Gainesville daily sun. (Gainesville, Fla.) 190?-1938, 1909-12-12
The DEATH OF cHNALRY.


Ign, has a gift for naming things
and names some Of them with sucf
descriptive insight that she has en-
ragged the suffragettes. Mrs Hills
declares that American women (as q
natiOn) abuse their husbands, thai
they no longer deserve the good OLD
fScriptural title of helpmeet: that they
are "sybarites In silk" sitting at home
in idleness and luxury while theiI
husbands are struggling In the mart
and the market place to pay for the
easy chair and the SILK gowns. >Ac.
eording to Mrs. Hills the American
"sybaritesp are a nation Of widows.
as so many men succumb to the strain
OF modern business life and die COM
paratively young.
Mrs. Hills furthermore declares
that when there were mo sewing ma
chimes. no ready-made clothing. no
prepared breakfast ioCds. gas stoves.
cat, rers and bakers women had to
stay at home and work; nowadays,
she Implies, a cer.ain parsonage, not
to te mentioned in polite society, finds
employment for idle hands to do. and
the sunraeettes seem to take 1t that
Mrs. Hills means throwing stones
and carrying. street banners, demand
ing in her letters the ballot One
sad result OF this rushing into any
and every kind of publicity is. she
declares, the death Of American chiv-
airy.
And in this Mrs. Hills touches a
truth, says The Asheville IN. CD Ga.
zette-News. Go into certain large
cities today and you will find chivalry
difference to women-dead. and be
too late for the funeral. Men do not
stand In crowded cars that women
may sit; they push and hustle them
in the depots and at the steamer land
ing, but, with all respect to the Brook
Ign lady, this state OF affairs is not
due to the "sybarltes in silk" but
to the working girls in trim business
suits, who are earning their living
and taking the consequences like a
man" II is competition In the bust
ness world and on the field of ath-
letics that wherever 1t exists is killing
the spirit of chivalry. A girl who is
sharp enough to drive bargain, cool !
headed enough to travel from Maine
to San Francisco, Independent enough |
to go to the theater unattended and
strong enough to be an opponent to
reckon with at basket ball, golf or ten
mis-, isn't exactly an object Of rever-
entail Difference,
The times are changing, and we
are losing some OF the sweet and
beautiful things OF life; whether II is
the fault OF mankind or womankind |
is problem for skilled sociollgists.
Women are the competitors of men
In every field of employment; IS It |
because of the inenlciency OF men to
provide for the family or because OF
the extrayagant demands of the wo-
men and children in the modern home,
or is II both? And isn't the fact that
Mrs. Hills deplores. that there are
now so few real homes, so much apart
ment living, with caterers, bakers,
telephones, gas stoves, etc, more the
result than the cause OF the invasion |
OF women into the wage earners ter
ritory? That there are more widows
than wldowers-it Il Is true--would |
seem to indicate that women can
stand the strain better than men. II
Is certain that there are more old |
maids and bachelors under the new
regime, And this is not due to the
decay Of romance and chiyalry but is |
because man hesitates to ask a
girl TO share with him an income not
much larger than the one she is earn.
ing and spending; and because girl
hesltates to give up the liberty Of
earning and spending Tor the sake OF
a husband-a home she can have any
how Ia these days and be care-free.
independent bachelor maid. Whittier
are we tending2 What win be the
rosultG Not Mrs. Hills nor the suffra.
gettes, nor the "syharites" nor the