San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-29
Ida Burnett Deplores
Pihful Plight of
I Modern Women.
CHAPTER XIV

"A woman today is a pitt
full object. The more worth
while she is, the more pitt
full" Ida Burnett hurled her
bomb into the teeth of the
eight women sitting about
the tea table. She could al
ways be counted on for q
nice, amiable diversion like
this.
Hester Crawford-she who had d.
vorced her husband, good man but
boring-and was now engaged to a
fascinating actor, smiled dreamily.
ANYONE who allows herself to be
buried alive, Ida, is pitiful. Your
definition of worth while means
woman too dumb to revolt; too sheep
like to run from the herd and find
a new field.
women are only pitiful when
they are afraid of life and of love.
Women look on love as a poison
men know that it is a balm-the
} great anodyn Of pain; the breeze that
watts away WEAKNESS the spectre
scope that turns the flat whiteness Of
life into a rainbow Of color. Try
love, Ida, and neither life nor woman
hood will seem pitiful to you"
Ida blew smoke rings upward and
sneered: "You know far too much
of SELF Hester, to know anything at
all Of love-
"And you, ole dear, have allowed
yourself to become n mere effigy Of
a woman-a sort of feminine ges-
ture-you've put all your emotion
into q vacuum or worse-so you're
scarcely competent 70 discuss the life
~-and blood reality that is the woman
of today. That woman isn't pitiful,
but joyous"
Ida remarked quietly: "I'm not
Analysing that ancient type-I said
worth while women and l meant the
type that starts out with few ideals;
the type that wants to play square;
to give as much and more than she
gets; to make the world better and
happier place for her children. That
woman is pitiful today"
"Why?'
Because she's doomed to failure.
The world is against her; the whole
shabby fabric of modern society is
against her. If she has, even a little
money she's committed to idleness
to gadding and t.a-sipping and fren-
zied style chasing. Her one great Fo-
cation is the buying and wearing of
clothesl What else do any one of us
do? What else do we talk about.
dream about; plan and conspire
about?"
ANOTHER VIEWPOINT.
Marjorie Cole yawned: II play
golf; 1 also cogitate about having a
child.r
Nettie Ames struck in with a spark
Of fire: "Well, the world hasn't
doomed me to idlencss! / wish it
would! id like taste of leisure
With three small children to dress
and feed / can't exactly say that l
spend my time on a bed of roses p.
BY the time l get them off my hands
I'm as ready TO drop in heap as 10
90 gaddins!'
Ida said imperturbably: $50 it is
pitiful, Nettie? The things we do
for our children ought to be satisfy
ing and uplifting. Those duties
shouldn't be drudgery. But the way
the world is arranged today child bear
ing and child raising is merely incl
Misunderstanding to be sandwiched
in between the mad rush of important
things such as bridge playing and
cocktail-sipping. Women have failed
tragically in the big things Of life.
The world as it is organized compclS
them to fail. Therefore say wom-
an is a pitiful object"
" Nora Lee, always excited when Ida
went on the rampage, and now doubly
concerned, listened almost with pain.
Ida was touching on chords that
ached.
IT was five months since the night
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