The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-07-06
BY FRANCES SKATER.

It il strange the seriousness with which
we take our inherited prejudices.
One morning when the statement was
read that women, in suggestive numbers,
were beginning to copy the mannish
fashion of carrying smart walking-sticks,
the thought came to mind-Gracious!
What next? Won't women leave to the
one-time lords Of creation anything they
can call distinctly their own?
And that same old bugaboo accusingiy
Observation-Disclosures 'Unsuitable!
and a few things worse. At least, II
threatened and fused and stormed until
another thought and balancing ques-
ton set 1t at rest-What's the harm, and
what's unsuitable about it? Not that
most of us care a turn Of the finger
about the cane or the matter of following
a mannish fashion. but the question is
Is it mannish, and just what is mannish,
any how?
Times change, and the little and the
big problems of life change with them;
things that one time, for women, were
written all over with warning signs now
are counted quite suited TO feminine
purposes and feminine uses. And the
only wonderment is why they were ever
barred out in the past
Perhap4 the whole world admires what
II Is pleased to call manly man and
a womanly woman. And by that 1t
means-well. it is hard to say just what
it means But the Maker of US all. in
the great scheme of things, seemed to
decree that men and women should be
different in many ways, possibly fitted
for different activities, and II is quite
natural that the world should indorse
that decree
The Difference.
er, holder lines; women followed Ghe
lighter. softer, milder patterns; and we
like best to see both sticking close as
may be 10 the lines upon which they
were made. But things go sadly awry
sometimes. and IT is pretty easy to for
get which the natural, which the man
made lines.
The masculinity Of the woman who
seemingly forgets that she is a woman
is 1t a shade or two worse than the
effeminacy of the lily-fingered man
preston that his part in life is to dare
and to do? We cannot say, for either
is abhorrent enough.
But don't let US become confused.
Today girls are told that IL they
would be strong, healthful, and alert,
equipped to be mothers of men, they
must get out in the free air, out
where the soft winds of heaven blow
upon them and the bright light of the
sun boldly dyes their skin to the rare
hue of health. But yesterday and the
day before. 1t was far more lady
like" then to sit on a vine-covered,
beautifully sheltered piazza, reading
about weepy fainty damsels. and oc-
casionally daring to raise modest eyes
to glance at men in their athletic pur-
suits. But to follow them out on the
felds-that was quite too mannlsh 1or
women,
AS a matter of fact. which has the
right of it. the older generations that
declared it unwomanly, inappropriate,
uniting for women to copy men IN
their athletic ways, or the later ones
that say women are welcome, and wom-
anly ways, out on the big Nature helds
of play, so long as they abide by the
woman gait?
Not Natural.
There are m ghty few, men or wom-
en-. who do not turn aside in dismay.
else look in startled fascina ton. when
they see an occasional woman striding
along in out-and-out masculine 1ash-
ion, arms a-swing, seemingly trying 10
catch I'D with somebody, even wearing
clothes of a mannish cut. And we 90
not like 1t because ii is not naturai
for them to walk that way: at least
we do not think it is. But maybe in
the years to come we shall wonder why
IL ever was counted unwomanly and
sort of ugly for a woman to pace along.
for the world and all like man.
We hope not
Yet there are the struggles of the early
women writers, amusing now. but tragic
enough to the strugglers. They wanted
to write, genius fairly burned for out
let and, under cover, their pens flew
along; but they shrank from
being discovered in an occupation so
unsuited to womanknd. So. discreetly
enough, they hid behind a bit Of suit
able" embroidery and ostensibly left the
msnnish pens for men. But now author
ship is comfortably within woman's
sphere, not mannish at all.
And they tell Us that when the first
business Offices opened their doors to
let women in there were some curious
souls who focked around to see what
manner of creatures they possibly could |
be. OF course, ii was very mannish
and equally, of course, they |
could not be ladies' at all! For bread |
winning was counted extremely unwom- |
aply, to be turned to only as last
resort and confessed only when 1t could |
not be concealed any longer.
Alas for the "womanly woman OF
other days, For her lines did not fall /
in very easy, pleasant places.
Yes, men and women are different: |
but time and the change OF that time
have wrought have shown US a great |