The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-12-16
women OF LEISURE OF MODERN
TIMES ARE VALUABLE ELEMENT
IN MOVE TO help. HUMAN FAMILY
Eleanor Gates, Dramatist and
Novelist, Speaks Entertain
ingly Before the COntempOr-
airy Club Contrasts the
Chimney Corner" Woman
of Yesterday With Her Sue
cessQr of Today.

Some one has said very beautifully,
Women are the makers of men, They
are also the saviors Of women" said
Miss Eleanor Gates, dramatist anu
novelist speaking on Thursday before
the members of the Contemporary
club at the residence of Mr.. and Mrs
Frank d. Bell in Unquowa hill. Miss
Gates gave an interesting and COM
prehensive lecture on THE Value of
the Woman of Leisure
There are three kinds of women of
leisure" said Miss Gates. 1.-The first
are born to leisure, their leisure has
been acquired by the labor of people
who came into the world before thema
the second acquire leisure, they work
during a part of their lives and attain
leisure; and the third have leisure
thrust upon them, they are the women
whose families have grown up and
left home. They are the mother birds
who find their nest empty and who
have a great store Of energy at the
very prime of life with nothing to de-,
vote it to.
Formerly, when a woman reached
this stage in her existence, she was
relegated to the chimney, corner and
hung ur to dry. Intellectually the wo-
mani Of the chimney corner was bar.
rem If knowledge was power, then
she was weak. True it is, she gos-
siped because she didn't have anyr
thing else to talk about. AS. to NOR
ais she was very ignorant and very
cruel. She spoke Of the woman who
had been unfortunate with bated
breath. Then felp1essness was the
keynote of polite existence and it was,
considered theS less a woman did, the
more Of lady she was. Those were
the days when it was a crime for a
woman to be more than %. Women
who sought education were labelled
Blue stockings and other such fdes-
picable names.
ITO me there is something very pa
thetic as well as very beautiful about
the way that the women of leisure of
today are scurrying about in search
Of something to do.
True it is that some women are
abusing their newly found freedom.
For instance they are smoking, be-
cause they say they have as much
right to smoke as a man has, but this
lis only way of letting out the re-
preston under which they have lived
for so long and it won't last long be-
cause women do not harbor grew
ances. ~
'.You cannot help but love the hui
man old ladies of today. They beat
you at bridge, Guidance you in the
ball room and you meet them flying
about the city from one charity to
another, driving their own cars.
I'VE used to say that a woman had
= -
had raised her own children. Now
when her own family are off her
hands she goes out and mothers a
whole brood of children. She is the
highest type of woman, because any
woman can love her own baby, but to
go out and love dozen, poor ragged
little babies is far different thing.
Through her various charitable
and club activities the woman of
leisure of today is a better mother, a
better citizen "a better wife and a.
better human being. She has a better
husband and she is better COM
panion to- him. 4s'
Miss Gates prefaced her lecture bv
saying that she held very radicsll
ideas about women. She was, sh q
said, born in Dakota and raised IN
the mountains of California with a
family of brothers. She mad always
been permitted to do everything that
her brothers did so that when she
came out of the woods at 49, she was
very much surprised to find that there
were many things which is was "un-
ladylike" for "a girl to do. She said
that she never could understand why
it wasn't nice" for a girl to whistle
or play billiards and she rebeled very
much at the restrictions placed on !
women and SO had always been rad
ical. T.
By this time the cost of living in
vestigators must be thoroughly pro-
vided with automobiles for iov rides,