.
THE OREGON SUNDAY , JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 6, 1910
A Composite of Her Ideal Calls for a Manly
Husband, Plenty, of Children and a House
Near Town .
wowd May
JT T"E? is the first accurate, authentic
fl" account of the collie girl's compos.
... ite idea of what her home should he..
It answers one of the most often-asked
questions of the day: Does education fit or
unfit a woman for the prime purpose in life?
It shows that, instead of making a girl
unfit to he the mistress of a home, knowledge
instils into her the highest possible ideals of
home life. . ' y
' If college girls, do not marry, it is not
because they are mentally antagonistic to the
martial state, but because they are unable to
find men who will measure up to their stand-.
ards of what husbands should be.
More than that, it is shown that these
college girls do not contemplate childless
homes. Out of a representative lot whose
views were obtained, but a small percentage
had any idea that their lives could be com
plete without their fulfilling their obvious
destiny.
Coming at a time when the activities of
tvomen are everywhere arousing attention, this
contribution to the literature of the college
maiden is of more than, usual interest. It
was secured by one of the leading educational
institutions of the country, and is presented
by a member of the faculty of the University
of Pennsylvania. Surely, nothing could come
from sources better fitted to give the true ef
fect of higher education on the female mind.
deed, tha question of children was not even suggested to
them, yet In every, cata children were considered as an
essential pert of he home.
In. view of the prevalent Impression that college glrla
arehe most serious offenders In the crime of race sui
cide. It is Interesting to note that of the twenty-one
jlrls who specified the number of children
1 4ttM t or 4 rfctldf-ra
i advocated S or S ebildrrn
J irorBtt4 llot children
. I Mvoeated 1 to auUuren
One answer which appeared very generally through
out the papers Indicates eremarttably advanced view
point for an Immature girl, namely, that "the number
Of children should depend on the site of the Income." '
: The father In the Ideal home must really, "be a man,"
"a person of high clvio wortL," "a person of character,"
worthy to be the father of noble children. If possible,
his business must allow him sufficient leisure to spend t
least a portion of each, day, with the family, assisting
SOME OF THE IDEALS.
"There should be from two or three to
six or seven children, according to tha size
of the income."
"The mother should have the principal
household duties, the training of the chil
dren, and later in life, when her family is
grown up, some useful occupation."
"The father should spend enough of his
time at home to know his children thor
oughly and for them to know him."
"There should be daily duties for each
member of the household
By Professor Scott Nearing, B. S., Ph. D.
Of the University of Pennsylvania.
ill if mmJl. M fe mlmm1kil 4L m
iifK
L M " i
"I
T IS a fact that the college girl Is rot a home-
mfcker. The matter has been thoroughly dis
cussed and the public has reached this con
clusion.
The circumstances tempt one to reveal an Irish an
restry by asking, "Is this fact a fact?" Is the poslUon
held by public opinion a tenable one? Is it true that the
college girl does not want a. home and that she shuns
the responsibility of children? Public opinion holds that
It Is, and cries it aloud In the market place. On the other
hand, the friends of the college girl assert Just as posi
tively that the failure of college girls to make and
maintain homes is due not to a lack of desire for home
making on their part, but to the allure of modern men
to measure up td tha college girl's standard of manhood
In Puritan days Prlscills, archly asked John Alden.
Tfc Sorter
Must Jfealy
Be & Afar? . &
rerso77 of rra?
CWeWbrfA'
what the college girl regards as an ideal home.
The first paper goes into careful detail:
"I. Conditions of marriage.
(a) Love based on mutual respect 1
i (b) Health and physical habits important con
sideration. (c) Independence in action and thought comradeship.
(d) Not too great disparity in ages.
House; environments.
(a) Single house no flat, double house, apart -Oierit
! Size unimportant.
(b) Grounds not less than two acres. Or farm.
(c) Convenient to husband's business not city.
Children.
(a) Desired from pure love and understanding
of them!
"II.
"III.
(b) Two to five children give chance for highest
all-round development.
(c) Care and training undertaken by parents
alone shared by them.
IV.- "Home" atmosphere.
(aj Work and avocations shared equally by hus
band and wife! Wife must guard against
growing narrow or mentally out of date.
Husband must guard against growing
domineering or impatient.
(b) Respect and consideration toward every
member of family !
(c) All interests, pleasures, worries, misfor
tunes, affecting home as a whole, should be
shared and discussed limitations according
to age, of course a common responsibility."
The second paper treats the subject more generally.
but emphasises the same Ideas:
"I. A man with a positive character and a sense of tha
f ? .... i i .
reponsiDinties 01 latnernoou.
A woman of similar nature who has children
cause she realizes their value.
As many children as are compatible with tha
family income and the strength of the mother.
"IV. A house or apartment no larger than necessary,'
"V. An income sufficient for a comfortable moden
life ; no more.
