Evening Star Newspaper, June 10, 1923, Page 80

Listen,World! Bv Elsre Tobunson ““The flappers of today .are better than| ther parent I'm for the flapper of 1828 T believe, in spite of present day temp- tations—the automobile, for instance—that she is'a better individual than her mother who wwas the flapper of 1900. ¢ * * There would bo more peace and less alarm in America to- day if our flappers could lecture periodically to captious parents.’’ —JUDGE BEN LINDSEY, Denver Juvenile Court. “I am one of those who stand for the @apper. Shé is & symbol of the time. As whe sweeps down the street she is like nothing so much as & fine, young, spirited puppy dog. eager for the fray. We do wrong to condemn them, to decry them, to suspect them. Most Christiaus all over the world, and especially if tkey come from New England, have & conschitious feeling that unless good- ness 18 accompanied by a due amount of dis- somfort it fs not goodness. The youth of the day has repudiated this iden =REV. DR. WILLIAM E. GARDNER, Secretary of the department of religious education for the Episcopal Chureh UST now she passed my win-|the least beautiful. dow, a gay little buccaneer. Her fluffy red hair was bobbed to her ears and from each pink lobe jet black pirate loops dangled defiance at a carping world which wears its ears stuffed Wwith cotton instead of adorned for adventure. Around the soft, tanned neck a gypSy bandana was knotted. Her skirt was not as short as it was last year, but quite as naughty. Petticoats beneath that sleek sheath—never! Nor corsets about that round, elastic waist. Every gesture of the little imp gloried in her freedom and dared you to riticize. Nose in the air, the Rover's yes a-twinkle, and ler, unseen, but c Anvil Chorus,” went the snorts of the passing generation “Horrors!” they cry. “What's the world coming to? No modesty—no manners—no morals—no nothin’! Can she bake a cake? She cannot! Does she know the least thing about ba bies? does not! All she thinks of is freedom and independence. She won't even use the word ‘obey’ in the wedding ceremony any more. Where are our boys to find good, sweet, in- dustrious, patient wives such as their grandfathers had? Where, oh, where, are the girls of yesterday?" With equal vividness I see the lit- tlo flapper turn and face them head on, eves afire. “Yes, I heard you, you old bunch o' glooms!” she retorts. “Where are the girls of yesterday? They're home, sitting in rocking chairs, eating too She much candy, getting too fat, gossip- | birth, ing about their neighbors, crabbing about their children or their hus- hands, snuffling over troubles they could cure In a jiffy if they had the backbone of a self-respecting jelly- fish. Or they're out, trying to earn a living for themselves and their chil- dren, growing hard and bitter because the marriages they built on romance instead of common sense tumbled about their ears. That's where the glrls of yesterday are, and I'll bet you the girl of today isn't going to be aught in that trap. “Can T bake a cake? 1 can't. But T can carn enough money to buy & dozen cakes a day and keep mySelf { waq nothing inspiring, nothing at- voung and my husband happy while I'm doing it. After all, what if T cag't hake a cake? Neither could Abrahgm Lincoln. Do I know anything akput bables? Not much, but at that I'ta a walking encyclopedia compared tg my own grandmother. She expectad to rear her babies by instinct and a lot o' hot air the old ladies in the vil- lage told her. I'm going to get ex- perts to tell me how to have the right kind of babies and how to rear them after I get them. And I'm going to talk over this whole baby proposition before I get mar- ried at all. * & k% L&\ OREOVER, when I do marry V1 its going to be a real part- nership; not one of these affairs| where you love for an hour and lan- guish for a lifctime. I read a lot about the sweet, sacred homes that used to fill this broad Jand, but when you study it you find that the sweet- ness was spread mighty thin. for the woman of the house. That old-fash- ioned chivalry listened pretty, but it |¢he shares the fate of her caste. {tress ®ave the ladies just about as much actual rights as a third-rate guinea plg. Tf that was romance, give me something quick and tidy like the electric chair. My man and I will e pals on the fifty-fifty basis, or I rwon’t marry at all. nd as for respecting things, show me something to respect and I'll re- spect it. But I'm not going to respect any old thing, simply because some- one tells me to. Take it from me, old dears, there's precious little in this world you've handed on which '8 worth respecting.” So