The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-26
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. G.
LEAF YEAR OUT OF A JOB.


the women do with it?
This question, which used to bring
rosy blush and demure litter from
the fair sex, is now answered with
disconcerting frankness and practical
it's by the new women. Indeed, after
asking it few times you perceive that
women are getting newer and newer.
What will We do with it?'' ex-
claimed a young woman politician to
| whom the inquiry was tactfully put
the other day. Huh, the same as
we do with-every year. Do you mean
to say you still cling to that old ira
dition that men do the proposing?
! Why, thought our friend, G. Bernard
Shaw, exploded that theory years ago.
Here read this-it answers your Ques-
| ton better than 1 can
With a vigorous sweep of an athletic
arm, the young woman pulled a book
from the shelf over her desk and
| opened 1t upon page marked with
blue pencil.
at is assumed that the woman must
wait motionless, until she is wooed,' ;"
the reporter read, land she does wait,
! motionless. But that is how the
spider waits for the fly. The spider
| spins her web and if the fly shows
| him, how swiftly does she abandon
her pretenss of passiveness and openly
i fling coil after coil about him until he
is secured forever"
! Say, promise not to quote me on
any of this" said the young woman,
as she replaced this bit of Shavian
philosophy beside a volume on ward
! politics 81 don't want to lose all my
men friends
This is a striking illustration of the
way things have changed in the
feminine world since mother was a
eli nd al afr "a Ia NJ N
year. Now women have the long de-
sired ballot in the majority of states:
/ in every state they have secured and
held on to a large number Of re-
munerative jobs which used to belong
exclusively to men; they have invaded
the assemblies. the national legislature,
and the courts. Here in New York
there is a huge army of successful
business and professional women who
could afford to support husbands,
after proposing to them, if they
wanted to.
But, in the opinion of many inter
ested observers, this very economic
facility is responsible for keeping these
women married to their careers rather
than to the gentlemen of their choice
A career. as a ten-thousand-dollar
year business woman remarked the
| other day. is a lot more profitable and
|
explained coolly. you can change It for
another, whereas getting rid of a l1us-
band is a frightful nuisance.
~ don't believe the men need be
frightened at all this leap year" says
this young woman. IF the records for
the first month of this leap year were
| available, believe you would find that
the proposal average has never run so
low. The answer is found in the Help
Wanted columns of the newspapers
There never has been a time when
young women have been in such de-
mand in all kinds of business.
DO you suppose any member Of the
sex who can earn a large salary is
going around asking for the privilege
of chauffeuring gas stove and warm
ing over the coffee of some young male
person who hasn't half the business
initiative of a progressive girl OF to-
| day?''
This cheerful young admirer of her
| own sex also believes that 1t gets the
better of the bachelor game. She says
that increased expenses which are, de-
| prtving many men of home comforts
have not the same terrors~for a wo-
man, since she is acquainted with
many clever devices for reducing
them. A bachelor girl, she says, can
cook all sorts of cheap but wholesome
meals in her apartment even if she
has only gas burner to work with,
|
restaurants, which is quite a terrible
way to be.
ManS New York bachelor women,
who are unwilling to share their
careers with matrimony are, however,
| adopting children whenever their SAL
aries grow large enough to support
them. OF the approximately three
thousand children for whom the
Charities association of the city found
homes In the past few years, twenty
five were taken by young bachelor
business women. The choice OF sexes
in the adopted appears to be about
| even. Some of the women prefer
daughters, and some sons. One of the
most prominent women architects of
New York has adopted q son, and a
\ young woman politician who was re-
Gently a candidate for city magistrate
has an adopted daughter fifteen years
old.
i Mrs. Pankhurst is one of the most
enthusiastic advocates of adopting
children. Mrs. Pankhurst herself has
a home full of adopted orphans. and
her own daughter. Christabel, has le-
gally adopted one.
'It has been one Of the handicaps to
women's careers that they were COM
PEELED to sacrifice home life. All wo-
men need a normal home life" says
Mrs. Pankhurst, "and with the adop-
ton of a child or several children the
business woman of today may have a
real home. At the same time she does
a great deal of good to society by
helping to right some of its injustices."
l Still others who have been pate. thy
waiting for the new and salubrious
marriage which was to come out OF
the war, believe that they have found
it in the economic independence of the
sexes. They argue that matrimony is
not necessarily a handicap to the ca
reer of either sex, and that women
earning 800 a week are just as capa-
BILE of domestic happiness, possibly
more so, than those earning nothing.
Matrimony Of this sort is now very
prevalent in New York. One meets il
coming home in the subway rushes, al
the grocery stores. and in cheaper res
taurants, partaking of hurried
breakfast before going its separate
way for the day.
Many of the professional women