Evening star., 1925-03-22
Are Women Worth Talking To?
BY ida NJ. TARBELL.

If all audiences of women were
| like them, Count Tolstoi would be
right-talking to women would be
| foolishness. Indeed, speaker must
be hardened cynic. interested only
in fees to endure their blinking eyes
their hurried 1utterings-their
rather pitiful efforts to find enough
of what il is all about to he able
to say d word of appreciation to him.
without mixing him up with the
speaker who went before or the one
that comes after.
But while this class brings disrepute
on our hordeS of listening women
| they are really but fraction of the
great whole. That whole is essen
TALLY sound in its determination to
be talked to. 1t is made up of women
who have neither time, money nor op-
| portunity to listen often to speaking
| They are in the main women busy
| with affairs of their own. When they
| go to lecture they go in the hope
of getting something they think
worth while.
| What do they hope to get?
They seek relief from a life crowded
with personal responsibilities and
often hard labor-their job to which
they are devoted usually, but which
nevertheless is always in danger of
| losing SAVIOR because of the same
| ness and isola ton.
A new person to look at-a new
voice to hear-a new thought or an
| unusual presentation of an old one,
| comes as refreshment to women
! whose duties hold them close to the
house or desk; and to the same set
of people. The speaker is justified if
| he does nothing more than bring
| little sense of something different to
| the women who are bearing the brunt
| ON the battle keeping society steady
| and growing.
And the women who listen are justf-
| fed if it gives them anything of the
change they have learned to look on
as a tonic to the depressing effect of
too much sameness on their tempers
| and their spirits.
X x X x
But it is not merely change they
seek, it is contact with the outside
| world-somethfng which brings them
q little closer to what they read
| about, hear about, admire, envy per-
haps, are doing and thinking. They
| want to keep In touch" they say; feel
that they are not "out of things"
Often they bring in a speaker because
"he talked in the CITY," just as they
put in traffic regulations that may be
nuisance, not a convenience, because
that is the way they do in the city"
| The world must not escape them.
1t isn't foolish to talk to women who
are intent on keeping a grip on a fly
| ing world, although you may think
you see methods by which they might
do it more effectually.
| One cannot face a group of listening
women anywhere in the country, out
| side of the purely social and exclusive
groups, without seeing in at least q
J few faces profound searching for
som ething more than they are getting
! from life. The young women carry q
| direct and often a scornful challenge
in their eyes-What can you tell me,
| caught here in this dull corner of the
| world?
| The older carry the question, but
there is courage, endurance and often
humor in their eyes. You sense how
| much they have learned and are hum
| BILE before their brave acceptance of
/ life.
| The speaker who can give such
women the faintest spur to more
courage, fresh seeking, is not in a
| foolish business.
No. Tolstoi was only one-tenth
rIght-hardly that. Talking to some
| women is foolish-so is talking to
| some men-but there is a great mass
| who are listening because of the
| needed change it gives their day,
because they want to keep pace with
| the worlds quick changes and most
| important, because a few of them seek
| guidance. They know they are head
| ed for something-they are not quite
sure what-can the speaker give them
| a lift?
! Such women are worth talking to
worth even Count Tolstoi's time
| Nobody is too good for them.
We must not forget that women are
! in a state of ansition--revaluing all
| things. The most hopeful thing about
| the present stage is that they are
| so willing to be talked to. You can
! depend on them in the long run-the
! big mass, at least-to find who is
worth listening to, just as speakers
| ind the groups it Is foolish to talk
| to. More and more the question is
going to be not, Are women worth
| talking to?, but, is the speaker worth
listening to2 - >