The sun., 1909-11-29
DO VB ABUSE OUR HUSBANDSY
MRS. HELLESS TALK THAT STIR
RED UP TIE sUFFRAGETTES.

Helpmste and VIE OF To-day-Are
We Becoming q Nation Of WId0ws7
Mrs Newell Dwight Hills. wife Of the
pastor OF Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.
made an address before the Emma Willard
Association the other day which stirred
up the suffragettes. Mrs. Hills said that
the women Of this country are in the
habit OF sending their husbands out TO
slave and struggle while they sit at home
sybarites in silk. II seemed to Mrs.
Hills that we are becoming q nation Of
widows so far as the women are con-
cerned.
Mrs Hills said yesterday that she
hadn't any intention Of offending the
sufragists. but she was positive that
everything she had told the Emma Will
lards was true. Mrs. Hills thought il
was about time that the women Of the
United States woke up to the fact that
they weren't doing their duty by their
husbands or their families.
The unprecedented advance both in
material prosperity and in mechanical
inventions has revolutionized the status
Of women as house workers and home
builders said Mrs. BILLS when there
were no sewing machines or ready made
clothing or prepared breakfast foods or
gas stoves or caterers or bakeries. women
had to stay at home and do a large part
Of the house work. cooking and sewing
with their own hands. There were no
kinderssrtens. and children-for there
we're children in American families in
thoe~ days-had to be taken care of and
taught by their own mothers. Girls
learned how to sew and do house work.
Now all this is changed. II is as cheap
and much easier-to buy ready made
clothing as to make II at home, and the
long quiet hours when mother and
daughter sat together uninterrupted by
telephones have passed away. There
is nothing in our modern life that can
make up to our daughters for the loss Of
those quiet hours. II is little wonder that
American girls are highstrung and ner-
vous and frequently on the verge OF hys-
terra
She is a rare woman in these days
who knows how 10 cook well enough to
be willing to risk the humiliation of
family criticism. Women telephone for
in It's own house is becoming rarer and
rarer. and yet IL has always been re garded
as one Of the bulwarks OF our natio nal
character. All these things give increas-
ing freedom and leisure to American
women. There has never before existed
in the history OF the world women who
have had such freedom from RESPONSE
bility as the American women.
a few privileged people belonging to
the nobility Of England. or living during
the old regime in France, attained more
luxury and social position, but never
has the great middle class, to which most
OF us women belong, il we will confess 10.
been In the possession OF such abundance
with 40 little demand for personal return
a. have our American women. II is not
frtsa .Hf thA InfanaA EntitiOn
has made their life harder. The widow
is terribly in evidence in our cities 1t
10 an anomaly that there should he such
an uneven division OF labor and respon-
sibility. II is anomalous that the old
chivalric idea Of laying the spoils at the
feet of BEAUTY idyllic. helpless femin-
inity-should be so much in evidence
in these practical matter NJ fact days.
Beauty makes no other return than
smile. The chivalry of American men
has been our boast. We have gloried in
it, But IL Is q question as to whether IL
can last much longer. Whv should it?
The old basis OF chivalry was frailty
and dependence. The spirit Of protec--
ton sprans Tp because women women nesdej nee =,
to-day scorns all thst. She is self-reilnt
and self sufficient. The six foot capta in
Of the basket ball team laughs outright
AT the slender youth who would protect
her. The business woman can earn her
one IL there is more or less OF the mascu-
line in all this is il strange that men
recognize and treat IL as suchp The atti-
tude Of our women is unprecedented
Should woinen undertake TO shore
The competition only increases his diff
culties. Shall we 60 back to home made
clothing and simpler ivingr We cannot.
The men wouldn't have it,. II is Tor
women to ind their place and fall into IL.
III 81 II ort n a UiOdIa
charitable and the like in which women
may do fine work quietly. The club idea
has been overdone. Some one recently
proposed a club which should prevent the
organization OF more wonen's clubs.
Certainly the woman who IL member
Of A dozen or more women's clubs is in
dulging in club intoxication ana should
have retreat provided for her.
But the club woman H. more to be
desired than the woman whose freedom
and luxury have deGenerated into idle
nees and display. The woman who can
find no better use for her wealth than
10 carry il about on her back 10 usually
the woman who In bored by staying at
home. by serious study. or by hearing
Of the woes and the burdens Of the other
half She must be amused and enter
tanned. and the American husband pays
the bill She is too numerous IL seems
unfair.
Here is a suggestion for womens
work: Every year sees increasing care.
intelligent. thoughtful care - bestowed
upon unfortunate human beings. This
work is peculiarly fitting for women:
In tho measure that she poeeesses the
tenderness, the sympathy and the tact
for which she is credited. in that measure
she is aualined for this delicate work.
n our girls could be educated with the
idea that this is q definite part OF our
life work women would come In time
to make some proper return 70 society
and the State for what they are receiving;
and they wouldEdo great deal toward
making mans lot easier.