New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-20
GIRLS WITH NOTHING TO DO.
Mrs, Eustis Disagrees With Mrs. Parsons
About Idle Rich.

a plan for the employment OF the girl with moth
ing to do which presented a few months
ago in Charities by Mrs. Herbert Parsons has
stirred up most unexpected amount Of strife and
has Just ELECTED another protest from Mrs William
Corcoran Eustis. formerly Miss Edith Morton.
daughter OF Levi P. Morton.
Mrs. Parsons was rash as to assert that the
young who doesn't have to support her
self and who does not marry shortly after leaving
school IS apt find herself in a certain sense
superfuous She has nothing to do, and suffers
acutely IN consequence Of that circumstance Mrs.
Parsons suggested hat rich women should employ
themselves IN systematic volunteer charitable work.
for which they should be properly trained Such
work and training need not, she said, occupy more
than a few hours day and she felt sure that no
fairly open minded parent would object to It
Many parents and other people did object how
ever, and Mrs. Eustis in the current number Of
Charities objects decidedly. She cannot in
the first place why girls ever should have nothing
to do. and in the next she considers that phi
lanthropy undertaken merely TO pass the time Is
not the proper way to give them employment.
Settlement work. committee work. kindergarten
teaching ETC. are all good in their way. comforting
benefits and teaching altruism, but, on the other
hand, very often fostering selshness IN the worker
and promoter says Mrs. Eustis-
IF they are not undertaken in the right spirit
they defeat their own ends, and the results. II
deeply probed for, not what they should be-
Taken as q means OF occupation. doubt that they
actuating such workers IS not a high one. 1t Is
only when philanthropy is INDUCED in because Of
real sympathy for those who toll and suffer with
out much compensation, and from an honest desire
to share much with their little, that It prom
ises any substantial hope for the future or any
possibility of permanent good Then the worker
will be gaining as much she confers, and giver
and receiver will meet on equal ground"
That there is q time when the life of the non
seIf-supporting young woman begins TO pail. Mrs
y7,,,fT- rF,a ial
danced with admired made love to sufficiently, no
body need worry about her having nothing TO do
for few years But after that, If she be still IN
married. If having arrived at when the Joys
Of married Neutrality-suspicious.. a home OF her own.
children the devotion and care Of her husband
are genuinely craved for, she cannot yet find the
man of her choice resign herself to accept those
benefits at the hands of one whom she does not
love as she pictures loving she is apt to become
disconteuted Here is where systematic phlan-
thropy IS the balm Of Gilead" to many lives.
Everything else has become BORE calls. parties
life itself and social joys and frtations prove only
& snare and a delusion
II this philanthropy is undertaken in the proper
spirit Mrs. EustIs has no fault to find. but even
then she says home missions should come before
Forafqr The mother should not be allowed to go
until she drops while the daughter is occupied with
clubs and settlements
But there are other ways of finding something TO
do Mrs Eustis declares. and If the girl has been
inc them Education Will give her resources which
win at times make her Independent Of other people,
tastes for literature tastes tor music or art,
modelling. good furniture. bric-a-brac. gardening
ANYTHING you please that has been well done and
~, rbe artists hand some time other. Even
sewing nay more than even particularly sewing
or handwork Give girls resources and they VIII
never be idle: teach them that they nave e.
bities at home as well abroad, and try 10 let
them learn young the lesson of contentnent
and when the time comes, il II does come, IoT
marriage they viii be ready and fitted for IT, turn
Ing 10 il not as an escape from the lrksoIneTess
Of home life but for promise it yields of Tlcher
onportIufty for vital acuvity-because the WORK
hun al home can yet more satisfactorily car
ried to a successful issue, because finally. VIE
hood and mot herhOod 70 them are not empty tlteS
1rI,ase will not marry for something TO do for you
viii have taught that life is full OF things 10
he done which they. well as others can ac-
nompIish and that the road Of contentment IS the
Los+ nna to follow. whether II lead to dizzy noun
80 {aigFlts or by tne Iowland stream They VIII
have eyes to see. and ears to hear; they VII nav
eSIy-a5 the probIem Of the rich unemployed, ana
+6e will make It possible that never again viii be
heard the complaint OF cry OF the girl VINO mas
y tho n ID