SOME FACTS ABOUT ADVANCED WOMAN. 
OR common-sense, pure and simple, on the much, 
mooted woman question, the following takes the 
palm. We give it, as being the strongest presenta¬ 
tion we have seen of the arguments against the “ ad¬ 
vanced ” woman. That it is by a professional woman 
makes it all the more forcible. She begins with the 
grounds for her opinion : 
For four or five years I know myself to have been 
the most industrious collector in the city of items about 
woman’s work, especially in new lines. I believe my¬ 
self to have been the best informed woman in the city 
about woman’s industries, not in detail in any one 
branch, but in general, overlooking the whole field. 
I have substantial grounds for an opinion when I 
say that, always reckoning out exceptional individuals, 
woman’s work in its more conspicuous phases is apt 
to be flimsy—more show and newspaper paragraph 
than substance—and in its obscurer lines its main 
characteristics are a not more than average faithful¬ 
ness and a conspicuous lack of ambition. 
This is not set down for any particular love of set¬ 
ting it down, but because it is time it was said. 
Woman’s work won’t be good work and can’t be 
good work so long as woman maintains the attitude of 
little Jack Horner, who put in his thumb and pulled 
out a plum and cried, “ Oh, what a great boy am I.” 
What are the Exchanges for Woman’s Work doing ? 
Trying to induce people to buy pretty rubbish made 
by women who don’t know how to make anything that 
people need. 
What are the Woman’s Clubs doing ? 
Giving women a fine time, which is more than all 
right, and inducing a peculiar belief in the growing 
wisdom of the sex in general and the club members in 
particular, by “papers” and long-winded discussions 
upon nearly everything that is not of interest to a wide¬ 
awake 19th century woman. 
What are those women doing who propose, through 
various committees, to clean up the city and regen¬ 
erate it in various ways, physically and morally ? 
Talking to themselves and to other people who 
haven’t so much time. 
What is the woman doing who has her living to 
earn ? 
Fretting because she doesn’t get a man’s wages, and 
usually not earning them. If she’s of the industrious 
sort she’s paying tithe of mint, anise and cummin and 
neglecting the weightier matters of the law—fuss¬ 
ing over trifles where a man would be mastering prin¬ 
ciples. 
What’s the reason that saleswomen are rude in dry 
goods stores, that girls behind telegraph and soda 
counters flirt when they ought to be attending to your 
requests, that typewriter girls are weak on geography 
and spelling, and that factory girls faint in the heat 
and have to go home ? 
It’s partly clothes. 
Is there any help ? 
Not in sight at the present time. 
Can you expect common sense of a woman whose 
street dresses trail ? 
Can you expect common sense of a woman whose 
street dress doesn’t trail ? 
In other words, can a woman be physically sound 
and wholesome who violates every law of hygiene 
in the dressing of her body ? Or can a woman be 
mentally sound and wholesome who violates every 
law of custom in the dressing of her body ? 
What outlook is there for Emancipation, with a big 
E, with 52 ruffles now and hoops scheduled to arrive 
this fall ? 
The corset question is a good many hundred years 
old, but here is a little illustration of the difference 
it makes. A woman who does not wear corsets and 
who does upon occasion work 12 hours per day tells 
me that she bought some silk blouses a few weeks 
ago, and it occurred to her that it would not be seemly 
to appear in one of them without a close fitting 
arrangement under it. So she procured—save the 
mark !—a “dress reform” waist, with just a few whale¬ 
bones. She went without her dinner for two or three 
days before she discovered what was the matter, then 
she went home sick. In a day or two sho pulled her¬ 
self together without the bony garment—well. 
She makes her choice and she knows it, between 
physical comfort, with mental discomfort, and mental 
comfort with physical discomfort. The two disagree¬ 
ables it is impossible to escape from at the same time. 
It’s not wise to pretend to be a business woman 
when you are outraging every business principle of 
digestion, and it’s not wise to pretend to be a business 
woman when you are outraging every conventionality 
upon which business success very largely depends. 
