Newspaper Page Text
(/j Oa ’ '
/\ Y S LZ* i f II E /Ub ■
, v/J Io! I ICO v
q < js What
Cwf ii AN
V * O.V M I IA F/
Motes it
■ A n Answer to Mrs, Wilson
‘ I B Ifborfroir by
Grace Livingston Furniss
If ives Are Para
■sl;“X“"y sites,” as Mrs. Voodrov
her,.web. Declares, Men Like
’em Best That V/ay, and
Have Them Independent
Economically (or Any Other
\ ay) for Anything!
ON this page Is printed Miss Grace
Livingston Furniss’s reply to Mrs.
Wilson Woodrow’s scathing ar
raignment of American Wives recently
printed in this newspaper.
Miss Fnrniss, whose view by no means
coincides with that of Mrs Woodrow, is a
well known playwright. She is the author
oi *'A Brass Monkey.” She wrote that
brilliant comedy, “The Man on the Box,
and the farce, “The Man on the Case.
By Grace Livingston Furniss
(The Distinguished American Playwright.)
IT Is rather difficult to see how eco
nomic independence will release woman
from being a parasite on her husband.
The average man does not wish to mar
ry a woman who is economically inde
pendent He is not seeking a wife who
will leave their home to take care of it
self between eight and six, and then si',
down to dinner quite as tired and jaded
•s her husband, to wrangle over the tar
-18. She might be superior, but think how
nrpleasant! The average man’s ideal s
one heart, one mind, one soul for the
household, and that one his.
This is all wrong, of course; but that is
the way men feel about it; so unless, as
Mrs- Woodrow suggests, women do the
proposing— But no. that wouldn't help un
less she was a very strong woman, for
thf average man would have to be chloro-
f A
T'flhr ■/i -w ■ z— ■
;
_ <r — ■
“They speak with grief of the immoral type of the idle woman’s beauty ”
formed and dragged to the altar by the
economically independent woman.
A » a sad matter of fact men like para
ble women who depend on them for every
thing, Including thoughts. The Dream
Glrl of the average young man’s fancy
ls fluffy and sweet and coquettish and
trifling. He doesn’t w ish to find either ink
®r flour on her fingers nor to hear her teil
how many pounds of graham bread and
a bPles will make an American citizen of
8 Russian baby. He wants her to turkey
trot and bunny hug and golf, and just be a
bunch of bewildering fascination. And
B, ter he marries her he wants her to keep
him guessing. Men are like puppies. They
run after anything that runs away.
Vv hen a woman is sweet and devoted
“Mrs. Jack” and “The Colonial Girl” are
also from her pen. She dramatized “The
Deluge," one of David Graham Phillips’s
most successful novels. She is also, a
writer of essays, and her wit has gained
for her wide celebrity.
Being of one of the Knickerbocker fam
ilies, and in touch with the smart set and
the inner circle of theatrical life. Miss
Furniss knows the American wife in all
her aspects.
and noble and splendid and perfectly re
liable and prudent and thrifty man gets
tired of her and goes out to find a nice
grass widow who will scramble his ideas
in a turkey trot.
All this and more being the deplorable
idea! of man. of what use is economic in
dependence?
Mrs. Woodrow’s highly entertaining ar
ticle is like a Roman candle Which goes
off in seven different directions and ends
in small stick. At the end she admits
that her strictures on the American wife
apply only to a certain number of idle
rich women in cities.
Since this is true of what use is eco
nomic indepndence? Women who are dev
astating their husbands’ bank accounts
in one paragraph, cannot be suffering from
the ignominy of asking for money to buy
a hat in the next paragraph At least
they can only do that in paragraphs.
In real life the idle wife of the rich hus
band is doing exactly what her husband
married her for. She is a valuable asset
because she represents him socially and
advertises him financially by the magnifi
cence of her jewels and motors and en
tertainments.
This type of woman is always painfully
good to look at Highbrowed iadies who
have managed to preserve their economic
independence by—oh, any of the pleas
ant ways open to a downtrodden sex—
speak with grief of the immoral type of
the idle woman's beauty; they all admit
It is there.
