The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-21

ards lectures at tHe Suiii
of the state university. whereas IN
reality they are called THE Relation OF
Costs to Efficiency" and 'Futhenics-
Better Living the Effect Of Environ
ment." 1t sounds appalling. doesn't ~
1t is trying to a simple newspaper
woman to, be sent out to find an IN
tellectuaI woman-a professor OF nearly
40 years experience-to talk TO her on
such subjects as the above; they seem
to mean so much more than an or
binary mind can comprehend
After I had wandered through
Berkeley's golden but glowing sun
shine for about an hour in search OF
Mrs. Richards I felt more peevish ana
depressed than ever. fancied myself
struggling through the afternoon with
severely wise person who dealt with
the heights of the everlasting woman
question" in terms best described by
the line from the Bah Ballads
Which is pretty-but I don't know
what it means"
Picture my joy when 1 finally found
Mrs. Richards in California hall. de-
tached her from a throng of summer
students. and discovered that had
charming little woman with close
lying cream white hair, the biggest,
wisest, merriest blue eyes, and more
real, actual sense than any woman 1
have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
1t is an intellect made perfectly intelli-
gible-ggay matter adapted to the
common or garden needs of the world
sane, wise perceptions that can inter
est even a lay mind-a wonderfully
trained brain that has not gone above
the clouds. When saw, too, that she
has Enthusiastically a sense of humor. IN
no wise atrophied, it seemed almost
too good to be true.
AS for the woman question" she
disposed OF that early in our CONVEX
sation by giving the real reason Tor
| its existence.
She says it's all the mems fault, too.
It's because men are too clever and
invented too many things.
an former days." said Mrs. Rich
ards. 1.-The home was the mandatory
and the woman was busy there. she
spun and wove, made her own soap
and candles had meal and -four ground
under her direction, had the meat
the other details of an old time house
hold that gave some scope TO her en-
erGies and ingenuity. She kept her
mind occupied with plans and improve
ments for providing the necessities or
life.
"rrhen factories for this and that
were established and one by one mems
inventions have taken all of women's
occupations away, save merely the
cleaning of the house and the cooking
That is not enough to keep
womans mind busy. either TO do it or
direct it, and in consequence she has
become bored with these more or less
mechanical details and has gone out
into the world to find something to
think about
Then she went on to say that men do
not realize that they have taken this
out of our lives. and educated women
are blamed because they don't want to
stay at home and do the little routine
duties that are left
The explanation Of the unrest among
womankind was so simple, yet so satisfy
ing. and it makes some of the problems Of
the presentl day so much more endur-
able when one remembers that they are
simply the outcome of the thwarted de-
sires of women to be feminine editions
of the Swiss family Robinson, with
their marvellous adaptations of every
thing under the sun on their wonderful
island to the commonest needs of life.
She then said: There is not enough
in the house keeping now to keep us
satisfied. because we don't think what
| is back of it. We don't realize what it
stands for. We fail to get the ethics of
! it. If we go out and do homework in
hurry and fret we break down un-
der it. We have not learned yet to do
it under the new conditions. Getting q
meal is bore because we undervalue
the true significance of the work since
it is made simpler"
Leaving homes to live in boarding
houses and hotels, which is so decidedly
the tendency of the present day, and
particularly among young women. is
due to a loss of ethical responsibility
she says. There is a failure to preserve
the old ideals, and in consequence the
home is in danger of being squeezed out
of existence.
TIE counterfeit this Mrs Richards is
giving her lectures on What she
terms home economics, or that science
which win enable US to keep a home.
And by home. let it be known, Mrs.
Richards does not mean one Of those
places dreamed of by the advanced fad
dists, where everything will be so sapi-
| tary and scientific and sterilized and
perfectly 90 planned that there will be
no errors ana no humanity. She means
real home. where, to use her own ex-
preston. 'the family will gather around
the lamp, just as they used to in the old
days" The home, she believes. must be
the central place. because there are
instincts which can be satisfied in no
other way.
Most young women of the present
day" she said. ARE interested in So
GEOLOGY, and that is simply an instance
of instructive motherhood. 1t comes
out to all instead of being merely =
personal matter"
"As nation" Mrs. Richards said
I'VE worship efficiency. 1t is the crv
of all employers that they can not
find sufficiently efficient people to do
their work. So it has come that we
must have skin in some one thing and
devote our time largely to that to do
1T we'll enough to satisfy people.
Look at that tie you have on" sbA
said. pointing to my pleated trifle Of
linen and lace You couldn't make a
tie like that; it wouldn't hang right
I've tried to make those ties myself
and can buy a much better LOOKING
III