If all homes were ideal and all men likewise, there would be no question of woman suffrage or woman in business. But this is not an ideal world; all women who have kept their places and stayed at home, kept house and taken care of their children have not led ideal lives. In too many instances the home woman, the little wren, has been deserted for the gay song-bird. The necessities of life have forced other women into the business world—women whose preference would be for the ideal, quiet home life. One must not think that because a woman is leading a public life that she prefers it, that she has no desire for a home and little ones. Often her choice has been the lesser of two evils,—more to be desired than a life, married, but loveless; one in which she must slave from morn till eve and then receive as recompense curses and fault-finding.

The woman who refuses to so demean the married life as to enter into such a marriage, preferring instead the busy life of a bachelor maid, is to be admired rather than condemned. That she makes a success of her business life tends to show what some man has missed by not proving himself worthy to be her husband.

We hear so much about woman entering into business—just as though she had not always been in business. Stop and think about our ancestors on the farms. The woman shared the work equally with the man. He attended to the heavier work, while she attended to that which required less physical strength but more attention to details. The products of her industry often brought as much ready cash as that derived from the sale of the larger products of the farm. Many families depended for the yearly supply of clothes and luxuries on the money thus obtained from the sale of butter, eggs and chickens. In olden days, too, many a woman derived an income from the sale of home-made rugs and counterpanes.

Just how men have conceived the idea that it is only the modern woman who is a money earner, I cannot understand, nor can I understand how some men expect women to be happy in idleness. The most unhappy women in the world are the women who have a great deal of leisure time. Many a man objects to his wife taking up any outside work even though it would not interfere with her household duties. This usually is due to false pride on his part. He is afraid of what others will say; afraid his friends will think he is not capable of supporting his wife. Some of these men forget to take into account the possibility that an accident or illness may take him away, business failures may sweep away his accumulations and then his wife must face the necessity of earning her living. Alas, how seldom is she prepared to do this! If, during the leisure time of her protected life, she had been perfecting herself in some branch of industry, her future would be easily solved.

A woman can devote several hours a day to outside affairs and still not neglect her home duties. Home-making does not necessarily mean that the woman herself must do the washing, ironing, cooking, baking or sewing. She must see that these are performed properly but the actual work may all be done by others. A business man does not attempt to do all the work of the office himself. He employs a bookkeeper, a clerk and a stenographer to attend to the details while he directs. It is the same way with a home, a woman may employ others to do the physical labor while she directs.

Then as to the married woman earning money. Let me give you an illustration. A woman has spent the early part of her life perfecting herself in some branch of work, for instance, book cover designing. She marries a man in moderate circumstances and does not feel that she can afford to be idle and employ someone else to do her house work. She is a slenderly built woman and it would be a great tax on her strength to perform all the household duties—for some parts of housekeeping require such hard physical labor that even many men would not care to attempt them. It certainly would seem a very reasonable thing for this woman to devote several hours a day to book cover designing and use the money so earned to employ a strong woman to do the heavy housework. This arrangement would be better for all concerned; first, the woman would be happier and more contented; next, the man would enjoy his home more, for any man certainly would rather come home and find his wife contented and happy and with leisure time to devote to him, than to come home and find her all tired out, and consequently cross, with the housework so unfinished she must devote her evening to some household task.

If circumstances have given a woman home and children, they always must come first, but this does not mean the woman must do housework if conditions permit the employment of somebody to do it. She must do the work for which she is best fitted both by nature and by training.

In whatever occupation a woman is engaged she should endeavor to make a success of that work, to do it a little better than anyone else could; for in every field of endeavor there is joy and reward for always being and doing one's best. The great secret of success is concentration. Too many women waste their energies thinking and talking about the things they would like to do. Every time you talk about the thing you would like to do you waste just that much energy and make your goal less possible of achievement. That which seems difficult before is usually found easy to accomplish, once undertaken. If you wish to accomplish anything hold the thought in your mind and concentrate all your powers in that direction. Do not scatter your energies like chaff to be blown hither and thither.