The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1937-11-22
Let's Make Believe
New York Times


Life with father as the lamented Clarence Day
made clear, ordeal requiring the utmost FORTH
ude and delicacy the part of the Victorian wife
and mother There some things that father
knew woman couldn't understand some things she
ought not to know about problems that had
to be left to the head of the house because no one
else had any about them. Clarence Days
father and many others who were like him, have
long been roaring up and down the golden streets,
bowling politely to the lady angels but not taking
their opinions any n-domestic subject But
their influence, as DR. William Allan Nelson of Smith
College reminding audience of girl students
and alumnae in Brooklyn some evenings ago. fingers
on.
Dr. Nelson thinks that women are still under
the spell of traditions formed when they expected
to withdraw from the dinner table after dessert had
been served leaving the to talk of weighty mas
cuine subjects. What did the men actually talk
about? Dr. Nelson didn't say. Business and poll
tics, possibly; horses dogs and huntng-was that
all? From careful reading of English novels, from
a knowledge of human nature, from certain data as
to the drinking habits of the period one may be sure
that it not all. Was this masculine conversation
intellectual exercise, beyond the feeber grasp of
women's minds? No, dear ladies' it nothing of
tie kind.
And yet the illusion fingers that father and his
pals talked about something pretty deep AS DR.. Neil
ntmated, women still bit hypnotized-not
say bullied-by the intellectual arrogance of "hus
bands and brothers." Well, it is time that this
members of the opposite be assured, is but
array of stuffed shirts. Gaze at them in the bleak
array of black and white in the fashlight photo
graphs of their stag dinners. Do they look bright?
Do they look human? 1t must be admitted they
do not. At best they look like penguins Their wis
dom is owlish their humor heavy, their shirtfronts
bulge they bald their waist-lines gone and
they issue patitudes that group of women could
swallow without gagging.
Woman supports and defends the home, with
tooth and claw if need be. She has of fair
ness. She will not stand in line. She will lie and
cheat in defense of mate and children. She puts an
absurd emphasis upon superficial appearances. But
does adde her brain by pretending to believe
in the solemn mockeres of the male world AS she
invades that world many of its pretenSes disappear
In fathers time there profound mystery as to
what did in his office. There is naturally no
such mystery He reads his newspaper receives
few visitors, talks the telephone looks out the
window and goes to lunch, from which he does not
return until o'clock-or just in time to clear his
desk before going home The work is done by female
secretaries.
No, women should have no sense of intellectual or
managerial nferiority If they pretend to have one it
must be because of deeper wisdom. The poor male
is pathetic figure-he would collapse utterly and
revolt to barbarism if he not continually flat
cealed behind starched stuffed shirt Please, dear
ladies' pretend little longer Do not take DIR Nelson
too seriously.