The Glenwood post., 1909-01-23
A SUBSTITUTE FOR MATR1MoNY

What can the woman find in business
to take the place of marriage?
What price does woman pay for sue
cess in business? Does a well-appointed
bachelor girl apartment and collec-
tion of Japanese prints compensate for
the love of little children of one s very
own! Here are the biggest questions
of the present business woman era. And
what are the answers? Anna Steese
Richardson, the recognized authority on
the business woman, writes on these
topics for the Woman s Home Compan-
ion for February, and her conclusions
on these matters, so vital to home life
and domestic happiness, are spoken with
vigorous conviction. Here is one tell
ing paragraph from Mrs. Richardson s
article:
"What is the matter with the young
man of today? He is not ungallant
He is not selfish. He is not stingy
He simply cannot afford to keep pace
with the well-paid girl who works for
her living"
And here is another:
1.-The business woman of today is
| achieving financial success at the sacri-
flee of domestic content and maternal
INSTINCT
Perhaps you will not agree with Mrs.
Richardson, but you will be forced 20
stop and think about what she says.
The question raised by Mrs. Richard
| son is one of more than passing interest
| and forces on us the fact that with in
| creased demands on her ability, increas-
| ed opportunities for making her own
| living, increased temptations toward
independence young women are
thinking less of home which a man
can give them, less and less are they
coveting gown purchased by hus-
band, because they are so prosperous
in financial way that they are wei
able to provide their own gowns, they
arc able to enjoy an occasional opera
and pay for it themselves.
Too often the business girl, ma lie
vain by her independence, and her bus
iness successes, exults over the fact that
she is earning better salary than that
received by her suitor, who somehow
doesn t seem to get on well. Then she
buys few more trinkets and furbelows
and bonbons and then meditates on how
terrible it would be to be the wife pf
a man of poverty who could not afford
to buy for her the things she can now
buy for herself. Bye and bye she finds
that her former desire for home and
her longing to nestle with her mate be
meath their own vine and fig tree has
vanished. The former sentimentalism
which once filled her heart to overflow.
ing has given place to commercialism
Her modest sense of dependence has
been driven out by her ability to cope
with men in the race for existence.
The insidious mania of commercialism
has crept slowly upon her until she re.
alizes that the instinct which God plac.
ed in her breast. the instinct which
prompted her to covet n home of her
own, the instinct of wifehood and
motherhood, has been slowly but almost
surely crushed and she is made to won.
der whether she has a heart or nor,
and finally when she loses her position
or fails in a business way, she realizes
the truth that the real bar to marriage
all these years has been her own salary.
She has felt herself independent of men
and marriage, by reason of her good for
tune in position.
Social equality, business equality, wo-
man suffrage, an affection of strength
which she did not possess, and degree
Of independence which it was never in.
tended she should possess or affect
these are the elements which have con-
signed many sweet, trusting girl to
spinsterhood, and a more or less perma
nent job at typewriter or behind a
counter. What Is tho remedy,