Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-02-28
WORK ARD EQUALITY
By GRACE HoGE.

rent with preconceived ideas as to the way to bring up family ought to meet viola's father!
 Viola is rather stylishly fixed up for business woman on Monday af ternoon, isn't she? Well, she's got a right to be, for she's her papa's secre- tary, and she's going to be married and is most sumptuously entertained almost daily! Yes, I'll tell you about her.
 You know MT. Gray, her father. has been talking to me about his daughter ever since l came to work for xhis firm. He says ought to feel proud of my place-my work in the world, and SO forth. Then he'd always end up by declaring that Viola wasn't to be a parasite and that she was a child after his own heart. She be- lieved in woman's work and equality, and all that, and when shed finished college she was going to do something worth while!
 Finally Viola graduated. forget how many years over and above the first four it took her to get through, but her father called them post-gradu' ate years, and no one else cared.
 When Viola failed to find pub fisher for her novel, which 1t took her a year to write, and when she didn't take to social settlement work or woman's movements, papa got nerv- ous for her to get into something, but none of the ordinary pursuits, 1t seemed, appealed to little Viola!
 Finally I told him that l thought she'd make a good stenographer. l as- sured him that it took brains and ed ucation and capacity to compete with most of us. and it was such a fruitful field-so few in it! We'll, he took 1t all in-never suspected for moment that there was sarcasm in my sugges- ton. So Viola took the training!
 'sMr. Gray was in the clouds during those months. He devoted four-f1fths of his time to telling me what new fla cilities for high-grade office work Viola was going to bring when she arrived flor he would have her for his pri- vate secretary. They planned things at home, he said.
 Well, I got alarmed and began real ly to work to earn my salary, for didn't dare let Viola come into the of fee and prove more satisfactory than [!
 :, Before Viola arrived to go to work, not only I, but the whole office force knew just how clever Viola was. Wed all seen Viola when she had come to call on papa, and Jimmy, the office boy, who hadn't realized who she was, discovered that he resembled nothing else SO much as just plain atmos- phere! She sailed past us all into his inner offlce-and then little later she sailed right out again without glancing around.
 "So when MT. Gray came in late one morning with Viola and intro. duced her to us all before ushering her into his private office we were prepared for the chilly reception we got from her. We lost none of our curiosity to see what happened.
 0u0 ICk10Vou MO Ol a4l AOA AosSAOA V work. and I was rather glad. for he'd been getting to be nuisance-keeping me there hours over one letter talking about Viola.
 Well, one night Jimmy called me over and let me see a letter he was sealing. It was sort of kid finished all over, from nearly every word hav- ing been erased, and 1t was rather a mussy affair for us to send out but 1t had Viola's initials and har fa- ther's signature at the foot.
 "One morning Mr. Gray came down alone to the office and he called me in for dictation. He had a pile of letters Q foot high, and we just were buried in work. There were letters week old-important ones. Then I could see the connection between MT. Gray's increasing crows feet and the light mails he had been getting out. Viola wasn't up to the work.
 Things got worse and worse. MT. Gray got to calling me in for dictation oftener, and finally he confided to me that Viola hadn't found her vocation yet. But she was engaged to nice young man, and he thought marriage would round her out and complete her life.
 "Then last week found him all bumped up at his desk when an swered his bell. I asked him what was the matter. and he couldn't con- ceal 1t any more. It's Viola he said. She says she loves her work and she isn't going, to let marriage separate her from it. She's made the young man promise that he'll let her stay and help me. She knows what think of women's work in the world and she refuses to disappoint me! All can say only makes her think that I'm try. ing to sacrifice myself for her-and she's going to stay!
 "So Viola still comes down to the office. She has entirely given up her letters, but she talks over things with papa and draws her salary"
 Fox-Terrier Mothers Duck.
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