Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-20
Change Believed Significant.

A wear ago the only women in London
in uniform were the nurses. Now so
manv are in uniform that to one visitor
they presented the most surprising
change the war has brought to that city.
Those who live in London to whom the
change has come gradually probably are
hardly aware how sgnficant it is. Few
people. certainly few men, guessed that
so many positions. that before the war
were open only to men, couid pc nileo
unite az acceptably by women. Oniy tne
comic papers guessed it. All that they
ever Knocked at, all the sunragettes ana
"eoual rights" women. ever noped ioi
seems to have come true. Even woman
policemen. True, they 90 not .ake ahe
place of the real, immortal London pop
by. neither do the special constaoies.
but if a young girl is out late at nign.
with her young man i'll KHAKI she ~ hefu
up by a policewoman ana sen. nome:
And her young man IN KHAKI oare iio'
resist. H.
In Paris when the place Of man who
had been modified was taken by ms
wife, sister or daughter, no one was SUI
prised French women have LOT years
worked in partnership with men to de
gree unknown in England They heipeo
as bookkeepers. shopkeepers, In the res
taurants they always handled the money
in the theaters, the. ushers, box openers
were women. the government tooacco
shops were run by women. mat frenIh
women were capable, efficient, hardwork-
ing was as trite saying as that tne
Japanese are a wonderful little people
So, when the men went to the front anu
the women carried on their WORK thes
were only proving proverb.
But in England careers Tor women
outside those of governess, typ1st. par
maid or show girl, which entalied mar
rying a marquis were as few as votes
The war has changed that. IL gave
woman her chance. and she )umped az
it. when Johnny Comes Marching
Home Again he will find he must look
for a mans job, and that mems JOBS no
longer are sinecures In ms absence
women have found out, and what Is
more important, the empowers a aae
found out, that to open carriage door
and hold an umbrella over a customer
is not necessarily a mans job. the man
will have to look for position ms
sister cannot fill. and judging from tne
present aspect of London those posi-
lions are rapidly disappearing
Some Changes Not Surprising.
That in the ornamental jobs, those
that are relics of. feudalism and snob-
berry, women should supplant men Is
not surprising. To wear gold lace and
touch your hat and whistle for taxi
cab, if the whistle is a mechanical one,
is no difficult task. 1t never was an,
solutely necessary that butler and
two men should divide the labor of
serving one cup of coffee. one lump OF
sugar and one cigarette. A healthy
young woman might manage all three
tasks, and not faint. SO the innovation
of female buffers and footmen IS not
important. But many of the jobs now
held in London by women are those
which require strength, skill and en-
durance. Pulling on the steel rope OF
an elevator and closing the steel gates
for eight hours day requires strehgtn
and endurance and yet in all the big
department stores the lifts are worked
by girls Women also drive the vans
and dragging on the brake OF brew
cry wagon and curbing two draft
horses is a very different matter from
steering one of the cars that made peace
hateful Not that there are no woman
chauffeurs. They are everywhere. You
see them driving lorries, business cars.
private cars, taXicabS and ambulaQceS.
In mems caps and uniforms of green,
gray. brown or black, and covered to
the waist with robe. you mistake
them for boys. Yesterday l saw "A
3,O0o-ton motor truck clearing way
for itself down Piccadilly. 1t was
filled with more than two dozen Tom
mics and driven recklessly by a girl in
khaki, of not more than eighteen years.
How many indoor positions have been
taken over by women one can only
guess; but II they are in proportion
to the out-of-door jobs now filled by
women and girls, it would seem as
though half the work in London was
carried forward by what we once were
pleased to call the weaker sex. To
ments of them. They look very BUSH
nesslike and smart in their uniforms.
and whatever their work is they are
intent upon it. AS rule. when a
woman attempts mans work she is
conscious. She is more concerned with
the fact that she is holding down a
mans job than with the job. Whether
she is a lady lawyer. lady doctor or
lady journalist, she always is surprised
to find herself where she is. The girls
and women you see in uniform by the
thousands in London seem to have
overcome that weakness. They are
performing a mans work and their in
terest is centered in the work. not in
the fact that a woman has made a sue
cess of it. If, after this. women in
England want the vote and the men
won't give it to them. the men will have
a hard time explaining why.
Difficult to Leave Paris.
A year ago you could leave the con-
tinent and enter England by showing
a passport and a steamer ticket. To-
day it is as hard to leave Paris as to
get ont of jail as difficult to invade
England as for rich man to enter
the kingdom of heaven. To leave Paris
for London you must obtain the per-
mission of the police, the English con-s
srl general and the American consul
general That gets you only to Havre,
The Paris train arrives at Havre at
o'clock at night, and while the would
be passengers for the channel boat to
southampton are waiting to be ex-
amined they are kept on the wharf in
hands each of them a ticket with a
number, and when the number is called
the passenger enters a room on the
shed, where French and English officials
put MIN, or her, through third de-
gree The examination Is more or less
seyere and sometimes the passenger
is searched.
There is nothing on the wharf to eat
or drink. and except trunks nothing on
which to sit. If you prefer to be
naughty and stand there is no law
against that. Should you leave the
shed for a stroll. you would gain moth
ing, for as it is war time, at o'clock
every restaurant and cafe in Havre
closes, and the town is so dark you
would probably stroll into the harbor.
So. like emigrants on our own Ellis
Island. English and French army and
can ambulance drivers. Red Cross
nurses and all the other picturesque
travellers of these interesting times.
SILVER, yawn and swear from O'Clock
until midnight. To make 1t harder.
the big steamer that is to carry you