which overtake so many
self-supporting women who have no close family responsibilities. The
fetich which has been made, for many years now, of work for women,
that is, of work outside of the home, frequently leads the woman to
take some particular virtue to herself for self-support. She feels
that it entitles her to special consideration, releases her from
obligations which she does not voluntarily assume. The attitude is
enough to narrow and harden her life. The great preventive of this
disaster is a responsible home relation. If she must share her
earnings, it is a blessed thing for her. If not, she should share its
burdens and its hopes, in order to have a continued source of outside
interest to broaden and soften her, to keep her out of the ranks of
the charmless, self-centered, single women, whose only occupations are
self-support and self-care.

The problems involved in keeping the girl who has a home from being
homeless are not simple. They are as intricate as anything a woman
can face. They call for the highest understanding, responsiveness, and
activity. No futile devices will meet them. "My daughter is not coming
home to be idle," I heard a fine-intentioned woman say recently. "I
insist that she take all the care of her room, save the weekly
cleaning, and that she keep the living-room tidy." But what an
occupation for a young woman with a college degree, who for four years
has led a busy, well-organized life in which each task was directed
toward some definite purpose! What a commentary on the mother's
understanding of "economic independence," a matter of which she talks
eloquently at her club! All that it proved was that the woman had
never realized the girl's case, had never given consecutive, serious
thought to its handling.

How little chance there will probably be for this same girl to do at
home any serious work in case she develops a talent for it. The home
of the prosperous, energetic American woman is pervaded by a spirit of
eager and generally happy excitement. Good works and gay pleasures
fill its days in a wild jumble. There is little or no order,
selection, or discretion discernible in the result. "Something doing"
all the time seems to be the motto, and to take part in this headless
procession of unrelated events becomes the first law of the household.
The daughter has been living an organized life in college. She wants
to study or write, or do regular work of some kind. But there is no
order