The Washington herald., 1914-04-01
by MARY II. MULLETT.


Every little while some woman devel-
ops an idea so clever and so original that
the rest of us feel like going of to cor
ner and pinching ourselves because we
didn't think of IL first.
That is what ida Sutton has done. She
has had a good idea. And she is putting
it into execution. She is-but let's oegln
at the beginning.
Vida Sutton happened to be born IN
California But as the family moved TO
Helena, Mont. when she was only hve
wears old, she really will have to be
credited to the latter State.
Out there she lived the free, buoyant
life of the great West. What Is more,
she is pretty enough to have been tempt
ed into being a social butterfly. She Is
gay, she is charming. She reveled in out
door sports. She rode any horse that
came her way-provided 1t had a spirit
lively enough to match her own.
Why this sort of girl should have cared
more about sociology than about social
frivoIity is an enigma. But she did
Helena wasn't any hotbed of social prob
lens either. II couldn't have been her
environment It must have been instinc-
tive.
ANYWAY, that was what did interest her
more than anything else in the world.
And when she went to the University OF
Chicago it was in sociology and psychol-
ogy that she took her degree.
But with this love of the serious side OF
life there was a curious mingling OF the
dramatic temperament. So the next thing
she did was to nibble at stage life. She
was a member Of the company at the New
Theater in New York during its memor-
able but rather brief experiment at uplift-
ing the national drama.
Her taste of it convinced her that she
didn't want a stage career; at least. not
under present conditions. So she began
TO give dramatic recistals and literary
readings Thrilling is not exactly the
word for this part of her experience. Civ
ing literary readings" seemed to her
about as tame as riding the arm OF an
easy chair when she wanted a gallop
across country.
Part of Her Progress.
But it was all part of her progress to-
ward her real goal. For it vas out OF
these readings that her brilliant idea fin
ally dawned Suddenly il occurred to her
| that she didn't want to read what other
| people had written. She wanted to know
what people who don't write books are
thinking and saying.
without wasting any more time. she
packed her trunks and went to Europe.
She spent two years there. month ago
she came back to America bringing with
her a remarkable series of monologues,
chiefly on the feminist question, although
some of them are on life in general. She
got them at first hand. They are the real
thing.
For instance. she went into ireland, to
the county of Galway. She didn't have
| letters of introduction to people of i'm
portance. It was the people commonly
considered of no Importance she wanted
to get at. She went to little hotel that
looked fairly decent. Then she rented
| bicycle.
On this she wheeled out into the coun-
try. stopping at the roadside cottages.
hobnobbing with the men. women, and
children she met. A little village named
Barna appealed to her. She struck up an
acouaintance with the schoolteacher and
ended by staying for some time In the
| latter's two-roomed cottage. .
The floor was of earth. The fire was
meet. But the place was spotlessly clean.
| The people Of the village made her one OF
them. They talked about life and how
IL seemed to them. And one blind old
woman's ideas. expressed in her own
| words, form one of Miss Sutton's mono
logues.
In Paris she lived in the Latin Quarter.
went to its cafes, again hobnobbed with
| its people. At one place where she often
went. she encountered a midinette-one
of those girl workers Of Paris from whom
the girls of the boulevards are recruited.
This one had Joined the latter class.
And one day, without knowing that she
was contributing a human document to
modern sociology, this girl told her story
to Miss sutton. 1t was a story Of wages
that were too low to support her and her
mother and young sister. 1t wasn't the
ory. It was fact. And 1t is being told
now to Americans in the monologue, "A
Paris Midinette.f
some Interesting Things.
Miss Sutton went to Hungary for the
Interna tionaI Suffrage Convention at
ElheeI hatIo"o'