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VOLUME TWO.
HUMVEE TWENTY-SIX
WHAT WE THINK OF WHAT WE SEE
We read recently of a “white elephant party,”
given by a leader of society in a certain Pennsyl
vania city. The headline of such a news item nat
urally aroused curiosity and induced one to wonder
if all the guests were to bring white elephants.
The account of the festivities disclosed the fact
that each guest was requested to bring something
for which she had no earthly use, but which was
too good to throw away. Eleven of the nineteen
women guests present brought their husbands.
R R
It is now announced that The Gal in the Foun
tain has been clothed in a new black going-away
dress. We have no means of knowing what is the
significance of this draping of her classic figure in
the vestments affected by ordinary real people, un
less she has been to the palmist and learned that
she is to “go on a long journey soon.” The color
chosen for the suit does smack in some degree of
sadness. There is a melancholy that doth attach
to “customary suits of solemn black,” and it may
be that the Gal has come to mourning and that ere
many moons the Piedmont art gallery will become
a House of Grief. And this tender draping of that
beloved figure is the first hint of the Lodge of Sor
row due to arrive in our city on January 1, 1903,
A. D. The same is good. But the sad feature of it
all is that the Gal does not look well in the gar
ments of modern civilization. It has been said that
real beauty and nature unadorned is ever lessened
by the art of the corsetiere. The Venus de MiJn
with a peekaboo and short skirt would look like
Cousin Mirandy from the rural districts.
R R
The New York Sun, which has carefully watched
the progress of prohibition legislation in Georgia
and has also noted with interest the striking fea
tures of the Hokesmith regime, now champions the
cause of the common people of this commonwealth
in the matter of bed sheet legislation and goes a
step farther in advocating further legislation for
the regulation of hotel rates. In a recent editorial
it says:
“It is generally agreed that the present Geor
gia Legislature is the most remarkable collection
of thinkers that has been under observation since
that of Texas got out. One of the noblest intellec
tual monuments of the Lone Star Justinians is the
nine-foot sheet law. It has inspired in the Cracker
Lyeurguses a passionate desire for a law on the
same subject; everything else except the hotel bed
has been covered. The hotel clean sheet bill passed
by the Georgia House falls below the Texas stand
ard. The regulation of hotel linen is one of the
most vital needs to which a Legislature can devote
its talents; and the standardization of hotel sheets
is an instant and urgent duty. Georgia hasn’t gone
far enough as this summary of the proposed act
shows:
ATLANTA, GA., AUGUST 22, 1907.
Sy A. E. RAMS A UR. Managing Editor.
“ ‘ All innkeepers and hotel proprietors who do
not furnish clean sheets, clean pillow cases and clean
towels for each guest, when the rate charged is $2
a day or over, shall be punished as for a misde
meanor. ’
“Cheap and simple taverns, if there are any such
for the entertainment of the wool hat Jeffersonians
—they travel when Hoke Smith is inaugurated or
on other solemn and vast occasions—may be as
soiled as they please.
“But criticisms are out of place in considering
the great matters suggested by this bill. Neces
sary as the regulation of hotel linen may be, even
the absence of a nine-foot sheet law, the regula
tion of hotel rates is infinitely more necessary.
Has not the time come for this momentous reform,
too long retarded by trifles like railway rate regu
lation? For one man who believes that he has
been overcharged by railroads there are thousands
who know themselves to nave been overcharged by
hotels. Shall the People be excluded by prohibi
tive rates from the ‘palatial’ hotels where preda
tory wealth resorts? Here is a live question for
the Georgia thinkers to handle. If they do not
handle it, if they are recreant to their opportunity
and their obligation, the Universal Regulator will
take up the task. There can be no doubt in a de
cent mind that the elevators of a hotel frequented
from a number of States are, with all the contig
uous corridors, passages, halls and rooms, by inher
ent constitutional power and inference, an artery of
interstate commerce and subject to Federal super*
vision and regulation.”
Now that’s the stuff! If the clean linen clause
applies only to the two dollar a day hotel, the real
people, the one-gallus boys will not be benefited by
it. What we need is a law that will provide for
the reduction of rates. Frail humanity is so con
structed that it is more content when surrounding
a square meal and sleeping under a short sheet,
than it is when inhabited by a vacuum and cov
ered by a nine-foot sheet. Reduce the rates, even
if it has to be done by Federal interference. Give
the people a chance.
R R
There are times when we cannot read with any
great degree of thoroughness all the exchanges
which come to us, but we always read The Green
wood Journal. And we are amply repaid. In the
current issue we find an editorial on “Traveling
Undressed,” in which is discussed the fact that it
is not nowadays considered improper for men to
ride in the ladies ’ coach of a railway train without
his coat, collar and tie. A comparison is made with
old-time customs, when it was improper for clerks
in stores to •wait upon ladies without a coat, when
farmers put on their coats before going in to din
ner, and when it was considered a lack of proper
breeding to ride along the public road in a private
conveyance in the shirt sleeves. The discussion
naturally brings up the “why”? of the situation,
and the editorial concludes thus:
“What does all ihis mean? We do not know.
Elsewhere we publish an article about men no
longer lifting their hats to ladies which has impress
ed us. It really seems to us that the younger men
of this day and generation have not that high re
gard for ladies that their fathers had. If this is
true, it is to be deplored. When woman is no longer
reverenced by men there is a great loss.
“The cause for this? Are the women to blame?
We are too gallant to say that they are. But may
not the fact that they have entered the business
world and compete with men in offices, stores,
shops, and in almost every other sphere be consid
ered in this connection. To our mind our mothers
and sisters have place assigned them by the Cre
ator too high and holy for them to step down to
business life, and when they leave the home they
lose every time. They are the companions and help
meets of men and not their rivals. It will be a
good day when our women leave the shops, and
marts of trade and step up to the high and holy
vocation which God has assigned 'hem and for which
they were created. Then we may expect to see
them reverenced as they should be by men.”
We have noted what seems to us to be a falling
off in the attitude of men in the nicer points of
etiquette toward women, and heartily concur with
the remarks of The Greenwood Journal, and wo
are, to some extent, forced to agree also with the
cause for the same as suggested above; but we are
at some loss to decide just how woman is going to
manage to “leave the shops and marts of trade
and step up to the high and holy vocation which
Gcd has assigned them and for which they were
created.” It has been our observation that woman
very, very rarely accepts a position in the office,
store or mart unless she is forced to to so by the
necessity of earning her own living. It is believed
that women reach their highest destiny when they
become wives and mothers. They seem reasonably
willing to marry, and often do so to their sorrow—
and probably 'he experiences of many good women
have caused many others to prefer to earn their
own living rather than take a step involving so
much risk. Women are not crazy to get down off
their pedestal and go to work on a salary; they
just have to, sometimes. They would much rather
be queen than clerk, but they can’t find a job as
queen open to them. There are not enough such
jobs to go round. So, it finally narrows itself
down to the individual case. A woman without re
sources, dependent upon her own exertions for her
food and clothing, has to go to work or starve
and she goes to work. And what can she do but
keep on working until some one coir.es along and
offers her a raise to go and be queen for him per
manently? And there you are.
TWO DOLLAES A YEAE.
FIVE CENTS A COPY.