"VI. All the members of the family doing something,-
and interested in society and its problems.
"(There are very many other things I want, but I
think these are the essentials.)"
These two papers and the summary given of the other
thirty-three Indicate that the college girl wants a home,
the primary essential of which is well reared, healthy
children. 9h expects to do her part in making thla jioroe,
and she expects the husband and father to do his part
ss well. '
Above all, she desires to establish for homemalttpg
and homekeeplng a very high standard, which must
adopted by men as well as by women. The ideal homa-of
the American college girl Is based on children, developed
with child training, surrounded by a "homey atmqs
k... inrt it watchword Is "Eauallty." - 1
PUBLIC IN ERROR
a
Once more It Is established beyond question thatthej
voice of the people is not necessarily the voice of,God.j
for in deciding that the American college girl is uot a.
homemaker the public has grievously erred. The Ame,'ri-
can college girl, on her own testimony, believes In t,he
establishment and maintenance of a real home, and lorf
its completion she wishes a man who will accept and 41d;
in maintaining the high standard which she has already;
set. f
When men sccept this standard and meet college girls
on their own high plane of homemaking. the result tfill,
be a home from which spring a manhood and womanhood
that will be the glory of future cenerations. v '
Wny TmtD M
w
Why don't you speak for yourself. John?" While the
pros and cons of the college-girl question are being em
phasised in the highways and byways of publio discus
sion, would It not be Interesting to Jet. the college girl
follow the example of John Alden and speak for herself?
Several weeks ago thirty-five college girls in an eastern
coeducational college-were given an opportunity to speak
for themselves. There were nine seniors, ten juniors,
fourteen sophomores and two freshmen. Each of them
as asked to outline in 100 words her views on an ideal
Some.
Che thirty-five outlines were uniform In their advo
mcy of a home of unusually high standard. Any one
prone to pessimism regarding the homemaking future of
the graduates of American girls' colleges should have
the privilege of reading that set of answers in order to
restore the lost optimism of his youth.
ALL FOR CHILDREN
The girls did not have the arguments placed before
them; they were simply asked tooutline their, ideal
home In 100 wordB. AH details were left to their dis
cretion. The answers indicate clearly and unequivocally
that American college girls do' want a home, the work of
which they expect either to do themselves or to super
intend; they require their husbands to take an active
part in homemaking, and they anticipate children as
one ot the essential factors, if not the most essential
factor, in home litet '
With one exception, all thirty-five slrls voted for chil
dren. The exceptional one said. "Children, if both parents
want them; if not, none." The girls were not askedito
mention the number of children for an ideal home. la
the mother to educate the children and participating in
the home pleasures and recreations.
In almost every case, the wife "should be a college
graduate or its equivalent." "on an intellectual level with
her husband," "keeping in touch with Current affairs,"
"developing herself so that she may sympathize with the
children as they grow up." In short, the wie is to live
on a plane of absolute equality with her husband, inti
mate with his life and appreciating his problems, and,
on the other band, she Is to be helped by him, particularly
In the training of the children. - Family life should be
sympathetic, every one sharing 'the pleasures and the
cares of the household. In short. It should be a harmo
nious unit, bound together, in work and in leisure, by ties
of common interest. -
Nearly all of the homes were placed In the country,
with "a largo lot In which the children may. play," "a
chance for the children to run around," and nearly all of
them were placed near a city, in order to insure "mod
ern conveniences" and "a good school." "AH children
should receive college education." while "the education
of boys and girls should be along parallel lines." One
standard of education should prevail for both sexes, and
that of the highest. The home should be a ''unit of In
terest" and "have some special Interest or duty for every
member of the household." All should participate In the
work and leisure of the home, and "each should en
deavor to show fidelity to the rest." The college girl's
home Is a real home, in which all have an interest for
which all do some work, and out of which strong boys
and girls will grow into splendid men and women.
There were two kinds of outlines. One (rave in detail
th homf surroundings, the other Idealized-the home as
"an atmosphere" and omitted the detail. While the form
of ihm (vfi IHnri f naiu.,, iflff.H.t ih. .
were almost Identical. The two following outlines, one
rHEN John, or Arthur, or whatever his be
loved name happens to be, stares over at
you from his enjoyment of his expensive
cigar and growls : "Can women ever get
enough candy?" don't you worry oyer it.
Just go on munching the favorite nepenthe of
your wearied existence, and smile at him that good
old reliable smile of yours, which has thus far
proved adequate to most of the minor miseries
that affiict more or less happy couples. If you
want to infuse into that smile the sad little look
of patient resignation you use on ordinary occa
sions, go ahead and do it- It makes John, after
a while, rise with vast nonchalance and mosey out
to the yard and silently kick himself for being a
brute; which is very good for him, at any stage of
the game.
