The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-20
Accuses Washington Women
Of Lack of Intelligence
Mr.. James C. Waters, Jr., Says "Ther Am't No
SIGH Vegetable as Eastern Southern
Woman Gipen to Serious Thought

Is the particular remark that came near
causing a holocaust: this is the cause
or the nerves and the narrowing expe-
rience referred to above.
The column in the Chicago Evening
Post referred to. would be the despair
Of the average Washington woman The
daily parade in F Street proves It, the
painted faces and queer robes ct man.
teau' affirm it, the dances which are the
. rage leave no doubt of it, the brides
, who grow fat even before the honey
moon is overwhelming laziness-dem-
onstrate it. while the feminine CONVEX
sation one overhears on the street and
in the street cars, posts. as it were, a
bond upon it,
Says Western Women Think.
my friend taxed me with having on
several occasions expressed admiration
for the womans page of The Wash
ington Herald. Its editor thinks. does
she not" was asked. I FASTENED to re-
new my loyalty to The Washington Her
! aid woman's page. Its editor does think,
but how many women in Washington will
agree that she thinks? For every one
who agrees, i will show you a thousand
women who will agree to no such propo-
sition. Why? Simply because Mrs. Manz
many moons ago. when writing on Gus
Thomas play, AS a Man Thinks had
the-shall l say nerve?-to say that this
is mans world and the hardihood to
agree with Ida M. TarbelI that the Bust
weighty Importance as well as of en-
trancing interest. So to mention a single
| exception only serves to prove the rule.
| ''1n Chicago and in cities further West
| women think. Do they think in the
East? No. When milady offered this
woman and the other woman who had
! made thousands writing best sellers as
/ n WI n MI
the effort proved so ridiculous that she
herself had to laugh. The writers Of
these best sellers don't think: they
| dream. and the near dream fugues' they
/ grind out are bought by their silly sis
ters-hence the thousands. The women of
the South, do they think? They are great
at finessing, scheming, and the like but
of thinking they do not bit. Speaking
Of the Southern woman and the suffrage
| movement, the Jones County (Miss.)
\ News says: I'VE never intend to have
] such innovations as this in the South
| We love and honor our women too highly
We shall preserve them to adorn.
| brighten and beautify our homes, and
| will shield them from rude contact with
| the outside world . ." This emit
omizes woman's status in the South:
she's rose. a Juliet. If you please, but
/ a thinker?-no
| so it is with the Washington woman.
She is more than pretty; she's often
! beautiful She is handsomely df also
| rather queerly) gowned, is vivacious.
| fair to look upon and her makeup con-
tains modicum of gracioumess Our
lady of Washington Is an orchid which
far from being anything that Thinks
| is an exquiSite-moSt evanescent-
FLOWER.
JAMES c. WATERS, JR."
It il not even necessary to list the
| hundreds of Washington women whose
names and intellectual accomplishments
are made constantly familiar to US to
| prove the injustice of Mr.. Waters sweep
ing accusation that there are no women
in the Nations Capital given to serious
| thought.
| In the Minority.
He has chosen one type to prove his ar
gument which justifies it, but this type
| Is the exception. for where there is one
woman who bedecks herself in incon-
| gruous attire and parades herself before
| the curious eyes in F Street of a pleas
ant afternoon there are ninety and nine
| of her sisters who are given to the seri-
Gus business of life
In the first place there are hundreds
of good mothers in this city of Wash
ington. and the woman who is a good
mother thinks seriously. wisely. and
well.
The woman who is engrossed in the
business of home-making brings to il
ability, intelligence, and time, if she
makes success of it, and whore are
there more delightful and successful
homes than in this city? I lived in Chi
cago i've years. This is one of the cities
Mr.. Waters cites as producing women
who think yet there is a much larger
percentage. per capita, in the Windy
City of painted faces. queer robes ct
manteau IN State Street during one day
than one could find in washington's
fashionable downtown promenade in a
month.
Besides. the woman who so fritte-s her
time is not criterion of the woman hood
of any city. because her percentage i.
so small.
There Is not a successful professional
or business woman in Washington whose
very existence does not refute Mr.. Wa
ters' argument. There is not a woman
who makes home place Of loneliness
and peace whose work does not cry out
a protest against the accusation that
she does not think.
There is not a wife who co-operates
with her husband in making life a SPLEEN
did success who does not break down
the accusation that our women are given
only to frivolity; and surely there IL
no good mother in all this CITY who
gives to the training Of her children
Tor the business of life both wisdom and
lntelilSence whose very occupation does
not cry out shame upon the slanderous
tongue which claims for her no serious
thought
No Respecter of Sexes.
have lived in the largest cities Of
America and when 1 compare their won-
en- to the women of Washington
can conjure up no past experience
which justifes Mr.. waters state
ment that excessive frivolity is De-
GUITAR to the so-called ''fair sex, OF the
Capital. Nor has il been my 6bserva-
ton. either here or elsewhere, that brain
lessness is a respecter of sexes. which
fact leads me to express it as my belief
that the column referred to in the Chi
eago Evening Post, which appears under
the caption: For Women Who Think"
would be the despair of no greater num-
Der of women than of men, for IL you'll
just take little stroll down F Street
one of these magic spring afternoons
you'll find masculine posers leaning In
doorways with feet crossed at a beauti-
full angle, twirling the latest wrinkle in
canes between beautifully mani, lred
fingers, with nothing in their attitudes or
countenances to suggest anything other
than simpering assininity. 1 dare say