The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-11
EVENING STORY
The Blue Stocking Preferred.


(By Osborn Jones.)
You know President Wilson began
his career as an instructor in a wom-
ans college,, said Justine Craddock,
dean of Jones's college for women,
when Alan kilby went to her office to
consult her regarding his acceptance
of a position just offered him as the
new professor of economics.
Alan had gone to see her. partly
because he had known her for several
years before when they were both
students at a co-educational college in
the west, and partly because the offer
at Jones college was distinctly better
than the assistant professorship he
held in d mans college. He was in
terested to see how Justine looked en-
throned in her deans office at Jones,
and he was willing to be persuaded.
Still he had misgivings.
1T doesn't seem like a mans job
he told her frankly, and she had
looked at him not with the amuse-
ment he expeo ted. She hadn't tried
especially nard to persuade him. She
was very serene, was Justine, in her
spacious swivel chair, and in spite of
the open fire that gave cheer to her
deans office he felt a bit chilled.
I'VE shall be glad to have you ac-
cept," she said. and the fact that
knew your scholarship when we were
students together makes me feel JUS
titled in recommending you highly. AS
said, l can hardly understand your
prejudice"
Hang il all, Justine, it's just that
can't stand this blue-stocking at
mosphere. l think it's that as much
as anything else" Alan kilby hadn't
expected to be so frank, but Justine
and he had been good friends in col
lege days and there was something in
of har~ hot do if
hard to be deceptive.
There ara very few blue-stockings
here, said Justine. In fact some
times 1 wish there were more. Blue
stockings have their good points, you
know
From a woman'S point of view
perhaps. But I'm primitive enough to
like feminine woman, and it goes
against the grain to see these girls
some of them pretty, almost all of
them healthy and happy, being fed
! into this mill, to have the woman and
femininity ground out They ought to
be marrying, most of them-marrying
and making men what they ought to
| be, and having children and keeping
| house."
"Of course you have never married
| yourself suggested Justine
mo, and when l do l shall not look
to woman's college for wife. I'm
| not educated up to that yet
From all of which, 1 suppose I am
to infer that you do not accept the
| position?'
mo. The fact is, 1 think do. It's
too good to turn down. I'll write my
| acceptance to the trustees tonight and
L hope you will be lenient with me for
what 1 have said.''
| So Alan kilby became professor of
| economics at Jones, and he took up
| his residence in the college community
that numbered many thousand women
and perhaps fifty men instructors, pro-
fessors and gardeners, for the most
| part. The first lecture was more I'M
| comfortable than he had expected it
to be. The inattention and rudeness
| of a freshman class of boys would
| have been nothing compared to the
| considerable attention of those thirty
| girls who sat with sixty eyes fixed on
his own young self, with thirty foun-
| tain pens waiting to take down his
merest utterances in those opened
| notebooks that yawned in rows before
| him.
As time went on the lectures were
easier and Alan had time to look about
him. for when the novelty of the new
| professor was over eyes were less keen
! Sometimes there were suppressed gig
| giles, and sometimes three whispering
heads bent together in the back rows
| of seats, unmindful of a word of the
lecture too, that from
the vantage point of his desk the pro-
lessor could not only see them but
could catch snatches of their whis-
pered conversation.
IF L do say it. look awfully well
in yellow" said one whisper
Not that lemon shade-more of a
salmon, don't you think?'
| How long is the skirt? They are
getting longer
81 know but my Tom likes them
| short. Have you learned the new
step? No, that new wiggly waltz step,
mean
HE doesn't see us, and we can get
the notes from Ida isn't he a per-
feet dear?" 'Ida's quite crazy about
him. That's why she sits in front ana
takes such long notes.
I'm really distracted about him my