Here I interrupted to say that I did not agree with him in that last statement. "In all kinds of employment that I know any- thing about the women are paid less than the men in the same jobs, I remarked.

The

"Yes, that's usually so," he admitted, "but we don't expect as much of them. Besides, the men often have families to support, and ought to get more. Women are protected in lots of ways. law is all in their favor. They have to bear children, but if that's a hardship, most women seem to stand it cheerfully enough.

"My goodness, you tąke the average well-to-do married woman in any suburban town. Her life is just one grand picnic. Plays bridge or golf every afternoon, and rides around in her car while her husband is in town working like the deuce. She buys and he pays. She wears the clothes and he's the boy who writes the checks It's pretty soft, let me tell you." He paused and smiled. "Now, there's an idea for your article," he said, waving his hand gener- ously.

Yes, it's an idea, and it expresses pretty clearly the aver- age man's opinion. But it doesn't express mine. My reasons are not economic, but emotional. The thought of being supported by somebody else does not thrill me in the least, nor would I care to spend my time buying clothes and watching my husband write checks.

These are not the advantages, but the disadvantages of being a woman--and I think most women consider them disadvantages. Any woman of energy and intelligence would prefer to stand on her own feet and make something of her own individuality.

Women are charming and beautiful, and I must confess, even tho I realize that I may be called a "sissy" on account of my assertion, that I would like to be charming and beautiful myself; but that can never be, for my face has the cast-iron contour and square jaw of the late John L. Sullivan.

I am more than a little tired of my hard, masculine counten- ance and of the growth of bristles that appears on it every twenty- four hours. I don't like my large hands and my large feet, even if I have become accustomed to them; and I don't like my clothes. They are stiff and ugly and conventional. When I go out in the

22.