South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-12-30
To Lose Your Head is Easy

fancy yourself uncommon, unusual,
free 20 express your personality as
you choose.
10 express your mental person
ality strongly and wildly. IS to sue
coed. But II has TO be the fame
lighting the house from within. and
the minute you paint your house in
all sorts of vivid, garish colors. you
raise questions as 10 your taste or
modesty or common sense.
A quiet little jeanette going
about her business modestly and eff
ficiently appeals TO everybody who
sees her. A bedizened and bedecked
and bejeweled jeanette becomes a
joke or a tragedy Her mates scott
or question-and presently they
hold themselves
Suppose the attentions Of Mr.
Thomas FOrdyce are tempting TO
jeanette. Soberly dressed. she
doesn't look to him like easy prey:
quietly conducting herself, she is one
of the Office force and is part and
parcel of it. and has the protection
Of its friendly atmosphere. She
feels herself "one of the girls" and
thinks that she must hold 10 their
quiet. decent standards. The spirit
of team work holds her and protects
her.
But jeanette. rouged Of lips.
blackened Of eye-lashes hung with
cheap jewels and dressed with
scauty modesty. is Stunned by the
other girls and pointed out by sus-
picion. Resentment or loneliness or
a feeling of being different, OF not
heinc amenable 20 the regular
standards, all shove jeanette a
sep or two In the wrong direction
She looks as if she had lost her
head-she loses her head. Cause
and effect get tangled up and one
hardly knows whether jeanette be-
comes an ordinary little hirt like
one, or looks like one because she
always had it in her TO become one.
Women write 10 me over and over
again relating their tragic and bit
ter experiences with men in bus
mess. And I sympathize intensely
OF course there are a good many
{ men who are bullies and brutes and
! low animal creatures. Against them
there sometimes is no protection
and in getting away from them big
opportunities have TO be sacrificed.
/ Their percentage is small. I haven't
any figures on the subject. but I
am fairly we'll convinced that not
more than one man in a hundred is
la brute and a william and a coward
/ Who forces his unwelcome attentions
/ on women and makes life a burden
for them.
So let us deal with the average
citizen, the descent, vital. intensely
] human man who is down in the
world of business to succeed and
who isn't thinking of sex and emo
! ton all day long, but Of money
and success and the work he wants
| 10 put through successfully. That
man treats women as they want 20
he treated or as they give him the
/ impression of wanting 10 be treated.
For the quiet, well-behaved. efficient
! looking little girl who goes about
! her concern in a business-like man
ner and who doesn't fling her sex
in his face either by the way she
dresses or the way she acts. he has
a kindly, decent business attitude
only shaded a little from the way
he would treat her brother And
| that is what women in business need
and can in most cases get If they
go after it.
Some day jeanette, Of the Absurd
! Costumes. is going TO do one Of
J two things-either slip over the
border of dignity into the waiting
arms of MT. Thomas Fordyce, or
rush out Of his office and slip into
! the arms Of the first kindly dis
posed woman who will let Jeanette
4 cry out her troubles on her shout
ders. But how are the Thomas
Fordyces Of this world going 20
know whether the cheaply consDic-
uous little Jeanettes who lose their
heads AT the fist sign Of success are
ready TO fling heart and dignity
after their heads for a little more
success?
How can Thomas Fordyce tel
whether a cheaply conspicuous little
girl is a cheap little thing at heart
IF whether she is just a foolish
voungster who is excited over the
purchasing power Of the extra dol
lar she suddenly hegius 10 earn
How can he tell-that is, unless ne
estigates2
And when he investigates de
struction or establishment awaits
jeanette. and never will she con-
fess that she brought il on herself,
The only way any business woman
can win respect and fair chance
is 20 earn il; and the minute she
makes Of herself a cheap-loOking
. communicating little creature. she
puts in her own path grave STUN
bling blocks.