Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-11-16
American Girls as Wives.

There is certainly one woman maya
zine writer who, though she may not be
considered entirely deserving of the pity
of her sex, should nevertheless arouse
feelings of sorrow for the frame of mind
into which she has been forced or al
lowed herself to drift. for it must bring
her great distress. In d recent issue OF
one of the well known magazines, over
the signature Mrs. Anna Rogers, app
pears an article in which the writer de.
clares unequivocally that American girls
are unfit to be the wives of American
men. Presumably she is a wife. possibly
a widow, but whether she has or had
husband her experience must have beer
something simply awful to have caused
her to so unjustly assail the entire fe
male part of the population of the ma
ton. Just listen to this: Our women
are on the whole spoiled, extremely ids
and undeserying of the maudlin worship
they demand from Woodworking men
She adds: The American girl is over.
educated on every subject except that of
wifehood. She marries blindly, and re-
bells when she discovers what is expected
of her. The American wife is strong ID
the faith that it is more blessed to re-
ceiye than to give. The relations be
tween the sexes is slipshod, unchiyal-
rous companionship."
There may be some grains of truth III
some of the things this writer says, and
there may be some place in this broad
land women of the kind she describes
but it has not been our i'll luck to have
found any such American girls, and
we have never discovered the conditions
she declares exist More than that we
do not know anybody in real life who
has met the American girl she pictures
or experienced the terrible conditions she
describes. We venture to say house
to house canvass in city or country
would fail to confirm her assertion, and
If any such worthless wives were found
they would be specimens fit for museum
exhibition from their scarcity. We know
too many good wives who were, and for
that matter still are, American girls. to
let such Wholesale attack on them go
unchallenged. We are entirely safe in
saying that our readers, vast majority
of them, know too many American girls
who have become the best of wives
models of wifehood for all the world 70
copy-to read this assault without re-
cordlng protest against the unjust
arraignment. Mrs. Rogers may have
found some such creatures as she writes
about masquerading as Americans, for
this is a wonderful country, and pro-
duces queer freaks, but if they fare
over educated on every subject except
wifehood," they are not Americans,
they are spoiled, idle and undeserving."
their claims to being Americans are
bogus. True it is that some girls mar
ny without giving the rite and the Oh.
legations it imposes that full and caro-
full consideration the subject should
command, but the vast majority Of
American girls marry discreetly. and ne
cording to the honest dictates of their
hearts guided by the caution of their
heads. They become splendid wives,
noble mothers and revered grandmothers.
To the genuine American girl wifehood
is her browning glory, and motherhood
gives kinship with the saints immortal.
But for the perfect wifehood into
which American girlhood blossoms before
1T flowers into motherhood there would
not now be any American nation, and
the Star Spangled Banner would not be
Haunting the breeZes that attend the sun
on its entire course. If the relations be-
tween the men and. women of America
were, as this writer declares ii to be. "a
slipshod. unchivalrous companionship. =
the world would never have known the
great builders in every capacity America
has produced The statesmen. warriors.
scholars, scientists. artists and all lead
ers in thought and achievement that
America has sent out to dominate the
world could never have sprung from such
a companionship a. she describes Evi-
Identity this writer has Numbered most
Iegregiously or she must be lily fitted to
write upon the subject she has chosen.
She is wrong, all wrong, in making such
a wanton attack. and we are honestly
sorry for any one, woman or man, whose
experience in life has given such d
jaundiced view of such bright subject
the American girl as wife There are
no better girls in all the world than the
American girls, nor none half so good
These same girls make the very best
wives in all the world, and with the
American girl grown to wifehood and
motherhood. there is nothing to compare
with this side of heaven.--W oman's Ma
tfOuaI DAILY