Is there any escape from the horns of this dilemma ? 
I do not know of any. Women must be as robust as 
men if they are to compete with men in the battle of 
life. Women cannot be as robust as men if they dress 
like women. If women go into the fight, they are 
foolish not to go in with a will. If women go into 
the fight, they are foolish to unsex themselves. One 
runs against a stump in either direction. 
Do women work because they have to work or be¬ 
cause they wish to work ? 
A little of both probably. The having to work ac¬ 
counts for the vagaries of the woman’s exchanges. 
Women who have not been trained to do anything make 
brave, sad work of it. It makes the heart bleed to see 
their wasted efforts. 
The wishing to work accounts at once for a good 
share of the flimsiness and of the craze for newspaper 
notoriety. For the desire to work is less common than 
the desire to be thought to work. 
To be advanced is fm de siecle. 
To be advanced implies the ability to justify one¬ 
self for cumbering ground. The reputation for such 
ability answers for the time bfeing as well as the 
ability itself. 
The business woman, if she’s a woman of sense, has 
two courses open to her : To do much or little, as she 
pleases, and keep still, or to do considerably more 
solid work than she is doing, and talk. 
The Woman’s Building at Chicago, which has been 
exploited for the past year, is a pitiful illustration of 
the present status of things : It gets nine-tenths of 
the puffery and occupies, perhaps, one two-hundredth 
of the area of the Exposition. 
By the way, there’s a newspaper query floating 
about that’s pat: Why do critics write about the 
pictures of male artists at the Exposition and the 
gowns of the female ? Why ?—Eliza Putnam Heaton, 
in the Recorder. 
EVIL TENDENCIES. 
T has been well said that evil deeds follow evil 
thoughts. If evil doing is the outgrowth of evil 
thoughts, it follows that to check the progress of 
crime it is only necessary to train the mind away from 
that which is wrong. Few men are naturally dis¬ 
posed to commit great crimes. It is by force of cir¬ 
cumstances. or too close contact with crime, that man 
becomes accustomed to its hideousness, and hence a 
crime that appears apalling to the more simple minded 
may be readily committed by one whose mind has 
dealt with deeds of evil. Thus “evil doings follow 
evil thoughts.” Great disasters have their origin in 
trifling causes; so, also, do great crimes grow from 
lesser wrongs which go unchecked. A mind grows on 
what it feeds upon, or rather, it grows in the direc¬ 
tion of the energy that excites it to action. A fact 
gained by a student to day will aid said student to 
reach a conclusion to-morrow that had before baffled 
every attempt to bring it within the bounds of his 
mental grasp. 
Each successive step is easier than that which just 
preceded it. This we call the momentum of the 
human mind, which is as real as the sunshine. 
Thoughtful parents recognize this element in the edu¬ 
cation of their children. A wrong to-day will pro¬ 
voke a greater one to-morrow, or a kindly act or deed 
will incite the mind to pleasant ways, and thus a per¬ 
son, properly speaking, is either better or worse each 
succeeding day. A child whose home influences are 
perfect, and who receives a gentle mother’s care and 
love, the admonitions prompted by a father’s hope 
and pride, seldom seeks associations beyond the walls 
of home. Kindness and gentleness are instilled into 
his tender mind to the exclusion of evil thoughts or 
deeds. The influence of one’s own happy family is 
inspiring ; by it the father is purer and better in his 
domestic relations, and the mother’s heart overflows 
with love and kindness towards the father and their 
little ones. He who protects the home and cultivates 
his better nature to the exclusion of evil words or 
thoughts, is barring his nature against all manner of 
wrongs, even as a prudent housewife bars the doors 
of their humble home to protect herself and little 
ones from harm. 
If evil deeds follow evil thoughts, good deeds will 
flow from higher, nobler thoughts as well. Here we 
have an incentive to do right rather than to do wrong. 