she speaks, the flippant little fiapper of 1923, answering the anvil chorus of the ages. Ignorant? Yes. Slangy, defiant, rude, hard, ignorant, cruel—all of that. Yet, withal, she is the hope of the world! Her deflance and dar- ing are as glorious as the challenge of the young Joan of Arc—if we but interpret them aright. She Is the soul of woman awakened. If she is hard (and she is hard) it 18 because she has found that trustful softness mever paid. Child though she is, she looks with wise, disillu- sioned eyes at that long, sad proces- sion of women who preceded her. She sces how their trust and submission were rewarded, how terribly they paid for their guarded lives by their own weakness, the flabbiness of mind and body, lack of control. She sees what happens to a human being when it refuses to think for itself or fight for itself, and she iy determined to think and fight. She looks at the children those mothers bore—the children whose coming could not be discussed openly, in the planning of whose lives the mother had so little part. Unwanted children, (Sseased children, children who were not understood or treated as comrades. All this she sees, and laughs and aneers and rebels. She is too young vet to know how hidden are life's most precious compensations, nor what a part compromise must play in overy fortune. She sees only the ugll- ness and waste which might have been prevented. R T she fights it is not because she loves beauty and truth less than those who went hefore, but because s¢ loves them so much that she is willing” to fight for them, whereas they only talked about them. For the homes which were built on eco- nomic injustice were not beautiful; and the spirit which hurt the race because “it wasn't nice to talk about” the things which pertained to the race was not the spirit of truth. Let the little flapper pass! For a while she will destroy that which it were better to save, perhaps. For a while she will break and waste and commit much foolishness. But, never- theless, she will be clearing the trail as women never have cleared it be- fore. And if you would be numbered among the quick, rather than the dead, follow after where she leads. (Copyright, 1923.) WORK SISTERS. CALLED on a friend of mine the other day. We were classmates as children and she has been dear to me for many year. She wag never a very bright girl, nor in But she was kind, cheerful and fair. So I treas- ure her friendship and go to her whenever I can, although the visits always leave me wretchedly un- happy. We sit in her musty, room with its broken furniture, pictures, lumpy cotton bedding and lumpier bed springs, and although my friend laughs in brave indifference to it all, my heart aches for her. I remember how she loved beauty as a child, and how little she had of it at home. I think of the years of loyal service she has given—then I look at the place where she spends her few resting hours, and hot in-| dignation wells within me. For my friend is a “general housemiad” and She is as well educated as her mis- (they are both high school graduates) and infinitely more sensi- tive to beauty and the humanities. | Yet because she serves, this s her lot. And although I have visited her in many homes in which she has worked, never yet have I seen her in room which was any more attrac- | tive or comfortable than her present one. * ok k% FTEN when I t my friend I think of little Elsa. Elsa is only five, an adorable tumble head, newly come from Mexico. For four years Elsa had chattered, laughcd and loved in Spanish. Then she came to Amer- ica, and a problem faced her. How was she to transform the warmth of that Spanish feeling into the cool for- mality of English speech? What, for instance, was she to call that dear worker who had tended her since sharing every baby joy and sorrow? Elsa had never heard the word “ser- vant.” What is even more to the point, she had never felt the atti- tude whick underlies the average democratic American’s use of that word. She had always felt something at once more intimate and humane. So when at last her baby tongue hit upon a title which ed her, shel called the housemald—"work sister”. I thought of Elsa as I looked at my friend’s unlovely room. The rest\ of the house was restful and charm- ing, but in this abiding place of the one who contributed so vitally to the making of that home, there tractive, or comfortable or even new and whole. Housework is at pest a monotonous proposition. But the housewife has her compensations. Hers is a crea- tive job, and, however tired she may be, she has the gratification of know- ing that she fills a position of dignity and importance. Not so the house- maid. She, too, creates, but others feap the benefits, and she knows, to her own bitterness, that she is rated as the least intelligent of all menials. 