164 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



watching the waves and pink shells. Yes, of course, but Life, as 

 she sits there, doesn't know that it will be that long. It may not 

 be for her. That is where the difficulty lies — in the uncertainty. 

 Her partner may come today, he may not come for twenty years, he 

 may not come at all ! 



Probably the majority of our grandmothers were married at 

 an earlier age than our high school girls graduate today. And our 

 mothers did not have to wait much longer. But it takes so much 

 time these days for a man to get ready to earn a living, and it costs 

 so much money to keep a home, that it is no wonder that the girls 

 are kept waiting long while the men get the necessary education, 

 money and courage. 



I was much interested at home this summer at the coming to 

 consciousness of this problem by one of our neighbors, a physician. 

 He had always expressed strongly the belief that the home was the 

 woman's sphere, and he had naively taken it for granted that it is 

 always a woman's own fault if she does not enter it at once. Two 

 years ago his only daughter graduated from high school. He had 

 always said that she was not to go to college, but he compromised by 

 sending her away from home for one year to another college pre- 

 paratory school. Then he kept her at home for a year, with a 

 "coming-out party," to indicate that she was waiting. Incidentally, 

 she took private lessons in French and music, and was supposed to 

 learn housekeeping. But the family keep two maids and the mother 

 is in full vigorous health, so Margaret's housekeeping was a farce. 

 There was not enough of an incentive for her to do it seriously. 



Her brothers, three and six years older, have had four years 

 at college, and two or three years professional education beyond, 

 and are now on the lowest rounds of the professional ladder, the one 

 a physician serving a hard apprenticeship as hospital interne, earn- 

 ing only his board and keep ; the other an engineer in overalls doing 

 a little more than a day laborer's work, but cheerfully, for he knows 

 that it is but for a season. The father, knowing that his boys are 

 not ready to marry, is beginning to realize that it will probably be 

 some years before Margaret's partner is ready for her. But what 

 shall he do with her in the meantime? 



Among his patients are several young women in bad nervous 

 condition, and only because they have nothing to think of but them 

 selves and their feelings and symptoms. What to do with them he 

 doesn't know. All they need is to be given some object in life, but 

 how? He can't supply the husband (not that he even mentioned 

 that). Their help is not needed at home, and it is contrary to the 