But mind you don't have to. Beneficent sci
ence, in the learned person of Dr. Frederick 3.
Lee, professor of physiology in Columbia Uni
versity, has come to your aid with unanswerable
arguments on the subject of your oft-abused appe
tite for candy.
You're right, eternally right, in craving your
feminine allowance of candy. It isn't any ab
normal appetite which impels you to recall, with
fond tenderness, the antenuptial evenings when
John used to arrive at your home carrying a pound
that set him back $1.50, and makes you now stint
your table allowance so that you can provide a few
caramels or chocolates for yourself.
Your candy appetite is founded in the most
basic needs of your body, and it isn't peculiar to
women at all. The huskiest of men folks need it
as badly as you do, only they haven't sense enough
to take it.
You can tell John that, and more, next time he
explodes, if you feel like it.
4 '
A
of 'each kind, will show from two different ttaadoblsifl , m than Ajalaox, Jneredlent
MPIjR experiments have proved that tutar Is
one of the most efficient, as it Is one of the
most available, relievers of fatigue' which the
human family can employ. Nor is' humanity
lone in Its Instinctive appreciation of the practical ben
efits of sweets. Whole-species of animals and birds
will undergo the gravest hardships, and run the larg
est risks to procure foods in which sugar is no more
Professor Lee has explained. In thoroughly satisfy
ing If rather complicated detail, the precise manner
in which the muscles of the body manifest fatigue, to
gether with the causes that induce the weariness.
Science Is Inclined ft be less positive regarding the
exhaustion of the energies of the nerves, because their
phenomena are much more intricate and so highly elu
sive, no matter how delicate the tests that have been
devised. Nevertheless, it las been very clearly demon
strated that a tired mind, like overworked nerves, can
produce wearied, exhausted muscles and commonly
does produce them.
The woman who, notwithstanding man's contempt
for the mental and physical strain of housework and
Ite petty cares, finds herself tired and miserable, is
tired and miserable, and, what is more,, she has a
perfect right to be, with t solid cohorts of modern
science drawn in imposing array to back her up
savlnE SO.
w .nrmntnrt lmDUlSO is Often tO take ft
juail B v " . . .
-inir when he confronts similar conditions of fatigue.
But his primitive instinct is to eat or imbibe aoma
thing which Is sweet. In both sexes the primitive- n
tmrt is Invariably right, the acquired impulse toa
"Tk. .hnmlml chances." explains Professor Lee, ll
dealing with conditions of fatigue, "involve two geh.
i ,.iiin consuniDtion of eertain existing
substances, which are essential to the activity of the
protoplasm, and the production and accumulation
within it of certain waste substances.
"Of the substances that are consumed In proto
plasmic activity wo know most about two oxygen and
carbohydrate. It has beer known for some time that,
with the usual conditions under which we live, tha
main source of the energy of muscles, and probably
of other organs, is carbohydrate material, glycogen, pt
its near relative, sugar.
"In the burning of carbohydrate in the tiauuee its
potential energy becomes the actual energy ofheal
and muscle work. This fact would suggest tha lose 'of
carbohydrate as one of the factors In the oncoming ot
fatigue, especially in its later stage."
SWEETS RESTORE ENERGY OF ANIMALS
The exact investigations of the laboratory : have
shown that, if most of the carbohydrate be removed
from an animal's body, it presents symptoms of pro
nounced fatigue. That Is true, as well, of the Individ
ual muscles, which become incapable of performing ha
many contractions 'as the muscles of a normal antmai.
"Feeding such an animal with sugar," says Pro
fessor Lee, "restores his energy and makes his mun
cles capable of greater labor. This latter experiment
has its counterpart in the timon practioe, by sl
dlers, guides and explorersyof consuming- sweets,
such as maple sujrar, chocolate and raisins, whew n
long marches, while for the farmer in the hayfloM
nothing is more gratifying than a sweetened drlnR."
So, with all their lauding of tobacco and all thM
Indulgence in alcohol, when It comes to the most ex
haustlng efforts possible, the hardest and most vlrli
of men take to sugar a the Kreat standDy. t
Of course. Professor Lee remarks, food, rest, piny I
andleep may be regarded as the effective phyjolo ,
icar-kjitidotes to fatigue. nd there may be something I
in the rrewnntttoxln for fatigue which a Gerrnailn i
vestigator has contrived from the olood of tired i
mala, Just as cures and preventives of peclni !-;
eases have beon extracted from tha tissues Infscu i
with the disease Itself, - ' .- . ' l
But in the ordlnarv- wear and er of life
' woman feels simply ' done outi" and eravp.t her roe.
ing chair and tha supremely grteful tUvr -of
favorite kind of candy, i-he- Is making no n,itaa w
ha just aits down and enjoss I- v .