1f vou doubt this, study the ordi- nary servant's room as I have studied it. The mistress’ room is a delightful haven, delicately lighted, softly cush- ioned, beautified with flowers and pictures. The maid’s room is a catch-all for discarded rubbish and cast-off fur- niture. This is not only unjust. It is ab- surd. If the service performed by the housemaids of America is unin- telligent, menfal and deserving of none but the shabbiest recognition, then the service performed by the i begins to soften. THE housewives of America fs unintellizy gent, menial and deserving of noné but the shabbiest recognition. If the sweeping of floors, the washing’ of pans, the baking of roasts marks & woman as mentally Inferfor, then you and I and our mothers before us are and were mentally inferior. * Kok K DOUBT if many women analyee their feeling toward the house- maids but they reveal that feeling in their daily acts. Back of the indiffer- ence and unkindness lies a conviction that “somehow they're not like us.” But they are “like us. The young maid loves beautiful flowers, soft lights, restful or viva- cious music, dainty appointments, as much as the young mistress. She cherishes ther friends as greatly and desires as ardently to entertain them charmingly. She has as intense a hunger to make her personal life ex- pressive and unique. And because her work brings her fnto such con- stant contact with dinginess, she longs all the more for beauty when she leaves that work. How much of it does she get? No wonder the girls of America are refusing to do house- work and are forcing selfish, thought- less women to shift for themselves! Tt is not necessary that the em- ploye should eat at the same table with the employer or share in the intimate family life. Any sensible house worker prefers a measure of privacy just as the members of the family prefer it. But the house | should be made a home for the worker as well as for those who are served. If she cannot be given a sitting room for herself, she should be allowed to use the family living room occasionally for the entertain- ment of her friends. She should be assured of as comfortable a bed as any member of the family, of as rest- ful and attractive a nook where she may eat, of as easy a chair to rest in stween her hours of work. And, above all. her “time oft” should be held as sacred as her employers'. | They have no more right to demand of her her private time than she has to demand of them their private for- tunes, “Do unto others as ye would have others do unto you. If you were penniless tomorrow, doing housawork for a living, would you wish your employer to “do unto you" in the same’ measure of dinglness which you mete out to the girl who serves you, my friend? (Copyright 1923.) 1 Quartz Working. ; GINCE it takes an exceedingly high temperature to melt quartz, so as to make it up into tubes or vessels, it follows that more or less Ingenuity must be exercised in this direction. It was only about ten years ags that the proper methods for doing this were ascertained. Quartz vessels are a great aid in cases where substances must be | heated to a high degree, a degree at | which glass would break. There is now employed an electric furnace whereby there are turned out expeditionsly tubes and many shapes of vessels. Pleces of the transparent rock crystal are placed in a crucible and this is then exposed to the power- ful heat of the electrlc arc so that at a certain degree of heat the quartz Then the operator | takes out a plece and continues the | heating by the oxy-hydrogen blow- pipe 8o as to make up the quartz into a thin rod. By winding this round in spiral and then melting to- gether, a tube or a vessel of any | usual shape and even some of a com- vlicated sort, are fashioned, but this | process requires special skill on the | part of the workman. | The quartz is not entirely melted | in the electric furfiace, but is only | softened, as this method is found to | be the best. i Quartz thermometers are the ex- | traordinary achlevements in this line. These may be used to register high | degrees of heat, whereas glass used | for this purpose wouid melt. Tubes for/ mercury vapor lamps are also | made in this way. i American Rice. DURLNG the past two decades the ; development of rice culture into | one of the leading industries of our | gulf states has established the fact ! that American rice i of a very high- grade. Proof is furnished from Cuba. | where