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Show WOMEN TRAVELERS. It is remarkable what travelers women are becoming, and how many of them travel alone. No longer do they need a protector -- they can assume the role themselves if need be. Railway conductors say they travel about almost as freely as drummers do, and everybody must admit that this is making the sex more independent and self assertive than our grandparents would have dreamed possible. It is not so certain, however, that its members will therefore make better wives and mothers. In her enlarged sphere woman has in some instances become a shrewd dealer and capable of driving a sharp bargain with the best of men. Yet what will this sharp practice culminate in, transmitted to a son or daughter? Should one be considered an alarmist, who would look forward to the penitentiary for the young man by whom this feeling is inherited, and in whom it has been cultivated through several generations? In the present age, and with our present environments, it is a painful necessity for many of our girls and young women to struggle with the world and fight their way. They are forced to give and take hard knocks. Each one must take the place of some man or be pushed aside by him. When such girls become shrewd financiers, driving hard bargains for a dollar or a dime, every one recognizes that it is -- necessity. But if this capacity for making close bargains is to become a national characteristic of our girls and women, one of the sex's greatest charms will have disappeared. R.B. |