That one glass of whisky may do one no harm of it¬ 
self, but that an opening has been made in one’s con¬ 
scious pride of manhood, is unquestioned. A game at 
cards may serve as mental recreation and be free from 
wrong, unless in some way through its associations 
one loses self respect by the playing of it. One single 
wrong may not degrade the mind or tarnish the soul 
of the offender, but true it is that the first lie, the 
first drink, the first theft and the first deception of 
any kind, opens the way for subsequent wrongs. 
This is how “ evil doings follow evil thoughts.” 
Just as the broadest rivers run 
From small and distant springs, 
The greatest crimes that men have done 
Have grown from little things. 
The great Johnstown flood, that carried death and 
destruction before it, was not the work of a moment; 
but the structure of the dam had been weakened by 
an unobserved defect until it lacked the proper power 
of resistance, and an avalanche of ruin and desolation 
was the result. Likewise one may succeed for a time 
in hiding one’s evil ways from public view, but so sure 
as night follows day there is sorrow, shame and death 
in the wake, and sooner or later all will be lost by the 
breaking of the barrier that kept it from view. There¬ 
fore, there should be a constant guard over one’s 
thoughts as well as over one’s deeds, even as a watch¬ 
man regards with solicitude every little opening found 
in the dam over which he has care. He knows full 
well that that which this hour is but a trifling break, 
may give him trouble in the next. So, also, a little 
sin, if left unchecked, grows stronger and more tur¬ 
bulent, till darkness overshadows all and death must 
end the mad career. Thus it is that what was once a 
soul of utmost purity is now a darkened semblance of 
a spirit fit for depths of degradation and unrest. 
From a little seed a tree may grow; 
From a little sin a soul Is lost. 
Then ’tts a truth that all should know, 
That sin Is cherished at a dreadful cost. 
C. C. BOYER. 
Shoes and Stockings. —No two human feet are just 
exactly alike, and it follows that shoes made on wcoden 
lasts are not always a perfect, easy fit, even when we 
buy the proper number and letter. Especially are 
shoes liable to hurt the feet which have gone bare the 
greater part of the summer. I have found two little 
helps in shaping the shoes to individual feet, which 
have, in our family, prevented much discomfort, not to 
say real suffering. One is to dampen thoroughly with 
warm water the spot or seam that “ pinches,” and 
then wear the shoe until wholly dry. When the 
hard counter at the heel presses the fles9, and threat¬ 
ens to make blisters, wrap a piece of thick woolen 
cloth around the heel over the stocking before put¬ 
ting on the shoe. I am this winter trying a new plan, 
while knitting the little girls’ long winter stockings. 
Of course, most of us knit new feet on a pair of legs 
which are but half worn. Now, if there were no seam 
with its row of “narrowing” down each side, we 
might turn the leg, and the worn part over the knee 
would come under where there is less strain. Mother 
tells me to omit the seam and narrow in the middle of 
each needle, thus making three shapely gores that 
will turn every way. The heels of stockings wear bet¬ 
ter without the seam down the center, mbs. l. h. n. 
Scalloped Oysters. —Drain a quart of oysters and 
plump them by heating a tablespoonful of butter in a 
frying-pan until hot, and then spreading the oysters 
on the bottom and turning carefully to plump both 
sides. Take out the oysters with a skimmer and add 
a heaping tablespoonful of butter, a saltspoonful of 
salt, half a one of pepper, the same of ground mace, 
and a sprinkle of nutmeg. When the mixture boils, 
thicken it with a tablespoonful of flour wet in cold 
water ; stir until smooth and add the oysters. Butter 
a pudding dish and, when the oysters have boiled, 
pour them in it, and cover the top with fine bread 
crumbs that have been well seasoned with butter, pep¬ 
per and salt. Bake in a hot oven until nicely browned. 
Some prefer celery salt to mace and nutmeg for sea¬ 
soning, or both can be omitted if preferred. 
KATHERINE B. JOHNSON 
A cream of tartar baking powder. 
Highest of all in leavening strength. 
—Latest United States Government 
Report. 
Royal Baking Powder Co., 
106 Wall Street, New York. 