rice is eaten at every meal, and | where the American product has al- ready won the reputation of being| superior in richness of flavor and in nutritive quality to the rice of India, China or Jap: NGLANDE PRODUCTIONS FOR SLEEP AND REST SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTO E 10, 1923—PART 5 Furnish Your Home as You Want It, and Pay as Suits Your Convenience, at Phillip Levy’s You want good things when you buy for your home. You want good furniture that will make your home look and feel a little nicer to live in and to receive guests in. i If you look at furniture tombdrrow, stop in at the Phillip Levy Store. You are welcome to come, whether you buy any- thing or not, and you will discover new savings here that you never dreamed possible—savings made possible by the 19 store buying power of the American Home Furnishers’ Coryoration. Complete 6-Piece Living Room ’199 Tapestry Upholstered Davenport, Armchair and Rocker; Davenport Table, in mahogany finish; Table 18-inch shade ; beautiful room size Rug in choice of patterns. Lamp, with Reductions On All Lines of Reed Furniture Y2 off Starting tomorrow morning all ' lines of Reed and Fiber furni- ture goes on sale at re- ductions of as much as 25%. Unusual values galore. Beautiful recd suites as low as $ $1 a Week silk ED Easy TERMS: Bedroom . Complete (12 Pieces) ’'199 Bedroom outfit includes 6-piece Queen Anne Period Walnut Bedroom Suite, as pictured, a big, comfort- able, all-cotton Mattress, a Resilient Spring, two Pil- lows, a Boudoir Lamp and a room size Rug. ‘) L e ) e © w—){ a—_7 14-Piece Dining Room Outfit Genuine Buk’ s $ 2 1 9 Gas Ranges ; 839.50 Remember, our Exchange Department makes you a lib- eral allowance on your old Gas Range to apply al part payment for a famous Buck’s Range. EASY TERMS $219.00 brings vou this Handsome 14-piece Dining Room Suite, with 6 Chairs, a Fashionable Tloor Tor- chier, Pair of Ornamental Buffet Candlesticks and a Room Size Rug. EASY TERMS Picture the Progress Did you ever stop to think of the advantages in business over periods gone by? Today, Credit yields a tremen- dous power—it affects the life of every good family and individual. Join the Phillip Levy - Refrigerator Club. Pay Only 51 a Week The Phillip Levy Refrigerator Club is open to every family, and every home can now have a sci- entific food and ice saving Refrigerator without having to pay the usual large monthly payments No matter what size Refrigerator you need or which of the three best makes you want—the Belding Hall or Phillip Levy—you can buy it on the Phillip Levy Club Plan and just pay a little every week. You walk into a furniture store, select the furniture you desire to fix up a comfortable home and have it charged. We have become so accustomed to it these days that this wonder- ful convenience is just accepted as a matter of course—just as we have been accustomed to the Pho- nograph and the Radio. Theres lots to be thankful for in this little world of ours—much to be admired in humanity’s progress. Four-Poster Brass Bed $ 1 2.95 Special value in a massive handsome floor sample brass bed in lustrous satin finish— four-poster. Prices start at $12.50. $1 a Week Telephone Set In Fumed Oak 83.49 k Neat and convenlent; sturdily bullt and fin- ished in fumed oak. American Home Furnishers’ Corporation clearance. rated. Used Furniture Accepted as Part Payment Your used bedroom, dining room or living room suite is actually worth money at Phillip Levy's. You can trade it in as partial payment for the new furniture you have in mind. 735 Seventh St. NW.—Between G and H Usual eredit terms. Come in and atk > about our Exchange Depn\-tment. WASH[NGTON, D. C. aieLe Levy & cl Hundreds of steps and hours of time are Fverything is at your fingertips. the kitchen for what actual demonstration features of the cabinet shown above has a sliding top. Decorated Lamps 31.98 Pretty boudoir table “lamp reduced for quick Guaranteed Electric Irons $9.45 These are first quality Electric Irons in every re spect and we absolutely guarantee them. Kitchen Work Is Cooler With a Labor-Saving Cabinet 529 saved No_running around Come in for an and_labor-saving Fully equipped you need, of the time I to 1 OFf All Carriages All sulkies, go-carts and carriages specially reduced. Astounding values; sulkles as low as §14. $1 a Week Neatly deco- Easiest of Terms, But Only Cash Prices The Phillip Levy plan of selling furniture on credit gives you the ben- efit of spot cash brices with all the convenience of long time credit terms. ‘We sell on the only plan that does give you this advantage. Come in and let us explain it to you.