Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1908-12-16
THE PAGE FOR WOMEN.
Evolution Of What Was Once Consid.
cred Startling Idea. =

There was time, however difficult
1t may be to realize, when women did
not read newspapers, when in the ma
;ority of cases the daily journal was
regarded by them as an insidious
enemy Of the household; when the
"gude housewife" began her busy day
opposite an autocrat, who in disdain-
full silence delayed the savory break
fast too. satisfy his curiosity regard
ing the antics of "bull and bear" and
when the youthful members of the
family, unable to repress their bub-
bling spirits, brought forth ebulli-
tions of paternal wrath from the
cleaner of the stock market. In the
evening the same conditions pre-
vailed. My lord must needs retire
behind the well-filled sheet, digest
its contents and steal forty winks be-
fore becoming properly attuned to
wifely condolences, and womankind,
perforce from long years Of expert
ence, accepted in a matter of fact
way these conditions as part and par
Gel OF conjugal life.
BY and by there loomed upon the
horizon an editor with an. idea, one
who said to himself, "Once. week ]
shall run a story with feminine inter-
est; the women may like It." And
like 1t they did. Nay, more, they
proved their appreciation by booming
the circulation of that particular
journal, and go gladdened the heart
of the astate editor. Other papers
took up the good work, following
closely in the footsteps OF the cour-
ageous pioneer, and thus it came to
pass that, like the flashings Of a me-
teor, paragraphs began to scintillate
in the leading newspapers through
but the land, concise, to. be sure, but
unmistakable in their tendency to
please women.
Then came day big with fate,
when a valiant editor, throwing eau
ton to the four quarters of the globe,
gave space to women writer's on
womanly subjects, and thus evolved
the "Woman's Page" The effect
was instantaneous, widespread and
beneficial. The mind of woman
broadened as she read, and, not con-
tent with the restricted sphere of
fashions, recipes and beauty talks,
she, stepped over the borderland into
the Avery domain of man, into the
world of science and politics; grap-
pling and treating the policies of the
day with so rare an intelligence, so
just an appreciation, that men could
only wonder and exclaim at what
they termed-phenomenal. To-day
the Woman's Page is fixture. No
longer does the feminine end Of the
household await in trembling silence
behind the coffee urn the pleasure OF
her life-partner. She has become the
oracle which decides the choice OF
journal in her particular province.
So powerful factor is the woman
editor and so far-reaching her infu-
ence that even the masculine element
seeks the benefit of her services. Nay,
more, it has been known to consult
this authority on the delicate sprout-
ing of microscopic mustache or
plead for a suggestion in the adjust
ment of complex love affair. To
be sure, in this wise, old world, there
are still many doubling Thomases
who relegate women to their so-called
sphere-the kitchen-whose dulled
intellects deny the benefit accruins
from the feminine atmosphere In
journalism. who sneeringly suggest
that fashions alone are ladled forth
to it's many readers and who wilfullY
close their eyes to the growing in
fuence of women. These may be
graphically classed under the genus
Crank, and with whom there is little
sympathy. The spirit of comradeship
is abroad in the land, and to-day men
and women, hand in hand, traverse
the paths of knowledge. What inter-
ests one is bound to please the other.
The Woman's Page, silently and
unostentatiously, crept into the home
life and is there the accepted coun-
sellor, ameliorator and all-round con-
fdante Of Its many readers. 1t is
made the arbiter of style and fashion,
the authority on epicurean concoc-
tions, a guide-book by land and sea,
the healer of bodily Ills, an ,adjuster
of domestic cataclysms, the Black
stone of legal wrangles, the mouth
piece of woman's emancipation, the
restorer of fading loveliness, and,
finally, the sympathetic receptacle in
to which are poured the tribulations,
miseries and heartburnings of every
day commonplace humanity.-New