The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-10-08
How Patronesses Were
Taught Not to Patronize
BY Ada Patterson

In Washington fifteen hundred ,wo-
men clerks. employed by the govern
ment. toll an indefinite number OF wo-
men to mind their own business on one
% Th the nrst not days of the summer.
Inc report saith that the anger on
both sides sent the thermometer up
many degrees in the census build
Ing.
committee of reform society was
the offender or course the commit
and the reform society ment we'll
most persons this side of hades do. The
committee learned that the census
building was one of the hottest gov
eminent buildings In the capital. Ac-
cordingly 1T sent ffty gallons of loo
cream to the employees In that build
ing. card containing the names of
the committee ana the society accom-
panied the coolers" of the frozen
things on the card. rut the census
clerks read 1t there. anyhow. The cool
ers stood In the corridors until they
were as warm as braziers. Drops of
what had been Ice trickled down the
sides and rolled over the stone tagging
or the building. And still every clerks
chin was held high-every clerks
eyes were more sultry than the wealth
er. And when the ice cream was be-
| come tepid milk. and a visiting com
mittee OF womer clerks, liftinr its
skirts daintlly and stepping with its
wei shod boots ginseriy among the
pools made by the melting ice. as
sured itself OF this fact, the committee
or census clerks sent 10 the donors of
the ruined sweets, this message:
we are perfectly able to buy ice
cream for ourselves. May we suggest
that II you have any money to give
poverty stricken of Washington, whose
suHerinSs are very great In the sum-
mer. and who get less help than the
poor of other cities?"
49,
lesson, II reminded the women who
sent the Ice cream of what they should
have known before, that when aid is
offered 1t should not be done with a
heavy hand BY the light hand of in
direction the trim. high spirited, self
supporting women OF the census de-
partment might have BEEN benefited as
the reform society certainly Intended
rad the reform society arranged for
the sale OF Ice cream at less than the
usual price by opening cool little
booth In tho nelghborhood. the con-
venience of the young women who
work during the long. hot summer, In
one of the hottest cities in the world
would have come to check. nor sting
to eyes. by any thought or "charity"-
The thought that dashed the clerks into
the snub of the coolers" and those
who sent them
There are many forms of pride. and
none Is moro justiiable than that Of
the women who earns her own living
and is glad she iE able to do so such
women. when relatives or friends of
fer them half worn gown or "A wrap
that has lost its freshness. saying, II
am tired of this. Perhaps you can
make 1t over for yourself" say with
that same sultry look in the eyes that
became general In the census depart
ment the day the ice cream coolers
arrived; You a:e very kind. but can
buy new ones far myself" Such wo-
men do not move into more expensive
apartments than they can AFFORD. OK.
pecting the family to make good tho
deficit. And they never bend their
hurdep TO the humlliating load of debt
They are proud to he able TO pay az
they GO"
The self-supportinE woman is proud
of the skin in whichever of the worlds
trades she has adopted, which Yields
her the money to pay her rent. her
dressmaker. her grocer, her milliner.
and, perhaps in sor,a cases when she
has worked long enough. tho tax col
lcctor To this woman her bank bal
ancc Is MS proud a document as the
doctors diploma. She knows that the
world holds its benefits tightly locked
In its hand and that II requires dyna-
II. That bank statement of her own
earnings and savinns proves that she
is one of the worlds active forces.
The men and women who sincerely
desire to improve tho conditions OF