t the last to lay the
old aside," is a safe rule for those who would always retain the good
opinion of that all-powerful, but somewhat unintelligent, incubus, "the
average person," but the pioneer, the guide, is necessary. That is, if
the world is to move forward.

The freedom-loving girl of to-day, who can enjoy a walk by herself
without losing her reputation, who can ride down the street on her "bike"
without being hooted at, who can play a mixed double at tennis without
being compelled by public opinion to marry her partner, who can, in
short, lead a human creature's life, and not that of a lap-dog led about
at the end of a string, might pause to think what she owes to the
"unsexed creatures" who fought her battle for her fifty years ago.

Those unsexed Creatures.

Can the working woman of to-day, who may earn her own living, if she
will, without loss of the elementary rights of womanhood, think of the
bachelor girl of a short generation ago without admiration of her pluck?
There were ladies in those day too "unwomanly" to remain helpless burdens
on overworked fathers and mothers, too "unsexed" to marry the first man
that came along for the sake of their bread and butter. They fought
their way into journalism, into the office, into the shop. The reformer
is not always the pleasantest man to invite to a tea-party. Maybe these
women who went forward with the flag were not the most charming of their
sex. The "Dora Copperfield" type will for some time remain the young
man's ideal, the model the young girl puts before herself. Myself, I
think Dora Copperfield charming, but a world of Dora Copperfields!

The working woman is a new development in sociology. She has many
lessons to learn, but one has hopes of her. It is said that she is
unfitting herself to be a wife and mother. If the ideal helpmeet for a
man be an animated Dresden china shepherdess--something that looks pretty
on the table, something to be shown round to one's friends, something
that can be locked up safely in a cupboard, that asks no questions, and,
therefore, need be told no lies--then a woman who has learnt something of
the world, who has formed ideas of her own, will not be the ideal wife.

References given--and required.

Maybe the average man will not be her ideal husband. Each Michaelmas at
a little town in the Thames Valley with which I am acquainted there is
held a hiring fair. A farmer one year laid his hand on a livel