Furthermore, several dozen hard work-
jpyrrgmt. ir>T2. by Amerlcan-Fxaminer Great Brttatn Rights R«serve&
* ’ ■
? '-z \ AAA
- F.% I
’ h 1
'f A&A
w M ( VfK '
/( (\f fc Z,<iA ") \- \
I Y w>yr(k -
IFr-JM- H W v4\\i i -
’?- x \ll
! U k- x"®k?W7j t k
iimim mm? ty
••Tbe d re. m '/■ Sx_y fl rM/ V-
«-• «< . —WzW )
the average ’""■ — - \ > /A /
young WWkJLW \ . / /
man’s ---'''
fancy is >j /
„ „ i v ’ * ' , y?i'
fluffy and J
coquettish
and jgisig'
trifling— mat
just a W-f 1 .
TmX
bunch w,j
of
bewildering /
fascina- / / I
tion.” / I '■
£1 m
£ 1
“Men are like puppies. They .un after anything that runs away."
fng artisans m ail the small
arts that cater to rich and
idle women alone depend on
this particular, lady for their
livelihood. Do not, I pray
you, Mrs. Woodrow. leave
them to mourn by setting the
Idle ones to work.
Incidentally, strong men
would fall dead if they tried
to keep half of the social dates
of this idle lady who’ has ner
vous prostrati n from ten to
two on Sunday, and then goes
on as usual.
Considering all this,' why
call her a parasite? Unless
dollars and cents are the only
valuable asset, it would seem
as If this lady may be said
to earn as much as the eco
nomically independent, who
brings horn twelvi dollars a
week.
Mrs. Woodrow mis
takenly placet manual
labor ahead of mental.
If he wife does the
work oi a general house
worke she Is too fagg
ed mentally to be much
of a companion for her
husband, and saves pos
sibly twenty dollars a
month. If she has ex
ecutive ability enough
to run her house prop
erly, and keep up the
social end of the camp
aign. she may be help
ing him to earn a hun
dred thousand.
Mrs. Woodrow has for
gotten a great deal
In this attack upon
the women who are
the bone and sinew
of our country, of which we have been
hearing so much of late. For Instance,
she has forgotten the large number of
women who help their one servant in the
household work, or who do all their house
hold work. These women predominate in
this country.
Indeed, they predominate so largely that
the other type Is, it seems, scarcely worth
discussion. There are many such women
as she describes In New York. Yes, and
in two or three other large cities of this
country. But the large cities do not rep
resent America. They misrepresent it.
The true representation is found in the
small cities, in the vilage and in the coun
try, where Mrs. Woodrow seems never tx
have been; or If she has visited them has
not seen the truth there spread before her.
In Indianapolis, for instance, I know bril
liant women, of fine intellect, who are
good wives, mothers and housewives, and
who keep at most one servant. Yet they
find time to belong to clubs and to take an
intelligent interest in what is happening
in the world. They know art and history
and politics better than the women in the
large cities know dress.
These are the women to be considered
They are the vast body of American wives.
Fancy these women going into offices to
become economically independent. Their
families would think them crazy and there
would be a reign of domestic anarchy
ended only by mother dropping her bus!
ness fad.
Mrs. Woodrow’s answer to the antic!
pated question: “What will become of
the children when Mother goes out to
work?’’ is a curious one. She says: “I
see no reason why the State should not
take care of the young. Most women, as
a matter of fact are not efficient to care
for their own children.”
Shades of all the dear departed mothers
of the race: “Not efficient?” Nature
made each mother more efficient than any
other woman In the world could be to
care for that particular child. Children
brought up by other than the guiding
hands of the mother, whether It be In In
stitutions or in so-called “homes,” or by
nurses, are machine raised children. Who
ever heard of a genius so reared?
There is a shadowy unattested story
that out of a foundling asylum came a
child who became the Governor of his
adopted State. Even granted that this
hazy story be true, a Governorship Is not
the most exalted office, and if I read my
politics aright the office has often been
A 'X [l J: I Ofe
“One heart, one mind, one
Soul—and that one his.”
unworthily held. The machine-re area
child may be scientifically reared. It is
never lovingly brought up. And love la
obsolutely necessary for a child’s mental
and character growth.
Th sre are machine-reared children who
have grown into selfish, useless citizens,
but no Geo’ge Washington nor Abraham
Lincoln was bo reared. Thsy came from
homes where the mother was a constant
presence, not a nervous remnant of a dally
down town business struggle. Such a
woman would never have given us a Presi
dent of the United States, will never giv»
us one.