,
ill-supported home in the evenings, until the habit settles into a
confirmed disposition. This is a decided handicap for a homemaker.
Coupled with the mental inertia resulting from years of mechanical
work without thought, it provides poor material from which to make
steady, responsible, efficient women. We have already noted, however,
that factories differ widely. It follows of necessity that the girls
who work in them come from their work with all grades of ability.

The actress, the artist, and the literary woman are usually spoken of
as far removed from the true domestic type. This I cannot believe to
be true, except in individual cases. All these women, as makers of
finished products, stand far nearer to the traditional type of woman
than many others we might name. The life of the actress tends more
than the others perhaps to break home ties, but in the case of real
talent in any direction ordinary rules do not apply. The actress, the
artist, and the writer are much more likely to carry on their work
after marriage than the teacher, the office worker, or even the
factory woman. Many of them succeed to a remarkable degree in doing
two things well. Many more, of course, are less successful, but we
must not overlook the fact that the failures are more noised abroad
than the successes.

It is a matter for regret that most women, upon leaving an industrial
career for marriage, drop so completely out of touch with their former
work. In the case of the untrained woman, who has received little and
given little in her work, it is a matter of no moment; but when years
have been given to skilled labor, it is economic waste to have the
skill lost and the process forgotten. Many times the woman finds
herself after a short life in the home obliged to earn a living once
more for herself or it may be for a family. She returns to her
teaching or her office work or a position in the library; but she is
no longer, at least for a considerable time, the expert she once was.
Why should not the former teacher keep up her interest in educational
literature and the new ideas in what might have been her life work?
Would it not be well for the one-time stenographer to keep a gentle
hold upon the quirks and quirls which once brought to her her weekly
salary? A young mother of my acquaintance who was a concert violinist
of much ability has found no time for more than a year to practice,
"since baby came," and thousands of dollars spent in