Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1910 — LADY OR THE WOMAN? [ARTICLE]

LADY OR THE WOMAN?

Controversy Thai I* Interesting, Even Thonffh Wholly Unavailing;.. The controversy which has arisen over the proposed designation of young women wage-earners as “young lady employes” Is further enlivened by the statement of a “prominent club woman" that she is “not a lady” and is only angered when called so. "The definition of lady,” as she understands it, “Is a female who has neither the brains to think with nor hands to work with." Every woman to her taste. But It is to be said that the indiscriminate application of the term “lady" to all of the sex, whether or not they come within the category of “women of refined or gentle manners, sentiments,” etc., is ill-advised. Curiously enough, the New York World remarks, the use of the word has been much more restricted in this country, where lady is a title of nobility, but where “lady detectives” and “lady bigamists” exist along with “lady mayoresses," and where “young ladies” advertise in the newspapers for positions as waitress or milliner. With us, on the contrary, the employment of the word becomes more and more limited. It baa even been erased from ferryboat cabins, and no doubt in time it will go from hotel parlors. “When Adam dolve and "Eve span. Who was then the gentleman?” And who Is the lady when both sexes labor side by side in the office or factory? The main thing is the development of self-respecting womanhood. It is only necessary to alter Wordsworth’s— A perfect woman, nobly planned. To warn, to comfort and command, to “a perfect lady,” etc., to realize the absurdity of the for “lady employes.”