms Hired Expressly
for Gambling Purposes
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald
NEW YORK, Nov. 12.-The North
American Review for November has y
notable article by Mrs Russell Sage
on Opportunities and Responsibilities
of Leisured Women"
The writer thinks selfshness and idle
ness great sources of danger. She
thinks womens laxity toward drinking
and smoking Is Injurious. AT a din
ner she recently attended she says, 1T
was put to a vote whether or not
smoking should be indulged In. The
ladies' present, not wishing to be OBJ
noXious, voted Yes / being the only
one that voted NO. The result was
that the men INDUCED their love for
tobacco to the discomfort of almost
AL the women present and the nausea
OF some Of them. This sort of thing
Is remotely responsible for the cigar
ette-smokng habit among reputable
young women. They indulge in order
to affiliate with young men and be
considered good fellows
Drinking is INDUCED I'm to an an
palling extent by women of the wealthy
idle class, and their daughters are fol-
lowing in their footsteps The great
danger of this is that the idle rich
class influences the succeeding strata
Of society. This class is surrounded
with a certain glamour that those not
so high up in the so-called social
scale mistake for something genuine,
but which is the veriest sham. Bear In
mind that / refer to no set or clique,
but to condition manifested in all
parts of the country. Now the persons
of this class are widely initiated. II
they drink 1t is considered smart to do
so, and others follow suit If they
smoke cigarettes other girls do the
same"
Mrs. Sage denounces gambling as one
OF the inevitable concomitants of idle
eXtravagant life" She tells of hostesses
politely bullying men into games of
poker or bridge whist and making
them pay dearly. She adds:
THE trouble is that the wives of
many men in this class squander in
gambling and other forms of dissipa-
tion the money their husbands give
them for household expenses, and are
compelled to resort to just such meas
ures to make up the deficit, lest their
husbands find out the true state of af-
fairs and adopt drastic measures to cor
rect them.
Weekend parties have bridge whist
as sole purpose. Rooms are hired
and furnished, in all parts of New York
city, by fashionable young women who
sitting in my carriage not long ago,
and, seeing a young friend of whom I
am fond, walking up the avenue, l in
vited her to drive with me. But she
waved her hand, and exclaimed, I
can't today. 1 have been losing at
euchre, and now Pm going to make it
up at bridge, and she hurried on.
"The idle rich are no more vicious
than the idle poor, but they are much
more lacking in sympathy with one
another"
Mrs. Sage recommends women of
leisure to apply themselves to mis-
sionary work in improving towns and
villages. She suggests:
In our great cities many women are
necessarily lonely or are forced into
vicious society. And this loneliness is
not ameliorated by attending balls and
other entertainments. 1t is unfortun-
ate that men of small means, having
to attend business, must leave their
wives much alone in hotels and board
ing-houses. 1t is not woman's nature
to be philosophically resigned to soli-
tude. She must have society, prefera-
bly, good, but she must have society.
"An inexperienced man is apt to
neglect his wife and still expect her to
be chaste as Lucrece. There is a great
field for work among the unemployed
wives of salared men. If the idle rich
woman would only learn to look upon
her sister of this class as the daughter
of a woman like herself. coequal with
her before God, she would take her by
the hand and draw her out from her
solitude, and by so doing reap a re-
ward in the unfolding of her own
character"
Mrs. Sage very earnestly declares
that the only remedy for the social evil
in our communities is by educating
boys and girls to one standard of NOR
ality.