Speaking as a lover, I welcome the openings that are being given to women to earn their own livelihood. I can conceive of no more degrading profession for 2 woman—no profession more ealculated to unfit her for being that wife and mother we talk so much about than the profession that up to a few years. ago was the only one open to her—the profession of husband-hunting. As a man, I object to being regarded as a woman's last refuge, her one and only alternate to the workhouse. I cannot myself see why the woman who has faced the dificulties of existence, learnt the lesson of life, should not make as good a wife and mother as the ignorant girl taken direct, one might almost say, from the nursery, and, without the slightest preparation, put in a position of responsibility that to a thinking person must be almost appalling.
Tt has boon that the difference between men and women is ti that the mau) goes about the world making it ready for the children, that the woman stops at at home making the children ready for the world. Will not she do it much bottor for knowing something of the thing of the the difficulties her own lidron will have to face, for having learnt by her own experience to sympa-this with the struggles, the sordid heartbreaking cares that man has daily to contend with Cwilisation is over undergoing transformation, but lumau nature remains. The bachelor girl, in her bed-sitting room, in her studio, in hor flat, will still see in the shadows the visions of the home, will still hear in the silence the sound of children's voices, will still dream of the lover's kiss that is to open up new life to her. She is not quite so unsexed as you many think, my dear womanly madame. A male friend of mine was telling mo of a catastrophe that once occurred at a station in the East Indies. A fico broke out at night, and everybody was in terror lest it should reach the magazine. The women and children wore being hurried to the ships, and two Indies wore hastening past my friend. One of them paused, and, clasping her hands, demanded of him if he knew what had become of her husband. Hor companion was indignant. For goodness sake, don't dawile, Maria," she cried "this is no time to think of husbands."
There is no reason to fear that the working woman will ever cease to think of husbands. Maybe, as 1 have said, she will demand a better article than the mere husband-hunter has been able to stand out for. Maybe she herself will have something more to give; maybe she will bring to him broader sympathies, higher ideals. The woman who has herself been down among the people, who has faced life in the open, will know that the home is but one cell of the vast hive. Wo shall,' prhaps, hear less of the woman who has her own home and children to think of—really takes no interest in these mat-tors "—these matters of right and wrong, these matters that spell the happiness and misery of millions. Maybe the bridegroom of the future will not say: "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come," but "I have married a wife; we will both come."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.