Omaha daily bee., 1919-08-03
Gabby Learns of Bravery
Displayed By Omaha
Men in Test
Thousand Things to Chat About and Laugh About
in the Columns Devoted to Folks
Secrets.
BY GABBY DETAILS
Secrets.


fraus and frauleins. They
have recently prepared a bill for
the assembly at Weimar that all
women, welded or single, should
enjoy the name, style and title of
Mrs" DR.. Katherine B. Davis,
who has just returned from Europe
states that this was one of the
signs of the times which interested
her. DR.. Davis, who is now head
OF the Bureau of Social Hygiene in
New York is extremely interested
IN the movement as removing the
matrimonial label" and comforting
the title of dignity upon all women
comes we'll in the category of social
reform.
In these days of general readjust-
ment, is it fair that man should 20
blithely his way under the all con
cealing, curiosity-piquing title of
Mister" while woman must pro-
claim her spinsterhood or her mar
rled state every time she is formally
mentioned?
If she seeks refuge in plain, I'M
titled Mary Jones'" some one is
sure to ask, as it Miss Jones or
Mrs. Jones?" Yet no one ever
startles man with the query, "Is
it Master Smith or Mister Smith,"
Or Are you single or married."
Mercy, no!
| Then why. ask the German women
and lot of other women, including
DR.. Davis, should not all women,
when they attain majority be mis-
tress SoandSo" and abbreviate
themselves Mrs" just as men,
emerging from boyhood, become
Mister or Master" and write it
Mr.?
Il put myself on record long ago."
says DR.. Davis, as favoring the
adjustment of labels which carry
cne's social state into public or pro-
fessional affairs.
IF DR.. Smith is doctor alike
whether the first name is Mary or
John, why should not mature wo-
man who is presumably mistress of
her own affairs, whatever they are.
be called mistress whether she is
:, some mans wife or not? I think
she should. And while did not
make a study of the reasons behind
the German women movement,
their bill interested me as proof of
progressive thought.
OF course, the. thing need not be
obligatory. A woman may elect to
be Miss" though welded. Profess
sional women largely do. But even
this leads to complications with the
iceman or the landlady or Cousin
Henrietta, who considers it "inde-
cent, positively indecent, for you to
go about under your maiden name.
| wonder Jim permits it. Why, my
dear, it's worse than not wearing
your wedding ring" So you can
see it's decidedly more convenient
to be Mrs"
Consider too, the women, and
they are legion, who have neither
the glamour of a career nor the balm
of happy marriage to take the
curse off their spinsterhood. 1t is
all very we'll for Lillian Russell or
Edna Ferber or Mary Pickford t.
be Miss" People bend the knee to
such Misses anywhere-even Office
boys.
But who is ready to show interest
when some addressed, unknown, un-
beautiful female calling herself Miss
Simpkins appears on the horizon?
She may be an adorable, unselfsh
soul who has denied herself every
thing for her sisters youngsters.
She may have spurned 81 offers of
marriage when she was a peach
bloom girl.
But does the office boy consider
this? Does the renting agent? They
do not. They glance at her card.
curl lip and sniff. "Hm-old maid
she don't count"
So then, since the welded wife
may freely assume the unwedded
title, for reasons, why should not
the solitary soul reap such reflected
comforts as may be borrowed from
Mrs?
DR.. Davis is sure the ancient
prejudice against the state of ma
: lu1e SplllStcIHoOu has NOT pdSSeu,
nor will ever pass so long as women
} remain mothers of the race.
Thoughtful persons, she points out,
realize that an unmarried woman
, may be truer, better mother-in-
deed than many a mother-in-fact.
But to the popular mind, nothing
, takes the place of the fundamental
idea that wifehood and motherhood
are women's highest achievements.
The woman who passes them by, or
/ is passed by them, is woman to be
. pitied. if not scornfully ignored.
. Let's have done once and forever
, with the words "old maid" Let's
all be "Missis," girls, on our twenty
first birthday-and stay so forever
after.