The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-04-09
NOW
$1,000 Women
Leave Home
THEIR 'ALIBIS'
BY HELEN ESSARY

are que III WdSIlI11SGO1 4OA
spring conventions.
The Washington Board Of
Trade has just told me so.
Therefore, to my theme: Why
Women Leave Home. In spring
time or any other time.
There's only one answer
they want a little change. It's
the same answer to-Why Men
Leave Home.
Women will tell you they go
from the children and market
ing because of patriotism-the
D. A. r., the Colonial Danes,
and the Daughters of 1912. Or
politics-the League of Women
Voters and the Affiliated Demo
cratic Clubs. Or religion-the
Baptist ladies. Or education
Alpha Chi Omega Sorority. Or
to promote peace (more power to
this crowd.
But you and land they
know the IS women's conven-
tions during April, May and
June are fundamentally excuses
for little excursions from the
domestic hearthstone. They are
genteel alibis.
Good women have only re-
Gently developed this variety OF
masculine camouflage for doing
what they want. They will tell
you-the women-when they
are buying their railroad tickets
and their new spring clothes
that it is a social betterment
that is calling them away.
You blink a little. And say
how very nice. And rejoice that
they are catching up with the
males everlasting emancipation.
Women have been slow in
developing an excuse for getting
away from home. Until recently
when a woman, particularly a
young one, left home, unless she
was going to visit a relative she
disliked - the only kind who
ever had an unoccupied spare
room-everyone knew the worst
had happened whatever that
was).
Now when a woman leaves
home we never hint a romance
or a scandal. We say she has
been appointed a delegate or
an alternate to some worthy
cause.
We picture her discussing the
advancement of civilization with
an orchid on her bosom. Or
holding special committee
meeting in a hotel sitting room
done in rose and gold. Or vote
getting in her best hat while
the orchestra plays THE Isle
Of Capri"
Some of the women's conven'
lions in washington this spring
are for men also. Or maybe the
situation is the other way.
When women can't manage
conventions of their own, they
develop an interest in the noble
undertakings of men. Like the
Red Cross, Bible Study, Alumni
Councils, and Art. And so come
to the conventions along with
the men-if they are good
managers.
The annual convention, in
short, is an answer to the
wanderlust. To the call Of the
road.
It's a modern version Of the
Crusades. And its gender is
largely feminine.
Four thousand women, a small
township, will come to the
D. A. R. convention April Is.
The Daughters are great execu-
tives. Their way of raising
money for their hall was a
magnificent example of financ-
ing.
You've seen the names on
the seats and boxes in Consti"
tuition and Memorial Continen-
tai Hall. Each name represents
q business transaction.
Each chair was sold for $3.50.
The State Organizations bought
the boxes for $1,000. Grace
Lincoln Brosseau, once Presi-
dent General, has a Memorial
window that cost her husband
$4,000.
Each globe of the chande-
Tiers, the ratings around the
boxes, the desks, even pieces
Of "blue sky" were sold at a.
price. The shelf space for each
book unit in the library
brought $3.50 from sympathetic
friends.
Yesterday morning when Mrs.
s. Beatty Moore, who is help
ing with the Alexandria Gar
den Tour, April 22-27, went
out to look at her new seeded
lawn and her dozens of pansy
plants, she saw one of her dogs
burrowing in the second of two
great holes on the new grass.
The other dog was tossing
about the last of the uprooted
pansies. Mrs. Moore's Alexan-
dria home is one of the Lord
Fairfax houses and is a town
show place. The key to the
Harry Woodring's country
house, His Lordship's Kindness,
is almost as large as the key to
the Tower Of London. It's the
only outside door key the Wood
rings have. When they come
In TOWN from Marlboro thew