The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-03-19

whose nOuSeWOTk has been made
too easy by mechanical progress
is the pioneer in this field of
leisure. She ought to know the
ropes.
1t is instructive to. those about to
plunge into the new adventure of
the soft snap to find that one of
the most disconnected. on-edge and
generally neurOtic groups of women
in the country falls into the cate
CORY Of the wife with too little
work
Psychiatrists will tell you that
many women Of leisure have
nervous breakdowns out of sheer
boredom with the movies and the
beauty parlOr. They want a little
excitement, so they get sick.
You can not sleep all the time.
You can not get any lasting salts
faction out of window shopping
every day or eVerlastingly going to
cocktail parties or eating chocolate
at matinees. 1t is not in the least
that this form of living is i'm
moral or superficial; it simply
NAONoAt WI n III I'D JkJAllESo. 1llG
newly released workers will have to
find something better than that.
There will, Of course. be one diver
sion possible which has been denied
the woman of leisure Of the recent
spast There will be men with time
con their hands, too The emanici-
Epated workers can, if they wish,
Fimltate the gay cosmopolitan set of
d5he Riviera, who devote their waking
hours to a succession Of elaborate
tand melodramatic flirtations. But is
sounds awfully dull.
Problem Is Old One
There have been times in history
When the jaded upper classes-men
nd women alike-did nothing much
Nut write bad poetry to the charms
their current bellies or beaux.
ress with magnificent pains to
Pallure them and act out tender
tscenes of insincere devotion. They
seem, from the accounts that have
rcome down to US, to have been bored
within an inch OF their lives.
Oh, the problem Of leisure is no
new one. The only novelty is in
having it confront people who do
not live on dividends or a grant
from the crown And during history
it has, more than once. been met
with a sensible and civilized sOlu-
ton.
There have been periods, for in
stance. when the high art of con-
verSation flourished. There have
been salons where men and women
argued and discussed every subject
under the sun with the fervor of
two college freshmen of today argu-
ing about Karl Marx
There have been less intellectual
sets who found the solution IN
practically living out Of doors. The
elaborate COurt6Sies Of the hunt,
the fine mastery of a horse which
makes such an event as the Grand
National possible are the sports
mans way of killing time, along
with an occasional fox. SportSmen
are rarely bored.
But it is the ironical fact that the
persons vino have enjoyed their
leisure most seem to have been the
ones who got rid of it as fast as
ever they could. Since no work was
mapped out for them to do they in
vented some.
Women With Cause Fortunate
The women Of leisure of today
who seem to be getting the most
out of life are those who are in 4
perfect Whirl Of constant activity. If
they are not working seven or eight
hours day to abolish prohibition.
as they used 10. why they are deep
in the world peace movement or
they are lobbying for birth control
or working with a vengeance to-
ward the complete equality Of wom-
en-. But they are buSy-yOu may de-
pend upon thatl
You need not worry over the pos
sibility Of their depriving some one
else Of a job by indulging in such
unpaid work as this. They always
are social problems to be attacked
and solved by the volunteer because
there are no funds TO hire anybody
else 10 90 it. That goes for the part
time scientist and artist. too ANA
teur competition in these lines will
never trouble the economic balance
of the country.
The complaint has been made
that in our modern industrial sys-
tenn the worker has no chance for
f-eXpreSSiOn-he fits the same
kind Of nut TO the same kind of
bolt throughout his working day.
Now he can look upon his paid
work as something that he does TO
make a living and need expect no
more from it than that. And in his
blessed hours Of leisure he can turn
TO whatever pursuit seems most en-
thralling for the added self esteem
that comes from doing something
very well indeed