Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-03-22
WORK AND EQUALITY
By GRACE HoGE.

There goes Viola!" the little sten- ographer whispered excitedly to her visitor, as she watched a girl hurry ing to the elevator Every fond pa rent with preconceived ideas as to the way to bring up a 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 ,',s f right to be, for she's her papa's &1>::F@ tary, and she's going to be n':.r"'';c and is most sumptuously ent srsaiNtt almost daily! Yes, I'll tell yo1t s.'!1''' her.
 "You know Mr. Gray, her father. has been talking to me about hLa daughter ever since came .a ~o:E for this firm. He says ougit to feel proud of my place-my work in tfe world, and so forth. Then he'd always end up by declaring that Vicla wasn; to be a parasite and that sAe was child after his own heart. Gae De- lieved in woman's work and equality, and all that, and when shea finished college she was going to do sc:nethsnSG worth while!
 Finally Viola graduated. GoTsa,o 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 a 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 thought she'd make good stenographer. as- sured him that 1t took brains and cd 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- tion. So Viola took the training!
 'eMr. Gray was in the clouds during those months He devoted four-flfths of his time to telling me what new ia cilities for high-grade office work Viola was going to bring when she arrived for he would have her for his prl- vate secretary They planned things at home, he said.
 "Well, 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 I!
 Before Viola arrived to go to work, not only l, 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 of1ice-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 SOC IrOm u0T. W0 lOSI AOA0 VI o~A curiosity to see what happened.
 "She relieved me of all her fathers work, and 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 mussy affair for us to send out but 1t had viola's initials and har ia ther's signature at the foot. "One morning MT. Gray came down alone to the office and he called me in for dictation. He had pile of letters a foot high, and we just were buried in work. There were letters a 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 dictat1on 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