The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-28
ZV {SS


 1 with no cowardly shrinking, no false evil, facing life and its vital facts bravely, rnodeety, or that hypocritical pretence which so poisons intercourse between the sexes in the present day.
 If women in the future are to be the recognized equals of men, If they are to work side by side with them In harmony, the barriers which are the outcome of q descendant civilization must be thrown down, leaving an absolute understand ing and frank sympathy one with the ether
 After the war women will have much to learn, but if they realize even dimly now the great issues that are at sfa ae generations of women to come will have cause to bless time when the shacklee of old tradition were shaken off, and women were freed at last-frced not oy violence or shriekings on their part, but with the help and encouragement of their men folk, freed to take their place, as they were intended to take it, in per- feet fllfilment of the idealist's dream Liberty, equality, fraternity"
 Speaking of conditions in the war zone, the editor of Spur" makes this com ment upon the departure of two young A,rerican women of prominence who are joining others among their country women abroad:
 ''When I think of Miss Catherine Brit ton and Miss Mona McAdoo starting off for Europe to join a band of nurses l cannot but wonder if they quite realize what they are doing; this despite the fact that they have spent some mont:fs in preparatory work in a Washington hospital. It is not easy to picture these two petted and feted belles drudging at their task; for, heroic though the labor be. it is drudgery of the first or der. To be sure, they are bound for 0 ccrvaleseent hospital on a fine old pri- vate estate near San Reno, where work will be less hard, and horrors fewer, than in the hospitals nearer the fields of ac- tion. Miss McAdoo, who is the oldest unmarried daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury, has been one of the ex- tromely popular young women in her set an6 is conceded to be the most beauti- f,il girl of the present administrations Miss Britton, the witty daughter of the Alexander Brittons, has a fine mastery of foreign languages which will stand her in good stead In her venture abroad She has been out in society two or three seasons"
 Another writer says that American women will not go to court this year; there are no signs whatsoever of their customary exodus to Europe at about this season for the purpose of displaying gorgeous gowns and magnificent jewels in the royal and imperial palaces of the old world. Tn New York and in num- Der of other big cities of the United States it has gradually become an ac- cepted rule that no young girl who had made her debut here could be consid- cred as having been successfully launched into society unless she had been pre- ta6 at ri Ian flo O. the Atlantic. preferably that of St. James. And the presentation of a daughter has usually entailod that of her mother Failing the court of King George and Queen Mary, there have been those of the Kaiser at Berlin, of King Victor Emmanuel at the Quirnal, of King Alfonso at Madrid, as well as those of the rulers of Scandinavia. of Holland and Belgium, and of the petty sovereigns of Germany.
 '"To such an extent did this custom catch on in this country, and become the vogue of fashion, that the European courts were simply overwhelmed witt American demands for presentation and for invitations to royal and imperial fes- tiv.ties: so much so that in self-defense the rulers concerned were compelled to devise all sorts of stringent regulations in order to restrict this feminine in- vasion from the new world-regulations wnch 1t has not been necessary to ,nn,t fer the women of any other nationality. It would take too long to enumerate them all here. But among the most important are those which provide that no Amer ican woman shall be presented. save by the United States embassy, that there shall not be more than six women pre- sented by 1t at any one court function and that no woman shall be invited to any royal or imperial ball, concert or state function unless she has been pre- viously formally presented at court by her embassy. In England, in Russia and in Austria an American woman cannot even be invited to a private dinner or ball at which the Queen or Empress is expected to attend. unless she has been previously presented in the regular of ficial fashion.