The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1919-05-16
Unless One Is Skilled in Some
Trade or Art, a ForIom Old
Age May Be in Prospect,
BY DOROTHY DIX,
Tie Wo;lds Highest Paid Woman
Writer,

bIN NUslu HlRheN fhu W OWhT
Writer
The most helpless, the most iotlofn
the most pliltul figure ID the world Is
iha, OF the middle aged, domestic wo'
man Who has never earned dollar IN
her lie and who is suddenly con.
ifonled With the necessity OF support
irg hehHeli, and perhaps a house full
Of children.
She is skilled in no trade or art
Size has been taught no profession
and ,hr is too old TO acquire dexter
ily and proficiency IN any new line
OF occupation. She i, mentally and
physically too stiff in the Joints tc
compete with girls Of eighteen and
twenty.
They want pretty, bright alert
cheerful young women as 'ypids III
offices, and behind the counters IN
shops, not old, tired, saddened wo'
men Nowhere is there any opening
for the woman OF middle age unleS,
she has fitted herself to do some
particular line OF work so well that
she is an expert in H.
Then 1t is a different story Then
the middle aged woman's services are
IN demand. and she is preferred by
employers to the young girl because
she i, more reliable. and less likely 10
marry and leave jus, when her ser
vices are most needed.
Fate Of Many Women.
As | have Just said, no more dread
ful catastrophe can o,er,akc a wo-
man than to be forced TO earn her
own and her childrens bread and
butter without knowing how 10 do II,
yet this malign fate erouches behind
the doors OF tens OF thousands oi
women. There are multitude oi
women who never look in their hus-
bands pinched, panied, marked faces,
Or hear their husbands cough, or
Watch their husbands feet drag a
ht,le slower every evening. without
their hearts turning sick with fear.
For they cannot disguise from
themselves that the angel OF death IS
lowering over their households, and
they know that when the end comes
they will be left not only widows. but
penniless. and they fall into blind
panic as they wonder how they are 10
provide for themselves and their little
ones.
You would think that woman
with any human intelligence at all,
and with even the most elementary
sense Of prudence, would begin TO
prepare herself against the hour OF
disaster ss soon as she perceived the
danger In which she stood. -
would think tina, knowing that the
time must inevitably come when she
vii, have TO support the family tina,
she would bend every energy towards
fitting herself 10 do it.
They Never Do.
But they never do ] have never
known a single case in which a wo-
man with a sick husband, or a woman
with a husband whose earnings did
not enable them to put anything aside,
ever cast an anchor to the windward
BY fitting herself to make . living
for the family should her husband
die. She always waits until the blow
falls, and then beats upon her breast,
aud cries out that she and her chill
dren will stArye because she doesn't
know any way TO make . living
OF course such women say that a
woman who is cooking, and sewing
and baby tending has no time 10
study a profession on the side. Tha,
|, true But what she overlooks IS
the fact that she was apprenticed
to the most profitable trade in the
world for women--a trade whose ex-
oef,s are in universal demand and
that she was so stupid, so trifling,
90 shifiess that she never learned |,
we'll enough 10 turn out even half
way decent job Or else she would
not have TO be asking people wha,
she should do 10 support her chill.
dren and herself She would simply
surn her skilled hand to her own
craft. and have 10 ask charity OF no
one
Why the woman who knows tina,
she must some day make her own liy-
ins docs not see that housewiiery is
one OF the most lucrative professions
that any woman can follow. and why
every woman who has . house does
not perceive that in making herself
On expert cook and Judge Of foods
and a crackerjack manager, who Car
run things on schedule. and extrac,
the last penny OF valve out Of what
she buys, she is acquiring the best ol
ali trades. is something that passe.
comprehension -
Housswifery A. q Profession.
Any woman who can read can &C
auire all the arts OF chef. No woman
needs any experimental field better
than her own kitchen No domestic
science university can teach a wo.
man a. much about how 20 buy
meats and vegetables, and stop waste
% her own practical experience, will
Il Is simply sp 10 the individual wo
man whether she will turn herse'
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