The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1907-07-27

"a hOA SAlolCiiNCy LIN SAioIt ih4-S1
with all their own households, because
she does; and that the more dwellings
she has in town OR country the more
people are the better off by means of
it.
She will tell you, too, that she is the
support of the finishing schools, fo-
her children, with their teachers of
science and art and languages and
manners, and that even the toys OF
these curled darlings of fortune give
food and clothing to whole companies
of folk in Swiss valleys, ia French
workshops and in he hidden places
of our own cities. And whether
enough is paid for any of these pos
sessions Of hers, whether wages should
ton she demurs Is something alto
gether on one side of the value to So
ciety of the society woman.
And not only to the ~toilers, to hard
labor, does she insist that she is a
chief source of income, but that she is
of financial importance from another
point of view. She contends that tine
great opera, the symphony, in which
the musician has scaled the strains of
heaven, is heard by those of lesser
means only by reason Of her and
her numbers; that she affords a theme
to the novelist and buys his book; to
the playwright, and is his patron, and
that the newspaper which has the best
record of her daily doings has the
best circulation and in consequence is
able, through its larger receipts, to
give the latest intelligence and the
fullest reading-fOr to most other
women this successful one, 20 called,
is an object of interest, and they fol-
low her movements as they do those
of a heroine of romance.
That the fashionable woman carries
on and endows various great benevo-
lences she does not mention as show
ing her value, since she does not do
such things because she is a fashion
able woman, but because she has the
purse of me-; bur, nevertheless, b
holds that the entertainments which
she organizes in sweet charity's'
name, require services which spread
money broadcast, and if she does not
spend her days among the poor md
her income in gifts to them, she has
learned from the political economist
himself that the wages which are paid
for her comforts and pleasures are
more beneficial in the receipt than any
charity. Whether or not she leads the
life that is best for herself, in SO far
as it has no other aim than enjoyment
of the passing hour or the obtaining
of social supremacy, it is a life that
she believes good for myriad others,
and if she loses her soul in social friv-
olity, losing it, others find their adj
vantage. 1t may be, it doubtless is,
a poor and vicious state of society that
makes her life possible, but society be-
ing as it is the fashionable woman
looks upon herself as an unmis.ak-
able benefactress.
The bonnet rouge at work upon the
streets, who sees the carriage or auto
mobile of the fine lady roll by and
hurls a curse after it, does not realize
thinks himself that the wear and tear
of her wheels gives him work to do
and bread to eat. The tired pedestrian
who looks after her with envy, the
poor woman who draws her skirts
closer from the dust of her move
nent, do not consider that the fash
ionable woman has nothing on or
about her which uOeS net represent
work done and wages paid and their
share of comfort TO those receiving
them. But the fashionable woman her.
self, feeling all she claims in her JUS
LITIGATION to be true, declares that be
she even so much a butterfly fitting
from pleasure to pleasure, she is none
the less a factor in the business of the
world and a distinct addition to it's
wealth, and, with her financial impor-
lance hardly second to that of the
wheat farmer or the iropmonger, she
drags commerce in her train.
-
1t is not to be expected that she
should take the political economists
view of herself and her expenditure.
He nlay call her a luxury; she believes
that she is a necessity. He may com
pare her to the incubus of a standing
my, whose sole excuse is that I'M
der the safety it guarantees enterprises
can be undertaken and prcspered. She
will answer that the desire on the part
of her husband or father to give her
all that becomes her arouses those
ergies that make enterprise, business,
success and big fortunes. And al
though one may bitterly deprecate that
condition of society which diverts SO
much capital and labor from that diff
ferent order of production which shall
cheaper food and clothing and make
completes the birthright of all, yet