Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1910 — A DEPARTMENT for WOMEN [ARTICLE]

A DEPARTMENT for WOMEN

Incivility of Women. We hear and read much concerning •woman’s rudeness to man and man’s Tingentlemanly attitude toward womankind—but what about woman's in--civility to woman? Is there anything to equal it? There are, says an observing writer, would-be ladies, there are so-called ladies and there are ladies. The first may get into the second class, but neither of the two U likely to rise to the third. Whether through fault or misfortune ah unfinished lady seldom achieves the finished state. The lack of consideration for the rights of others shown in public by women who pass by courtesy for ladies is of a kind peculiar to itself and members of their own sex are 'usually the victims. Women who travel in public conveyances with their children are sometimes almost brutally callous. Who has not seen a mother sitting angle-wise, with a child for whom she has paid no fare occupying another full seat, while tired and package-laden women are “strap-hang-ing" in visible discomfort directly in front of her? Conductors, however efficient, must not criticise the manners -of their passengers too strenuously and few men venture to complain tp or of a woman, therefore the remedy would seem to depend on the victims themselves, if the evil is to be remedied ■at all. .. One of the guiding rules of would-be ladies who never will be ladies appears to be that of “last come first served.” You will best observe this womanish trait at a ticket window, a bargain -counter, or any similar place where individuals are being waited on one s,t a time, and the order of precedence is not enforced. Go, for example, into any large department store which maintains a "trading stamp” booth. Meek and patient women who have been waiting five or ten minutes for a turn,»see some well-dressed imitation of a lady sail airily up, elbow herself to the front,* claim her stamps and go blithely on her way, quite with the air of having done nothing that could •call for unfavorable criticism. However other women may feel about it, to a man it is both amusing and exasperating to note the serene impudence "with which some of these dear angels -of the fair sex rush in where poor fools of men fear to tread. *