The Washington herald., 1913-03-16
Sweepirg Classificdti0ns
Are Usually Most Unfair
By ynAxcEs snAFrEn.

By yRANCES sHAFFER.
"sad-facsd women. dropping moutha
and all thst-you know the typer'
Now. think q moment-can you guess
the answer to that riddle?
aweary Of the world and who wear their
saA hearts written all over their faces
can you classify them and tell just whore
they belong?
Because II you cannot. and would like
TO know. there II a wise, q very learned
man. who can tell you all about 1t.
He says. and he speaks right out with
all the courage Of his convictions. that
the type he means is made up of-teach-
ers!
And after one has thought Q bit Of the
teachers whom she chances to know and
the others she knows about, she finds
herself % lost In a cloud Of wonderment
that she straightway forgets the type
that II criticised and remembers only the
critic. For while the women in the
teaching craft has not a monopoly of
sunny faces. bright eyes. soft voices and
lips that 60 curling up at the corners
they surely were around whom those
coveted assets were distributed by the
kindly hand of nature. and were grsc-
iously allowed their share.
Idle Critieisn.
And. happily enough. the idle words of
. thoughtless critic cannot possibly suf-
fee to efface from mind the picture Of a
fair-faced. smiling teacher down In the
sunny South" who beautifully typided
all that q teacher. all that a woman may
be. She had left her youth well back in
the years that had gone. was travelling
life's highway in single blessedness. but
for more school terms than she cared to
her boy and girl pupils.
Hers 10 the first picture that comes
to mind. and somehow 1t stands for a
type. IL there possibly were such a thing
as a type when 1t comes to any such mat
ter.
And as for me. I think and think with
out once remembering a sad-faced wom-
an who has taught for . single year or
for several decades
critic?
Do you know what he has in mind?
He is . Benedict himself-not an over
happy one. at that-and he thinks of
those teachers as having grown tired
and disheartened, sad of mien and weary
at heart. with even their mouths telling
the disconsolate story. simply because
they have not married,
And what is the trouble with him. do
you suppose?
Because in other respects he is quite
in touch with the times, quite clear in
mind. observant and inclined to look be-
fore he speaks. And he prides himself
upon paying no tribute to an old prejudice
and upon being superior to the making
and sweeping classiications. of looking
for types where there are no types.
Same Mixture of Sunshine.
We had supposed that the whole of the
thinking world had reached point where
It had made up its mind that while mar
riase Is counted the highest aim of a
woman's life. not even marriage itself.
! with all its possibilities for conferring
happiness. il a panacea for all the ills
that come.
We had believed. too. that the world
had learned that among women who are
married and those who are not there Is
the same mixture of sunniness and of
frowns. the same life successes and the
same life failures
We certainly had fancied the world had
reckoned. too. that eyes that are sad
and eyes that are glad, faces that are
sour and faces sweet and beautiful are
pretty evenly distributed among the
world Of women, no matter what their
estate.
And, what il more to the point, We
had supposed 1t settled long and long
ago that the quality of woman's mind
and heart does not 90 up or down as
she approaches or steers away from the
marriage altar. We had supposed that.
partly because the world had declared It
so. but largely because We have looked
about, and looking. have found it so.
Conditions Were Different.
Perhaps II was true-quite likely it was
that years and years ago when condi-
tions were quite different. women did
sometimes grow rather sad in expression
when there was no chance of escape from
their teaching lot And goodness knows
there was reason enough, for in the pay
vouchsafed them and the spirit back of
1t there was not q hint Of either the
practical or the beautifully chivalric. It
was enough to cause that weary droop
to the mouth" that old-time writer's were
fond Of depicting.
But even then. from all one can hear
or read about. sad faces and dropping
mouths went to wives and spinsters,
without any favor.
The fact is, there are plenty Of folk
in this slow-going world who are mighty
fond OF moss-covered traditions. and they
simply will not let go Of their old BE-
liefs, will not use their eyes or their
minds to undeccive them.
They may have "sad-faced women" for
wives chosen from all the world, but
what Of that when they come to think Of
types?'