The Washington herald., 1918-03-12

MY husbands stenographer is an
exceedingly pretty young girl. 1 have
asked him to dismiss her and to en-
ploy some middIe-aged, homely woman
as his secretary. He refuses to do so
on the ground that this girl is excep-
tionally competent and efficient. and
that she saves him an enormous
famount of detail work. He also says
that the girl is very modest and cir
cumspect in her demeanor, and that
neither he nor she have the slightest
interest in each other beyond that OF
employer and employe.
Nevertheless. it makes me miser-
able to. think OF my husband spending
his days in the society of a girl who
is so much younger. fresher and bet
ter looking than i am. There are
thousands of other wives who feel the
same way about their husbands and
their stenographers. Do you not
think that the pretty girl in the Of
fee is a menace to the wife at home"
Scat!
Why should the pretty girl in the
Office be a more dangerous rival to a
wife than the pretty girl in the parlor
or at the restaurant or the country
club, or wherever else a man is likely
to meet a pulchritudinous maiden?
Doubtless. pretty girls, wherever they
may be. are a possible source OF peril
to wives. and also, doubtless, every
married woman in the world would
make every other woman uglier than
she Is, fatter than she is, and ten
years older than she is If she could.
Then she could rest in peace. let out
her corset strings, quit restoring her
hair to its natural color and take her
watchful eye OF of her own particu-
lar John Henry.
Fortunately, wives possess no such
evil magic. They can't kill on the
pretty girls, much as they might like
to. and inasmuch as young women
who are easy on the eyes will con-
tinue. thank heaven, to flourish in our
midst. the only thing for wives to do is
to use a little common sense and
philosophy in facing the situation.
i Undoubtedly, as my correspondent
says. many wives are. filled with
jealousy of their husbands stem
ographers. and it is a safe bet that
il wives picked out their husbands
office force IT would be recruited
from the Old Ladies' Home and
there wouldn't be a woman in it
|
have false teeth, grizzled hair, and
a rheumatic hitch in her knee.
Yet, in all good truth. there is, as
a rule, no other woman of whom a
wife has less reason to be green
eyed than the woman with whom
her husband works
There are many reasons for this
One of these is that there is a time
a place and a season for all things
and business office is neither the
time. nor the place, nor the season
for sentiment. romance and philan-
dering. 1t is a place to work in. A
place to fight in. a place where a
man marshals all Of his sterner
faculties. his keenness. his shrewd-
ness. his hardness. to do battle with
those who were trying to wrest
from him his hard won trade and
money.
To succeed a man must concen-
trate his every faculty on the work
at hand. For the time being moth
ing else of Importance, or interest
exists for him but the case he is
getting ready to try. the deal he is
endeavoring to put over, the bill
of goods he Is selling, and his wife
may depend upon it that he is not
interrupting the current of his
thoughts to make love to his stem
ographer, or any other woman.
Lovemaking simply isn't done in
business houses in business hours
A man INDUCES in sentiment as he
does in cocktails. only after his
days work is done. Romance and
lovema king belong as strictly to
the after p. m. hours as do
his evening clothes and for this
reason If the wife wants to be jeal-
Gus of anybody, let her torment her
self about the girls a man meets in
society. not those he meets in bust
mess.
Another reason that the wife
need waste no jealousy on her hus-
bands stenographer is that it is not
q relationship that conduces to SEN
timent. Quite the contrary. 1t Of
fers to both parties the same dis
illusionment that matrimony does.
They see each other at too close
range. They get each others num-
bers too accurately. They get the
action and reaction of temper and
nerves too markedly. II no man is a
hero to his valet, assuredly no man
is romatic figure to his stenog-
rapher. nor is any stenographer a
pin-feathered angel to her en-
ployer.
Men fall IN love with women
whom they, do not know, women
whom they have only seen dressed
up in their best bib and tucker,
with their best company manners
on. They are not the women they
have seen worn, tagged, cross and
tired, with every feminine charm
ana grace wiped OF of the slate and
only their ability to do their share
in the days work left.
Wives do not know It. but when a
woman goes to work she leaves at
home the little bag Of tricks with
which she conjures man in society.
n Experience soon shows her that they
do not work in an Office. The baby
stare, the artless ignorance, the help
less clinging to any strong arm in
sight may be the things that men love
women for in their hours Of ease, but
it's not what they pay them money
for in working hours.
So far as the average man Is con-
cerned woman employe Is simply a
cog In a big MACHINE, and he admires
her according ID her ability to SPELL
sdd w ngures. or sell goods not Tor
= 80.