Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-12-07
GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES.
Ma CAN'T vote.

Ma Can't Vote.
Mas a graduate of college, and she's read
most everything;
she ean talk in French and German, she
can paint and she can sing.
beautiful? She's like picture. When she
talks she makes You think
OF the sweetest kind of music, and she
doesn't smoke OF drink.
oh | can't begin to tell you all the poems
she can quote;
she Knows more than half the lawyers do;
but ma can't vote
When my pa is writing letters, ma must
always linger near
10 assist him in his spelling and to make
his meaning clear.
If he needs advice. her judgment, he ad
mits, is always best;
Every day she gives him pointers, mostly
at his own request.
She keeps track of legislation, and is taxed
on bonds and stocks,
But she never gets a look-in at the sacred
ballot box.
Ma is wiser than our coachman, for he's
not a graduate,
And | doubt If he could tell you who Is
governing the state.
He has never studied grammar, and I'll bet
he doesn't know
Whether Caesar lived q thousand or two
Thousand years ago.
He could never tell us how to keep the ship
of state afioat,
but ma can't vote.
Once when Mr. Jones was calling, they got
up short debate
THAT was on the tariff question: he sup
posed he had It straight.
Rut before they'd finished talking. he threw
up his hands and said
That he'd not read much about 1t, nor re-
membefed what he'd read.
He's too badly rushed to study how to bet
ter human lives,
Still he looms up like giant when election
time arrives.
Mrs Gookins does our washing, for she has
to help along,
Taking care of her six children, though her
husbands big and strong.
When he gets job, he only holds it till he
Then he he" spends his cash for whisky, or
else CANDLES it away.
suppose his brains no bigger than the
brain of any goat,
And he'd trade his ballot for a dirnk-but
Chicago Record-Herald.
-o...o-
Bad Social Doctrine.
The women and girls over 16 en-
gagged in gainful occupations in this
country number 100000 out of total
adult female population of 23,000,000
wide 1900 federal census), which means
that about one in nineteen is working out
side the home. The proportion of girls
according to the same census, is about
one in four, so that first and last very
large percentage are acutely concerned
in bread-winning for themselves, and in
many instances for those dependent on
them as well. Moreover, so far from
there being any likelihood that this class
of the economically independent will les
sen, it has been increasing for some
years and is still increasing faster than
tie feminine population of adult age. The
wage-earning girl and woman therefore
constitute a permanent element in mod
ern society that must be accepted. and
the supreme service to be rendered them
is to stimulate them to efficiency in their
chosen lines of labor, and to afford them
facilities for the requirement of this
most necessary preparedness.
1t is safe estimate that hardly 10 per
cent. OF women wage-earners belong to
that class voluntarily and this fact alone
should restrain leauers of thought from
endeavoring to discourage them because
they have been forced by circumstances
10 become self-supporting Not only must
many women be engaged in gainful occu-
pations because of economic changes but
1t is increasingly inevitable that a large
proportion of them will not marry, and
for this reason also is it incumbent upon
moulders of public opinion to guard
against preaching the gospel of discon-
~ liked beyond their ability to alter.
1t should be said that these reflections
are suggested by a paper in a popular
vwoman's magazine, in which business
lie for women, and success in it, are
pictured as lacking in domestic happiness
and as making for restlessness, selfish
ness and discomfort. The finaicially sue
cesstul bachelor girl in the dainty home
created and maintained by herself, and
IN which she dispenses refined hospi-
talty, is pictured as inhabiting a whited
sepulcher in which the starved soul of
the woman sits alone weeping. Such
sentimental stuff might be dismissed with
a laugh, If it were not for the fact that
thousands of girls are accustomed to get
their opinions from their favorite period
lcal and that the influence of such views
cannot but be undesirable for this inn
pressionable class. In this age, the fun
damental necessity for girls as well as
men is that they shall be encouraged to
an ennobled self-sufficiency, and to h2ve
an honorable business career thus mis-
represented to them as developing ugly
and most unSocial qualities, and as re-
sulting in mental misery, is to turn their
thoughts to marriage at any hazard,
since that is the only other way of gain
ing support. The undoing effect of such
ill-advised doctrine is the more deplor-
able because it frequently happens that
even those girls and women who marry
viii find themselves forced to self-sup-
port later, and that unless they are
equipped with trade or profession in
which they are proficient, and in which
they take pride, they simply add to the
army of the unskilled and the little paid
which is the affliction and despair of
large communities.
To sum up: for large and increasing
proportion of women wage-earning is
inevitable. and marriage increasingly IN
attainable. These incontrovertble facts
suggest that what all girls need is eff
Gent training in industry, commerce or
me professions and encourag cement TO be
lleve that proficient, conscientious service
IN even the lowliest occupations brings
with it poise. tnselfshness and charac-
Ter development that highly social in
IT'S manifestations.-Vog
-O...O-
The Wife's Tears.
Harper's Bazaar, which is settling all
feminine problems these days. has
turned its brilliant editorial attention to
lhe subject of marital disagreements.
Lhis months issue December) gives the
husbands ny1fninn nf his yFifafS tears