The Washington herald., 1921-07-13

eEHDh1U nAbD o1HA1DAEN. ~
CoLLh-GE;.
1 have recently received a great
many letters from mothers asking
me whether they should send their
daughters to college or not
To this / would reply that IL de-
pends altogether on what was in
side and outside of the girls head,
and also. more particularly, on the
state Of the family pocketbook.
II IL had pleased Heaven to be-
stow upon my daughter a peaches
and cream complexion, and hair
with q natural wave in 1t. and a
lissorne figure, and a straight nose
and dreamy eyes, and made her 9TH
ervise easy to contemplate, should
not bother about superimposing a
college education upon her other
charms unless I had money to burn
For / should know that matri-
nony was daughters predestined
career, and that while being able
to write M. A. after her name might
possibly help her to be better ma,
it wouldn't help her to become one
No honest observer will deny that
being a college graduate is han
dicap rather than a come-on in Sc
curing q husband.
This is the case because the man
A. yet to be born who doesn't ysarn
to know more than his wife does
and to be able to pose before her
as An oracle, and this is difficult to
do with a lady who is a Ph-D. Like
wise IL is the case because the col
legebred girl spends in academic
halls the years when she is most
alluring to the masculine taste.
And Furthermore the college girl,
having passed through the impress
sionabIe years when she could love
anything in trousers that danced
well, is pretty hard to please, and
choosey. about husbands.
And-oh. well, you know how IL
fs yourself about men. After alL
women have to wait until they are
asI, ID to get married, and IL doesn't
always pay to look a glft norse
too closely in the mouth.
therefore. sending a pretty girl
30 college belongs to the super
Huous luxury class of things. In
,.nISc in it IL you can have the
price. and desire ii. and she begs 10
go because tho other girls are go
ing What she learns won't do ner
Eny harm, and in later years when
she comes running to you to know
hOyV to make cake that won't fah'
and weeping over the way tne
butchers bill won't tally with her
budget, you can, at least, wonoer
what would have happened II you
hadn't given her all the blessings
Of the higher education for women.
IT however. daughter is one Oh
rura handed out to the girl babies
horn her day the prize packages OF
Duichritudee, il daughter has com
plaxion like a salaratus biscuit, and
a Dug nose, and string hair, and Is
fat-footed, and slabsIded. send ner
10 college IL you haze to mortgage
The house to do IL.
She will always have to be her
own meal ticket and you owe IL TO
her to fit her to earn not only
bread and butter, but jam and lle.
IN all human probability, she will
nsyer have the happiness or having
husband and children. and you must
1--WE her the best substitute 1or
them you can by filling her lie
vth absorbing interest of some
nrofession or trade by which she
can find a never nding source OF
pieasure-
The miserable, sour, disgruntled
old maids are those with nothing
to do. nothing to think about, but
what they have missed, no homes OF
their own, no money except the
grudging dole OF those on whom
they are depending. On the con-
trary there are no more contented,
happier, or chirpier women than
the successful bachelor girls with
their good jobs, and their pretty
little bachelor establishments.
So in trying to decide whether to
send Maud Geraldine on to college
or not, take natures tip. Gi'- her
the once over with an app ing
eve, not a mother eye, and see
whether she is likely to have TO
make her own living, or have some
man make 1t for her Also observe
the degree to which she is riot
or not among the boys. II by the
time she is Is. the place is not lit
tered up with youngsters, you had
better get her ready for one OF
our famous institutions of learning.
So much for Maud! Now for the
pocketbook, Don't send her 10
college unless you can anord IT,
The state gives every girl chance
at a good education in the pubic
schools II she wants to add 10
that the whole realm of knowledge
is opened before her in the same
books she would need and study at
college. School teachers have no
magic that imparts a secret culture
not To be had outside of their sa-
cred walls
Some of the best educated wom-
en- 1 have ever known have been
self educated You can no more
keep an individual who thirsts and
hungers for knowledge away from
II than you can keep a starving
person from grabbing at the food
within reach.
We make fetich OF colleges
Especially mothers do, and there Is
no more pathetic thought than that
of the thousands upon thousands OF
women who are literally killing
themselves, and starving the bal
ance of the family to send some girl
off to school who has no love OF
learning, no settled purpose in go
ing except to belong to the right
sorority, and be able to talk college
patter when she comes home
And for this mother wears her
old clothes, and trims her hat over
another time, and dismisses the
cook and cuts down on the butter
and the meat, and goes through
nerve exhausting. pinching, grind
ing economies that wear her to
skin and bone, and take all of the
brightness and comfort out of the
home. What Maud Geraldine gets
isn't worth the price. Figure 1t
e.