Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-07-02
Does Beauty
Handicap the
Business Girl?
by BEATRICE FAIRFAX.


Is beauty a handicap TO the business
woman? Does share of pulchritude
interfere with a woman's efficiency in
business? Docs feminine loneliness get
the preference when out seeking employ
nent, or does Il go about sadly looking
for job while plain. practical-looking
persons get most Of the available posi-
tions?
For the society girl. for the sheltered
woman. beauty IL generally an asset
either at the game OF social success or
ia the popular pursuit OF husband
hunting. '"'
But when the poor working girl is
considered the world is likely to taill
about the fatal gift of beauty and 10
murmur something about Edna's being
tor too pretty for her own good, and
Louises seeming much 100 ornamental 20
be very useful
Beauty is an asset to the bustnoss
woman until she tries TO make II one,
We are all under the spell Of beauty.
our interest goes out in response to
healthy good looks in man or woman.
No man in search OF a stenographer, no
woman who ls looking for q secretary,
Is so stupidity narrow-minded as TO sup
pose that It follows as the night the dsS
that because a girl Is pretty she cannot
DO an efficient worker.
Beauty Is not always a pink and white
shipper and smlrk, nor is IL an exotic
biEarreness of form and feature. True
beauty is harmony and health and intel
ligence and charm and normal good
features in pleasant combination. And
all these things are as likely to indicate
harmonious nature and sane mind
/ in a healthy body as they are postulate
the presence Of less pleasant character
istios
! OF course, when the pretty girl wants
to be a silly fool and 10 stroll down 70
business in q Fifth avenue costume Of
glazed boots, sheer silken hosiery. flut-
tering short skirts and elaborate blouses
topped off by white fox. and with the
| final self-oonscious silliness Of 3 velvet
hat in defiance Of the seasons. she de-
serves crlticism-and gets II.
Common sense IL not a monopoly OF
the ugly. Nor are brains. nor business
ability. nor Willingness 10 attend to work
during working hours and to extend them
at necessity.
The hardest worker, the most willing
worker" in a large office which employs
twenty girls and as many men, In itA
beauty, she Is an unself-conscious young
person with an ambition to work up in
the world. and no matter how hard she
plays when she plays" no one IN the
office ever sees her do It.
She does not fllrt nor powder her nose
at anxious intervals. nor angle for invi-
tations for lunch. She attends strictly to
business and is at the same time re-
freshing sight for the eyes of anyone
who takes n moments respite from labor.
She no moro interferes with the discipline
of the office than did a great mass OF
red roses she brought in one day from
her home over In Jersey.
Beauty is restful and refreshing and q
panacea for tired spirits. And 1t never
will be n handicap to the woman who
works-unless her idea OF working is
that OF working-otherS
Between beauty and sclf-consciouE pos
ing there Is an unbridged river. whole
come lovellness lie as welcome In the
business world as II is all through life
And tinsel, tawdry, self-adulation will
always bore people and be one OF the
things they do not take willingly into
their offices or homes or hearts.