New-York tribune., 1910-12-25
Disadvanfa6e Of Being a Man
The Woman Who Wants Vote Has Word
to Say on Behalf of the Male Tyrant.

eNN queens WIFI ldXlcdDS anu tiNifiGS poe
of season. Most young men live in board
ing houses, and spend their evenings with
the fellows at vaudeville show, or play
ing poker, both Of which diversions require
some money and ultimately pail, besides.
OF course. the young man may make the
acquaintance of some nice girl who bids
him welcome at her home, but after he has
called a few times ii may come to the
thoughts of even very unmercenary young
woman that she does not wish to waste her
society upon a man who shows no dfspo-
sition to bring her candy or flowers or take
her TO the theatre. or, in fact, do any
thing more substantial than spending his
evenings in her parlor, turning over sheet
music on her piano. Is it a wonder that
young men say they cannot AFFORD to
know any more girls?
After a few years of cneerless board
ing house life the young man begins to
long for a home of his own, but on
s25-a-week salary a plunge into matrimony
seems hazardous. The girl of his choice,
earning possibly SIS or so week. which
she has had for her very own. may very
well feel qualms, in which she IS encour
aged by an ambitious mother. at tying
herself down Still, if she loves him there
begins either intern1inabie engagement
or else housekeeping in a cramped fat,
wherein the young wife receives from her
friends congratulations that amount to con-
dolences. Every one sympat thizes with the
girl who marries a poor man; no one sym
pathizes with him. though he works down
town doing his level best day after day,
year after year, and comes home tired at
night to help wash the dishes and put the
children to bed. He brought it all on him
self-Why doesn't he make money like Mr..
Rockefeller or Mr. Hartman did, The
money is there. isn't il?
But suppose on the other hand he
falls honestly in love with a rich girl.
In this case, even his own friends will
look knowing il you remark how much
George is in love with his wife, and it is
a generous woman indeed who never once
reminds her husband that the bills
being paid with her money and not his.
And in after years. does the husband
take more pleasure out of life than the
wife? When the children past the
Dhooping cough age, the hardest of the
mothers duties are done, but so long as
his family require a roof over their heads
and three meals a day. the breadwinner
must stay in the harness. A womans 5
work in the home. rearing children, cook
ing the food making and remaking gar
ments may he equally important and
at times equally as hard her husband s;
but under modern conditions il leaves her
younger at fifty than her helpmate. Child
hearing still slays its thousands, but il is
the men who are killed in mining acci-
dents. in railway disasters, in any of the
many dangerous occupations. not to men-
ton the great silent army of underpaid
i g,ofl !
age so much as of overwork.
IF condemned TO life of celibacy, is the
| old bachelor with his club any less lonely
! than the Spinster with her clubs? Some
| say single woman is less forlorn than a
/ man, because woman ipso facto has the
/ faculty of making a home out of one room,
/ if need be- where she can gather her
| friends and her friends children about her.
| Any success she may gain in the business
! or professional world is greeted with
! rounds Of applause. because she is a
! woman-as in the case Of DR.. Johnson s
dog, which walked on its hind legs.
"A man, just because he is man, must
always stand ready to perform little Ser
vices for women; to carry heavy suitcaseS,
to give up comforta BILE chair. to- pay car
| fares, though he go without his luncheon;
! 10 endure Insult that he would knock a
man down for. He must pay more for
manicuring; he must give larger tips than
| a woman, because a man Is presumed to
have more money. In time Of disaster,
food, fire or shipwreck he must chee fully
yield his life TO save Woman-any woman,
| He may deianty retain his seat in the
subway, despite disappearing glances. but
| in the great crises of life and death @the
creed of civilization embodied in ladies
first seems to prevail
| ''On the whole. it's difficult thing to live
| up to-being a man"